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On the mkii, you turn the key all the way and hold it for a few seconds to light the glowplugs. You'll notice when you release it, it springs back a quarter turn to the run position. Mine normally only takes a couple seconds for the glowplugs to work. Then push the start button and you should be good.

You did mention that the batteries test well at 13 volts? These are lead acid / AGM type batteries? Is there a battery charging running when you're testing them? 13V is a little higher than I would expect unless there is a charger on them.  If so, you should take the chargers off and wait an hour or so and test again.

Rob

I had the mast down this year to replace the standing rigging. One comment my rigger made was to not get a photoled for the anchor light to automatically shut off during daylight. Apparently that's another thing to break.

And I did replace all the wiring in the mast. I had switched to an LED stream/deck light and the thick wires they used for the deck light wouldn't fit in the new fixture. Catalina had used a 4 wire in a sheath cable called something like duraflex and so far as I could tell, it wasn't tinned. The other thing that allowed me to do was remove the plug in the mast step, the wires now come unbroken down to a junction box in the bilge.

Rob. 

There's a pretty good drawing in the owners manual. At least on my stock mkii, there are 4 pvc ball valves under the sink plus the 2 thru-hulls. I've marked the PVC ball valves in red and the thru-hulls in blue.

On the port side under the sink are ball valves that turn on the show sump (Aft) or the ice box sump (Forward), and on the starboard side is the fresh water with the aft valve being for the aft tank, forward for the forward. These valves are right next to the thru-hulls.
And in case you are not familiar with those ball valves, the valve is open if the handle is in line with the pipe, closed if the handle is perpendicular to the pipe.

Sounds like a fun project!. I can't speak to whether or not there is a cavity under the tank, but I am curious on the project. Do you have this running on the aft tank?

Have you found sample code for the Raspberry pi with that sensor? And a wiring schematic? I have raspberry pi on the boat right now that runs all the time and sends me daily emails with environmental and battery voltages. I'm always looking for new things to attach up. 

Rob

My 1998 Mkii has a water fill in the anchor locker and then one on the aft starboard just behind the propane locker.

You can open the starboard aft locker and look down on to the water tank to see how full it is. I typically set a flashlight on top of the tank while I'm filling to see the water level.

I put on a 14x7.5 about 2 years ago. It's good, but I think it's slightly over pitched as I don't reach 3000 underway. That's on my 1998 Mkii with the M35BC. As I recall the guy at West by North suggested more pitch, so they do tend to be aggressive with it.

One thing I notice, and this is just my experience, is that there is significantly less surface area on the prop, it's a smaller diameter and the blades are thinner. It relies on the shape to really get the push. Nice when you're sailing, but it seems much more impacted by barnacle growth than my old 2 blade.

Rob

I do enjoy a good boat project, especially when you start seeing things come together.

I notice your boat is the same year as mine. I had to replace the fresh water pump last year as it wouldn't hold pressure anymore. I probably could have rebuilt the pump side, but the electric motor itself was fairly rusty, so I just replaced it.

If your pump is the original, that's probably not a bad item to have in the spare parts bin.

Rob

One thing on the head faucet / shower is there is an on/off push button on the faucet wand (If that's the right term). At the end of the wand is a lever to go from stream to shower, at the base of the wand is little push button that turns it on / off.

So you can get your hot / cold temperature correct, soak up, and then use the push button on the wand to turn off the water supply to soap, etc. 

You may have already been aware of this, but thought I'd mention it just in case, it's pretty hidden down there.

I have a 16k unit, though it's an older unit. It does blow pretty cold air. It's adequate in the summers of NC, but I wouldn't say it would freeze you out of the cabin. If the sun is shining on the deck, you can feel the heat radiating from the ceiling when you're down below. I made some deck shades that help dramatically.

Rob. 

Thanks Alex. Turns out my issue was that at some point in the boats past, a whole separate 30amp service was added for the 16K Aircon. I normally run a splitter on the shore power cord and plug both outlets on the stern of the boat into a single 30amp service on the dock.

Somewhere in the AirCon circuit, they must have tied the neutral into the main circuit neutral and that was tripping the Multiplus. Once I flipped the breaker off for the AirCon circuit, the MP was happy, though it does buzz ever so slightly.

Since I know the Aircon and the main circuit run fine off 30 amps, I'm considering merging those 2 circuits so the AirCon comes after the MP in the main circuit. That way when I run on the Honda 2200i, the MP can help boost the start for the AirCon.

Thanks,
Rob

Thanks for the feedback Alex. I do have a the shore power coming straight to the MP from the shore power breaker, though there is a galavanic isolator on the ground.  Do you have the ability to bypass the MP and connect the AC in to the AC out in your setup? Not sure if that's a worthwhile addition or not.

For the startup, start with the relay open. Is there an indication the MP has synced?

Thanks,
Rob.

Have any of you folks that installed a Multiplus had issues with them tripping breakers? I just installed the MP 12/3000 and it works fine in inverter mode. When I plug the shore power in and turn the MP to either on or charge, the "Main On" LED flashes for a few seconds and then the breaker on the dock trips.  So either it's pulling more than 30 amps or there's something going on with a ground fault.  Curious if anyone had anything similar, maybe the way the Catalina AC system is wired causes issues, ie the neutral and ground are tied together? Not sure why those issues might not present themselves prior to the MP install.

And oddly, it doesn't trip the 30 amp breaker on the boat, though maybe that has a different GFI setup.

I only had a few minutes to try it last weekend after running the wiring, so I'll be back down this weekend investigating. Any suggestions on things to look for?

Thanks,
Rob

Has anyone rebedded the outboard genoa track on a Mkii?  Words of advice? This looks to be a challenging project as that track on the port side runs from inside the locker, through the head and behind the electrical panel as well.

I had water coming out from under the Corian counter above the toilet paper door after sailing last week.  I've pulled the mirror cabinet off and it does look like the a number of the nuts behind the hull liner flange have leaked.  I assume those bolts go up through the genoa track.

Looking up at the nuts, it looks like they are pushed tight against the hull liner flange, so I couldn't get a socket on them. I could maybe get a pair of vice gripes on them and back the bolts out from the top.

The track sits on top of a hump that runs all along the gunnel. Does anyone know what is inside that hump? Is it a wood block? Hollow? Filled with epoxy?

Thanks
Rob

Thanks for the write up! Something I'll be looking at doing soon, so the part numbers are a big help.

Rob