Ariosa, my comments.

Betsy Kimmel drove down from Philadelphia to learn engines and get some practical experience on diesels. Betsy is working on her “First Mate” qualification with a sailing club I am a member of, “Singles on Sailboats”. So Betsy started by working on a low oil pressure alarm switch. I handed her the manual and told her the indications and let Betsy work through figuring out what the actual failure was. She diagnosed the issues and used the manual to isolate it to the alarm sender switch on the engine… Betsy then had to find the switch on the engine, remove it and then I handed her the replacement. She installed the new switch and we tested the system to make sure it was fixed.

We went over the engine cooling water systems for Ariosa, with her reading the manual and finding each part on the engine. We covered the complete systems, explaining each part. We then went over the engine oil systems and the fuel oil systems the same way.  Betsy then changed the oil and oil filter.                

             She then checked the oil level and started the engine to ensure nothing was leaking.  We went over the fuel system in great detail, talking and walking through the system from tank shut off valve, to “Racor” pre-filter, low pressure fuel feed pump, high pressure gear driven piston injector pump, governor assembly, engine throttle, stop and transmission shift cable. Betsy then went on to check the fuel system and change the fuel filter. She then manually pumped the low pressure feed pump with the filter bleed open until we had a solid fuel system. 

We finished by closing everything back up after a 20 minute test run to ensure the fuel system had a “solid” fuel rack. The day finished with dinner and drinks at the club on the patio….  Sunday morning’s lessons started on the battery system, finding isolation switches, going over the charging system belt replacement, pulling out the spare starter and walking through the starter. We took the pictorials in the manual and I demonstrated how each part worked. We discussed and Betsy found the starter, the starter solenoid, the auxiliary starting relay. Betsy was the quizzed on all the engine system, having to show each system, and point to the parts while describing the function. 

We will clean up the boat and take it out for some boat handling training now that the weather has closed in and it makes it more difficult.      

Finally got around to all those projects that had not yet been done. US Spars finally got their act together and sent me all of the parts I ordered. The new operator / office assistant is really a Bain to customer service. I had always had great service until this order. I will now be looking at other manufacturers parts when doing my upgrade. It took 3 weeks and 6 hours on the phone to get the parts and I still don’t have the last invoice. I have finally installed a rigid boom vang and I am still undecided if it was worth the $500 it cost for all the parts. It is in and the old vang is in the locker. It was relatively easy to install, I already had the correct parts for the bottom of the vang but needed to mount the parts at the top. So Saturday it was some hand drilling with a brace and bit. The old parts came off and the new parts pop riveted into place. 

I will post a picture of the new vang soon.   

I finally replaced the locking intermediate pin in the helm lock today. It was missing when I bought the boat several years ago. I have been happy with just using the auto helm for the last several years. Now I seem to sail more solo and I work the boat better to set it up with the wind, balancing it to sail with a zero rudder angle. I am sure there is a great weather helm term for this, but a simple sailor it’s just zero rudder.
So off came the wheel and the key for the shaft. I took out the four Allen bolts holding the locking mechanism and took it done below to measure and fix it. The knob and locking screw is held in place by a small Allen bolt on the back side of the mechanism. I removed the small retaining screw and then back out the locking screw. A couple of quick measurements later the Dremel and I went to work cutting the shouldered area off a clevis pin that was the right diameter to fit in the lock.
A small bit of cleaning and the whole thing was ready for reassembly. It went together the first time and was mounted and the job cleaned up in a flash.

Replaced old and or broken chains

Finally got around to checking the squealing belt alignment problem. Installed a new 10mm bolt and adjusted tension. So far so good.

Starter replaced after a Sunday Monring no-start. Replaced with Spare. Old starter, rebuilt with new parts and returned to spares.

Finally removed and rebedded the overhead port, sealed the acrylic into the frame again. Finally the port does not leak!!!

Started seeing a drip during winter engine runs, so I started looking of the leak. Replaced the aft hoses on the transmission cooler, but still had a leak. Found a pin hole leak in the aft 40mm freeze plug on the inboard side. Attempted to pop out the plug and replace it while the manifold was on the engine. Could not get the new plug to seat correctly. Removed the manifold, removed all the freeze plugs, hot tanked the unit, and then replaced the plugs. Drilled out a broken exhaust elbow stud. Reassembled and remounted it to the engine. Replaced several other hoses, and tested. No leaks and the engine runs cooler now that the heat exchanger has been cleaned. 

Students…….

Never try and teach a pig to sing, it annoys the pig and wastes your time…..

Sometimes I forget things like this myself. I like to teach so sometimes I try to teach “People” to sail who want to sail but have no aptitude for it. It becomes like teaching a “Pig to Sing”, it becomes a waste of time. Even those people that we all have in our life that we would do anything for, may not be a person who can sail. It then becomes annoying, and sometimes dangerous to have a person like this on the boat. They will try to do things to prove they can, forgetting the simplest tasks the moment they have completed them. The next day they will attempt to perform the same task, something as simple as letting a line out on a winch….by cranking the handle.