After couple of fluorescent tube decided to stop working, we decided to upgrade the couple fixture with modern looking one.
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:
It took few hours to go through this work, but everything was pretty straight forward.
Here couple of pictures from June 2016, 2 weeks after we took delivery of Hotel Catalina.
Based on this pictures we can saw this leak has been there for a while by the rust we can see on 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:
After looking online I found a very good deal on the N202M-908 at pump and parts online. Let’s go with this solution!
Here is the invoice for the pump:
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.
New hose installed!
Now time to fill the radiator with new coolant! Last time was replaced was last year during the heat exchanger failure.
The service from https://www.pumpsandpartsonline.com/about-us was very good! Few days after the order I received the part as expected.
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.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/112455220825
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/.
Very happy with Rod customer service during the decision process and the very fast delivery.
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.
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!
Next issue 🙂 After a quick grinding, it fits perfectly!
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.
After few tests, it looks like the 17420 is a good fit! Time to order a couple of them for spare.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Update March 2019. I replaced CitriStrip with Klean Strip for the forward board, way easier to apply.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Here more pictures from the haul out.
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:
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:
