PNW - Skookum 53 Re-Fit

[captain58sailin]

hamfam1,
I am sorry, but I am out of the country right now, and will not be back until Juneish. When I return in June, I will be happy to give you the nickel tour. The boat looks like a tornado went through it right now so you can see her in all her glory. PM me with your contact info. and I will call you when I get back to Alaska.
To billr, I put the new manifold back into the fuel system and had the genset running for a time and everything appeared working well, no leaks, small amount of vacuum on the gauge, just barely. I switched on the saltwater cooling pump for the genset exhaust and the breaker threw after a short amount of running time, it did throw water on the dock. So now I have to pull the pump down and find out what is wrong with it. That will have to wait until I get back in June. So 2 steps up and 1 step back. Boats really don't like to sit. I apologize, I did not get time to take photos this time.

[hamfam1]

Captain58,
Thanks for the note. I was mostly interested in how you had your gurdies rigged. I'll PM you when it's clear I'm coming down to Homer again in June. Thanks for the reply and offer.

[captain58sailin]

No worries Mate! I am not very happy with the current placement, am considering moving them, no idea where, that is tomorrow's problem. Anyway she is dock side if you want to walk by and take a gander.

[billr]

Brad, Jock, Ron,
I'm heading to the Skookum John (in La Connor) for 2 months, so am looking forward to getting more re-fit done. Tank access hatches are part of my plan.
Bill

[billr]

Greetings from La Connor. There is another 1979 Skookum in the yard; a Skookum 50. Its built as a sloop, and very much looks like a sailboat (compared to a Skookum 53). Its has a beam that is 2 feet smaller than a 53, making it look comparitively sleek (and smaller).

[Gordan]

Hey Mikey

I was reading the post and looked at your casting. The fish is a Halibut. You will notice the double eyes on the on side and the mouth centered. Cool plaque.



Also, did you ever do anything about a Skookum site?

[captain58sailin]

Hi Kids,
Just a quick update, I have been out of action for awhile, I came back from Nigeria at the end of June, and went under the knife for a incarcerated hernia on the 2nd of July, anyway long story short, there were complications and I am still trying to heal up the last of the open wounds. I did manage to put a small solar panel on the roof to keep the batteries up. I am in the process of replumbing the raw water cooling pump for the gen set exhaust, and replacing the electric drive motor. Oh well, it is a nice fall day and I can see across the bay from my hospital room.

[Gordan]

Hey Bill
How is the project coming? I was enjoying the thread and learning from you. As noted in other parts of this forum we just purchased a '77 Skookum 53 that was launched as a recreational vessel. The last owner had passed away, so we were lacking the tribal knowledge about the boat handling, data sheets and other useful information. The owner had made some recent repairs, but boy, this vessel is a mystery everytime I start digging into finding out why something does not work.

My wife and I have successfully moored it at it's new home in Pleasant Harbor. I will be working through the few challenges to bring back to life the guages and other instruments that make sailing it much more pleasant.

First is getting config for Winter weather. I am also in process of installing fuel floats (magnetic reed over SS shaft) and gauge. The wooden dipstick is a bit primative and I really do not enjoy the rich aroma of diesel in the pilot house required to access the tanks.

Also putting in low pressure diesel pump for the Dickensen stove. Seems that the gravity feed line is air locked.

Cheers

[billr]

Brad,
I just saw your comment on the bug bite thread.
Have you survived the surgery? I had a hernia operation a few years ago, and had complications. The ultimate solution turned out to be a dieretic (hydrocloro thiazide) that removed all the fluid buildup where the surgery was. It got kind of serious for a while. If you are still having a problem, let me know here and I can get my wife the Pharmacy professor to give you some insight off-line.
Billr

[billr]

Gordon,
Happy to make you acquaintenance. When I read your comments about a "mystery" boat, my wife started to laugh. We have been wading through mysteries for quite some time with our 53. This summer was another one. We have 2 side-by side built-in water tanks below the sole in the galley area, about 300 gallons each. The port tank we can get to because we just have to pull the floor boards. We installed an access port on the aft end of that tank this summer. The tank has two fiberglass baffles along its length (about 8'), and a lot of the volume is in the keel. A guy (Rick) that had worked for Skookum for 10 years up until 1979 said they tabed in the plywood sides of the tank, and then built the tank on the inside of the plywood with a lot of glass, using vinyl ester resin. A cap for the tank was built separately. It was the cap we were working on. When we put in the access hole, it was a bit more than 3/8" thick. However, one area on hole cut started to weap water. That was traced down to some partially saturated (resin) mat fibers on the surface. Before we bought the boat, the owner had left the power on to the water pump, causing the water hoses under the sink to freeze and split during the winter. In the spring, the pump emptied out one of the tanks into the galley, with standing water sitting on top of the tanks.
We ended up putting a vacuum pump on the cut edge of the hole to suck all the water out - not too much. We then drilled a pattern of holes into vinyl ester fiberglass and infused some epoxy (with a syringe) into the area where the water had been.
Billr

[billr]

Gordon,
I'd like to hear more about your fuel floats/guages. That is on my list for next summer. Also, about the pump for the Dickenson. That is still a mystery for me. I have gotten inputs from Dickenson folks, but what they say seems to be different from what I get from many boat owners. My day tank location gives me a minimum of about a 2' head, and that was all that was ever used. However, the original owner removed the bracket that held the regulator inside the stove, and had the regulator supported on a bunch of wood so that it is just slightly below the burn cup. The Dickenson guy went kind of ballistic when I told him that. I showed the stove to a fuel polishing guy (Petro-Clean) who has a similiar stove. He though the Dickenson regulator was a "piece of crap", and recommended a Dutch built one. I went to their internet site (no information), and looked at one (no information in the box) at Redden Marine in Bellingham. Decided to stick with a new regulator from Dickenson, because they do provide a lot of information. One thing is that they want an overflow line to some sort of reservoir or tank. You are not supposed to plug the overflow line. Well that doesn't work if you don't have a convenient location below the stove for the overflow to gravity feed. But, with a tank that uses just a low head, and no pump, I don't the overflow is to much of an issue. However, with a low head, having the regulator at elevation where the stove's bracket was apparently did not work very well. Let me know what you have found on this. Maybe we will get some inputs form others as well.
Billr

[captain58sailin]

Hey billR, Yeah, I have had kind of a rough time of it these last few months. July 2nd, I went under the knife for the first time, Aug. 4th I went under again due to a mesh infection, 2 weeks later they had to go back in due to run off coming to the surface at umbilical, they washed out my abdomen and put a wound vac on me and I carried that around on my shoulder for a couple of weeks, then they put me in the hospital for 2 weeks on a TPN IV and a fast to try to dry up the fistula, numerous CT scans. Finally on the 31st of Oct. I went in to have my appendix removed, which seems to have solved the problem. So anyway everything seems to have dried up and is healing, I am still sore from the appendictomy, they are going to give me another exam on the 27th of Nov. , hopefully I will get the green light and fly back down to get my job back.
What work I did get done between surgeries was removed the old raw water pump for the gen set exhaust and replaced it with a sealed 3 phase electric motor we are repositioning the pump out from under the ladder leading into the focsle so that water doesn't drip down on the motor when you open the hatch. The day tank for my stove is about 2' vertical above my stove, I haven't had any problems with it from head pressure.

[Gordan]

Hey Bill
Finally getting back about the Dickenson project. After three teardowns and flushing I finally got all of the water, bad fuel and grime out of the stove, tank and lines. I did get the Walbro FDR 2-1 pump which really helped get rid of the air lock in the fuel line. So here is the rundown of what works after it was cleaned. The Walbro pump enables the furnace to get primed as well as removing an air locks. Once the fire is burning clean I can turn off the pump and let the 3’ head pressure keep the system running. I also added an inline fuel filter just below the fuel storage tank, that goes down into a sediment filter from a tractor, the back up into the pump. The U shape enables proper pump orientation for pressure and the sediment bowl at the bottom now collects any water and crud.

The Dickenson regulator is a poor design in that any water that gets into it fills the float bowl. It is easy to take a part and clean though. I had to clean the regulator tank of mineral and dirt collections of the past 30 years. The adjustment valve just needed a gentle scrub to get the little bit of dirt on it. It is stained a bit, but mechanically works fine. That part of the regulator is actually a pretty simple and great design. The tube leading from the regulator to the bottom of the stove had to also be removed and water and dirt removed from it as well. The furnace was a mess with about an inch of soot and fuel in the bottom. After some major cleaning and then rinsing with diesel with it draining out the bottom were the feed tube was removed I was able to get it somewhat cleaned out. I bleed out the fuel line to the regulator then assembled it all back together. Turned on the pump, fan and let the fuel build as directed and with a single paper towel I was in business. I let it run for several hours. The next day I checked the inside of the stove and found it spotless. The fire burned out all remaining gunk. I ran the furnace the next day and after about 20 min turned off the pump and let gravity do the work. Success…

[captain58sailin]

Sounds like you got it nailed down.

[captain58sailin]

Hello everyone, an update from the cheap seats. I have recovered fully from my surgeries (finally). I am back at work (finally). I found an ET to help me rewire the boat(finally). I replaced my 120v single phase electric motor for the genset exhaust cooling, which also cools the condenser for the freezer, with a 3 phase 208 volt motor. Which cost about the same, but the breaker run $180, if I had to do it over, I would have stayed with the 120 v version. I got the old halon system removed from the focsle, and some old light fixtures. I had some nice young men hired to help me clean and organize the mess in the main cabin, they did a wonderful job and now I can start on the next phase. In the mean time the ET is going to put a couple of 110v light fixtures in the engine compartment so I can see while I'm working. Looks like a busy fall coming up, which is 1000% better than last fall. As soon as I get some light going in the affected areas, I'll take some photos to post here. Everyone take care and have a great summer.