There is always some stuff to do....

Here is an update for the terminally sad - those who find tinkering with their Nordhavn theraputic or those who enjoy seeing the pain inflicted on owners who have to keep up with the winter maintenance stuff.

So, the raw water pump on the genset had been weeping and the weep was turning into a drip. Time to replace it.... The pump was the original and has survived many years and hours but the usual seal problem had arisen.

David, who bought a 47 last year and has the same job to do on his boat, came around and helped. This was excellent news for both captain and crew. It allowed the crew to avoid flexing her muscles holding a ratchet and socket on a couple of bolts. It allowed the captain to just ask "can you hold that" rather then explain how the ratchet works, which way it was going to turn and how to place your knuckles to avoid losing skin / being moaned at. Bliss, thank you David!

The genset without the pump:

you can see the water pipes hanging in the air too.

The hardest part of the job is persuading the drive gear to come off the old pump ready to fit it to the new one. It is a taper fit and needs a puller to encourage it to release. It actually needed quite a lot of encouragement. However, with David on the spanner and a big puller in place, it duly surrendered:

and was refitted onto the spare pump with a torque wrench to be sure all was OK. Allowing it to spin off whilst inside the engine would be a bit messy.

Refitting the pump is easy enough except when the O ring that seals the face plate moves out of its little groove as you are bolting things up......

The captain had considered buying a spare drive gear so that it could be fitted to the spare pump which would then be ready to go and easy to replace on either the wing or genset engine. All was good until he saw the price that Energy Solutions, the local Northern Lights dealer, wanted for one. Madness - a typical captive part price. So, we didn't buy from them.

The old pump will be resealed and have new bearings fitted too and then become the "lukewarm" spare. Not "warm" or "hot" as we still need to do the drive gear swap to put it into service.

What else - well, the Yamaha 20 engine on the RIB got an oil and filter change and the captain got to enjoy a burn around the bay beforehand to warm up the oil. It was a perfect winter's day. Sun, blue sky, just a bit chilly. The trip almost made doing the oil change and washing the black streaks off the hull from earlier rain worthwhile.

As the crane was uncovered, we also took off the plastic sheet that fits underneath and hides away the sheaves and line. It is getting old, deformed and brittle. Almost human-like in its behaviour. Steve the waterbus man knows a place that can cut us a new piece.....

He is busy too:

It isn't just Nordhavn boats that need some winter attention although Steve seems more likely to get a parking ticket than we are.