@duncan-mckenzie
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hi Arild,
when we overhauled our 4108 in Colombia we also looked at the gearbox and the mechanic identified degradation of the aluminium between the oil and coolant water zones. His solution was to dremel lightly then make good with cold weld epoxy (brands ‘JB Weld’, ‘Permatex Cold Weld’).
This is not ideal but I have found it useful also in my exhaust elbow air water mixer pipe, which have a notoriously short life. The last time I got my elbow refabricated, I coated the inside of the pipe where the worst corrosion occurs, where the seawater enters, with cold weld and so far it has lasted five years whereas normally it would last about three. Cold weld is not an ideal fix, but it might buy you some time whilst you continue hunting for a spare.
Best regardsDuncan
Thanks for Arnett reference and fascinating about the ceiling. Marilyn may want to re-locate that information to another section of the forum!
And who cast your white metal bearing, if I may ask?
That and a new saloon ceiling are on my list, actually, so interested to see any photos of your ceiling solution, dunkmckenzie@gmail.cois my email.
Thanks,
Duncan
Thanks Maralyn, that is really interesting. I renewed the rubbers of my flexible couplers in Colombia two years ago so they aer ina good state. God knows if they imitated the original quality of the rubber correctly. If alignment isn’t an issue (and goodness knows how you do an alignment check on a boat with a shaft made of three sections with flexible couplings, other than presenting a similar diameter long tube through the tail shaft orifice when the rudder is off, which is what we did in Saint Martin in 2021), then the only other factor I wonder about is the fact I have been using a non standard prop by Axiom, a second generation version of your one, I believe, and I wonder if that creates an oscillation or something….I am considering to try the original prop again for the next few years possibly. But I have noted exactly the same noises at the same speeds as you have, funny to read your observations! I will update as I know. A question: does there exist a CN diagram of the tail shaft that I could use to get a new SS shaft made in advance of lifting out of the water?
Just got this from the FB forum:
OEM is 1 3/8″ phosphor bronze but I have been told by T Norris in the UK that’s it’s not been available in the correct quality for many years.
They have recommended 35mm duplex stainless replacement (35mm should just fit and much cheaper and easily available)Further pics
Hi Van,
That thought had crossed my mind, ie moving the top fixture higher. I have read about your foredeck set up and I think I know what you mean but I would love to see a photo of that, with the pennants/ triangular set up. Thanks for your input.
Hi Marilyn
That’s really helpful. I note that Mike skipped past where he had mounted the top attachment for the stay. He had actually mounted it about 5.5 ‘ down the mast below the tangs. That’s a long way down and I make that to be 15% of the foretriangle height. The usual rec is not more than 5% and some say max 10% on certain stiff masts. I have run this question through the FB Sails and Rigging forum where many retired riggers and various sailors comment, and I got the whole range of answers from “Definitely need running backstays” to “It’s best practice” to “Don’t need apart from in extreme winds”, to “Don’t bother!”
It was actually Ollie Holden (of this Nic38 forum) who said I might want to check on my inner stay security factor when he heard it was substantially down the foretriangle.
One idea is to put a reef set-up into my staysail so that the forces are at least less when reefed in winds above 30 knots, if and when I get to sail in those winds…which would make the whole thing more useful, perhaps.
Cheers
bot fixing and second image showing size of storm jib realtive to 140 genoa
Attachments:
Images attached, and forgot to say that, below decks, the steel fixing for the bottom of the babystay has a dyneema strop tensioned with turnbuckles to a fixing point on the inside of the V of the hull which is glassed in, all this to strengthen the stay and not pull up the deck.
Forgot to mention that I am running the NECO 17DR8 motor with a Simrad AP22 control panel and and Simrad J300X brain from 2008, not with the original Neco Control box.
Overhaul of Neco 17DR8
NECO 17DR8 gets an overhaul in Cartagena, Colombia.
The motor’s movement was getting a bit ‘sticky’, the relays and supply all seemed fine, so we investigated the motor itself.
In case you were wondering what goes on inside one of these motors, after 49 years….
Changed the coil, the bearings, and the brushes, and the retainers. General clean up and repaint.
I haven’t had the bill, yet but am assured it is many hours work. Something to do in a country like Colombia where technicians are used to repairing things (and labour costs are relatively low).I have more images if anyone is interested, but can’t be added here.
Hi All, I am servicing my NECO 17DR8 motor here in Colombia, and wondered if anyone knows what grade of oil should go in it. The manual says Castrol Magna. The modern version of that states that “Castrol Magna lubricating oils are suitable for a variety of applications such as the lubrication of bearings, spindles and, using the heavier viscosity grades, moderately loaded gearboxes.
Therefore the modern Magna ISO 220 (their heavier grade) would be an SAE 50 in crankcase oil, or an SAE 90 in gearbox oil terms.
So am thinking go for any SAE 90 gearbox mineral oil?
Any pointers from those engineers amongst you?
Thanks so much,
Duncan
You can search under topics or keywords within any facebook page, it works reasonably well, but it won’t ever be what this forum is… a godsend!
I have an original Perkins 4108 with front end Bowmans heat exchanger on Czarina Blue.
I have just replaced my mounts since one had sheared, the one below the raw water exhaust elbow, possibly due to corrosion of the engine foot there from drips from that elbow periodically. The lower lock nut was now above the foot plate due to a rusted hole in the plate! Two of the other feet had to be repaired, re-welded and straightened, I guess the engine had started to dance around a bit. Also the mechanic noticed that the starboard engine fibreglass bed was flexing slightly so he bolted in a rigid steel plate on that side.
All this possibly aggravated by a very worn prop shaft bearing.
Thanks to Rainshadow for their blog on all this. Often useful.
For me it is perfect in so many ways. And in the ways it isn’t , I put up with it. For me the big negative is that I spend too much of my life stooped. I am 6’2″, or I was before I started living aboard! If they built this boat 15% bigger in every dimension then it would have been a really amazing boat. I can only stand up straight in the cockpit, on deck and below the saloon hatch.
eg sleeping: My feet are in the sail locker in the v berth, in the aft cabin I must sleep diagonally in the small double to be able to stretch out. So apart from it being built for medieval humans, it is perfect.. Bags of class, character, beauty and sails like a dream, rock solid.
I met a bunch of other sailors who would have loved to own one, but it was ‘too small’. But for a couple, esp a compact couple, it is great.
Just wanted to see if anyone had updates to offer this thread?
I am thinking to install a water maker for Pacific cruising and general live aboard ease. I have narrowed it down to Katadyn PowerSurvivor 40E but which seems to be a bit on the low capacity side, and the Schenker Zen30 which is latest technology, 30 litres/ hour and more expensive, around £4000 all bits included…
Has anyone found a good spot to install one other than in the converted aft heads? I do not have an aft head on my boat. But that cabin is mainly storage so in terms of noise it perhaps makes sense to have it there. However it’s a long way from my toilet /galley sink seawater inlet, but not so far from the engine raw water inlet.
Any thoughts?
Czarina Blue has two 10 mm lines running through the base of the starboard side of the windscreen, going through their individual clutches to a single small Anderson winch. The clutches are mounted offset 14 to 20 cms behind the inside screen base. and the winch right back almost touching the teak fiddle at the aft edge of the shelf. The screen-base holes are drilled so that they come out just above the interior surface of the dashboard (which the clutches sit on). On the outside of the windscreen base the bottom of the holes stop about 1 cm above the cabin roof. The person who did it has sealed in some oblique-cut grey plastic piping into the interior of the aperture for the rope to rub against. I can send photos if that helps. The use of line-feeders and stand-up blocks on the cabin top further forward may be necessary to get a good lead to the holes, depending on where your lines are fed from. I have never noticed any water ingress through the holes, but have not had green water over (!) and anyway it would likely run down the side of the sloping shelf inside and into the cockpit seat drain.
When I bought the boat the two lines running to the cockpit were the mainsail boom furler and the main halyard. However I have switched to slab reefing when renewing the sail. So now I have in the cockpit my topping lift (adjusted first and last before going forward to make a reef at the mast), and my cruising chute downhaul so I can adjust it from the cockpit (it runs forward all the way to a block at the base of the forestay, but is not permanently rigged). I do all my mainsail work at the mast now.
I copied Peter Needham of S/Y Salara’s main mast set-up (he also single-hands with a slab-reefed mainsail): two clutches on the starboard main boom near the gooseneck act as stoppers for the two mainsail reefing lines ( which I can tension on the starboard mast winch OK). A single clutch is mounted a couple of feet above the starboard mast winch for the mainsail halyard so that that single mast winch can work alternately for the reefs / halyard.
I clip on at the mast and in bouncy conditions I spread my (long) legs and jam my feet against the inside of the cabin top handrails. If I slip, I’m suspended from my harness which is clipped on to the poling out eye above me. It works well for me.
Czarina Blue has a Hydrovane. Installed it in 2019 and it worked perfectly from day 1, have used up to force 7 without missing a beat. I bought their adjustable vane (for ketch) but it doesn’t adjust low enough to avoid the mizzen boom when coming across, so have to remove it to tack with mizzen. However otherwise really impressed. On our transatlantic we had one broach in two weeks whilst it was steering, during a gust over 35 knots and reasonably large seas. Generally I’d leave it quite happily and go to bed, as Salara says above. No control lines to worry about, has its own rudder, which could be useful if you suffered damage to main rudder, and works great with a simple tiller pilot in lighter cones or motoring. Expensive I thought until I saw the heavy build and quality of the thing, now ‘worth every penny’.
