Preparing for the winter (or summer in Scotland?)

Our main heating system is a big Webasto 12 KW diesel boiler that supplies hot water to the air handlers throughout the boat. As you can imagine, it gets lots of use each winter and on those less than temperate days during the rest of the year.

Back in 2013 it had a new exhaust silencer and pipework fitted and the combination of many hours of use, salty air and whatever else finally proved too much for the pipe itself. We noticed some exhaust gas in the lazarette where the boiler is mounted and sure enough, when it was checked the pipe leading from the silencer to the hull fitting was toast. A little bit of moving it around and it failed totally:

So, another fun job beckoned. The hull fitting is behind a sealed in hatch in the gas cylinder locker so after digging the sealant out and persuading the hatch to come out, the rather corroded clamps holding the flexible hose on could be removed and the old run of pipework taken out:

Fitting the new stuff was a two stage affair as the swan neck that runs up inside the transom to help keep water out had no securing clamps fitted at all. Most unimpressed with the work done by Osmotec a few years ago. The swan neck was relying on the tension in the pipe caused by the 180 degree bend to hold it off the GRP. Luckily, it had done so. We ordered some straps and fed the new pipework into place only to discover that the nice Osmotec folks had really made life complicated. The exhaust skin fitting on the hull was a 38mm diameter. The new silencer they fitted was 40mm. Guess which fitting we had measured when ordering up the new exhuast pipe? Oh yes - because the silencer exhaust clamp was corroded and so it had been treated to some penetrating fluid and left for a day whilst the skin fitting end came off quite happily.

To add insult to injury, the new pipe had already been secured onto the hull fitting and a swan neck made and clipped / tied in place. We had to do it that way to know where to cut the pipe so it was the right length. Then we found it would not fit onto the silencer. So, it all came out again and some more 40mm pipe was ordered. Not amused at all. Moral of the exercise - measure both ends just in case some guy did something strange in the past....??

The new larger hose duly arrived and was refitted in the same way as the first one, with more skin loss working inside the little gap through the side of the gas locker - here is the "naked" skin fitting readyto be plumbed up again:

and the errant silencer, with the heater in the background, ready for some new hose too:

After more bad words, contortions and general fun the pipe and lagging were in place and clipped up, the heater fired up and an impressive smoke display was enjoyed as the new insulation burnt off and started to turn a little more brown. The good thing was that there were no leaks from the exhaust.

Recently it seems like each job has been a "two touch" thing - needing some extra parts or finding snags on the way that you would just not expect. It must be our turn for things to get simpler!