Beautiful Thursday Night

After a long week I finally made my way out to On the Brink on Thursday for a sail with one of my best friends. At the boat I noticed that it was covered with dead aquatic midges which were quickly cleaned up due to the poly-glow finish we put on last weekend, boy does this old boat shine! I warmed up the engine and noticed more of the same, impeller wasn't pushing water but no big deal, I just need to jog out of the harbor and get the sails up.

My friend arrived and we did just that, headed out and lifted the sails. The NOAA was calling for 10ks of wind with 1-3' waves, beautiful weather for a sail. What we got was 0kts of wind and 3-4' waves, much less fun. Seeing boats further out sailing we decided to motor out a bit further. No such luck on the wind, however we did manage to get the motor nice and hot judging by the steam. We eventually killed the iron wind and decided to wait for mother nature to take over. After bobbing(slamming) about in the higher than predicted waves for about an hour we gave up and headed back... with the iron wind.

About half way back the steam from the engine compartment got a bit thicker and I decided to turn it off and let everything cool for a bit. We did and after another 10 minutes were back under way; this continued most of the way into the harbor. We finally reached the harbor entrance (finally the bashing about could end!) and the engine started getting REALLY HOT! The steam/smoke had filled the cabin and it was starting to sputter more than usual. At this time I looked at the oil pressure and it had dropped significantly and I could literally see the needle moving... bad news. We continued with the on-off period for a bit but in the harbor there were other boats around so we pushed it. The engine was starting to sound like hell in addition to the low pressure and complete lack of power when we finally coasted into (and hitting due to lack of reverse power) the dock. Screw it, I'll check it tomorrow was my attitude, especially since the cabin was smokey and very hot. Got home ordered a new water pump and thermostat/housing, hopefully those cure this disease without too many side effects.

Despite the bummer of a night I really did enjoy spending some time one on one with a good friend whom I haven't seen much of lately.

Let the dog days of summer begin

This evening was Sperry's first trip out to the On the Brink. And, yes our dog is named Sperry. It's a beautiful calm evening and the harbor is like glass so there is little to freak him out. For those of you that don't know him, Sperry is a 3yo beagle with a very family oriented VERY timid boy. 

Getting into the dinghy was terrifying and we had to lift him by his life jacket. The short ride out (with trolling motor) was uneventful with lots of sniffing all of the new scents of the water. At the dock Sperry shouldn't wait to get out of the dinghy but was too scared again and the jacket was used again. 

Next up, getting On the Brink. This was a quick terrified leap and presto, Sperry was aboard! Lots of sniffing and he settled right down. I call it a success, a few more times out in the harbor and we'll take him out on a sail!

Beautiful Weekend

Finally a great weekend and the boat is working. We arrived on Saturday after breakfast ready for a day sailing in the light breeze to get a feeling for On The Brink. Much to my surprise after the previous evening's success with the Atomic 4 it was a no-go. All of the spark plugs were fouled and it was still getting water in the cylinders. I had a quick meltdown and after a few swift kicks got to work on fixing the engine... again. Swapped out the sparkplugs, dialed back the raw water valve and eliminate a big dip in the exhaust hose. The engine started up and ran ok-enough to get out of the harbor.

Our sail was shortened by a fast approaching evening and not wanting to be out after dark. The light winds made sailing a bit tricky but we  managed and had some fun in the meantine. Most of all it was great to spend some time out on the lake as intended with my wife after the long past few weeks. We got back to the dock with little difficulty and I learned an important lesson: go slow, painfully slow when dock and all will be much better than trying to power in and control 7400lbs of momentum on a dime. We spent the rest of the evening tied up enjoying the sunset, skyline and a few much deserved beers

Sunday morning we got good start again and headed to the harbor a bit before lunchtime. The forecast was calling for 10-15mph winds and a possibility of rain around dinner time. Perfect weather again! This time the motor started right up and we headed out of the harbor pretty quickly. The wind was dead near shore so raising sails was easy but getting out onto the lake was not, with a little hope from our kinda-sorta reliable motor and we were out in the lake where the winds were perfect. It's amazing how much good wind makes sailing easier. We made good time north to look at the skyline and turned around just past Navy Pier.

On our way back to Burnham we got some great winds and made great time, occasional glances at the knot-meter verified that we were nearly making hull speed! The boat sails beautifully, almost no weather helm and it really loves to be on a reach, hardly any heel and good balance. I'm interested in playing with bigger jibs to further reduce weather helm. Dropping the centerboard helps as well on a reach and you can tell when I lift it on a run, great design feature! Back near the harbor we ran into a little trouble dousing the sails, we had a last minute wind change and had a hard time adjusting so my first mate nearly got knocked in by a swinging jib; but all's well that ends well!

Electric Propulsion

I posted about this a few days ago in the midst of my anger about the Atomic 4 motor struggles. I'm strongly considering getting rid of the gas engine that is currently in the boat and replacing it with an electric motor. It's becoming more and more common to have boats swap out their gas and diesels for electric motors. The problem is that it's typically $5k+ to do because of the newness of the technology and markups. I'm in the process of doing research and doing some design and it seems like I may be able to do a conversion for more like $2k conservatively which would pay itself off in a few years.

The plan would revolve around purchasing a 5kw brushless DC motor like the ones you can find at goldenmotors.com. They come straight from China which means cheap. The motors run on 48v DC which means the RPM will be between 2000 and 6000 RPM. That's about double what my current motor churns out and would cause cavatation and lack of power. To resolve this I'm talking to golden motors about building a custom motor that spins from 800-2500rpm. I need to weigh the premium against the cost for a 2:1 reduction drive. I'd rather just go direct drive as it's simpler and eliminates a failure mode in the future.

Once the motor is sorted out I need to figure out batteries. These are the hardest part for me to wrap my head around. I need to balance cost, capacity and reliability. Looking at the 5kw max draw rate I figure I'll need about 100AH of 48v power to get me about an hour of run time. This is quite a bit of battery, and therefore the type of battery matters. At the moment I'm leaning towards using AGM batteries, although the technology is older and they discharge worse and are heavy they are inexpensive. I think that since I'm removing about 500lbs of weight I'm ok in the heavy category. The downside of AGM batteries is they can only be recharged so many times before becoming useless, meaning in a few years I'll need to buy new. Alternately I could use a lithium battery, these are VERY expensive but are also relatively light and can be recharged and discharged very deeply many times. Given my tight budget constraints I'm thinking of going with AGM, I can always upgrade in the future.

One of the best parts of going with an electric motor is that the batteries will be charged in three possible ways. 1) if we get a slip next year I can hook them into shore power keeping them topped up. 2) I can hook them into my already sufficent solar cell to help keep them charged and 3) every time the boat is sailing the propeller can free spin which will charge the batteries!

It's Alive!!!

After about a week of being down I've got the engine running; it isn't pretty but it is better. I ended up buying some flexible exhaust coupling material that I slid over the exhaust ends since I can't bust them loose. It works ok but still leaks some air which is causing some havoc in expelling the water. I've turned back the water valve hoping that it will help equalize. I'll need to keep an eye on it and as a worst case I'll install a second valve in the cockpit so I can adjust the water pressure easily. Hopefully everything keeps running and we can have a solid weekend of sailing!

Not Mechanically inclined

The further I tear into this heap of iron called an Atomic 4 engine the more I realize just how mechanically UN-inclined the previous owner(s) of the boat are. There are so many problems that have been obviously wrong to me for years. Good examples are the lazzarettes which someone carefully reconstructed, however they didn't think about grain direction and the hatches broke in a few years. The rats nest that was the wiring and the fact that nothing electrical worked on the boat including the bilge pump which is why a second pump for bailing in an emergency was onboard.

The most recent offences are all in the motor and seem to be related to a single poor bit of back-yard engineering and even worse judgement. These motors use lake water to cool the cylinders in much the same way your car uses antifreeze and a radiator by circulating fluid around the engine to keep things under control. Once the water on an Atomic 4 makes it's way around the engine it is discharged into the exhaust line to be pushed by the exhaust gasses out of the engine. This is a somewhat ingeneous design as it cools the exhaust gas as well. The fatal flaw is that if for any reason the water does not flow out the end of the boat it can back up into the exhaust manifold and flood the cylinders. Anyone putting together the pieces why I had water in my oil? To make matters worse at some point a previous owner was having a hard time with the exhaust system and decided to cut part of the exhaust pipe off with a hacksaw and repair it with a flexible gromet... that didn't seal well enough to help the exhaust  gas push water out of the muffler causing a backup.

I tried to remove the cutoff section of pipe with a wrench but it had overheated gasses running through it for so long that it is fused. Even with a three foot lever arm I was unable to turn the pipes loose. To make it worse, the threads are upside down so I can't even hit the thing in penetrating oil to loosen it up. I'm thinking I'll try and install a flexible coupling like the previous owner but just make damn sure the thing is sealed this time. 

The good news is I am in the process of setting up a kickstarter account to help crowd source funding for my electric drive idea. I have most of the details worked out other than the type of batteries to use (this will depend on funding available.)

A4 Challenges Continue

Back out and working on the Atomic 4 yesterday and it was another one step forward half a step back. I was able to pull the spark plugs and a few were wet and the others were a bit dirty but still firing. Poured some Marvel Mystery Oil in the cylinders and cycled the engine for a bit to get it worked it to protect against the water and to hopefully blow the water out.

Next I checked out the oil to see what condition it was in... milky which means that water either 1: migrated to the crank case via the water pump. 2: The water that got into the cylinder via the spark plug made it's way into the crank. or 3: I have a cracked water jacket somewhere and it's leaking into the oil. Since I've replaced the impeller and tightened the spark plugs I'm fairly confident that I can pressure test the water jacket to determine if that is cracked... hopefully not.

Lastly, in working around the carburetor and exhaust lines to find my water issue I saw that the exhaust pipe is broken/never installed correctly. Looks like I'll be making a trip to the hardware store to pickup some 1-1/4" galvanized pipe. I'm thinking of a 1' section and a 6" section and connecting via a union for easy install. Hopefully my guess is right for the pipe length.

The goal here is to be sailing this weekend... we'll see. On another note all of these struggles have led me to start looking at repowering the boat. Instead of going with a new gas or diesel I'm eyeing converting her to electric... more on that later.

A4 issues

I'm unsure if it was mentioned but my biggest fear with on the brink is the motor. She has the original atomic 4 engine which have a mixed reputation. It seems that with regular care they are incredibly reliable. However, I have no idea if line is well cared for, and after using her for awhile I'm leaning towards poor care in the last few years. 

The motor has always had a hard time staying running and didn't really respond to throttle. Additionally I've yet to see exhaust water come out which is worrisome as the motor is likely overheating. I've only ever run it for maybe 15 minutes so little risk there I hope. 

Over the last weekend I did some research on Moyer marine and decided to check out the carburator for the running issue and the impeller for the cooling. It turns out I have the older style carb with only an idle adjustment. I tweaked the adjuster as recommended and figured I would run it a bit before going further. In the process I broke the choke line and had to reset it, oops! More on this later. 

Next I opened up the thermostat to have a look and boy wax I surprised. The whole jacket was bone dry, not a drop of water in awhile. In the process of opening the thermostat I ripped the gasket which was later replaced. After replacing the thermostat I opened up the raw water pump and found that the impeller was not attached to the shaft. I replaced the impeller and gave the engine a turn. Success, I could see water weeping from around the thermostat (hadn't replaced the gasket yet). 

The success was shirt lived as I saw bubbles around the spark plugs where water had settled. No wonder the engine ran like crap, the plugs were loose. I didn't have the right wrench so I called it a day. More later on my continued struggle. Is it really too much to ask to be able to actually sail my sailboat?