1971 Newport 30 Sailboat
With help from my friend Victor, got the Victron components wired up together and tested. All seems to be working fine.
We also got the motor re-mounted and connected to the shaft. There is a pretty significant wobble there so we’ll need to go through the alignment process.
PSS needs to have its bellow replaced every 6 years. The time was up for mine and with motor and batteries removed, I had clear access.
Almost every page of the PSS replacement kit said “do not do this with boat in the water” but plenty of YouTube videos showed that it actually could be done so I decided to use the opportunity.
That task is not for the faint of heart. Water was gushing in and took some time to property secure the new seal. All in all, the task was completed and I learned quite a bit.
All the new components should fit nicely into the engine bay; however, the batteries are longer and I needed to make new supports.
After that was done, I painted engine bay with a fresh coast of EzBilge paint.
In preparation for the new Victron batteries and other components, per plan, I took time to clear out the engine bay. Had to put in a piece of 2×4 to keep PSS bellows pressurized and avoid sinking the boat.
With my friend Viktar helping, I have a second pair of hands to help get up the mast and fix a few things: main sail track, foredeck light, and spreaders. I set up the harness not the main halyard and used spinnaker halyard for a bag of tools & parts and a bucket of soapy water with a sponge.
Task 1 was to just clean the underside of spreaders that have accumulated some green growth
Task 2 was to replace the bulb in the foredeck light. Unfortunately, the bulbs I had in my bag didn’t match the light. Same brand, same model but 10 years difference. Need to order another bulb and get up there again.
Task 3 was to get down the small piece of track at the top of the mast to secure it to the rest of the track. When my rigger installed it originally, he ordered it too short and then proceeded to add a small piece and push it all the way up the mast without connecting them. With full main up and some good wind, that small piece rides up exposing a gap and mainsail cars slip out. After every sail without a reef in, I have to remove and reinstall the mainsail into the track. Royal pain and bad vibes to the rigger.
After getting to the top, I pushed the small piece down and secured both sides with stainless straps. They don’t need to carry lots of load, just to not let that small piece ride back up. Will need to test this out on the next sail.
Continuing to move forward with the instruments plan. Installed a backing board and painted it with basic white bilge paint. Then mounted all the connectors for both the N2K and SeaTalk buses. Started hooking things up and organizing the cabling. Getting there.
In preparation to testing the effectiveness of the new dehumidifier, I want to baseline indoor humidity and temperature in the cabin. Following the plan, I installed the combo sensor from Yacht Devices in the saloon and wired it into the SeaTalk NG bus.
Back in 2018, when we got the freshly painted and updated boom installed, we only added one attachment point for reef lines – just for reef 1
Not sure why we never did the same for reef 2 but it always bugged me that reef 2 line was just tied around the boom. So I finally added a proper attachment point for it as well.
With sewing machine out for the floor runner, took time to finalize the cover for the fireplace vent. I made it a few years ago but ended up with it being too small and useless. The teak base under the vent got pretty weathered so I finally added a wedge into my first take and made that cover fit. Not my best work but does the job.
Continuing to put electronics in place. Removed the dummy plug and installed the actual speed+depth+water temp sensor.
And installed exterior temperature probe into puka.
