The Haul-out

So its been a little over two years since our last haulout.
No real surprises coming out of the water. We lost a little paint around the anodes (we are slightly over-protected with zincs), and the prop had quite a bit of calcified growth, and a nice colony of mussels on the keel cooler. We designed a big margin on the keel cooler to allow for warmer water and marine growth. Was nice to see that the engine cooling system was still performing great, even with all the growth that we had on the cooler.

We got right to work installing the thruster tube. The bow thruster tube is a section of 12" schedule 40 steel pipe, about 3/8" wall thickness. Plenty strong. Here's some of the work cutting in the holes for the pipe.

Once the fit-up was good, the tube was scribed and cut to match the hull plating. We added doubler plates and a couple of bolt on steel bars on each side of the tunnel to keep big debris out of the tunnel.

The controller went right between the tiller and the engine controls. It looks a little tight in the pics, but is very ergonomic, and allows for easy control of the rudder and bow thruster with one hand.

A great tool for this kind of work:

The cat wasn't much help:

I spent the second weekend at the shipyard cleaning and painting the inside of the forepeak, then installing the gear leg (the part that connects the motor to the counter-rotating props), and hooking everything up: hoses, wiring, directional control valve, gear oil reservoir, etc.

The finished product:

I got my hands on a "corrosion meter", which measures the effectiveness of the zinc anodes protecting the hull, and tells you if  all the underwater metals are properly protected by the anodes.

Required a 1/2" hole in the hull for the reference anode and a couple of wires to hook up:

Decided to try Propspeed coating on the propeller to cut down on some of the growth between haulouts. Also added a nasty looking serrated line cutter to the shaft:

Back in the water:

The bow thruster worked right out of the travel lift- no issues, plenty of power, and a huge improvement in close-quarters maneuverability.

Hooking up the hydraulics

Kind of light on the pictures, but just prior to hauling out we got most of the hydraulic plumbing in place up to the forward bulkhead where the bow thruster is going. This included three more lines from engine room to bow (supply, return, and case drain from the thruster motor- more on that later).
There was also a lot of engine room hoses to make and install. I used a hydraulic fitting crimper to make all the hoses in the shop at work:

Then a weekend installing everything:

Snaking new hoses through the boat to the bow:

Reworking the anchor winch plumbing to work with the new hydraulic pump:

Hooking up all the wiring for the control box:

After all this, I was able to successfully start up the engine and run the pump to set pressures and make sure all the controls for the system work the way they are supposed to. This pump is a beast: 

20+ gpm at 3,000 psi, at engine idle. So far so good. Good pressure, no leaks found, and the anchor winch works. The big test will be running the bow thruster motor after we get it installed at the end of our haulout. Hope to be able to launch the boat with the bow thruster fully functional.

More prep for new hydraulics and bow thruster install

Here are some pics of another weekend of work getting ready for the installation of the new bow thruster and hydraulic system upgrade. In order to get access to weld in the 12” pipe that will become the bow thruster tube, I had to remove some interior interferences in the forepeak. This mostly involved cutting back the decking in a way that would allow access for the work, but could be temporarily re-assembled so we don’t have to live with a big hole in the deck for the next few weeks.

In the engine room, I installed all the hydraulic distribution blocks and other components, including adjustable pressure and flow controls coming off the main pressure output of the pump for the anchor winch. This is so that the high 3000 psi pressure and 20+ gpm flow from the pump (as it is set up for the bow thruster) doesn’t overwhelm the winch motor or any other less demanding loads we attach to the system.

The system of distribution and return blocks make for a neat arrangement with minimum extra fittings, and lots of extra ports for future expansion. In order to fit everything on the bulkhead (including the big cabinet housing the electronics for the hydraulic system), I had to move the fixed fire suppression bottle over a few inches. All the mounted components and distribution blocks are attached to the bulkhead with bolts that are threaded into the aluminum mounting plate from the front, so they are easy to remove if needed.

A few additional hose runs from the engine room to the bow are needed for pressure, return, and case drain lines. New holes are now drilled through the bulkheads and once painted, I will be installing JIC hydraulic bulkhead fittings at these transitions.

 With all the primary pieces installed, I will be measuring (at least twice) and making up the hoses that connect everything together. Cleanliness is critical with hydraulic stuff, so I am doing my best to keep everything clean and capped during the install.

The only hose that does not use a crimped fitting is the supply line from the tank to the pump inlet. This is a monster 2.5” id hose. If they even make crimping dies in this size, we definitely do not have one in our shop. Instead, it will be secured will dual T-clamps at each end. Since this is a low pressure line, that should be more than enough to stay leak free. I was a little worried about fitting up this hose because in this size, the necessary wire reinforced construction to keep from collapsing under suction makes it very inflexible. Fortunately, with a straight flange adapter coming off the bottom of the pump it made a nice easy single curve down and straight back up to meet the tank fitting. Both the supply and case drain fittings at the bottom of the tank have ball valves that will be handy for servicing the system without draining the tank. I like to remove the handles on any valves that are normally open and would cause damage to equipment if accidentally closed when running, so I’m doing that here as well.