Tag: Blue Opal
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Powering up the master bow cabin
One of the things missing from Blue Opal is power in the master cabin. She was built at a time when USB ports were barely a thing, and cigarette socket power was usually provided by the engine (which she has). So, simple project – take advantage of my new-found ability to run power into the…
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Replacing the raw water pump – 1/n
Getting Blue Opal’s water pump off was a bit harder than I expected; the last time I did it, I made sure to grease the threads so that things would move easily. Things did not move easily, and I had to resort to a hammer tapping the spanner to get the bolts to move. I…
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There’s a leak in the water pump, dear Liza
I’ve noticed a little rust mark on the engine pan, right under the raw water pump, for the last while. There’s been the occasional drip, and I was getting ready to take the pump off and check the gasket and impeller as part of the routine maintenance. Last night, as I tidied up from the…
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Replacing a diverter valve
Last weekend, Dad and I spent most of three days taking out the head, and the old hoses, and laying in new Vetus sanitation hose. We hooked everything up, tightened up any jubilee clips where there were leaks, and promptly discovered that the Whale diverter valve had failed. I ordered one from a UK company…
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Adding more wires to the wiring cubby
Blue Opal is a master cabin setup Victoria 34, which means all of her electrical buses (and instruments) sit over a chart table that’s sandwiched between the aft heads and the starboard saloon berth (the wet locker on the other layout isn’t present in this variation, though there’s space in the heads to do so).…
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Solving intermittent SeaTalk failures
Every now and then, Blue Opal’s SeaTalk gear would boot up and display a ST FAIL message on the autopilot control at the pedestal console. I’ve never been able to work out what it was, and the old trick of “turn it off and back on again” would clear the message. This weekend, while fiddling…