Conalls boat

Delfin · Aug 1, 2014

Congratulations, Conall! Long time coming, I know.

Regarding the keel circulation, I would not mess around with anything but a really proper solution. Hopefully it is just an air lock, but if it were, it seems to me the only place that should affect things is if the lock was right at the pump. Otherwise, why would it not eventually purge itself? And the idea that the circ pump on the engine can't manage the lift doesn't make much sense to me either. I forget what engine you have, but surely the OEM water pump would be sufficient to move coolant through a closed loop? What the manufacturer say? The reason I would be very careful here is that diesels can be damaged by overheating before they even register on the gauge as having a problem. That is the point of a Murphy switch on the coolant tank - it lets you know that coolant is low due to a leak. By the time the temperature gauge gets the memo, you can already have done some damage, hence my concern.

Xsbank · Aug 1, 2014

Conall, my engine/keel cooler combo does not have an extra pump. I think you need to burp the cooler. When I changed out my coolant (about 200 litres) I could not get the same amount of coolant back in. Months later I still have to add some after the engine cools but there is no evidence of any air in there. You will also likely find that the cooler is very efficient and even after a long run the coolant outside the engine will only be warm. I can't remember if your keel cooler is inside the keel or outside? I think the thermostat(s - the Cummins has 2) get a good workout with a keel cooler...

Congratulations on the launch! Frustrating to get damage before she splashes but she finally floats! Lovely boat!

dannc · Aug 1, 2014

Excellent! It must feel really good to get that boat in the water and moving after all the time, work and money you have put in her.

Later,
Dan

CPseudonym · Aug 1, 2014

Congratulations

By my count that makes 3 freshly minted boats launched by members in the last month! Twistedtree, Portuguese, and now yours! Did I miss anyone??

Awesome stuff!!

6-Pack · Aug 3, 2014

Thanks for the pics! I had fun showing my kids the ballast fire

Conall63 · Aug 3, 2014

Thanks for all the recognition,and I sure do appreciate it from all those who on this forum. We spent the weekend on board her so I've not been by a computer for a few days. I got a lot of nickel and dime issues resolved, which was a fair amount of work.

Air lock is a strange thing, and I've seen my fair share of it with various types of pumps and plumbing. The keel cooler is 6" channel external. There's three 20' runs of channel, and with the way I have it manifolded, it's a single pass system. There is a grade change on the cooler as it follows the curve of the hull along with a manifold on each end. The transmission cooler is also tied in to the main engine keel cooler so lots of areas to trap air. My big error was that I made no provisions in the cooling circuit to purge any air. So Monday after work, I'm going to add two 1 1/2 x 3/4" "T's" and purge the system by slowly pumping in coolant. I'll first purge the transmission cooler as it's lower, then the cooler inlets/outlets off of the header tank, then the header tank. Once I have a good stream off coolant flowing, I'll stop the pump and re connect the lines. I'm guessing I'll run her under a load tied to the dock for an hour and see how she does. If that test works OK, I'll take her out and open it up.

I have to eliminate air lock before I can even think about a pump issue. The owners of the mechanic shop that work on my heavy equipment were out on their boat today and stopped by to have a look at my build as they've never seen her in person. As we were sitting in the engine room talking about the cooler issue, they seemed pretty sure that an air lock was problem. They also mentioned that on some complex cooling systems on heavy duty trucks, it's a factory spec that cooling systems be filled with vacuum pumps to guarantee all air is removed.

The other issue I have is regarding my PYI drippless shaft seal. I was under the impression that because of my slow turning shaft, all I had to do was have the seal vented to atmosphere. The mechanics at the boat yard said I should be pumping water in to the shaft seal, which will ultimately help my bearing at the stern tube. I've not talked to PYI about this. Can anyone offer advice to this issue? If I need to be injecting water, what/who's 12v pump should I be using that's rated continuous? I will say that the PYI seal has not leaked a drop, so I'm pretty happy about that so far.

Cheers,

Conall

Delfin · Aug 4, 2014

Conall63 said:
Thanks for all the recognition,and I sure do appreciate it from all those who on this forum. We spent the weekend on board her so I've not been by a computer for a few days. I got a lot of nickel and dime issues resolved, which was a fair amount of work.

Air lock is a strange thing, and I've seen my fair share of it with various types of pumps and plumbing. The keel cooler is 6" channel external. There's three 20' runs of channel, and with the way I have it manifolded, it's a single pass system. There is a grade change on the cooler as it follows the curve of the hull along with a manifold on each end. The transmission cooler is also tied in to the main engine keel cooler so lots of areas to trap air. My big error was that I made no provisions in the cooling circuit to purge any air. So Monday after work, I'm going to add two 1 1/2 x 3/4" "T's" and purge the system by slowly pumping in coolant. I'll first purge the transmission cooler as it's lower, then the cooler inlets/outlets off of the header tank, then the header tank. Once I have a good stream off coolant flowing, I'll stop the pump and re connect the lines. I'm guessing I'll run her under a load tied to the dock for an hour and see how she does. If that test works OK, I'll take her out and open it up.

I have to eliminate air lock before I can even think about a pump issue. The owners of the mechanic shop that work on my heavy equipment were out on their boat today and stopped by to have a look at my build as they've never seen her in person. As we were sitting in the engine room talking about the cooler issue, they seemed pretty sure that an air lock was problem. They also mentioned that on some complex cooling systems on heavy duty trucks, it's a factory spec that cooling systems be filled with vacuum pumps to guarantee all air is removed.

The other issue I have is regarding my PYI drippless shaft seal. I was under the impression that because of my slow turning shaft, all I had to do was have the seal vented to atmosphere. The mechanics at the boat yard said I should be pumping water in to the shaft seal, which will ultimately help my bearing at the stern tube. I've not talked to PYI about this. Can anyone offer advice to this issue? If I need to be injecting water, what/who's 12v pump should I be using that's rated continuous? I will say that the PYI seal has not leaked a drop, so I'm pretty happy about that so far.

Cheers,

Conall

Never pumped any water in mine, and it has worked fine for 6 years.

Rogerh · Aug 4, 2014

I know on sailboats the PYI seal often is not injected but I would definately find out direct from PYI what RPM it starts to need injection. On our MY the injection is fed with a tap from the engine raw water pump output line. Good luck.....

AusCan · Aug 4, 2014

Well Done Conall. It must be quite a feeling.
Buying an old used boat is quite a buzz; You must have been ecstatic launching the project of a lifetime. Congratulations!

Are there any obvious high points where your coolant lines would collect air where you could fit a bleed off valve?

You may have already tried this, but you could do a simple pressure test, by pumping coolant into the closed loop and closely watching the pressure gauge. If you have a noticeable pressure increase after a small amount of coolant pumped (maybe one cup), an air lock is not your problem. The slower the pressure buildup, the more (compressible) air you have in the system.

If there is air in a high point that can't be bled, the only thing I can suggest would be hooking up a high rate pump to to your circuit with the engine bypassed and an air collection vessel with bleed valve at the high point in the line.

You could get the boatyard to pick up the stern to move any air in the bow end of your circuit, but you've probably had enough fun in the slings.

So - are you happy with how she lays in the water, or will you add a bit of ballast in the bow?

Conall63 · Aug 4, 2014

I'm light on ballast in the bow. The naval architect is waiting on information from me to see how light on ballast we are. I'd like her down five inches or so. As per design, she needs 2000 lbs more ballast.

Conall

Conall63 · Aug 8, 2014

Purging the air out if the keel cooling system seemed to do the trick as she's been running @ 185.

We started a shake down cruise today and ran 70 miles to a favorite Anchorage in Manchester Ohio. I ran her @ 1700 getting about 7 knots headed up river. We ran all day and saw the engine room temperature get to 110. The genset was also running but its water cooled unlike our dry exhaust keel cooled main engine. The outside air temperature was 82.

I think I'm slightly under pitched. We're turning a 30 x 18.

Cheers

Conall

Conall63 · Nov 10, 2014

It's been a while since I've posted about my boat build so I thought an updated was in order.

After a short season of three months in the water, I hauled out for the winter. Being the first season in the water, I wanted to get a look at the bottom to see if I had any catastrophic problems developing. I was happy to see no sign of electrolysis on the bottom and the anodes showed normal consumption. The barrier paint looked good and the only real coating issue was were I did not get a good enough scuff in a few areas on the barrier coat to give the anti foul enough tooth to stay put. Some of the anti foul was blow off by the power washer on haul out so I plan on spot sanding and re coating those areas for next season.

She's is trimmed bow up and needs another 1500 lbs of lead to level her up. She also is down aft by four inches, so I'm going to raise the water line accordingly.

I'm getting a high pitched noise at certain RPM that's sounded like it was originating from the cutlass bearing. After hauling out and looking at the cutlass, there's no reason it should be singing. The tube was machined round, and the fit, along with alignment, was dead nut. The harmonic sound is between 1100 and 1650 RPM. The prop is a four blade, 30 x 18, Chinese import. I'm pretty sure I'm experiencing what some call prop sing. I'm going to pull the prop and bring it to a good shop to have it evaluated and see what I actually have... possibly a future Ebay item or a spare.

My projects for the winter are to get the air conditioners up and running, install the mast and boom so we can hoist our dingy to the roof, fabricate handrails for the roof, and complete the hydraulic system. It's a pretty long list that's going to be tough to get finished since I've promised the wife quite a few projects to be completed on the house.

The trip to the haul out yard was done with my 17 year old daughter on the last day of October that turned into on of those days I'll always remember for the trip and the weather. We were running at 1700 RPM seeing 8.5 to 9 knots burning about 3 gph. ( down bound on the river). Here's a youtube video of our cruise. Last cruise 2014 - YouTube

Capt. Andrew, the ceramic insulation wrap on the dry exhaust worked good, and the highest engine room temperature we saw this summer was 110 F.

We put about 70 hours on the engine and 100 hours on the generator.

Conall
Conall's Boat Build

CPseudonym · Nov 10, 2014

Looking great! What a feeling of accomplishment you must have.

dhmeissner · Nov 10, 2014

Fantastic, thanks for the YouTube link. Looking good, I wish I had the energy to build a boat like that!!

healhustler · Nov 10, 2014

She sure is a beauty, as is the young Captain at the helm!

Conall63 · Feb 8, 2015

It's been long overdue, so I've been painting and doing some other things on our house too keep the peace, and not much has been done on the boat this winter.

We're planning on taking the boat to Kentucky lake for two weeks this summer, and also want to move her to somewhere around Destin for next Winter. I don't want to do these two trips without a dinghy, and I've always had plans to hoist the dinghy to the roof so I got started on building the mast.

The mast is 6" aluminum pipe and the boom is 4" aluminum pipe. The mast is deck stepped and stayed with 1/4" cable. I"m using small electric winches to hoist the load and the boom. The mast will also have our radar dome, navigation and anchor light, and two work lights for working at night. Later on down the road, I'll be adding a steadying sail and poles for a paravane steadying rig to help stabilize when we do off shore passages.

I've got to decide how I"m going to charge the battery for the winches. My choices are a solar charger, or running AC wire to the battery box and have a small dedicated AC charger in the box, or have a dedicated charger in the wheel house and run heavy wires to the roof top battery. I'm leaning toward a solar charger with the box lid being used to hold the solar panel.

This project's about 90% complete as I still have to finish the wiring.

The next job is going to be fabricating some handrails for the roof deck. Kayaks, bikes, and some chairs will be lashed to the hand rail. I'm not so sure I'm going to like the look of handrails, but they are needed to make things more safe and functional.

If you visit my blog, you'll notice the nasty 2x6 I used for a temporary mast to hold our navigation light last season. The new design is a fuzz more robust.

. This was a fairly big project, and I've got over a month working on it. There's more detail at the blog.

Conall
www.conallsboatbuild.blogspot.com

cardude01 · Feb 8, 2015

Very nice. Wish I had your skills, or really just 50% of your skills.

Rsysol · Feb 8, 2015

Conall,

I followed your blog for some time up to the launch, a really beautiful boat. I am a bit biased as we own a similar designed steel trawler including the green hull.

Is your blog still available? I'm sure many would like to see the progress from start to finish.

Conall63 · Feb 8, 2015

Appreciated cardude and Rsysol.

My blog is still active: Conall's Boat Build

I too followed your boat rysol on Yachtsmiths webpage. You're paint scheme is perfect.

Conall
Conall's Boat Build

CPseudonym · Feb 8, 2015

I love your boat and blog. About once a year I consider following your path then realize I lack the time to dedicate to something similar. Well done on the mast.

healhustler · Feb 8, 2015

That's a no-compromise mast for sure! Great job!

Conall63 · Feb 9, 2015

Thanks Larry,

Do you have solar panels on your wheel house roof?

I talked to the designer when framing the boat as how to reinforce the framing for a deck stepped mast. Looking at others who have mast such as Carquinez Coot, Koala, and others, I came up with some dimensions. Overall height is 20', with the boom being 5' off of the deck. I wasn't sure about how high to have the boom off the deck, but 5' seemed reasonably out of the way. The boom is 14' long. I didn't think about welding bits on the roof for warpping a line to controll the swing of the load, so I have to burn some paint and get those welded in place. The roof overhangs the cabin sides by six inches, so I can weld the bits in at that location and not threaten the paint or spray foam insulation in the cabin ceiling.

Conall
Conall's Boat Build

Conalls boat

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