Snapdragon introduction

[Snapdragon III]

Hello all,

My name is Loren, and I have been lurking on and off on here for years, but especially heavily in the last couple months since I purchased our first Trawler. Our last boat was a 25' foot Aluminum fishing boat that we sold a couple years ago. I am very excited to be back out on the water. We Have it Moored in Anacortes, Wa. The boat is capable of much more than we are going to have time for, for the next few years, but we will be making the best of weekends, and our big goal for this summer is to do the outside of Vancouver island.

The Boat

We bought a 1990 Seakeeper 40' that was Built in Ohio by a very short lived company (Marine Aluminum Fabricators). From what I was told they might have made 5 boats? It is aluminum, and a Ted Brewer Design. I am very excited about it. I can see why the company who built it were not a commercial success, they went crazy fabricating stuff from scratch. Including the hydraulic windlasses, door latches, alarm panels, hydraulic dingy lift, custom welded aluminum dingy, etc. According to the previous owners, the boat has done the great loop, Caribbean, Western Mexico, and 8 trips to Alaska.

Things I like.

-Duel Hydraulic windlasses
-Twin 62 hp Yanmars
-Keel cooled (Chambers welded into Aluminum Hull)
-dry stack exhaust
-Sea chest for all salt water inlet, (For shaft seals, fridge condenser, and washdown)
-Hydraulic dingy lift W/ custom plate welded 11' dingy
-Paravane stabilizers
-450 gallons fuel, 300 gallons water
-Twin keels protecting running gear, supposed to be beachable
-Small day tank in pilot house with gravity feed to dual racors, for three engines and heater. Good alarm system and setup should make it easy to avoid ever starving engines of fuel, or feeding them bad fuel.
-Exceptional visibility from pilot house.

Things I don't love
-I wish the topsides were not painted. At 26 years old, it is showing its age, and I am not looking forward to dealing with it.
- The fridge and freezer are engine driven, (off a 7hp pony engine that also drives a high amp alternator, and hydraulic pump.) It works good, but you can't leave the fridge on while the boat is at its dock plugged into shore power.
-The hot water is also off the pony engine, and there is no way to make hot water with shore power
-The shower construction sucks. It has a completely flat floor that does not drain right.
-The swim step is too short to comfortably walk on.
-it is a bit on the loud side. Especially when running the pony engine at anchor for the fridge/hot water. The noise is more annoying when you are not on the move.
-Electronics are all working and fine, but not new and shiny.

 

[AlaskaProf]

I favor the "shippy" look, and adapted commercial designs. This looks like a fine example. Congratulations.

Where do you keep it ?

Bill Butler
MV Seeadler
Tacoma

 

[Snapdragon III]

We Purchased a Condo moorage spot at Anchor Cove Marina in Anacortes.

 

[Cigatoo]

Well Loren it appears that you have a nice boat....along with an accomplished chef!! You and the family will have memorable times on that boat. There will always be things that need improving and adjusting. Part of the fun. Overall it looks like a very nice rig. Take lots of time and get to understand the boat and the the systems. (This is most important) Over time you can change out the things that you would like to improve upon. Take your time and think things through. It appears to be a custom / semi custom design so the challenge might be where to find parts and the like. Remember that behind everything that you don't like someone else had (what they thought) was a good reason to do it that way. Try to look at both sides when evaluating and improving upon a system. Those Yanmar's should be about bullet proof. Getting the painted surfaces in good shape might be an initial challenge however once they are in good shape a coat of paint when necessary is not that daunting. i am not familiar with the 7 hp engine setup that is driving the refrigeration but I like the fact that it is its own seperate system. Is that engine driving a generator (AC voltage) also or just DC. Maybe a good battery charger would solve the dockside power issue. Having a boat that runs strictly on DC is not a bad thing and also safer.

Check into Soundown http://www.soundown.com for the noise issue. You will find them very helpful and once you explain your situation they will make recommendations as to how to bring the noise level down.

A good metal guy should make quick work of adding a foot or so to the swim platform.

Take your time....get things right and enjoy. Best to the chef

 

[Snapdragon III]

The 7 hp "pony" engine set up is unique. I have been crawling through boats at every Seattle boat show for the last 20 years, and I have never seen anything like it. There is and shaft in the middle of the aluminum frame pictured below that is about 3' long. the pony engine is on the right side. It has double v-belt electric clutches at both ends of it that connect it to the starboard main, or the 7 hp pony engine. Only one can be selected at a time. The center of the shaft has 5 double belted pulleys that run the fridge compressor, the freezer compressor, 150 amp alternator, Hydralic pump, and an electric motor that is supposed to be able to turn the shaft with shore power so you can run the fridge at the dock. the compressors, and hydraulic pump have electric clutches on them that engage/disengage the load. The alternator is controlled by the regulator which is controlled at the helm. The electric motor sort of work, but has a hard time starting up. It pulls too much power right at startup and causes the inverter, which the shore power seems to be fed through, to trip off. I have not spent too much time messing with it yet. If I get the whole system spinning, and quickly switch the motor on, then disengage the engine, it work fine. There is no AC generation on the boat, but there isn't much than needs AC, and the large charger/inverter seems to do fine for occasional appliance use. I have spent many hours in the engine room over the last couple months replacing all the belts, replacing all the hoses, Paining the engines which were all rusty and nasty, Changing coolant (14 gallons per engine), had fuel injectors rebuilt,cleaning the bilge etc. It is starting to look pretty sharp down there, and the fuel injector rebuild has them idling much smoother than when I got it.

 

[RT Firefly]

VERY nice!