L-G Harvey
Member I
As a proud owner of a 1983 30+ I have benefited greatly from the advice and information on this forum. I wanted to begin by thanking all contributors for helping me get to know my boat.
Corsario is in great shape for her age and we have been restoring her and having a great time sailing her. Indeed, we gave her new sails this year and her performance had been outstanding.
We had been away from the boat for a few weeks when the marina owner called us and said he thought she was taking on water. So we authorized him to enter the boat and he apparently pumped some water out of the bilge. The was no evidence that there was enough to get over the floor boards and that the boat was ever in trouble. We just spend several days aboard her, took her out, motored and sailed for hours and she trook on no water at all.
Ultimately, he claimed the bilge pump did not work and that a wire was disconnected on it. Fair enough, but for some reason his empooyee also chose to take apart the DC electrical panel and left it that way, so we found it hanging on the wires when we got to the boat. In addition, the rotary battery switch mounted on the panel was broken. The switch has a circular, puck-like, red plastic housing and it has been cracked as if someone forced it. He claims it was broken when he removed the panel, but I know for a fact that the switch worked last time I was on the boat and I can't see how it would spontaneously break without someone fooling around with the panel. By the way it is clear that the panel was never the problem, at most it was a loose wire on the pump.
Aside from finding a new marina, my more immediate problem is dealing with the switch. It is mounted on the inside of the panel and seems to be glued to it. I might try heavy duty contact cement to fuse the plastic parts of the housing together again, but since the whole thing is under pressure from the mechanism within it I'm doubtful that will work. Ideally I'd like to replace the switch by something I could mount inside the panel again and preserve the stock look of the ericson panel, but I've found no such switch and no evidence here that anyone has done that. Does this mean I am condemned to mounting some ugly new rotary switch beside the panel ? Has anyone heard of a replacement part I could use? Has anybody made that change? I am assuming I won't have to change the whole panel.
Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.
Louis
Corsario is in great shape for her age and we have been restoring her and having a great time sailing her. Indeed, we gave her new sails this year and her performance had been outstanding.
We had been away from the boat for a few weeks when the marina owner called us and said he thought she was taking on water. So we authorized him to enter the boat and he apparently pumped some water out of the bilge. The was no evidence that there was enough to get over the floor boards and that the boat was ever in trouble. We just spend several days aboard her, took her out, motored and sailed for hours and she trook on no water at all.
Ultimately, he claimed the bilge pump did not work and that a wire was disconnected on it. Fair enough, but for some reason his empooyee also chose to take apart the DC electrical panel and left it that way, so we found it hanging on the wires when we got to the boat. In addition, the rotary battery switch mounted on the panel was broken. The switch has a circular, puck-like, red plastic housing and it has been cracked as if someone forced it. He claims it was broken when he removed the panel, but I know for a fact that the switch worked last time I was on the boat and I can't see how it would spontaneously break without someone fooling around with the panel. By the way it is clear that the panel was never the problem, at most it was a loose wire on the pump.
Aside from finding a new marina, my more immediate problem is dealing with the switch. It is mounted on the inside of the panel and seems to be glued to it. I might try heavy duty contact cement to fuse the plastic parts of the housing together again, but since the whole thing is under pressure from the mechanism within it I'm doubtful that will work. Ideally I'd like to replace the switch by something I could mount inside the panel again and preserve the stock look of the ericson panel, but I've found no such switch and no evidence here that anyone has done that. Does this mean I am condemned to mounting some ugly new rotary switch beside the panel ? Has anyone heard of a replacement part I could use? Has anybody made that change? I am assuming I won't have to change the whole panel.
Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.
Louis
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