Coolant Leak Detection. When trying to track down a coolant leak , go to an automotive store and get UV dye and light kit. Put the UV dye in your radiator and run the engine for a while. You can track down where it's leaking with the UV light. The leaking fluid will glow. You'd be surprised at where you'll find the leaks. I found some leaks on my coolant system at the water heater and not the engine. Never would have found the leaks without the dye. Keep up the great work my friend! We'll see you on the high seas this summer!
it's a bit tricky for me to run the engine on the hard during winter (no water source for cooling) so I may have to wait until it warms up a bit to run a hose + adapter to my raw water strainer and test it out. I did buy the UV test kit though so I'm right there with you... Thanks very much for the tips, James!!
For thru deck bolts: Use a counter-sink drill bit and it makes a gap around the bolt that the bedding will seal around the thread instead of being squeezed out of the plate and less likely to leak again. Lots of those to do...
Gigantic hint for you when you put those stainless bedding plates down. Water can still come in horizontally from the deck. You'd be better off to get some quarter inch phenolic and make a bedding plate that is a half inch bigger all the way around and epoxy it to the deck. Then put your bedding plate stainless bedding plate on top of that. That way water will be diverted and won't be constantly trying to get into that joint which is going to move cuz they're chain plates and they are under a tremendous stress
Oh Randall (Randay), I so love seeing old fashioned hand tools being used. Nothing quite like an old fashioned screwdriver, other than a brace and bit!
Great job RanDay. I am glad you got a friend to help you. I have heard other sailors have had success using grit, determination, elbow grease, and beer. 😂 I have to ask about Captain Q and SeaDog, I sure miss those two and hope they are enjoying retirement. 👍😎
that last element is critical to keep it light and fun. We were blasting music too to keep the vibes going. Yup, those two are enjoying some deserved relaxation time. cheers VB
@@YachtHunters I hope you have great success. I saw another sailing channel that was riding some awesome bike trails in New Zealand, it looked real cool. Some mechanics use a tracing dye in automotive, one for the cooling system and another kind for the air conditioning system. You have a lot of patience working on things. GOD bless you. 🙏🏼😎✌️
Great to see you back and making progress on upgrading your boat. Thank you Roo for the assistance to Randay. Keep up the good work. You will really enjoy seeing the results as you sail aboard this fine vessel.
Great video. You have a large elephant on your plate.....one bite at a time my friend. So good you have Rew assisting you. A little Agave always helps with any frustrations, sore knees and knuckles. Your Rockin' it Ran-day. 😎
Hey Randay, great to see you posting, great quality content full of great information and advice. Keep em coming chief your delivery is class and chilling to watch 👍😎
Thanks for sharing your work. I own a '68 Pearson Ensign (significantly less complex) and it can be intimidating making repairs, not knowing for certain what methods and materials to use. There's a lot of advice out there, but in DIY work, I've found it's helpful to find someone who has a similar standard of quality. I appreciate the quality of the work you're doing, and also your willingness to just dive in despite the potential for "project creep."
Looks like TotalBoat is sponsoring you. They make a great line of matched products, but for those of us watching our budget, there are less expensive alternatives, which maybe should be mentioned. Nice progress.
Hey Randy great work ethic and exellent out comes. Here is a tip, get an impact driver, practice on something not critical. After you get the feeling of when to ease off then use the impacter to take apart first. This machine will increase your speed by up to 5 times. I did renos for 15 years. I never keep straight blade scews, worth cost to be rid of them. The best use of impacter is on nuts removeal and reinstalling, most times they can tightened up with out holding the other end. I like hand tools, but after I used my first impacter I could not go back to rachets or scewdrivers.
Thanks for the guidance, Hebert. I do have a handy impact driver which has been great but the boat seems to be 70% slotted screws!! I thought about changing the boat name to Flat Head or something like that. I will get in some impact driver practice and see how much I can finesse. I find that doing things overhead with stainless screws(non magnetic) means that 20% will end in the bilge… and probably forever! Cheers!
So many memories of boat projects gone by. I switched to butyl tape for all bedding projects years ago with good success. No mechanical bond so fasteners need to do that job. Just advice for those that want it
So so glad you are ok 👍 and your back. I find being OCD has a lot of positive effects. I just love how organized I am from it. Happy Sailing ⛵️ Ran-day!
That toe rail looks like it has seen better days. I’ll bet the rot has found its way into the wood fibers. Varnish /oil will mask the problem for a while, but rot will still be there eating away at the remaining wood fibers. Those catches appear to be in excellent shape. Great video.
I think the rot is mostly around the bolt hole... so I'm hoping a healthy dose of penetrating epoxy will shore it up for a few years and let it all dry out. Another viewer commented about replacing the rotten teak but that was going to make it into a much bigger job so I opted for a medium-term fix. I'll definitely do a follow up on how it's holding up. cheers GB
Hey Randay, glad to see another video up. I know it might be a while, but could you give an update on Capt.Q? How is he doing? I am sure many would like to know, He was one of my inspirations to get my own mistress of the sea. Thanks, and as always fair winds, and following seas.
Nice work chasing those leaks! I'm interested to get my hands on some of that penetrating epoxy. I'll be interested to see the long term review on that repair. Great work!!
Hi Randy and Steve, wow what a good job you accomplished over a few days or a week looks fantastic. I think it even would get the tick of approval by Captain Q keep up the good work love the videos Cliff from Logan City Queensland Australia 🇦🇺
awesome video as always. just like any project, every little job leads to 3 more. doing those hatches for a relatively quick finished product that looks great was a really good idea. i'm building up my suv so i can go on longer trips and explore more and look at more boats i can't afford lol and yesterday i stopped what i had been working on for a week and took 30 minutes to fix my squeaky sunroof. that got me pumped and gave me the boost i needed to keep going on the build. i try to save the relatively quick and easy jobs that i think will make me really happy like that for when i'm getting annoyed or just tired of the work. that little morale boost can make such a big difference, especially when you have also been trying to film everything lol
its not always easy but those small wins that are finished out really help me feel like I'm making good progress. best of luck with your adventure wagon :)
Fun boat... just met a guy in my neighborhood who just picked one up with a keel that needs some love. Welcome to the club!! Here's a link to the Patreon... much appreciated :)
best of luck... it's not too bad... total time for me was about 5-6 hrs for the chainplates - clean up of old bedding probably took the longest. Next time I think it would take me 2-3 hrs.
i've come to learn they are quite simple and fairly indestructible if maintained well. mine has 9500 hrs on it... and i'm trying to treat it very very nicely :)
Glad to see you’re still “Alive and kicking” one question do you think wiping off the excess bedding compound with solvent degrades the compound at the surface so it might deteriorate faster, maybe it’s not critical in this application. Cheers and good luck!
I've spent a lot of time on boats, from pleasure craft, sailing, 58' purse seine commercial fishing boats all the way up to 68' tug boats towing barges around Alaska. An engine room should look like a hospital OR for cleanliness. This is no joke. All hoses and wires should be wrapped to prevent abrasions and accidental tears in the insulation, zip-tied and put out of reach so they arent in the way and more importantly are being over stretched and tensioned! Heat shields to prevent damaging wood work, fiberglass, plastic, rubber, etc. need to be installed or replaced. Once everything is in place and clean, any leak will be noticed at a glance and then the only issue is finding the source, as you are experiencing from a cluttered engine room. glty!
Yessss! My inner voice has been saying the same thing. How can you be safe, how can detect any issues, if you can't see things properly even with a headlamp? Cleanliness, heat protection, abrasion protection, mechanical mounts (e.g. remote oil filter floating in the bilge) all seem really obvious to me. Partly because I'm a newbie but mostly I consider myself a pragmatist.... it just seems like the way to operate a vessel correctly and safely. thanks so much for your comment!
G'day Randay, glad to have you back, mate, Those Andrew characters are definitely useful people. You seemed very chilled, mate. Don't drink too much of that quality solvent. Save some for the job, at least. Cheers
hahaha... i try to exercise good judgement and just keep the tunes blasting...those Andrew types are scrappy and helpful... becareful though you might have a friend rope you into fixing his boat! cheers, AM!!
If your stuck on the inside outside problem on your own you can usually use a pair of mole grips to hold a nut and it will hit the side as you turn the head. 🤞🏼
She’s a beautiful vessel. You’re go to attitude and honest hands on approach is special to watch. Thank you for sharing! Can’t wait to see the engine room, I’m sure it’s enviable. Cheers
great question... adding in a new chunk of teak toerail seems like a much bigger job(needing some $$ and scarfing expertise).. with epoxy and sealant maybe I buy myself 4-5 years? we'll find out!!
Hey Ran-Day!! Can you provide a little info about the Eco Solvent? Who is the supplier? What does it replace, acetone? What are the best uses? Thanks, Randall. I will not be far behind you on my leaks & rebedding projects.
TotalBoat is the maker of the Eco Solvent that I was using. It looks like they might be out of stock on it -- you can check it out here: amzn.to/3IEhayM
You could make those chalk blocks so much better. If you made a brass or bronze or aluminum backing plate that spanned from both bolts underneath, it would be so much stronger, double or triple the strength
Hey Randay. Peter here in Vancouver, BC. I love your channel and look forward to your next videos. I'm wondering if you plan on tightening your timeline between your videos and real-time? Thanks.
yes... took a longer winter break and hoping to keep a regular & predictable timetable going forward. possibly every 2 weeks at the moment... Ideally, I'd do every week but I'm not sure I can make that happen. Cheers Mr W
@YachtHunters I always have ordered online and used it when I used to haul livestock and didn't want to use acid.. I also used it for cleaning the carpet of my truck etc.
Hi Randay…I’m about to tackle rebedding my bedding plates too. Are your bedding plates just screwed in?? Or do they have nuts and washers inside the boat? Thanks. Great boat.
just screwed into the fiberglass deck. I made sure to put a good chunk of sealant into them (after putting in penetrating epoxy) so it should be good for many years to come. One thing I learned as part of this process was that the bedding plate is essentially a fastened gasket to keep the opening around the chainplate water tight(read: minimize the exposed area around the chainplate)... so its not like the bedding plate plays any structural role... it just serves to keep the bedding/sealant around the chainplate opening happy. best of luck with yours!
Did you put any Dum Dum between the timber and the deck around the hatches . Nice job by the way , it’s always that you never know how difficult it’s going to be on any job, and will it lead to problem after problem. Well done.
hahaha... no... we looked at that interface between the wood and fiberglass and it seemed to be very good. it would be a much bigger job to take the wooden hatch frame up so I'd do that somewhere down the road as needed... but excellent point... thanks!
definitely! took a really close look with walter and they appear to be in fantastic shape. a few washers have some surface rust but overall they are over-designed and in good shape. I saw a write up that had an inspection on them about 7 years ago as well so that made me a little less concerned. great point. thank you
should have an update for you shortly. He was putting the finishing touches on it in January but got sidelined on another project... hopefully in the next month. If you've signed up for the email notification we'll be sending out an announcement to let people know the timing. if you havent't go to www.yachthunting.com/relax and sign up cheers!
Watching the wire brush on a drill routine was painful! You might want to consider investing in a bench grinder to make faster work of that sort of thing.
Randall I don't completely agree with your leak classification from critical to non-critical. Since the boat will be on the hard for a while apparently the coolant leak can wait. Get the boat water tight so any damage being done can b stopped. Once the boat is water tight you can chase the coolant leak an clean up the engine compartment. If you can find a cooling system pressure tester that will fit your filler neck the leak should be fairly easy to find once you can pressurize the system and see where the water/antifreeze is coming out. Hopefully it's a loose fitting or broken gasket. Any aluminum in the cooling system such as a timing cover or maybe a thermostat housinsg should also be suspect as they will corrode faster than the iron. Good luck and keep the good stuff coming.
Great tips, thanks JL! I think Walter’s influence on me has me a little more relaxed about water intrusion that is not dangerous… personally, it pained me to see the floor boards swell up after it rained… and the bilges would get a bit more filled with fresh water (thereby doing damage to plywood/wood in the interior)… so maybe ‘annoying’ should be classified as non-dangerous?
Hello Mr. Randaaay, you wanted to put out the cost of mantaining a sailboat with all the costs involved, marina etc. Is this data still coming out? Thank you.
invest in an inexpensive angle grinder. You will have a lot more durable tool selection than the tools available to use with that hand drill. lots of different grinding, cutting and polishing discs available
good tip... I just need a place to keep it!! I don't have a lot of room at home so I used TotalBoat's workshop (they were nice enough to get me access to it). My tool wish list is long... but it's bigger than the space I have at home!! (not ideal, I know!!) Thanks Brent!
Have any info on a 1991 Norstar Anastasia 36ft ?? all the links I can find are broker links to the same boat, I know about the physical boat, it just looks (on the screen) less than 36 feet. Broker says 'owners manual' says 36 ft. Any links you know of for manufacturer specs?
According to available specs, the Norstar Anastasia is 32’ LOD and then you get to 36’ LOA with that 4’ bowsprit. At most marinas, you’ll pay for ALL 36’ !! I also saw that one advertised in FL. It s a very rugged looking, beautiful boat. Bruce Bingham had a great eye. Best of luck.
Randy when are you going to do the math? If some of us want a yacht in our retirement plan. What percentage has your yacht gone up or down? What are the costs of the repairs that you are doing?
I shared a spreadsheet with the Patreon supporters awhile back. If you’re interested, you can join for $1… or if you don’t care for Patreon, shoot an email to business@yachthunting.com and I’ll add you to the list. Cheers
Boats and bicycles! Yay OCD...no such animal when repairing n restoration is involved. Anatomy wisdom..."take care of your knees, you're gonna need'm when you get older! Ha Goodonyas! Go get'm tiger Looks as though Roo/Rue has earned a spot for sailing n cycling in Europe 🌍! Good times await!
hahaha thanks scott! Roo is always a good crew mate... well, except that time he ditched us when Capt Q ran us aground... but he's proven his worth otherwise 😂
The curse of nick names. Miss your face Randaaay....and Q's. Narrow down the location by drying the space below the engine and lining with news print. Run engine to produce leak then examine paper to ID where on engine (above wet spot on paper) to focus your visual inspection. Bright, bright light.... How will you carry bike aboard? Dry bag, below some how?
Hahaha thanks Eric! Yup, I used white absorbing pads but couldn’t catch the source. Not sure about the bikes just yet… might have to go with foldable.. or pop the wheels off. Could be tricky getting in/out of a dinghy but we’ll see?!?
If you want to make a nice boat you better learn how to demo and rebuild properly watching you makes me feel like your half way into wading at the beach I think you need to learn how to go outside your comfort zone because that's what the boat needs not you
I had some good guidance from Walter Schulz on this one. Pulling off the chock block revealed healthy teak at the base so the rot issue was really just around the hole from degraded bedding. Certainly, the proper way is to replace any rotten wood wiht some healthy stock but I have much higher priorities to get to and didn't want to make this a one-week job when the penetrating epoxy and rebedding could solve this in 1/2 a day and last quite awhile. It's a balance of time/effort/priorities.... appreciate the feedback!
