Washdown System and Cabin Seawater

 

Purchased Item

• Johnson Pump Aqua Jet 5.2 Gph Washdown Kit
• Aquor Marine Washdown Outlet
• 10ft lengths of 1/2" pex pipe 
• Flair-It Pex fittings

                   

Marine Deckwash Outlet

plumbing

                                 

           

Seawater plumbed to the head and galley sinks

Galley Cabinet

Replacing the Old Replacement with a Original Inspired Replacement

The original galley cabinet was long gone by the time I purchased Johanna Rose.  In its place was a cheap box store hanging cabinet.  I'm rather embarrassed that I kept it in place for so long.  It did serve a function, and chalkboard painting the faces and side did make it a tad bit more palatable.  I always knew that I wanted to replace the cabinet with something that was more like the original Landfall galley cabinet.  While there were several cabinet variations that came with the Landfalls, the most common cabinet was a 3 sectioned cabinet and draw combination which followed the design and lines of the lower sink cabinet.  And so, this is what I designed and fabricated.  The photos below start off with a before and after before going into the fabrication work.

Old box store galley cabinet improved with chalk paint

Fabrication

Installation

Fabricating a Companionway Canvas Cover

For the longest time I had a reoccurring leak at the companionway.  Part of the problem was a poor design in the companionway drip plate.  Water would wick around and through the corner joints leaking into the cabin.  Also because of the small drip angle, wind could easily blow water under the companionway board.   An easy fix to these problems was to make a companionway canvas cover.   While I have learned how to use a sewing machine and have made a few simple items (cover for stern rail BBQ, a flat sheet for extending the mainsail cover), I still consider myself a sewing greenhorn.  This project turned out to be quite easy and a good confidence builder.  I may someday actually move up to a real sewing machine and retire the old eBay Nicchi 523 special.

A template was made using some Visqueen plastic sheeting.  The plastic was placed around the companionway outer cover, folded and taped to form a top box cover.  A black marker was used to mark out the pattern and an additional border was added to allow for a folded edge hem.  The cover was fabricated in two pieces.  The top horizontal cover which included side snaps for securing in place, and the front vertical cover which attached to the top piece via double velcro sandwich.  Having a separated front cover allows for easy swapping of the cover from full canvas, to other fabricated front covers made with a screen or even a vinyl window.

The all canvas front cover shown here was made by joining two pieces of material together.  This was originally done due to material shortage, but could be easily modified to allow for an access to snapping the cover in place.  It turns out that this modification not needed as with only two bottom snaps one can snap the cover in place from inside.  My only regret was not making this companionway canvas cover sooner.  Update: after nearly 1-1/2 yrs the companionway has remained leak free.

Simple template made using clear plastic sheet
 and a black marker. [Table cloth not part of project]

Sewing material to make front panel. 

Adding snaps with the $3 Sailrite installation tool

Completed hatch cover.

Repairing a Yanmar 3-Way Engine Buzzer Alarm (one buzzer alarm for temp, oil, alt)

This post describes a past project performed in 2010.  The vessel at the time was our previous Johanna Rose, a 1979 C&C 29-mk1,  which had a Yanmar 2QM15 auxiliary engine. 


I originally posted the text below on the CnC-list.com mail listserver in Dec 2011.  I have updated the component prices and added some accompanying photos

"I replaced/repaired the Yanmar engine buzzer alarm a few years ago at a cost under $30.   It turns out to be pretty easy to replace the guts of the buzzer with a new Sonalert buzzer.  This keeps the buzzer and wiring harness looking like an old unit but working like new.   It was an easy enough task that I later fixed an similar Yanmar alarm for buddy.  I took some pictures of the second process, and I have been meaning to write it up, but I have been forgetful.  I'll summarize my procedure below.

First let me explain how the original buzzer works.   There are 5 wires leading from the buzzer wire socket to the buzzer unit.  The red is 12V which becomes powered when the ignition key is turned to the on position.   There are three blue wires which go to water temperature, oil pressure, and alternator sensors.  There is a yellow wire which is not used at all.   When the ignition key is on, the buzzer is supplied +12V.  When a sensor trips it provides the ground for the circuit allowing the buzzer to sound.   For example, one of the blue wires merges with the ground wire for an alarm panel light bulb and then connects directly to the hot water temperature sensor on the engine block.  When the sensor over heats, it trips and provides a direct ground of the buzzer and its alarm light to the engine block.  Buzzer sounds and light goes on."

Components:

•  Replacement buzzer:  Mallory Sonalert part # SC616NL
• costs about $27 (2019 Digi-Key # 458-1026-ND)
• I spoke with an engineer at Mallory who claims this sealed buzzer is commonly used for marine applications
• 3 rectifier diodes  1N40007 
• cost: Quantity of 10 cost $1.09 (2019 Digi-Key # N4007-TPMSCT-ND)
• Note: current flows only one way in a diode.  The diodes are used to isolate the grounds so that only the corresponding alarm light turns on.

Procedure:

[1] Remove old buzzer from vessel

Remove the old buzzer from the yanmar panel.  The body of the buzzer screws on to the face guard sandwiching the panel plate. Just grab the buzzer body and turn to loosen.   If it is too tight, try one of the rubber strap oil filter removers to get better leverage.

[2] Remove old buzzer guts and enlarge inside opening

On back of the buzzer remove the sticky black sealant to get access to where the old buzzer wires enter the buzzer circuit board. Now cut or break the wires off at the old circuit board in the buzzer.  NOTE:   the wiring harness first goes through a rubber grommet then to the inside circuit board.   Use a screw driver and hammer to break up the old internal circuit board and remove the with needle-nose pliers.   The metal cross backing which also hold the rubber grommet is pressed into the back of the alarm.  Pry/pull it off of the back of the buzzer housing.   Now remove the old buzzer internals by using a Dremel to cut it out from the front side of the buzzer.   The hole left from cutting out the old buzzer internals is about the same size as the treads for the new buzzer.  Use the Dremel to sand and clean up inside diameter so that the new buzzer fits.

[3] Install new buzzer

Insert the new buzzer from back side of the old buzzer housing and screw the cap nut on the front side.  Use a little silicone sealant to seal the frontside threads and cap nut.

[4] Solder buzzer to old buzzer wiring harness.

Solder the silver end of a diodes
to each blue wire.  Twist the other
ends of the three diodes together and
solder to the new black buzzer wire.

The new buzzer has two wires: red and black.   Connect the red wires. You will need to solder and shrink tube the old and new red wires together. Prior to heating the shrink tube, I applied some liquid electrical tape over the soldering, let dry, then heated the shrink tube(or one could use adhesive lined heat shrink tube).  The new black wire is connected to the three blue wires via the diodes.  Look at the diode. It will have a black body with a silver end.  Solder the silver end of a diodes to each blue wire.  Twist the other ends of the three diodes together and solder to the new black buzzer wire.  Now use liquid tape and shrink tube (you should slip on the shrink tubes before soldering).  I also used a larger heat shrink tube over all of the wires as final step.

[Sorry, I do not have photos of the soldering process]

[5] Final clean up before reinstall buzzer back in panel.

Add a final touch of new-ness to the repair by renewing any sunlight discoloration of the black plastic cover cap.  There are many ways to do this, such as cleaning, polishing, and waxing (like one would do to renew a headlight lens), or scrub, clean, and spray paint.   For this project I recommend spray painting with black Krylon  Fusion.