Sorry for the delay, here's the rest of the reply: I say these things not to make light of your situation, but rather to suggest that you can examine the particular issue and address it. Having built my own boat from a pile of
lumber,
plywood, great volumes of
epoxy and rolls of
fiberglass cloth, I also got the chance to install all the ancillary systems. Doing this
work for a profession, I knew I wouldn't often have time to work on my own boat, so I tried to learn the lessons of everyone else's issues: access. Every item on my boat can be removed in very little time. That means
panels, cabinet fronts (or the whole unit), all floor sole
panels. The engine can be removed in a day by undoing
cables and
wiring that connect to terminal strips in accessible locations, removing
fuel,
cooling and
exhaust hoses that have unions in accessible spots, and removing the shaft coupling. Then, with a screw-in access port above, available from the
cockpit, I can use a chain hoist and/or the
mainsail halyard to
lift up the engine, once I've removed the engine mount nuts. That makes access super easy for an otherwise odious task. My
oil dipstick is located in a particularly tough spot, so I bought a longer one from a car
parts store, stuck some copper tubing into the dipstick hole, and calibrated the new dipstick using the actual full level of
oil in the engine. My
oil filter, on a
Yanmar 3GM30F is on its side, in a tight spot, so I installed a Fram hotrod
oil filter with a
remote mounting plate on the
hull side where I could slip a plastic bag around it and suffer no yucky spills into the
bilge. You can do almost anything once you get over the feeling that the designers were omniscient beings. I added all sorts of
alarm senders (on/off switches) coupled with gauge sensors (analog dials) and colorful
LED lights and different sounding piezoelectric sounders (from
Radio Shack). If something goes bad, or even tends in that direction, I get a reminder, even if I am off watch and snoring. Got a plastic bag or kelp leaf plugged in the seawater intake, or throw a tab on the seawater impeller and block the
pump? That means
water has stopped flowing. An Aqualarm water flow
sensor then closes a circuit sending
current into the LED and buzzer located above the water temp gauge. The color of the LED above the water temp gauge (as well as the frequency of the buzzer) is different than if the engine overheats from another source. One means I have a couple minutes before the engine temp
alarm goes off, and may give me a moment to decide what my options are.
In short, look for what your problems are, identify what might need to be done, then explore what solutions might serve you best. Think outside the box as to what can be done to substitute for what you already have, but which isn't that suitable for your particular situation. Three in the morning is my best time for this exercise. It beats counting sheep.
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