Fabricating a Teak Shower Mat

Shower sump area in the head

Below is a photo showing the sump pan for the shower in the head on the Johanna Rose.  Some C&C Landfall 38 are configured with a separate shower stall just forward of the head.  On the Johanna Rose, the shower and head are combined, and the extra space which was utilized as a separate shower on some other units is used for additional settee length and locker space which currently houses the 16,500 BTU/hr Flagship Marine Air Conditioning system.

measurements for shower mat

shower sump in head

Recycling  chair parts and fabricating a simple floor mat 

Rhodesian Teak chair

We had a friend who gave us some teak for sailboat projects.  What he gave was the teak from outdoor chairs (everything except for the metal hardware).  Here is an image of what a completed chairs would look like.   A few years back, I cannibalized the seats to make a cockpit table for my C&C 29.

I took measurements with the intention of making a new teak grate, but when I realized the chair backs provided nice cross strips, I decided to utilized these remains to fabricate the shower mat.  The back slats were easily removed from the chair back and trimmed to 16-1/2".   I ripped three of the slat in half lengthwise and used these ripped slates as cross members for joining the remaining parts with stainless steel screws.

remains of a chair back

installing cross member and squaring floor mat

finishing up the fabrication of the teak shower mat

teak shower mat in head

Up the Mast

A well earned  selfie. 

Climbing the mast to fix the wind index

During the recent stepping of the mast, one of the Davis Windex reflective tracking tabs became dislodged and has been hanging freely since.   I had already climbed the mast 4 times using the ATN Mastclimber, but the climb was always on the fore side of the mast.   So this time,  the 5th time,  was up aft of the mast, and it was to simply snap the Windex reflective tracking tab back onto the wire hanger.  Here are some photos taken 51' above the water.

A bird's eye view of a C&C Landfall 38
and a Pearson 28-2 (to starboard).

An aft view.

The ATN Mastclimber's storage bag also
clips on for use as a handy tool bag.

This older version of the ATN Mastclimber
must have a halyard fed through the
jammers or the use of a separate dedicated
line incase of halyards with end splices
that prevent line feed through
(as shown here).

Replacing a broken fuel pump

leaking Yanmar fuel pump

From a Small Leak to Major Repair

While adjusting the engine idle, a small leak was noticed near the fuel pump.  All fuel lines and fittings seemed to check out fine.   The leak initial appeared to be coming from the gasket within the fuel pump (see photo).  The area was cleaned well and dry paper towels were wrapped around the pump and fuel fittings.   After running the engine for several minutes, the leak was discovered to be engine oil leaking from the fuel pump engine mounting gasket.  An easy fix.


The fuel pump was immediately removed, but it came off without the pump lever arm which had apparently broken off inside the gear case cover.  Below is a photo of the broken fuel pump, next to it is a photo of what the fuel pump should look like.

Yanmar fuel pump with missing lever

image a new Yanmar fuel pump

Yanmar 3QM30 gear case schematic.  

Cracking the Case

 The front gear case is not directly connected to oil sump of the engine block.  So this meant that when the broken lever dropped down it remained within the front part of the engine gear case.  Looking at the schematic from the 3QM30 parts manual reveals that broken part was likely sitting under the gear for the oil pump.  See diagram.  With there being some possibility of the broken lever getting caught into the gears and creating a big problem, the broken lever had to be removed before installing a new fuel pump and starting the engine.

First,  retrieving the broken lever by fishing with a telescoping magnet pickup was attempted.  But after many attempts and modifications to the telescoping magnet setup, trying to retrieve the pump lever with a magnet failed.

harmonic balancer pulley

Next, was the removal of the gear case cover.  This involved removing the alternator, the lift muffler, oil filter, and water pump hoses.  Pulling the harmonic balancer pulley was a challenge as there was only a few inches between the fuel tank and the pulley.  The gear case cover was only partially separated/removed  as to fully remove it would requires disconnecting the governor arm (which is a greater challenge by several, several orders of magnitude).

Once all the case bolts were loosened, the case lifted away from the block releasing about 1/4 cup of oil and the broken lever.  Fortunately, the case gasket was not broken, and after a quick clean, the case cover was reinstalled.

fuel pump mounting location on gear case

gear case shown from the oil filter side  

fuel pump with broken lever

front of gear case

Finishing up

 At this point, a new fuel pump and gasket were installed, and the fuel lines bled.  Reinstalling the harmonic pulley was a challenge due to the confined space.  Normally, the pulley is hammered onto the crank shaft and then bolted with a cap bolt.   The crank shaft has about 1" of tapped M12x1.25pitch threads but the collar of the pulley is approximately 2" long.    To aid in the installation of the harmonic pulley, a M12x1.25x70mm cap screw was purchased from Fastenal.

To install, the shaft key was aligned to the harmonic pulley and the cap screw was slowly tightened to pull the harmonic pulley onto the shaft.  A photo was taken to check the shaft key alignment to the harmonic pulley(see photo below).  The cap screw was longer than needed, so washers were used to fill extra space.   A lead mallet was used to tap on the harmonic pulley in combination with tightening the end cap screw.   The last 1/2" of installation was done using the original cap bolt.

aligning the pulley to the crank

measuring pulley/case distance