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    Balmar & CMI alternator upgrade

    By
    Ludovic Francois
    -
    0

    Parts ordering & delivery

    Tired to have to replace my belts twice a season, I decided it was time to fix this recurring alternator belt issue. The PO installed an alternator too big for my M25XPB engine. So after some research and a lot of help from Mainsail on Catalina 36 forum and on https://marinehowto.com I decided it was time to start with this project!

    Pulled the trigger and I bought a Balmar regulator MC-614H and an alternator CMI-105-ER on https://marinehowto.com/.

    • CMI-105-ER – 105A Motorola/Prestolite/ Leece-Neville Externally Regulated Alternator
    • Balmar Regulator MC-614H
    • ​​Balmar MC-TS-A Alternator Temperature Sensor

    Very happy with Rod customer service during the decision process and the very fast delivery.

    Replacing old with new!

    Where do I put the mc-614 regulator?

    As soon as I received all parts, the first question was to decide where to put the regulator. I decided to take advantage of the space available on aft of the engine, against the central water tank. Another option was to put the regulator on the port side of the engine bulkhead.

    CMI Alternator fitting issue?

    As soon as the regulator situation was fixed, I realized the alternator didn’t fit as expected. Time for a quick conversation with Rod @ marine how-to, I can’t say enough how helpful Rod has been in the success of this project). Rod explained me I was able to make one of the alternator bolt shorter, 30 seconds with the dremel and I was good for the next step!

    Alternator adjustable arm grinding

    Next issue 🙂 After a quick grinding, it fits perfectly!

    Broken bolt 🙁

    Almost too easy! The alternator arm decided to break inside the engine block, after some clean up and rethreading, I was able to get a new bolt in.

    Back on track. Let’s wire!

    Maintenance switch?

    Negative bus bar setup

    Which belt?

    After few tests, it looks like the 17420 is a good fit! Time to order a couple of them for spare.

    Ready for testing?

    Configure the Balmar mc-614

    The tuning of the Balmar MC-614 is pretty challenging, I just followed RC recommendations for your alternator and your battery. You can find everything about Balmar Tuning in the article below.

    Programming a Balmar External Voltage Regulator

    Why no RPM?

    Checking the RPM, I realized it was not showing up, after a bit more help from Rod I started a quick troubleshooting session to realize one fuse failed during the setup.

    Troubleshooting

    5 days cruise update

    The week-end of Thanksgiving was a perfect time to validate the new alternator setup. Everything worked as expected! Next step upgrade our battery bank for our next long cruise to Catalina.

    Hotel Catalina Delivery from Long Beach to Marina Del Rey

    By
    Ludovic Francois
    -
    0
    weather4d routing
    weather4d routing

    It took us few weeks to close the deal and come on an agreement with the previous owner, but now we are officially the owners of Hotel Catalina, the Catalina 36 #883!

    We have till the end of the month of May to take delivery of the boat and move it to Marina Del Rey. These 10 days were very very short to complete all the tasks required before to take delivery of the boat.

    • Title transfer
    • Insurance
    • Slip

    Yes, it’s definitely the time to find a slip available in Marina Del Rey for a 36 foot long boat. What we thought would be pretty easy was way more difficult than expected. After dozens of calls, we found 2 potential slips where we could dock our new to us boat.

    We also needed to get the insurance, this was pretty straight forward and we went with BoatUS.

    It’s Memorial Day week-end, let’s take delivery of Hotel Catalina with the help of our broker, Doug.

    weather4d routing

    6AM we are in Long Beach ready to board Hotel Catalina. At the time we  started to move Hotel Catalina from Long Beach to Marina Del Rey, we still didn’t have received an official response from Esprit Marina Del Rey authorizing us to move in. Let’s go! The backup alternative will be to dock at the yard and get some of maintenance work done.

    On our way from Long Beach to Marina Del Rey, we have a pretty smooth motor sailing with only the main up since our genoa is not in a very good shape and any way the wind very low. Now out since a couple of hours we got a positive response from Esprit dock master.

    Six hours later, we are now officially docked at Marina Del Rey B1620!

    Cabin teak floor varnishing

    By
    Ludovic Francois
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    0

    The 2 cabin boards near the engine came with the boat in a pretty bad shape, they were in need of some love. I decided the risk was very low to exercise my varnishing skills on these boards. The result happened to be way better than I expected.

    Update March 2019. After this rainy winter and couple of leaks, it’s time to do the forward cabin floor board.

    Tools & Chemicals

    Preparation

    • Pour the stripper on to the wood in a puddle
    • Spread it initially with a brush
    • Allow the stripper to “work” for 10-15 minutes
    • Start to scrape with a 3″ flat putty knife
    • Pile up the stripper/old varnish in the middle of the board
    • Use a couple larger putty knives to remove the stripper/old Varnish
    • Dispose of it in a shoebox with a plastic bag liner.
    • Repeat the entire process anywhere from 3 to 5 more times.
    • Once all or most of the varnish was removed clean the wood with acetone
    • Allow to dry overnight and clean the wood with acetone again
    • After completely drying lightly sand the wood with 220 grit paper
    • Wipe it down with acetone again
    • At this point it is ready for epoxy / varnish

    Update March 2019. I replaced CitriStrip with Klean Strip for the forward board, way easier to apply.

    Epoxy / Varnishing

    Start with 4 coats of clear coat of epoxy. I usually apply the 4 coats of epoxy in less of 48 hours.

    Continue with 4 coats of undiluted Epifanes Varnish.

    Update March 2019. 2 years later the Epifanes Varnish was still ok, but added a bit of mineral spirit before to apply it.

    Hotel Catalina NMEA 2000 network diagram

    By
    Ludovic Francois
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    0

    My NMEA 2000 network is still pretty small, but I think it’s the good time to start to document it.

    Right now we have:

    • Airmar DST800: through hull depth, speed and water temperature information
    • Airmar P79: in-hull depth information
    • B&G Zeus 2: MFD at the navigation table
    • KBOX: wifi gateway and more
    • Maretron TLM 100: monitoring main water tank consumption
    • B&G Triton 2: main info from the network at the helm

    I already ordered my AIS transceiver, so I guess it will be the next equipment I will have to add to this diagram.

    Few more items I see adding in the future:

    • LCJ CV7 wind instruments (looks to complicated for now, would love to have it, but doesn’t see to justify to get the mast down to add it right now – 2019 plan?)
    • Actisense EMU-01 or NoLand RS11 engine monitoring, only a gadget, but gadgets are so fun 🙂

    M25XPB Water pump replacement – Sherwood vs Oberdorfer

    By
    Ludovic Francois
    -
    1
    Catalina 36 - M25XPB with Oberdorfer N202M-908
    Catalina 36 - M25XPB with Oberdorfer N202M-908

    Since day 1 we own the boat, the sherwood water pump was leaking a bit, it was never the top issue but always something bothering me. In this article we are going to go through:

    1. Replacing the water pump
    2. Replacing one of the old cooling hose
    3. Touch up painting of the engine oil crankcase

    It took few hours to go through this work, but everything was pretty straight forward.

    Original state of Hotel Catalina

    Here couple of pictures from June 2016, 2 weeks after we took delivery of Hotel Catalina.

    First engine picture June 2016
    First engine picture June 2016

    First engine picture June 2016
    First engine picture June 2016

    Based on this pictures we can saw this leak has been there for a while by the rust we can see on the engine.

    Time to fix this leak and give some love to the engine!

    It has been now over 1 year we own the boat and it’s time to tackle this pump leaking and clean the rust on the engine block.

    Here are few of the options to complete this task:

    • get a rebuilt kit and fixing it (tried it, it was worse!)
    • new sherwood pump (very expensive and not so much good feedback on the different forums)
    • migrate (upgrade?) to Oberdorfer
      • Replacing with an Oberdorfer pump that has the base that goes on with the same clip system as your Sherwood pump (more expensive, but more straight forward replacement)
      • If you aren’t scared of, rework the base of the Oberdorfer bolt on pump so it bolts into the pump land on the engine (way cheaper, but a bit too involved in my mind)

    After looking online I found a very good deal on the N202M-908 at pump and parts online. Let’s go with this solution!

    Oberdorfer N202M-908
    Oberdorfer N202M-908

    Here is the invoice for the pump:

    Replacing the elbow water pump hose

    This step is unrelated to the water pump, but it was way easier to complete since the water pump was not in the way anymore.

    Old sherwood pump, old hose and old clamp. Everything will be soon replaced.

    Tried to clean and fix the sherwood water pump, but the leak was always there.
    Tried to clean and fix the sherwood water pump, but the leak was always there.

    New hose installed!

    Now time to fill the radiator with new coolant! Last time was replaced was last year during the heat exchanger failure.

    Now the hose has been replaced, let’s replace the water pump!

    The service from https://www.pumpsandpartsonline.com/about-us was very good! Few days after the order I received the part as expected.

    I was not sure about the purpose of this hole, and asked online I realized it was to make sure in case of leak of the pump, the raw water has a way to exit somewhere else than in the engine.
    I was not sure about the purpose of this hole, and asked online I realized it was to make sure in case of leak of the pump, the raw water has a way to exit somewhere else than in the engine.

    Now it’s time for some painting touch up

    It’s the first time I try that, I decided to pick white to be able to see if any leak happens in the future. The result is pretty good looking. Next time I have a chance to remove the belt, I will definitely do more painting.

    Pump installed and running!

     

     

    Temperature is good!

    Impeller replacement for my spare kit

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/112455220825

    Oberdorfer replacement impeller
    Oberdorfer replacement impeller

     

    BGI Bilge pump switch & high water alarm

    By
    Ludovic Francois
    -
    0

    I was looking for a high water alarm for a couple of years fitting the very tight bilge of our Catalina 36. After 2 failures in less of 1 year of Rule-A-Matic Bilge Pump Switch. I decided to try something new!

    Here are the parts I installed:

    I went for BGI after a very responsive answer from their support team to one of my request before to order. Also one of the sexy feature was the bluetooth connection.

    Very fast shipping and nice packaging.
    Easy setup on my existing bilge pump.
    Time to make a hole at the navigation table.
    Bilge pump installed!

    One very interesting feature about the BGI device is the fact you get some of the data through bluetooth, not sure yet what is the added value, but always good to have extra data about your sytem. To be honest it’s one of the feature who made me to go for this device.

    So far I am very happy with the install and feel a huge improvement based on what I used to have before. I love the panel.

    Now I feel I can have a good understanding of what was going on with my bilge after any time away from our boat.

    The next step is going to try to figure out how to connect the high water alarm output to my Victron Cerbo GX. Thank you to BGI support who gave me some good insights how to make it happens!

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