the ongoing Prout Quest adventure

[classicone]

What a week. I'm going to complain here, so if you don't want to read a middle aged man rant....change channels!

I cut out the bulkheads in the aft berths. There were rotten and had a really small access holes too. I realized that there was standing water in both "wells" created just forward of the rudders. These wells are on top of the floatation tankage. So where is the drainage holes, I wanted to know. I couldn't find any. I did find lots of mud, wasps and other items not wanted on my boat.

So being the proactive guy, I proceeded to cut access holes into the tankage, finding lots of water in the port side. The starboard side was dry. I have vacuumed 20 gallons of water out. Not sure if there is water still coming in.... Anyone have a seepage problem? Maybe the moisture is just draining from the waterlogged tankage? I worry that there might be some ingress from below the water line. I should know soon enough.... if there is no more water after a couple of weeks, I should be in the clear.

Next to drain the "well" so I don't have more water draining into the tank, I decided to drill a drain hole at the lowest spot in the well, out the inner side of the port hull. So drill through the hull... I did. for far so good. Cleaning up the mess from drilling I removed some more debris and guess what... I found the drain!!! On the far side just forward of the rudder housing is a copper tube that drains the "well". Mine were buried under mud dauber wasps nests, and they were fully closed off with debris. Guess that is a maintenance item that I didn't know about. Note to self, remember to clean out the aft drain.

Looking into the now open tank, I can see the copper tube.... When I know what I'm looking for. I also noticed some green tracing from leakage around the copper tube. I would suppose that this drain would leak too, at some point.

more later

Terry

[classicone]

updates:
the port tank is dry now. has been for two days...no leaks and no seepage...YEA!

My aft rails (pushpit) is starting to look like an antenna farm. gps, XM radio, cellular, and finally a new 8' vhf to do away with the slapping mast mounted vhf. Running the wires has been fun. At least with the aft bulkheads out, I can reach easily into the aft regions and fish the wires around.

My to do list has grown some, but we are getting there. I have a self imposed time limit of October 31 to finish as much of the to do list as I can. We are planning to go sailing for the winter and our slip lease is up then. I may have to move Sunstar 2 to a neighbors dock so she will be a little closer to complete the work.

I guess pictures should be posted.... now if I can remember how to do that! Also the internet has become so poor here... Hours spent with tech services.... glad to be rid of them at the end of the month too.

Terry

[ChrisH]

Terry,
Any chance of pictures to show where you found that 'well' drain please? And any other "place of interest" in your boat. Your story is getting me worried........what is my Quest really like I wonder!

Regards, Chris

[catamariner]

Heck, I'm getting worried and I don't even have a Quest! Keep us updated so we know the wasps haven't got you yet, OK?

[classicone]

So here it is the next week and the tank is still dry! But, it is raining now and I get to view it tomorrow to see how much "drained" and how much made its way into the tank.

The list for this past week. A specially "engineered helm seat. OK OK...I'll take some pictures tomorrow to post. As we all know, the Quest has a very small cockpit area. If you install a permanent cockpit helm (captains seat for the landlubbers among us, like me) there is little seating remaining on the starboard side. So, I designed a sliding "plate" that has the seat post mounted and also another plate without a post mounted. If you just can't wait for my pictures, check out my wifes blog...she is much better at taking pictures along the way. http://www.sunstargazette.blogspot.com

IMG_1546.JPG (20.67 KiB) Viewed 26605 times

That should do it. You can just see the mounting plate the seat is on and the blank plate is up against the cockpit seat back just forward of it.

Anyway, I finally marked that off my to do list. Final paint yesterday, prior to today's rain.

Finished cutting the replacement aft bulkheads for both hulls. Will glass them in later this week, after sealing the "wells" area in both hulls.

Transferred the wiring from the old Searace switchbox to my newfangled circuit breaker box. This is still a work in progress as I am also installing inverter, mains charger, master cut off switches, MUCH larger feed lines, new house batteries and box, etc, etc.... yep.. pictures to follow sometime.

Have had to make 2 hours runs to the supply store... can't wait. The wife is ready to bug out and I'm under the gun time wise. Only problem is that I sometimes STILL forget something that I need to get later, or I purchase the WRONG thing.

Davits are ready to install. Solar panels are still in waiting. Saloon sole it waiting. So is everything else, until the electrical is completed

The wasps are gone for the most part, but the spiders have overrun the marina. Everyone has complained this year. Soft scrub works wonders, but I'm concerned about the gel coat. Just how much scrubbing can it take.

[ChrisH]

Hi Terry, Some questions for you:

Just checked out 'Sunstar Gazette'. The new exhaust bend looks a neat job and the bimini looks good too. Does your exhaust pipe take a trip to the front of the engine room and back again to exhaust through the transom?

Looking closer at the bimini pic I also see new davits fitted, but they don't look like the Plastimo ones you were going to fit. They look as if they don't swivel but do adjust for height of arms above the water and projection over the stern - am I correct? Any probs fitting them, how big a spreader plate did you put underneath, and of what material? The ones I will fit will be Plastimo ones, only ones I could find at a suitable price and I bought them a while back.

Also, it seems as if your drive leg is bolted over a big hole cut in the transom, that right? Our is just bolted to the transom and the only holes are those minimum sized required for the actual drive shaft, steering rod/plate and for the lock release cable.

Good luck with the rest of the refit - it looks as if you are ploughing on.

Chris

[classicone]

Hello Chris and everybody,

Your so right. I remounted the davits that didn't sell.

The first thing we did after purchasing SunStar2, was remove these huge davits. The previous owner had a 10' RIB and 18hp Nissan outboard hanging on the aft. I sold the RIB and the outboard and tried to sell the davits (under the impression that less weight is better, especially on the aft end) but they didn't sell. So I remounted them and hung our hardshell dinghy. I also plan on mounting my solar panels on the top of them.

The framework underneath the aft deck is extensive. There are 4 parallel 2X2 3' to 4' steel angles glued and bolted to the underside. Actually there are currently 3, but I will be replacing the missing one, as I hung over the side today on that side and realized the softness without the last angle. (the angle fell off when I removed the davits and I didn't keep it....I WAS planning on sell them!)

I'm glad someone has looked at the blog. Like I said, my wife is SOO much better at taking the pictures and posting them.

Yes Chris, my exhaust goes forward to the water lift muffler, which sits just forward of the engine, then there is a slight rise and fall and then out the aft end thruhull. And your such an eagle eye!! Now you know why I have asked about outboard powered Quests. It appears that my Quest 31 was originally an outboard powered hull. The opening is trimmed out with teak and everything. It was very obvious that the opening was very large and covered with a thick plate to outfit the Bukh engine and Sillette drive.

I always thought that if the Bukh craps out, I would replace it with an outboard. Although the 10% ethanol gasoline situation in the States has caused many problems to gasoline powered engines...... I do like the economy of the diesel, but I miss the quiet of the new 4 stroke outboards. Our Hirondelle had a Yamaha 9.9 and we could carry on a normal conversation in the cockpit, almost forgot the engine was running at times, especially at idle. And there was NO vibration.....not like the diesels.

And I figured that I would save about 500 lbs removing the Bukh and Sillette drive and replacing it with a 15-20hp outboard. I would miss the high battery charging rate provided by the Bukh. We have a 150 AMP alternator now....an outboard would provide.....10 amps? Would need to buy more solar panels to offset the loss of amperage.

And finally, the cost of the outboard would be about 1/3 the cost of a comparable hp diesel.


So today I finally finished the house and start battery wiring. I replaced our old 2 stage regulator with a new 3 stage digital regulator (Balmar 612) my initial impression is that this thing is awesome. Our old regulator was set too high, but with the new regulator it has so many programs and customizations.... So I also fitted an echo regulator to charge the start batteries (Balmar digital duo). I tested the new equipment today after the install and it all works (and I didn't blow up anything, yea!)

I promise to get some pictures online soon of all of the mods.

My wife has said that her favorite mod is the new saloon floor. I raised it about 4 inches which increases the flat walking area almost double in width. No more waking on the side of your feet, hurting your ankles.

Terry

[ChrisH]

Blooming heck - an 18hp outboard must have weighed a ton hanging over the aft end! We have a 10ft folding rib and a 3.5hp 2st outboard, one of the last to be sold here before the sale of 2st outboards was banned - it's no fun being green! Anyway, total weight is 56lb for the rib and 29lb for the outboard, so that's only 89lbs hanging over the stern, but most times I will have the outboard on its stowage bracket on the rail.

We replaced our old 2 cyl seawater cooled 15hp Yanmar with a 20hp 3 cyl fresh water cooled Beta - its a Kabota engine given a work over and marketed by Beta - which was not only more powerful but also smaller and lighter than the old unit it replaced as a main engine, plus it has an intergal gearbox unlike the unit it replaced,and it runs smooth and sweet as a nut, though not silently! Not sure I like the idea of a petrol main engine, although a load of cats use them. But then everyone else uses bottled gas for cooking and I don't like that either, get a gas leak and the chances are that things could too easily go boom, we use a spirit stove and oven. We have a 65amp alternator on the engine, a baby compared to your 150 amp unit, but we do have an intelligent alternator regulator , a Stirling Power Products one, and an Ampair 100 wind generator which is a serious windy gennie, not a toy!

I also raised the saloon floor about 3 inches for the same reason you did and like you found, what a difference it made.

Eagle eyed I may be, but I love to see how other folks do stuff, gives me ideas!

Chris