Homeworks

Works in the cabins, saloon and galley..

Initial Action

Waterpump

When testing the waterpump, it did not work. Checking the cable – OK, the fuse – corroded, but OK, and the connectors – should work. Then we took the pump out and connected it directly to the battery. It did not run.

At home I found the issue, basically corroded cables in the fuse holder. The copper cables are all turned black, but should be OK. Tested the pump with a bucket of water.

The powder coat just came off in big chunks when I was handling the pump. Underneath a lot of white oxide at the pump casing and rust at the iron house of the motor. I spent an hour clean, prime and then spay painted it.

Sorting out the Starboard Battery Compartment

This was a total mess. Cables, water hoses, lots of dirt and rubbish and the battery sitting loosely on top of all. Wet and very dirty. Started cleaning it up and ripped out all not used cables and tried to identify what cable is what. See the page on boat electrics for details on the electrical cleanup.

October 28: Cleaned up further and led the cables along the top of the compartment. Placed the battery on a wooden board with aeration space underneath.

New cover for the starboard tank compartment

I could not understand the layout of the saloon seats and bunks. The Sparkman & Stevens plan has two bunk beds, one of each side, elevated above the seats. In IRResistable these are not present. Instead there is a big empty space on both sides. Maybe because the previous owner’s priorities was racing, this was used to store the sails? I am going to restore it according to the original plan, starting with the starboard sided after fixing the electrical components.

Getting rid of Rot

One thing that worried me a lot was the soft parts of bulkhead in the saloon. At some parts you could poke your finger in from the saloon side. The other side in the head is solid. There was some rumor that the boat was once attacked by termites, and then fixed by a specialist. So my thought was that maybe that bulkhead was affected. Another possible explanation comes from the water leaking in from the mast shoe. Even spray water coming over the bow led to water dripping inside. That’s the next urgent thing to check.

April 24, 2026

Now since the boat is on land, and waste disposal is easy, I can work on finding out more details. I removed the rotten wood. The port side consists of a frame made of wooden beams with a fiberglass wall on the head side (either for waterproofness in case people take shower, or added at a later stage), while the starboard side consists of a sandwich of fiberglass in the head and a 12mm plywood on the saloon side. Given the “flimsy” structure of the bulkhead I have my doubts that it is of structural importance. It should be easy to fix.

Some of the wood is rotten, it needs to be replaced. I also plan to add a shelf for small items to the port side, so strengthening the framework underneath might be a good idea.

I made templates for both sides from manila paper, initially I thought about using PVC roof material for watertightness, but it is not possible to glue them properly. So for stability I am going to use the tested Santa Clara Marine Plywood. (Another drive to the North).

The Galley

Hmm. This is a mess. The only thing that was supposedly working is the refrigeration unit for the refrigerator, to cool beers. That did not work when I tested the electrics. The gas range was off the boat, the tubes and the gas bottle being removed. The sink was very messy. There was no fresh water coming from the faucet (see section Waterpump above). There is no sea water faucet, but there is a foot pump at the bottom of the sinks, but it is stalled. An assessment done in April after outhauling the boat:

The bulkhead separating the galley from the aft cabin is rotten at two places.

The top surface around the sinks used to be made of a plastic panel. That had been removed and the plywood underneath was painted white, but not with a good, water resistant paint. It is all very jucky.

There are two sinks, one fresh water faucet serving both sinks but not working.

There used to be a sea water system, as in most older boats, for saving precious fresh water, e.g. when pre-cleaning the dishes. It consists of a water filter, a sea cock, a junction with one line going into the engine room (need to figure out that later, alternative cooling water path?) and the other one to another sea cock followed by the foot pump. From the foot pump a hose goes upwards, but it is blocked by a marker pen, there is no faucet for sea water. That must have been removed at some point for whatever reason.

So the objectives are to 1.) repair the bulkhead, paint it white, 2.) get a new plastic surface for the working area, 3.) restore the salt water system, and 4.) clean and sort out the refrigerator. And 5.) as a temporary solution we are using the alcohol range from Magayon II, but ultimately we also like to have the gas range restored. I like the alcolol stove, but denatured alcohol is really difficult to get in the Philippines.

Baby steps

The salt water pump