Mainship Quality Control

[Jgutten]

The folks who built the Mainship must really have been "out to lunch" when it came to quality control. In my MS 400, Hull No. 222, when they put the deck onto the hull, they pinched the discharge hose from the head to the tank and the ventilation hoses from the forward AC to the head and second berth.

In the case of the discharge hose, they just cut it off, filled with effluent, and put a wooden plug in both ends. It ended up permeating everything it touched. I've changed all hoses to correct their poor quality.

I changed the ventilation hoses and you can't believe the difference. I now get lots of air blowing into the head and second berth.

I can't believe that my boat is the only one with this problem. Look around on your Mainship. You might have the same problems. Picture attached of the pinched ventilation hose.

Jeffrey F. Guttenberger
R Time
2005 Mainship 400

 

[smitty477]

Hello Jeffrey
Sorry to hear about your boat. Have you owned the boat since new and what year did you discover this problem?

 

[Jgutten]

Mainship quality control

I purchased the boat in September, 2017. The survey revealed nothing but after wondering what the smell was, I discovered the cut off sanitation hose. I then started looking at other areas and found the pinched and smashed ventilation hoses. Here's another example.

 

[Jgutten]

Picture

Here's the picture.

 

[porman]

On our 430 the ventilation duct for the aft cabin was never installed. The vent was there, but the AC unit just blew into the closet. It was caught on the survey. Apparently the two previous owners didn't care about the lack of cold air in the aft cabin. Then again, we're in the PNW where it seldom gets hot enough to need AC. One interesting thing is, underneath the head of the aft cabin bed, which sits crossways in the cabin (head of the bed is on the port side), there seems to be a large unused space. There is storage under the middle and at the foot of the bed, but the head of the bed is closed off with no removable panels. One of these days I'm going to drill a small hole and stick a camera through.

 

[LongJohn]

Several issues on my 2005 34T: serious shower plumbing leak to bilge, isolation transformers improperly wired (no ground), bilge pumps not placed in lowest collection areas, flybridge deck penetrations not sealed, refrigerator compartment not vented, poor windlass configuration, other smaller things. Most annoying are the poor design ideas that essentially prevent maintenance on equipment that WILL fail. Is the MS worse than other affordable builds? Probably not significantly.

 

[Jgutten]

From what I've experienced so far, I think Mainship decided to cheapen the boat to hold down the price. My dock friend has a 2004 MS 400. I've got a 2005 MS 400 and in one year, they made changes that would hold the price down. Things like teak floors and better doors.

Jeffrey Guttenberger

 

[Dougcole]

The teak floors were an option on the 400, your boat was probably ordered without them. Now the other stuff? No excuse.

I'm going to check my ventilation hoses. Where exactly did you find the pinch and how did you fix it?

Thanks,
Doug

 

[jimL]

Poorman, I have noticed the same potential dead space. It seems there may be a bunch of storage space to the port side of the aft cabin, under the port side stairs.

Jim

 

[jimL]

Our 2004 MS 430 aft cabin trawler has Berber carpet as the salon floor vs teak or holly or fabricated flooring. This could have been a value engineering decision. I would have preferred a wood or wood look alike flooring. I'll have to replace the carpet in a year or two. Although it does help with the "comfy index" and it may help with the sound from the ER.

Jim

 

[porman]

jimL, we have the wood flooring in the salon. In the cold weather we cover it with several carpet runners from Costco. Previous owner had a large sound deadening pad under a large carpet. After pulling that out, the sound level was not too bad. Less than in our previous boat, a Camano Troll with carpeted floors.

 

[Jgutten]

Dougcole, the sanitation hoses were pinched under the floor in the head. Very inaccessible. We had to put a pie hole in to cut it out.

The ventilation hoses also are inaccessible. You have to disassemble the forward closets to view the vent hoses. Both of mine, starboard side to the head, and port side to both salons, were pinched and restricted the airflow.

Jeffrey Guttenberger

 

[Bacchus]

Not familiar w the 400s but problem w the AC supply duct in salon is common on the 34Ts /HTs. The duct runs up inside a chase to ceiling distribution plenum on the aft port side. Problem is it wasn't connected on many... mine included... so air doesn't all get to the plenum.
I was able to remove the port side stereo speaker and work thru the hole to add a plastic flange and some duct tape to help w a good connection.

'08 MS 34HT
"Bacchus"

 

[Dougcole]

Dougcole, the sanitation hoses were pinched under the floor in the head. Very inaccessible. We had to put a pie hole in to cut it out.

The ventilation hoses also are inaccessible. You have to disassemble the forward closets to view the vent hoses. Both of mine, starboard side to the head, and port side to both salons, were pinched and restricted the airflow.

Jeffrey Guttenberger

Thanks for your reply Jeffrey. When you say disassemble, do you mean taking the entire closet apart, or opening up the panel inside the closet?

 

[Jgutten]

You remove the panels from the closet but to free up the vent hoses, you need to get a reciprocating saw to open up the hole through which the hose goes.

 

[Dougcole]

Thanks Jeffery, I have one of those .

 

[porman]

If the closets in a 400 are anything like our 430, they are a jigsaw puzzle. One piece has to be removed before you can take the second piece out, and so on. For me, the area I needed to get to was always the last piece of the puzzle. It helps to number them and put arrows for fore/aft and port/stbd.

 

[Mrwesson]

To be fair alot can happen in 12 years of ownership before you get the boat.

Are you sure the previous owner didn't run it?

Most likely a Mainship oversight but just worth saying. I've cobbled things together on my boats over the years.