Re-commissioning and launching

timjet · Apr 4, 2015

I'm new to this. Living most of my life in Florida we've never had to deal with winterizing and re-commission, but we cruised to the Chesapeake last summer and winterized it last October which included shrink wrapping. We have a splash date on April 28th at Herrington Harbour near Deal MD.

Here's my to do list for re-commissioning.
> Remove shrink wrap a week or so before.
> After boat is in the water, reconnect hose to water tank, fill water tank and flush all faucets and showers of pink stuff.
> Disconnect water heater by-pass and reconnect in/out lines to water heater. No pink stuff in heater or water tank.
> Prime air conditioning pump before turning on.
> Engines: oil and filters were changed when winterizing and pink stuff is in raw water cooling circuit. As far as I know nothing else needs to be done, however from previous experience the Cummins diesels will be hard to start not having run for 6 months.

Anything else I need to do and suggestions on getting the engines started??

BlueYonder · Apr 4, 2015

I'm going through the same routine this week across the bay from you.

Good time to replace the raw water impellers (including the genset). They may take a "set" during the winter. Your engine manual may have detailed instructions on the proper way to start after a long layup. My old Yanmar required you to hit the starter while you held the stop button. This would allow oil to pump through the motor without starting it. Some more recent engines (my Cummins QSC is one), will not start until the oil pressure has risen to a minimum level.

If you haven't been on a charger this winter, you might test the batteries to ensure they are still ok.

If you have a dripless shaft seal, make sure you "burp" it after the boat goes in the water.

Have fun

BandB · Apr 4, 2015

timjet said:
I'm new to this. Living most of my life in Florida we've never had to deal with winterizing and re-commission, but we cruised to the Chesapeake last summer and winterized it last October which included shrink wrapping. We have a splash date on April 28th at Herrington Harbour near Deal MD.

Here's my to do list for re-commissioning.
> Remove shrink wrap a week or so before.
> After boat is in the water, reconnect hose to water tank, fill water tank and flush all faucets and showers of pink stuff.
> Disconnect water heater by-pass and reconnect in/out lines to water heater. No pink stuff in heater or water tank.
> Prime air conditioning pump before turning on.
> Engines: oil and filters were changed when winterizing and pink stuff is in raw water cooling circuit. As far as I know nothing else needs to be done, however from previous experience the Cummins diesels will be hard to start not having run for 6 months.

Anything else I need to do and suggestions on getting the engines started??

Did you winterize it or have it done by the yard? I always recommend the same person de-winterize as the one who winterized and often its part of a package deal. Reason is they know exactly what they did. Otherwise I'd be sure to have a list of what was done to double check.

Batteries are the one item I see not mentioned and they're often the point of weakness.

timjet · Apr 4, 2015

I did all the winterizing with my wife's help. She was against it but I had to save the money.
I think I've covered everything that needs to be done. Hoping that someone with more experience can suggest something I missed.

Two batteries are shot and were before I winterized. I checked the boat in November and the remaining 4 were in good shape. I disconnected all the batteries electrically from the boat but kept the house batteries connected in parallel. I will connect the charger when I go next week to check on the boat.

Old deckhand · Apr 4, 2015

I always do an oil change even if it was changed just prior to lay up. Years ago I took a Shell oil class and they demonstrated that the oil becomes a little acidic over lay up and recommend an oil change.

timjet · Apr 4, 2015

BlueYonder said:
I'm going through the same routine this week across the bay from you.

Good time to replace the raw water impellers (including the genset). They may take a "set" during the winter. Your engine manual may have detailed instructions on the proper way to start after a long layup. My old Yanmar required you to hit the starter while you held the stop button. This would allow oil to pump through the motor without starting it. Some more recent engines (my Cummins QSC is one), will not start until the oil pressure has risen to a minimum level.

If you haven't been on a charger this winter, you might test the batteries to ensure they are still ok.

If you have a dripless shaft seal, make sure you "burp" it after the boat goes in the water.

Have fun

All good points. I plan on replacing 2 batts the other 4 are good.

Packing on the shafts have been replaced over the winter and the mechanic says he wants to be there when I splash. He's a little worried the stuffing box nut may not be tight enough.
Good point on the impellers. The Cummins impellers are difficult to get to so I might have the mechanic replace those while were splashing.
Didn't think to look at the engine manual, will do so.

Thanks BlueYonder.

timjet · Apr 4, 2015

Old deckhand said:
I always do an oil change even if it was changed just prior to lay up. Years ago I took a Shell oil class and they demonstrated that the oil becomes a little acidic over lay up and recommend an oil change.

Hmmm.. didn't know that!!

jleonard · Apr 6, 2015

I always turn the engine over for a few seconds with the fuel turned off until the gage starts to register pressure.
I have a "stop" button I can depress on my current boat.
When I had the 6B Cummins, I would pull the connector for the fuel solenoid.
If your Cummins doesn't start right up, you are losing fuel out of you lines someplace. (Possibly your return going into the tank is above the fuel level. )Try going thru the bleeding process first. Good practice for when you need to do it under duress.

bayview · Apr 6, 2015

Cummins recommends periods of cranking with fuel solenoid disconnected to get oil circulating. The fact that yours wont fire right up indicates fuel drain down but the cranking is Ok to get oil flowing. Don't crank more than 30 seconds or so without letting starter cool.
Do not crank generator without starting however as if you have a water lift muffler you will drown it.
Open seacocks!!!!!

Bacchus · Apr 15, 2015

timjet said:
Anything else I need to do and suggestions on getting the engines started??

Tim
The other chore I include is to treat / sanitize fresh water system w/ clorox.
There is another thread that discusses this in detail - concentration - duration - etc. Damp tanks & HWH can "grow" unwanted stuff during the lay-up...
best to do the treatment to start the season... IMHO

timjet · Apr 15, 2015

OK, thanks again everyone. I'm going to read my Cummins manual before starting and will definitely disconnect the fuel start solenoid and crank several seconds to get oil circulating before start, thanks bayview for that tip. Same for the genny.

Changing impellers is a pain on the Cummins engine but will probably attempt myself. I've done it before so I know what a pain it is.

I know how to prime the engines, another good tip, so I'll do that too. Actually I have a squeeze bulb priming system so that makes it very easy.

Water system should not be an issue. I drained as much as I could the water in the tank and filled the supply side with pink stuff, not the hot water heater, I drained that too. A cup of chlorine in the tank and flushed a couple of times should clear out anything that grew in the small amount of water left in the tank or hot water heater.

timjet · Apr 15, 2015

bayview said:
Do not crank generator without starting however as if you have a water lift muffler you will drown it.
Open seacocks!!!!!

OOOPS, just saw that about the genny.

ranger58sb · Apr 16, 2015

timjet said:
Water system should not be an issue. I drained as much as I could the water in the tank and filled the supply side with pink stuff, not the hot water heater, I drained that too. A cup of chlorine in the tank and flushed a couple of times should clear out anything that grew in the small amount of water left in the tank or hot water heater.

Just FYI, you might be surprised at how long it takes for residual pink stuff to finally disappear. Not a real problem, just might seem to you that it's taking forever.

We drain our tanks and use compressed air through the system...then use only about 1-second's worth of pink through the just the filter/pump/accumulator. Even that little amount took me about 15 minutes to get ride of...

-Chris

timjet · Apr 16, 2015

Thanks Chris for the heads up. Having never done this before I'm sure I'm in for a few other surprises. I might wear out the water pump flushing :facepalm:

Re-commissioning and launching

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