Category Archives: Repair/Replace/Maintain

Repair/Replace/Maintain, Water

Transom Shower Replacement Part

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For those needing to replace a broken Transom Show head, host, or entire unit…..Checkout Catalina Direct, They also sell the parts or whole unit.

http://catalinadirect.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=1754

Regards
Paul
AVID II    1999    #148     380 Catalina

 

I found the whole mixing body for $54 at Heater Craft http://www.heatercraft.com/ .  They also have replacement hoses and heads for $41.  Look in Marine, Parts.  My borther-in-law prefers a standard sink sprayer for his camper shower.  It is drip-free when not in use, but I don’t like the in-ability to have it running hands-free for hair rinsing.  It depends on your preference.

I replaced my shower hose last year with a standard one from HD.  I they also have shower heads with shut-offs.

Dan Ross
Zephyr #303

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Repair/Replace/Maintain

Working on Your Boat Tip..reaching the Unreachable

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Ever had to reach a wire, or a dropped piece of hardware that was impossible to grab even with mechanical fingers, here’s an easy and very cheap tool you can make that will allow you to complete what you thought would be an impossible job.

History
While flying along some stormy night in your small four cylinder airplane, nothing will get your heart rate to speed up more than a sticking valve that will cause you to lose 25% of your power. (Been there, done that!!)

Short of pulling the faulty cylinder off the engine once you’re back safe and sound on the ground, the usual and least expensive way to fix the valve, (usually the exhaust from lead deposits on the stem and guide) is to drop the valve into the cylinder.
Then you will hone out the valve guide, and polish the valve stem with very fine emery

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Leaks

Fixing Leaks – Forward Hatch

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After the cleaning+ suggestions, here’s another technique you might try.
First, get a good reading on just what part of gasket/seal is leaking.  I did this by looking at/thru closed hatch seal, using a mirror and good light conditions….I found light outside/dark inside [while looking from inside] best.  In this way, I could see small gaps, maybe 4 -6″ long, where seal wasn’t sealing.

Fixed this by inserting a few short sections of once-folded aluminum foil under inner edge of gasket.   Has been fine in the ensuing 5+ years.

Warren
warrenell@msn.com
C 380 #44, My Bride II

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Leaks, Uncategorized

Fixing Leaks

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About a year after purchasing our 380, we had “dribbles” from the V-berth hatch, when raining.  I fooled around with this for multiple times, silicon greased the seal, no fix, etc.  It ended up that the problem was at one of the two hinge mounts.  There is one or two screws there that hold the top and bottom together, pinching the lens in between.  I put some silicone sealant on the top side, and ran sealant into the screw holes.  Problem fixed and has stayed fixed for the past 18 months.  You might try to isolate your leak, if possible.  Since ours was dripping at the hinge, that sort of got me pointed in the right direction.

Dr. Sam Balsley
Barca a Vela, C380, #322
Sausalito, CA

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Propellers

Campbell Sailor 3-Blade Prop

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I have a Campbell Sailor 3 blade prop on our C380, and love it.  The boat backs up straight, very controllable.  While the previous owner installed the prop on the C380, I did install one on our prior boat, a C30.  The prop seems to counteract prop walk much more on the C380.  On the C30 I could really rely on the paddle wheel effect to turn the boat, but not so much on the C380.  I like the simplicity of the Campbell Sailor, with no maintenance, or history of failures.  As reported in independent tests by “Practical Sailor Magazine”, it achieves top results and is their Editor’s pick for fixed blade propellers.

http://www.westbynorth.com/CampbellSailerTests.aspx

Max props are highly regarded by members of this group as well, and offers better sailing performance characteristics.

Since we will be cruising remote areas, I prefer a fixed blade prop, since it is inherently simpler,

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Battery, Repair/Replace/Maintain, Uncategorized

Installing Larger Battery Charger

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When my original 40 amp Charles Charger quit working, I installed a Xantrex TrueCharge2 60 amp charger to better deal with my larger than original house battery bank.  In the process of doing this, along with help from other members of the group, I realized that there was more to the process than I originally planned.  Here is the resulting issue list that one should consider before getting into this project:

  • Upgrading the charger will probably mean upgrading the battery cables from the charger to the batteries.  Mine were originally #4 but the 60 amp charger required fishing #1 cable.  This makes a huge difference to the complexity and cost of the project and may have discouraged my installation of the larger charger in the first place.
  • Newer chargers require fishing a new wire for the battery temperature sensor.  Compared to fishing larger electrical cable, this was nothing.
  • Expect the

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Battery, Electronics

Checking Battery Cable Integrity

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The following comes from Warren:

To check condition of any moderate-to-high current leads/connections, I like the measure-voltage-drop method. Eg: at battery terminal[s], put one vm lead on battery terminal itself & other lead on wire or connecting [crimped?] lug; do this while heavy charge/current is flowing.  Any more than maybe 0.1 volt = time to fix/clean/tighten.

Can do same type of test over entire cable as long as you can rig a long [thin ok] voltmeter lead to charger, but you’d need to check allowable drop [maybe 3%?] to know what is acceptable.

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Engine

Engine Differences across C380 and C387

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Previous posts have given specifications for the two different Yanmar engines used in the C387 series.  Warren has provided below some additional interesting information on engine and transmission differences across the C380-C387 series….

Tom

Should you want to delve further into engine differences, –in this case between the two boats—one design fact that has baffled me is why the two engines [in this case: 3, but the 2 Yanmars have the same trend] have opposite-trending fwd/rev gear ratios.

Specifically, the Westerbeke 42b has 2.63/1.95 fwd/rev gearing, while the Yanmars [JH3] has 2.61/3.16 fwd/rev reduction ratios!!??

It looks like Westerbeke realizes that owner/operators want to operate at low RPM’s in reverse, but Yanmar believes operators like to operate near the same throttle for both directions???

Have asked a couple of “experts”, but no definitive answer.  Perhaps Tim has some thoughts on this.

To carry this a bit further, I see that

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Engine

Yanmar Engine for C385

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The 385 will be arriving with the 3JH5E Yanmar.

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Engine, Repair/Replace/Maintain

Yanmar 3JH4 Engine Specifications (C387)

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C387 boats have had two types of Yanmar engines — 3JH3xx and 3JH4xx.  Note that the 3JH3 engine has a much higher engine RPM to reach max horsepower than does the 3JH4.  Note also that this means that the transmission will also be different.  The change to 3JH4 engines took place around hull #60. The following is the specification for the 3JH4 engine:

 

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