It's alive, again...

Just a brief one today. As part of the Drive to Reboard, 2020, we do the annual Tightening of the Hose Clamps. This is an exercise in preventive maintenance, as it claps eyes on our stainless steel hose clamps that keep the hoses on the dozens of barbs...which keep the water out of the boat...and which aren't always as stainless nor as clamped as we would prefer.

This consists of issuing to my wife and myself two socket wrenches and three (7, 8 and 9mm) sockets and methodically crawling about the boat tightening and peering, sometimes with headlamps, to Suss Out Current Events. Special attention is given to below the waterline (BTW) points, where the stakes are a little higher (and the boat, lower) should a clamp or two fail to keep hoses in place before the crew notices an issue or hears the bilge pump cycling. We also have a chance to examine these areas for corrosion or even paint fatigue, and apply touch-ups before problems occur.

Apart from the obvious areas of standpipe-related seacocks and galley drains, there are quite a few points on the engine (exhaust fittings, waterlock muffler, fuel supply and return, oil filter setup, etc.) that need to be assessed and serviced. Some of those, like an oil or coolant change, were done last fall and the need to do them again will depend on hours put on the engine this season. Others are simply "as needed"...for instance, there's a "calorifier" setup whereby we can get hot water to a sort of wall-mounted kettle that provides us with heated water from our tanks...that's been a relatively low priority we can do at dock some time in the next month.

So, about a hundred clamps (not an exaggeration) later, we felt it was time to fire up the engine to clear out the winter coolant. Gratifyingly, the Beta Marine 60 fired up immediately and the cooling circuit worked as it was meant to. Huzzah! Please pardon the dusty helm...it's on the to-clean list.