Messages

I finally got around to installing the Racor fuel/air separator yesterday. :-)   "Better late than never" I suppose. :-)

On my MKII it only took about 10 minutes to install.

I placed it in my port lazarette and one can easily see it when opening the lazarrette.

The location of this small fuel expansion tank is maybe about 3 feet away from my diesel inlet and so that is really wonderful because should I have miscalculated my usage, etc (hopefully I'll never do that but I'm human) and accidentally overfill I will immediately see that before a spill can occur.

It looks like an excellent product, a great idea, and the body is clear.

It has to be installed vertically and on the MKII is actually perfect due to the location that I placed it at.  It came with a 90 barbed elbow fitting and so it fit perfectly. 

Only negative that I can see is that it came with 4 stainless clamps but the worm screws were not stainless and so I installed my own all (totally) stainless clamps instead.

Vic

I bought my bag 2 years ago from Helm Seat where I also purchased a helm seat.

I love both:

http://www.helmseat.com/CanvasProducts.htm

Macallan is "best" for me.

What a wonderful 12 year old Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky!

Of course, with any quality scotch be sure to either add a few drops of water or place it on ice to activate the full flavor, etc.

========

For beer: any beer made by Sierra Nevada Brewing makes me happy. 

I love their IPA (India Pale Ale) and their famous Pale Ale. It does depend on the weather for me as their brown ale, porter and celebration ale also are really good.

Although different in every respect to Sierra Nevada's gold (I mean beer), most Belgian beers are great as well.

For basic "cheap" scotch, Dewars is one that I like. Radically different than Macallan but good for (almost) every day drinking.

Let's face it, our moods, the weather, the company, even the time of day, our pocket books, and so on are great variables.

For all of us here who own a sailboat....we're all pretty darn lucky.

These ARE the good old days!

You asked how my second hose was run.

Right next to the first one.  It fit (barely) all the way along side the original one.

I agree, smooth hose is best due to a lot less resisance.  Mine is corrugated hose on the outside......but smooth on the inside.


Yes, the rust was caused when my packing was leaking (right from the start when I received my new boat it leaked quite a bit).

I do like the idea of dripless and wanted to get that during my first haulout (2 weeks ago).

I asked my diesel mechanic his opinion as I respect his expertise.  He suggested against it, and he felt that with additional teflon packing that most of the dripping would stop and for me not to go dripless as he feels that it adds other issues as far as he was concerned. 

Since he added the additional teflon packing the dripping is almost non existant and so I decided to do what he recommended and not go with dripless.

As far as a check valve that absolutely doesn't leak?  They do exist, I actually sell them  (I have been a plumbing supplier/distributor for many years) but as I understand it from a number of mechanics, a bilge pump is not designed to have them after the pump.

Because I don't like the design of our Marelon thru-hull seacock combinations (I found out that should the screw on the handle come off I can have major flooding), as well as the fact that I KNOW that pumps and switches fail, I decided that I "needed" (I suppose need is in the eye of the beholder) an additional bilge pump.

We went with a second auto switch right on top of the original one.

So it's maybe 3" above the first auto switch "on" level.

Which means our 2nd pump won't come on unless our first pump fails or it can't keep up or our first/lower auto switch fails to come on.

We now have an additional hose all the way from the second pump to an extra through-hull (yes, it's right next to the one for the 1st pump).

I feel that if you can afford it, it's always a good policy to practice "better safe than sorry."

I love my hard dodger. 

It also has covers for the clear plastic.

Make sure that whomever designs/makes them has an overlap on top so that the water doesn't get under the covers.

http://www.catalina34.com/images/hard_dodger.jpg

Same thing with me.

Within a week of taking delivery of my new 2005 model a water pipe right by my water heater blew off.

All the other stainless steel clamps weren't tight as well.

Catalina didn't know by then?

Quality control?


Vic

">To me loose or missing hose clamps, are an indication of poor Quality Control at the factory and lack of attention by the dealer during commissioning.  Complaints from the dealer back to the factory for warranty work, really gets the attention of the factory."<

Ron,

I wish that was the case but unfortunately from my experiences that isn't the case regarding "really gets the attention of the factory".

Many new owners (including myself)  have experienced the loose hose clamps throughout and the factory has to know by now and yet it seems to continue to be an issue.

Vic

I own a 2005 (#1688) and I have some spiderweb cracks also.

When we purchased our 2005 34mkII we were "sold" on the aft cabin for sleeping.  It was touted by Catalina and our sales person, as well as it looked to us like it was a nice size.

After only one night we changed our minds.

The fact that one of us has to crawl over the other in very tight quarters made it where we decided that the v-berth was much better (for us).

As a matter of fact, I liked our aft berth in our former 2002 C-250 better than our C-34 as I didn't have to crawl over my wife.

In addition, our refrigerator condensor unit is right next to the aft bert and is way too noisy in my opinion. I must admit though that none of our sleeping guests so far have complained and so maybe that's just my quirky perception of a noisy refrigeration unit.

So we sleep soundly in our forward v-berth which is plenty spacious and comfortable for us.



Vic

Thanks for the ABYC suggestion.

What happened on my boat is that I took the screw off voluntarily.

Looking back, not a smart move as I made some ass-u-mptions.

I blame that assumption somewhat on that I have taught ten plumbing courses at our local junior college, have been a plumbing contractor, also a plumbing distributor for over 25 years, and have been the largest Internet plumbing supplier for the last ten years.  So, I thought that I knew a little about "standard" plumbing. That probably hurt me as I just ass-u-med that all valves had a packing nut or something besides one little screw holding the handle whcih holds back the o-rings (which is the packing).  I've just never experienced a valve that could blow out if one takes the handle off.

The screw on my valve did not strip out (yet) as happened on that Catalina 400 that I had a link to.

Once the screw that holds the handle was off, the handle then blew out, along with the smallest of the two o-rings.

Before I knew what happened (would have made a great movie to see my expressions), the smallest of the 2 o-ring was washed away, and pumped away by my bildge pump.

Due to the water pressure blowing through where the o-ring used to be, the mechanic couldn't install a new o-ring until after the diver stopped the water from coming though the thru-hull.

After the plug was installed by the diver, the mechanic installed a new small o-ring.

---

It takes 3 hours of driving to get to my boat and I will be in China for 9 days soon, and so will probably not be back to my boat until Friday March 17th at around 2pm.  Possibly that Thursday the 16th.

Vic

I have some small hammocks inside but I'd like to have some shaped to the opening type mesh bags and maybe made out of a similar material as the hanging grey line bags that come with the new Catalinas.

Vic

I do not believe that most boats at Mariina Vaillage have this particular design.

Yes, I believe it is Marelon and lots of quality boats have Marelon but the design of this model is not one of a seperate thru-hull with a seperate valve.

When I went to my boat dealer (Farallone) they told me that is a relatively new design and has only been around a few years and that I could only get them from Catalina.  That no one stocks that valve and that they are hard to get.  The repair person from Mariner Boat Yard told me the same thing.

If I could replace the seacocks I would.

From what I saw, I believe that this design has 4 bolts to hold the seacock onto the thru-hull.

So I don't believe that I can unscrew them.

I hope that I am wrong.

To have to rely on one small screw that holds onto a plastic body to prevent a major blow-out is lunacy as far as I'm concerned.

For now I am going to rig a system where every one of my handles will have a stainless band around them so that none can blow out.  It will cause me hassles such as it will be hard to close the seacock but I just can't live with valves that can blow out like I have.

Right now  I am feeling that Catalina ought to pay for replacing all of my below the waterline thru-hull/seacock combinations and that they ought not install anymore on any new boats as I'm not the only one that has experienced problems.

I also think that each seacock ought to have a warning on the valve.

See:

http://www.sailnet.net/collections/articles/index.cfm?articleid=jkrets014

I quote:

>"A boat-wants-to-sink episode happened recently to a well-maintained, two-year-old Catalina 400. While at the dock, the owner's wife opened the seacock to the thru-hull fitting for the galley sink. The valve plug blew out and water rushed in. The threads for the retaining screw had stripped out of the plastic valve. To stop the inflow of water, a diver plugged the thru-hull from the outside. The integral flange valve thru-hull fitting could not be plugged from inside the boat. The boat had to be hauled to replace the valve and the thru-hull fitting. This poses the question of whether plastic thru-hull valves and valve flanges, which can't be plugged from inside, are safe?<"

>"........You also ask if integral valve flanges are safe on thru-hull fittings when a tapered wooden plug cannot be driven in from inside the hull? The answer to this one is easy, NO!"<


Stu, you saw my boat the day before this happened.  You know I love my boat,     but I tell you, these seacocks in my mind are dangerous and it is somewhat tarnishing my feelings.

We all make mistakes in life, this is one that I think Catalina has made, and I feel that they ought to make things right.

Vic

">can you tell whether there would have been an emergency solution of tapping a wood plug into the hole where the handle was and/or the water was coming out and then binding the plug in with something?"<

I wish it had been that easy.

The problem is that once the handle is off there is a groove for a small o-ring, as well as the plastic body is still there (to where the handle screw screwes into is).  So the "hole" isn't in the center, it is a space where the "packing" o-ring is.

Due to water pressure that o-ring will blow out as soon as the handle comes off and you won't be able to put it back in until the pressure is relieved.

So there is no way to put a plug of any size into "the" hole in an emergency.

I was able to get a perfect sized cork (needs to be just the right sized width), pushed it against where the water is coming from and wrap a stainless clamp around the cork and that slowed the leak down considerably.  But a plug won't work at all.

Look at your handles and you will see a white plug with a loop that fits on the outside of your handle.

What's that for?

Believe it or not that's to give to your diver because that plug (also has an o-ring) fits perfectly into the thru-hull (it only fits from under your boat).

The loop that's in the plug is there so that you only need to call the diver once.....(I'm not making this up)......as what you do is put a string in the loop of that plug so that when you're done fixing your valve handle (assuming that the threads aren't stripped because if they are you'll have to haul your boat out of the water) you can pull the plug out.

Hope I've explained it well enough?


">Just wondering if the typical wood plug assortment at West includes something small enough for that hole."<

No way will a plug work from above.  That's where the plug that is furnished with the valve comes in.

A good idea if you have an available diver onboard at all times.


Vic

I own a 2005 wing keel 34 and overall love my boat.....except now I am terrified of a situation that I encountered last weekend as I now don't trust any of my thru-hull valves.

As all of us have below the waterline thru-hull fittings.  Most of the thru-hulls have handles on the thru-hull valves. But I understand that the ones used on my Catalina are fairly new.

I found out that on my less than 2 year old boat that if a handle is either taken off, or the screw holding the handle on the thru-hull valve strips out, that I have a boat wanting to sink!




The handle is what holds back two o-rings.  No packing nut, just one small screw holds the handle in place and when the screw strips out the handle will blow off and the two o-rings will blow out and you have a major leak (as seen in the picture above).

In my case I took the handle off voluntarily as I had ass-u-med that I could do that. Big mistake (hired an emergency diver and mechanic) and I learned a lot from it.

I learned that I will never sleep until I either sell my boat (not likely in the near future) or replace all those potentially dangerous (in my opinion anyway) thru-hull valve/fitting combinations.

I was told by a number of people that these thru-hull fitting/valves are fairly new on Catalina and that no yard in Alameda (Calif) had them in stock.

I called Catalina last Friday, had to leave a message to get the part number, and to date (it's now wednesday) they have not returned my phone call.

I searched on the web and found where a 2 year old Catalina 400 had a similar handle's threads strip out of the plastic valve and so the valve plug blew out and a diver had to install a plug.

So my question to all of you is:

1) Think I'm being too over-reacting?

2) Has anyone else experienced, seen or heard of this happening on any other Catalina 34?

3) What would you do if you had these types of thru-hull fitting/valve combinations on your boat?

Thanks a lot,

Vic