We’ve been through the drive line and are about to reassemble things, have checked the tanks, and the rest of the systems, with very little wear and tear to show for our 5700 hours and 57,000 miles +/- of travel. As we’ve done a series of posts scattered here and there on this subject, perhaps a recap is in order.  We’ll then give you a brief rundown on changes we are making and why.

But first, a few thoughts on maintenance, frustration, and costs of ownership.

It is no secret that many owners find the maintenance issues associated with modern yachts a headache and source of irritation. It affects your decision on where you cruise, how far from help you are willing to venture, and the time away from technical assistance you can spend. This is also a major cost center, and one of the reasons you hear numbers like ten to fifteen percent of acquisition cost as an annual budget.

From a personal standpoint, we do not have the correct psychological profile to endure this sort of situation. We like the ambiance that modern systems give us, but we also prefer to be out on our own, off the grid as they say, and away from the techs. Having started cruising on a conventional yacht, built in the normal fashion, we know from first hand experience (and frustration!) how not to do things.

Over the last 30 years we’ve learned a few lessons about having our ambiance and reliability with a minimized hassle. These have been discussed at length elsewhere in SetSail, so we’ll just summarize. The keys are:

• Use the best quality equipment.
• Take what vendors say about the efficacy of their gear with a grain of salt. Verify claims by talking to those who have experience, preferably professional sailors.
• Install equipment with good access making sure nothing is hidden, so inspection and preventative maintenance is easy.
• Make certain the environment is dry.
• Where appropriate, drive lines, steering gear, and stabilizers for example, oversize for longevity and damage resistance.
• Look at design, systems installation, and product selection in the context that the equipment will be replaced in seven to ten years.
• Always work toward the simplest approach to any decision.
• Avoid systems which are rarely used and that complicate or otherwise hinder the basic, most critical functions,

If the above matrix drives the design, selection, and build process, the end result will yield a more reliable and efficient to own yacht, that is long on pleasure and short on frustration, w ith minimal costs associated with maintenance.

Now a gentle warning. There is often the tendency to want all the “bells and whistles” along with the desire for more interior space at the expense of “wasted” engine room volume. The owner, their interior designer, or a boat builder’s marketing staff, often drives the decision making process. For the yacht designer, and builder, the path of least resistance, the easiest way to keep the client happy in the short term, is to do what is requested without comment.  Often the builder, hindered by lack of real world long term cruising experience, and perhaps decades of bad habits, doesn’t know the difference.

If you find yourself evaluating a new or used yacht for long term ownership, make the systems evaluation the first priority. Talk to owners of similar builds about their ownership experience. Better yet, chat with service techs. You will often find relatively new yachts on the brokerage market with a pitch about the huge refit just performed. Ask yourself why was this necessary?  And was the space available to do it the second time right, or is this another short term solution?

OK, we shall now depart from the soap box, and get back on topic, Wind Horse after 57,000 miles. To begin with when we do a prototype like the FPB 83 it is always a mix of things we know work and a few we want to test. The drive lines, which we have recently detailed, show very little wear. Even the Cutlass bearings, now that we’ve had a close look, could go another 3000+ hours (the starboard side is almost perfect, the port has about one millimeter of wear. The PYI dripless shaft seals also look good, but as these are coming into their seventh year, they are being replaced.

The engines look fine, poly v-belts driving the big alternators are good, as are the water pumps, idler pulleys and tensioner mechanisms. One engine mount on each engine, port aft,  showed some compression. These have been replaced with the next size up, while the other three have been replaced with similar units. The molded rubber hoses on the fresh cooling side of the engines are being replaced, and the heat exchangers and raw water manifolds will be cleaned (cursory inspection indicates they are barely in need). We’ve had a look inside the turbos and they are within tolerance on play, so we’ll leave their rebuild for another time.

We are making two changes with the engines. The old exhaust system is now history and we are having new, lower, and lighter exhaust risers fabricated. These will connect to underwater exhausts in the swim step extension. we will also add in line mufflers after first testing the system without these. As we have been cruising at lower engine RPM we are reducing alternator pulley size to increase alternator RPM. Whether or not we can get away with less belt wrap remains to be seen. we may need to switch to larger drvie pulleys.

The self priming Oberdorfer pump used with the air conditioning system has worked without a hitch. Since we have a spare, that has been installed and the old pump put into spares. There are two Oberdorfer geared pumps used in the fuel transfer system. One of these just developed a tiny leak (probably a worn seal), so we have replaced both keeping the good unit as a spare.

There are a number of Shurflow Blaster Extremes pumps aboard used with pressure fresh and various salt water applications. With the exception of the pressure switches these have given good service. Owning to their longevity all have been replaced. The Whale Gulpers used for sink and shower sumps have been flawless. We have replaced the two in the forward head with our spares, keeping the old ones just in case.

We’ll save our comments on the Jabsco diaphragm pumps  for another post. We’ll just say for now they are overpriced and of poor quality.

The Village Marine No Frills 800 GPD watermaker continues to function well, as does the Kabola boiler with which we heat the boat and or domestic water supply. The Kabola exhaust is do for replacement after almost seven years of exposure. Rather than replace the muffler we are going to try it without.

We will be replacing all of the hose carrying salt water. This is a year or two early, but not a huge job and a small leak while in service is such a hassle that we are doing it early. All hose clamps will also be changed.

Wind Horse has never had an electric hot water heater (the diesel powered Kabola does that job) so we are adding an Isotemp 75 liter hot water heater with dual heat exchangers and a 3000 watt electric element. The heat exchangers will be plumbed into the boiler which will reduce the  heater cycling. This will also allow us to use the genset or shore power to indirectly provide some heat with the 3000 watt elements through the water into the Kabola system.

Speaking of heating systems a few minor changes here. First, we  have removed the truck defroster from the forward windows as it has never been used. The fan units on the MSR heater coils are being removed and fans changed to where they are remotely mounted in the ducts. This is an experiment by which we expect to reduce noise levels.

Before we spent time in the high latitudes we thought heat radiating from the boiler hose which runs through the boat was good. In theory this would keep the storage areas outboard of furniture warm and dry. A mistake. Warm air carries more moisture which then creates more of a potential condensation problem. There is also the issue of wasted heat. A foot of heater hose radiates roughly 75 BTU and Wind Horse has close to 180 feet of hose. That’s 13,000 BTUs of heat when the system is running. The hose is now insulated with 1/2″ (12.6mm) wall Armaflex. The fan coils have also been insulated.

We have had good luck with VacuFlush toilets in the past, but this time we went with HeadHunters. We are switching back to VacuFlush because they use so much less water (which triples the time available between holding tank pump outs).

Our Marine Air air conditioning units have worked fine, but they are very noisy, and less efficient than current models. Last spring we were aboard a 45 foot cat with a 16,000 BTU Marine Air unit where the compressor was directly under our seat and could not tell it was on. Between a clam shell sound shield and new compressor design it was virtually silent. We are installing these new models now. They are also supposed to be more efficient. We’ll take one of the old 16,000 BTU units and mount it the engine room, to improve the ambiance on those hot days when we are at work on the machinery.

On the electrical front we are adding a 2500 watt 115VAC inverter. This will enable us to turn off the three big 230VAC  inverters and the associated step down transformer during those periods of the day when AC loads are light. We are thinking that the electrical overhead so saved will cut the total daily power consumption by 20%.

We’ve got a series of metal fabrication projects going including the new roof framework over the flying bridge, the “mud room” protection for the entry door, a system for storing t he starboard dinghy, and new forward mast.  We’ll cover these changes and those on the electronics front in another post.

Post Script: We don’t have an odometer to keep track of mileage (our GPS has been reset a number of times), but we do know the engine hours. Making an educated guess we used the following formula.

• 4000 hours at 11.0. knots,  the speed at which we  usually cross oceans, equals 44,000 nautical miles.
• 1000 hours at 9.5 knots,  guess at an average mix for close in work, equals 9500 miles.
• 700 hours at five knots, a mix of idling to warm up and in port speed (this is the slowest we ever go on both engines), 3500 miles
• Total – 57,000 nautical miles (give or take 10%).