Typical maintenance?

[matt9190]

Hello everybody,

I'm interested in one day owning a 50 to 60 foot trawler yacht for living aboard and cruising. I've been doing a lot of reading about motor yachts, and many naysayers complain about the amount of time and money these boats require in maintenance. I have some marine experience, and honestly I'm not sure what they are talking about.

For those who own modern motor yachts, what type of routine maintenance are you performing (aside from engine maintenance, which I understand)? What do you do on a daily basis, monthly basis, or engine hourly basis?

[jsc7]

Maintenance depends on how the owner wants to take care of the boat, its initial condition and the quality of the boat. You can do nothing at all or be working on the boat constantly, depending on those three factors.

For example, imagine you have a cheap, old boat with bad access and you decide you need to upgrade the crap seacocks it has to reduce your chance of suddenly sinking unexpectedly when you are in the middle of the ocean. Well, you could spend the next month or two finding somebody who sells high quality bronze seacocks (hard enough just in itself), then tearing apart the boat and replacing the seacocks. That will be project number X of 200 different projects. You could spend your entire life doing stuff like that (or paying mucho buckos to somebody else to do it wrong and charge you $100 per hour while not doing it right).

One of the key maintenance issues to be aware of with a larger boat is that they have diesel engines which have relatively heavy maintenance needs. They have several different types of filters, plus heat exchanger, impellers, pumps, oil coolers, fuel coolers and intercoolers, all of which have monitored and replaced periodically. The exhaust system also has parts that have to be watched. A lot of these parts cost thousands to replace.

The quality of the boat is a big factor. It is much better to get an old, high-quality boat, than a new cheapo boat. With a cheap boat you can find things like corroding electrical systems, deteriorating fittings/trim and leaking windows to be a never-ending nightmare.

[matt9190]

Thanks for the reply.

I think I have the right idea then. I wonder if those who post with concerns maybe didn't know what they were getting into!

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by matt9190

Thanks for the reply.



I think I have the right idea then. I wonder if those who post with concerns maybe didn't know what they were getting into!

Keep in mind the previous respondent also has no idea. Just check some of their recent threads.

Reality is that maintenance is what you make of it, and your own personal standards and knowledge. Some maintenance tasks that others will devote an entire day to I'll pull off as a part of using the boat, sort of an uninterrupted motion sort of thing, while other things that others would not even consider to maintain I personally will fiddle with annually to prevent headaches later.

Larger boats have more systems and gizmos that are usually expected to operate flawlessly when ignored for months on end all while existing surrounded by one of the most hostile environments on the planet.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by matt9190

For those who own modern motor yachts, what type of routine maintenance are you performing (aside from engine maintenance, which I understand)? What do you do on a daily basis, monthly basis, or engine hourly basis?

For us...

Hull and underwater hardware maintenance is annual. Usually that's just powerwashing, touch-up bottom paint (but some years it's a full coat), renewing biocide on the hardware, checking hardware (struts, shafts, cutless bearings, props), replacing anodes... sometimes some prop work. Plus washing and waxing the hull topsides. But then if I need to replace cutless bearings, that'll be a job...

"Engine maintenance" extends for us to include strainers, gears, genset, shafts, shaft seals, batteries... and these are mostly a daily check (at least one days when we'll move the boat), but sometimes includes annual service work dictated by the manufacturer's recommendations and our usage patterns. Includes annual stuff like oil/filter changes, fuel filter service, and anode replacement, water pump">raw water pump impeller changes,... but also more aperiodic stuff like aftercooler coolant, and heat exchanger service.

Interior plumbing is usually a "fix it after it broke" approach, although sometimes if I can see something about to happen I can put the remedy in place sooner.

Interior electrical work ditto.

Interior sanitation work, ditto.

Deck and house gets washed once/month, with annual detailing (waxing, etc.).

And then there are projects. Varies. Over time, we have added a swim platform, dinghy davit, electric windlass, inverter, upgraded batteries (and about to do that again within the next few weeks)... replaced TVs, and with a new mounting system... replaced fuel tank senders... replaced gauges (tachs, voltmeters, fuel level, so far...)... replaced two seacocks and added three flush adapters... replaced the masthead light... replaced all the interior and most exterior incandescent bulbs with LEDs... Some of these projects were because we needed/wanted the feature, some because something broke (tachs, fuel gauges)...

Sometimes troubleshooting takes some additional time. For example, we have some water ingress from the starboard side. Took me a few months to pin down that we need to remove the rubrail, reseal and deck-tohull joint, and then replace the rubrail.

That's sorta how maintenance goes. Took me 8 hours to remove the old zinc anode from our genset a couple weeks ago. Took another whole 5 minutes to replace it with the new one.

-Chris

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by jsc7

Well, you could spend the next month or two finding somebody who sells high quality bronze seacocks (hard enough just in itself), then tearing apart the boat and replacing the seacocks.

??

Took me all of 5 minutes to search the Groco site for new seacocks.

Took our yard about 4 labor hours to replace the old ones. Could have done it myself, but they could do it faster.

It helps to consider access to things like that while shopping for the boat.

-Chris

[a64pilot]

First there are two types of maintenance.
1. fixing stuff as it breaks
2. preventative maintenance

you need to decide which to chose, many just fix stuff as it breaks and they are often fixing broken stuff at the most inopportune times, often when parts are not available and or at high prices, especially when you have to have it shipped in Internationally.

Preventative maintenance you plan at your convenience and since its a planned event, there should be far fewer surprises and you can control costs, whole lot less stress, drama and Martial strife too.

A boat is a complex system, or actually systems. It helps me to segregate the systems at least mentally and deal with them individually.
Also what has served me well in the past as I have made my living maintaining aircraft is to shotgun a system when ever I do maintenance to it.
Lets say heat exchanger is due for a cleaning, first flush cooling system and inspect any hoses that are suspect, inspect raw water pump and replace impeller, inspect fresh water pump, inspect and tighten the fan belt, replace thermostat every other cleaning.
Wait a minute, I thought the task was clean heat exchanger?
OK, then disassemble and clean heat exchanger using new O-rings, then refill fresh water side with fresh anti-freeze mix, bleed cooling system if necessary.

Point is to not just clean the heat exchanger, but go through the whole cooling system, if you do your preventative maintenance correctly, you will never have a cooling system problem, but if you just do the Heat Ex, next week it will be the raw water impeller, week after a hose etc.

I do fix some systems as they break however, plumbing was an excellent example

[Lepke]

Maintenance costs vary in many ways. If you have a painted boat, the quality of the paint and preparation determines how long the paint lasts. A really good paint job will last 10 years with minor touch up. A poor one might not go a year. When things fail, replacing with a quality product or Chinese copy has an effect on how long the new item lasts. My goal in repairs is to never have to do it again.
Can you do a proper job yourself? Marine labor is expensive. When I haul, I pay for a haul out and the bottom pressure washed. I do the rest, prep, paint, zincs and any inspections. The materials are bought in advance, usually when they're on somebody's sale. The haul out is done during the yards slow season. I probably pay less for an 83' boat than most people with a 40 footer.
If you let things go, like a water leak, it gets more expensive.
Anybody can learn to do their maintenance and repairs.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Lets say heat exchanger is due for a cleaning, first flush cooling system and inspect any hoses that are suspect, inspect raw water pump and replace impeller, inspect fresh water pump, inspect and tighten the fan belt, replace thermostat every other cleaning.

Wait a minute, I thought the task was clean heat exchanger?

OK, then disassemble and clean heat exchanger using new O-rings, then refill fresh water side with fresh anti-freeze mix, bleed cooling system if necessary.

Point is to not just clean the heat exchanger, but go through the whole cooling system, if you do your preventative maintenance correctly, you will never have a cooling system problem, but if you just do the Heat Ex, next week it will be the raw water impeller, week after a hose etc.

Good example. I decided to do some preventive flushing with products like Rydlyme or Barnacle Buster (I ended up using the former) through the main engines and genset raw water systems, in situ. Made up some hoses and fittings, used a pump, etc.... but when I did it it was also in conjunction with impeller and aftercooler and heat exchange zinc replacements... and I also decided along the way that a couple of the intermediate system hoses needed replacement...

So it ended up being a 3-day project.

-Chris

[ranger58sb]

A few more random thoughts...

I glossed over the cleaning stuff, only mentioned what we have scheduled. But we also wash the boat after every major movement. Folks in a location with an even higher salinity level and salt air would maybe have to wash even more often.

And I also only mentioned our annual scheduled bottom work. But we (strive to) move the boat at least once a week under serious power.... to keep stuff from growing on the bottom. Others, in places where stuff grows more quickly, would maybe have a diver come more often.

We don't have any exterior wood; that'd be more work. Our boat neighbors with teak toe rail, bow pulpit, and cockpit coamings seem to have to do some sanding and revarnishing every two years or so.

I end up spending more time than most (probably) in research and planning. Nothing in my career prepared me to do engine work or to be an electrician or plumber or HVAC guy, etc. so when something breaks... first I usually have to learn the jargon (early on, that was as basic as the difference between a screw and a bolt)... so I can identify the thing that broke... by the correct name... and then eventually by part number (hopefully).... and then find a replacement... and then figure out how to remove the old and install the new... and so forth. Better/faster now... after 25 years or so... and with our newer friend Google...

With a fatter wallet, anyone can just hire the work done. While I wait for my wallet to miraculously inflate itself... I've very much learned why a 15-minute job on the bench can take somewhere between 4-8 hours or more in the installed location.

-Chris

[matt9190]

This is great information. Thank you all for the replies.