Maintenance round-up

I’m finally going to get Blue Opal out of Dublin Bay and the surrounds later this year, so it’s time to finish up a bunch of jobs.

The sanitation hose from the toilet to the diverter valve has been replaced. The new hose (HT Sanipomp Extra) has a “vanilla scent”. It’s better than the smell of the Vetus sanitation hose at least, but the real trick is just leaving the head portlight open so that fresh air circulates.

The panelling behind the head is back on. Well, almost. Need to find one bit of wood that helps the top panel join to the rising panel – it’s on board somewhere, I swear. If I can’t find it, a bit of plywood should do the trick; it’s not structural as such, and is in a dry spot. All of the exposed joins between panels have been sealed with some Sikaflex to keep the shower spray away from the exposed plywood edges.

The speed log has been cleaned, but now I need to get some new O rings for it. That’s on the list for tomorrow.

New coolant has been acquired from South Shore Marine in Northern Ireland. Their website has no catalogue, but a Yanmar distributor in the UK pointed me at them, and it just took a phone call to have 10 litres of coolant arriving tomorrow. Next up, draining the existing coolant, flushing the old stuff out, and refilling with new coolant.

The rubber duck was inflated on Saturday, and I’m pretty sure the previous owner never used it, or at least barely used it. The plastic fitting on the oars was out of position though (which I didn’t notice until I was back on board, but I could have paddled), and so that got fixed yesterday with the hot air gun. Simply heated the plastic gently, grabbed it with a cloth, and twisted until the holes aligned.

The outboard also got tested on Saturday. It’s a Honda BF 2D – air-cooled, which makes “bench” testing on the pushpit easy. Works fine out of the water (once you remember to open the fuel valve), but stalls in idle once on the back of the dinghy. I’ll call Evans Marine tomorrow and ask for some advice (and pay for it too) – I’ve already checked the spark plug to be sure (gap is fine), and cleaned the carburettor bowl, but it’s probably a case of the idle loop jet needing a clean. That’ll require some stuff I don’t have to hand, but can probably acquire.

Flares have been renewed, and the life-raft has been serviced and certified.