Excited about maintenance!

[sailorboy1]

???????????????????????????????

[Kenomac]

Tired, crappy weather, 4am, no moon, we got stuck in a fish farm perimeter line strung between two floats, resting just below the surface. My wife was at the bow with a powerful flashlight (torch) and didn't see it.

Like I said, stuff happens.

[Kenomac]

We snagged the line near where the pointer is in this chart screen shot.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by Gadagirl

...
Cost is cost. Houses cost money to maintain, cars cost money to maintain, as do boats.
...

You will learn that if you want to maintain your boat on a perfect condition, boats cost more to maintain than cars or houses with the same age...unfortunately.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by Gadagirl

I'm admittedly a newbie, but wouldn't thorough PM extend life of some systems and help in planning replacement schedules so there's little or no catastrophic surprises? catastrophic is often way more expensive than planned replacement and/or care. of course anything can happen but it makes sense that if your confident in repair and function, maintenance becomes a habit. Maintenance is a predicted cost.

Maintenance it's obviously important but stuff still happens. 4 year old maxwell windlass that I maintain decided to blow a seal and screw the gearbox two days ago. Oh well, only 1250nm to phuket, what's pulling up the anchor by hand approx 30 times between now and then..... grrrrr.

Sent from my vivo Y35 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Kenomac]

Gadagirl,

One important ability to acquire if don't know how already, is learn how to work on mechanical systems like a Diesel engine. Today, I changed the oil in both the generator and turbo Diesel engine including the oil filters. Start to finish it took an hour and a half and cost about $60 for parts and oil.

Six years ago when we purchased our previous Hunter 450, I'd never worked on a diesel and didn't have any of my tools up in San Fransisco so I hired a "diesel mechanic" to service the new to us engine and take me for a ride financially. Just to change the fan belt, change the engine impeller and change the engine oil...... his bill was $875.00!!! and he managed to string the work out for an entire day; between visiting the parts house two or three times to visit his friends, lunch break and then plenty off head and ass scratching time.... Eight hours labor, parts and then his travel time total: $875. Never again!

The work is easy to do, back in the eighties I maintained five Ford vans four our music business; in many ways working on a diesel is easier than cars. You should get aquatinted with one. I've never hired anyone to do the basic maintenance on our engines since that very educational day up in San Fran.

[MarkSF]

I like to keep a good record of everything done, so I have a spreadsheet which divides into tabs for engine, general, rigging, diving, upgrades, things to do, and so on. There is a tab for safety equipment, which includes all those expiry dates for flares, fire extinguishers etc. so I know when to replace things.

I save a new version of the spreadsheet each year, so there are 2016, 2015, 2014, and so on, versions on the hard drive.

The last tab takes all the expenditure for each section and puts it into a pie chart.

I use Open Office, which is free.

[sailorboy1]

I'm thinking that I would love to have someone on the boat who was "Excited about maintenance!".

[MarkSF]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I'm thinking that I would love to have someone on the boat who was "Excited about maintenance!".

Excited about varnishing, that would be a real find!

[Teknishn]

Gadagirl,
When I read in your OP about a weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual schedule it quickly reminded me of the system that we used in the US Navy before I retired years ago. It was called the 3M System (Maintenance, Material, Management).

I build and repair boats and yachts in Egypt. Current project is restoration/modernization of a somewhat historic 93-foot motor yacht built in Germany in 1936/7. 2 Generators, 3 proplusion engines, lots of modern electronics and monitoring systems, watermaker, Air Con system, self-contained roll-stabization unit, etc.

Part of my job (Trained as a marine electrician, but today was a plumber and welder) has become to develop a maintenance schedule for all of the equipment onboard. My approach has been to start with an inventory of the boat, categorize it (Propulsion, Electrical, Plumbing, etc) and then hit the manufacturer's tech manuals for their recommended maintenance. I then write a maintenance procedure tailored to our vessel (where the seacocks are, which circuit breaker to de-energize, specialty tools required).

I build a "Website" in .html for use on my computer only with menus and links to the maintenance procedures which open in PDF. (I also include electrical schematics, piping and mechnical drawings, as well as links to techincal manuals which are usually available for download online.) The "Website" saves me from having to search through numerous folders and I can put it on a flash drive and can seamlessly move the information between computers. Updating doesn't take much more time than updating an Excel spreadsheet.

Knowing this does not cover all of the maintenance on a boat, you will also have to research sails, running rigging, rudder and steering systems maintenance, hull maintenance, teak maintenance, and much more. As well as plan for those unforeseen breakdowns....and THEY WILL happen. There is always something that needs doing on a boat.

With all of that being said, it's nice to have all of the information, but someone has to actually do the maintenance! So, schedule it, do it, learn some new skills, record it in a log of some type, plan for the unexpected breakdown and go have fun!

If you run out of maintenance items to keep you excited, I'm sure that there are enough folks here that need maintenance help and would be more than willing to keep you "excited" on their boats!

[redhead]

When doing any kind of maintenance, preventive or "other" I have learned one lesson very very well.

Have a section where every part number is listed, every belt, filter, pump impeller, Jabsco whatever, Oring size noted somewhere. I (being dinosaur-like) have it written down on paper in the back of the ship's inventory binder. I have sections for engine, refrigeration, pumps, hydraulics, etc. then the part name, the part number and how many I have. When I remove one I change the total and make a note in my phone under "Boat Parts" to pick one up next time I'm at the supply house. This way, when the water is gushing and I'm running for the locker that has the part the next sound you WON'T hear is "Oh *****, I meant to get one last week". I never have less than 2 of any of the above.

Ask me how I came to perfect this system. Go ahead, ask me...

[Boatyarddog]

You got a lot of extra time to kill?


Sent from SV Cloud Duster