Finishing Touches, Final Details

First Stop Bowen Island

Sudbury Saturday Night made a run for Bowen on Friday with the crew enjoying the spring like day.

There was a small chop on the way over and a following sea on the way back to Granville Island, the winds were light outflow from Howe Sound and it was a balmy 11ºc.

SSN handled it all beautifully, a solid smooth ride at 1800 rpm we were clipping along nicely at 12 knots. The return trip was run at 3500 rpm for part of the way and 3200 the last leg from Lighthouse Park, the 318's were pushing us along at 24 knots and 18 respectively. We made the run home in 40 minutes.

Vancouver fades away in the wake. This is one of the nicest views boaters get - leaving Vancouver - ready to explore the coast.

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Bowen Island's Snug Cove, docked at the Union Steamship Companies facilities.

As we pull out heading back to Vancouver the sun is setting on Snug Cove and the ferry is bringing home the commuters from the mainland.

Good to go! SSN Sea trial!

As the final touches are completed on SSN the eagles soar overhead and the seagulls swoop and dive bomb trying to protect their young.

The eagles are in for a feeding. Granville Island's very own Steve Irwin, aka Kevin Adie who run's a salmon charter company feeds all the animals. Seals follow his fish boats in hoping they caught some fish and the guts will go their way. The eagles come in every night around 4 and Kevin is ready with chicken legs.

Four months later, the old gal is ready to go! Well, the new old gal is ready to go!

The engines have new caps, plugs, leads and coils. They have been timed and tuned. New ignition kits installed and new connections to the batteries and the charger have been run. New master battery switches installed and all new 120V wiring from the shore power connector to a new panel and to all appliances.

These are the compression numbers for the starboard engine are all good. It had been grumpy all week as Dr D worked to diagnose why is was running rough. Double checked the firing order, checked the compression, installed new coil, new electronic ignition kit, new plugs, new wires and timing. Still rough sounding with major swings in the advance numbers? Set it and restart the engine and it was way off?

The newly installed electronic ignition kit was a dud. The hours spent looking elsewhere for the problem were frustrating. Doug switched in the old points system underway and the engine ran beautifully.

All the engine mounts have bee removed, re-bedded with epoxy under the wood blocks, aluminum strips added and bolted down. Some mounts had to be replaced, all were made operational. Alignment is now possible whereas before the mounts were all frozen solid with rust unable to be adjusted at all.

A new bilge pump has been installed on an automatic switch as a back-up to the main pump that was found hidden under the old hot water tank, inaccessible to service.

When it comes to wiring it would be difficult to find someone better then Dr D. He does everything with great pride and skill. Where once was a rats nest of wires, some live laying loose in the bilge, Dr D has run new marine grade wires, replaced the old non-ignition protected battery charger with a new gasoline friendly made for this job unit.

A sub-station of fuses protecting all of the equipment in the engine compartment. Having a secondary supply station aft makes running new wires much easier. If you had to run all of this to the new main panel in the galley it would be a lot of extra hours and a lot of extra wire.

A very slick job! The level of difficulty - sorting out what was what, what went where and when, and then running new, eliminating old and making such a neat job of it shows the level of craftsmanship Doug brings to his work. No half measures, no cutting corners with meticulous attention to detail.

Wiring, propane hose replacement - safety first!

The wiring was a nest of wires, some that were still connected and other hot wires sitting in the bilge.

The latest round of work is correcting items on the survey that had not been dealt with by the PO.

The propane set-up was an explosion waiting to happen, with no warning device built in and no fire fighting equipment in the bilge.

New neoprene hoses have been run from the propane locker which is now properly vented, to the oven in one piece, replacing corroded copper tube with hose clamp connections.

It was a good thing to pull out the fridge and oven. There was nothing holding them in place! Just wedged in place.

The old style breaker which was outside in the cockpit, under a spot that was not sealed and subject to drowning in any sort of rain, has been moved inside. A proper breaker panel has been installed and the wiring from the batteries and 120 house side has been completely rewired with marine approved wires and ignition protected battery charger and inverter.

Heavy duty cable has been run for the master switches and parallel switch. The old switches were also in an area prone to getting wet and were moved inside the aft locker for easy access.

Lifesaver and ships bell replaced on the aft deck, close at hand and an orange ring for visibility.