It was not possible to take advantage of the outhaul with the sail becoming a bit older, it was a missing feature. So after a bit of fighting with the boom, I was able to tear it down and see how it looked.
One of the challenge was to remove the end caps, I guess they haven’t been removed for a very long time, maybe never?
Hardware
On each end caps, I replaced the screws with 8 x ¼-20 x 1/2” SS Hex Head Bolts
The new system is composed of two ball-bearing Harken bullet blocks:
After 2 weeks ownership we decided to go out for a small cruise, still the stress of the docking and undocking of this huge to us boat. Fortunately we will not have to dock it back ourselves this time!
Just out of the marina we started to hear the noise of the high temperature alarm yelling at us. Time to turn off the engine. Calling the radio and getting a free ride to our slip by the cost guard 🙂
After few calls and some troubleshooting we realized the issue was a leaking heat exchanger. Learning the hard way…
I posted first these troubleshooting notes on the Catalina 36 user association, if you have a Catalina 36 I highly recommend to join as a paying member. You will get more content and receive mainsheet magazine once a quarter.
Troubleshooting
In the process to troubleshoot the leak we discovered it was the time to replace the heat exchanger!
Yesterday I removed it from its very unaccessible location. I will definitely mount it back aft at one point.
Once removed I was able to read the part number / SKU: Seakamp 200420 and take some measurements.
Now here is my question, do I replace with the exact same model? And where should I buy it?
Some pictures of the little guy 🙂
seakamp 200420 m25xpb heat exchanger 1
seakamp 200420 m25xpb heat exchanger 2
seakamp 200420 m25xpb heat exchanger 3
For the inches to mm value, I was using my vernier caliper, and not sure if it’s in metric or standard. So maybe some numbers are a bit off, also since I guess this heat exchanger didn’t move for the last 10 years, they are not the exact value.
One other option would be to bring it to a radiator shop, have them clean it up, and give the outside a good coat of paint (or powder coat), but not sure about who I could ask to do that here in LA? And does it worth it? I have the feeling it needs more than a clean up.
The heat exchanger came with brackets AND clamps as you can see in this picture:
universal-medalist-200420cn
So I felt a bit concerned about the brackets shipped with the HE, if I use them, I don’t see how I can use the clamps.
This is how it looked at first:
hotel catalina catalina36 seakamp 200420
Updated my setup, look a bit more pretty, even if it will be way better when I will move it the way Matthew from Catalina 36 forum suggested it!
Radiator flushing
I also did few (ok a lot of them) flush of my radiator since it seems a lot of salted water has been living on the fresh water side of the cooling system.
A temperature gun (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K5QVBCU) pointing the top of the thermostat and a lot of free time! Not sure it was really useful but it made me happy 🙂
Hotel Catalina M25XPB TDS values
TDS value was always measured during the draining step when the engine had cool down
Temp min was taken before to start the engine again
Temp max was taken just after I ran the engine for at least 10 minutes
Here a picture of the radiator flush cleaner I used!
Prestone radiator flush cleaner
I am now done with my heat exchanger / cooling system replacement for a while I hope. It was a very instructive process 🙂
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:
Replacing the water pump
Replacing one of the old cooling hose
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
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!
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.
Protect the fuel line from chafing, not sure how I missed them during my last chafing protection mission.
Picture from the control cable to replace
New priority project on Hotel Catalina! Let’s see how many week-end will I need to get it fixed 🙂
Helm tear down and fixing
Most of this section is coming from this document from Edson Marine. Edson Marine has been very helpful to answer my questions about the different part numbers I was not able to find around.
Easier than expected! I was able to get it out pretty easily with an easy out screw extractor after I drilled a small hole in it with a 1/16″ cobalt drill bit.
1/16″ cobalt drill bit hole
Remove the compass
The 3 first ¼”-20 x 3 ½” ¼”-20 x 4” stainless machine screw came out very easily and of course as usual one didn’t come at all after a lot of drilling and one drill bit broken I succeeded to get the compass out with only one screw to replace!
compass broken screw
Remove housing
Remove broken ¼”-20 x 3 ½” ¼”-20 x 4” stainless machine screw
At the beginning based on documentation and online information I ordered by mistake 3 ½” machine screws where needed 4″ long screws.
broken screw removing method
¼”-20 x 4” stainless and should be coated with Tef Gel when installing.
