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Spring Launch Reminder

mjsouleman

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Discovery went in the water Friday morning and out, and then again Friday Afternoon and out yet again Saturday morning.

Friday Morning: A transducer seal failed and the nice hoist operators had the yard workers replace the transducer rubber gasket...

Friday Afternoon: Discovery is in the water for the 2nd time, but it is to windy (30-35 knots) to escort her to her berth... turns out to be a good thing

Saturday morning: A visit finds failed seacock (in the closed position) leaking and bilge filled to just below cabin sole.

Some chores you know should be done but put off till another season, replacing through-hulls and transducer gaskets on an 83 Ericson is one of those chores.

MJS
 

Frank Langer

1984 Ericson 30+, Nanaimo, BC
Oh, that sounds like a tough way to start the season for you! I hope it's the last of those kind of surprises, and that a good summer of sailing makes up for it. I think we all work hard to keep on top of maintenance, and anticipate those issues that could cause us grief. But boats being what they are, and as they and we get older, sometimes those surprises happen. I'm glad you were able to get it solved.
Frank
 

kapnkd

kapnkd
Discovery went in the water Friday morning and out, and then again Friday Afternoon and out yet again Saturday morning.

Friday Morning: A transducer seal failed and the nice hoist operators had the yard workers replace the transducer rubber gasket...

Friday Afternoon: Discovery is in the water for the 2nd time, but it is to windy (30-35 knots) to escort her to her berth... turns out to be a good thing

Saturday morning: A visit finds failed seacock (in the closed position) leaking and bilge filled to just below cabin sole.

Some chores you know should be done but put off till another season, replacing through-hulls and transducer gaskets on an 83 Ericson is one of those chores.

MJS


Morning Mark,

Sounds like "Murphy" joined you for St. Patty's day and the weekend! :( Sincere sympathies for your "Spring Launch Surprises". Seems we all get those every year in one form or another! One year a friend got his mast up only later to find squirrels had gotten into it and chewed the halyards and electrical wires!!

We replaced our fresh water thru hull for the head last year just as a precaution. We also eliminated the speed thru hull and then enlarged the depth transducer hole for a unit that does both. My theory is the less holes below the water line the better.

For many years I used the wet box method for the depth transducer just to avoid having a hole. It worked great but my son upgraded the old analog system years ago in the 90's - soooo in went another hole.
:esad:
 
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mjsouleman

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Frank/kapnkd,

Discovery's adventure was a no drama event, and something we all experience at one time or another.

I'll replace the seacock this week and weather permitting, get her back in the water and seaworthy soon enough.

Do you guys have shareable stories of the same ilk?

MJS
 

kapnkd

kapnkd
kapnkd,

Where did you purchase the depth and speed transducer and how did you install it?

MJS


My son picked it up for us I think from either Defender or Port Supply (???). ...It's the Garmin unit. The GNX Wireless Sail Pack 52 I think with wireless masthead sensor, two displays and depth transducer that includes the DST800 unit which provides water depth, vessel speed and even water temperature data.

...Just thinking back. In '73 when I first got the boat, I was on a serious budget and was happy to have a Pierce Simpson analog depth sounder (actually worked really well) plus started with a simple cheap plastic tube that measured boat speed. For cruising, it worked pretty good - not so much for racing! As for navigation I had an RDF radio is all. IF we got within a 5 mile triangulation, we felt really lucky! Later got an Apelco loran C and thought I had really arrived! (Still had to go to the charts to plot the lat/lon numbers but THAT was big time back in the late 70's early 80s!!
 

kapnkd

kapnkd
Frank/kapnkd,

Discovery's adventure was a no drama event, and something we all experience at one time or another.

I'll replace the seacock this week and weather permitting, get her back in the water and seaworthy soon enough.

Do you guys have shareable stories of the same ilk?

MJS


Just a few from over the years that I've tried to forget or are shared only at the club bar after a few beers. Sea-cocks have not been a problem for us (yet) but the propeller shaft with the lasdrop shaft seal hung up once and gave a crew member quite a scare one time.

For whatever reason, it started leaking filling the bilge to the point of just about coming up onto the cabin sole. My crew member seeing the water did a panic number and jumped on the radio calling out a "Mayday". We had just cleared a harbor area so there really was no serious problem at hand.

I figured what it had to be, was correct, jiggled the coupling and the leak quit immediately. The bilge pump quickly caught up and all was well.

Of course the Coast Guard was a bit anxious to assist until I calmed them down too. My red faced crew member has held the nickname "Bilge Bob" ever since and we still have a good laugh over it.

Like I have always said, the BEST bilge pump in the world is a scared seaman with a bucket!! :scared:
 
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