All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go...

[Gofirstclass]

Well, let me see. I spent 4 hours Monday decorating the boat for the Christmas Boat Parade, 3 on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday, then another three on Thursday as we were putting the finishing touches on. The parade is tonight and tomorrow night and I’m sitting here in my living room watching the boats go by and crying in my drink.

As you may recall, in September we had a runaway starter motor on the stbd engine. My mechanic was knee deep in getting boats out of the water and getting them winterized so I told Jim to not worry about my problem and take care of it when he had time. I told him I just wanted to be sure we would be all fixed so we could go in the boat parade.

We took off for AZ and I kept in touch with him while we were gone. He got the starter rebuilt and installed on the boat. He turned on the starter switches and it turned over just great so he shut it off and called it good.

We went down to the boat on Monday to start decorating and also to drive it over to the fuel dock to fill up on diesel. Neither engine would start. The generator would not start. We had no 24V power at all.

I panicked and called him and found he was up elk hunting. Two of his guys came down and spent several hours trying to figure out what happened and they discovered that the batteries in the starter circuits were deader than a doornail. Boiled dry. So they checked the 24V starter and it was fried.

Jim had told me I should replace it because it was 20 years old, old technology, and it could crap out at any time. Well we all know how Murphy’s Law works. It crapped out at the worst possible time. Fortunately Jim had ordered a new ProMariner 24Volt, 30 Amp, 3 circuit charger and it was sitting on his desk. The two workers were going to install it on Tuesday and would have it up and running on Wednesday, which was the day Jim was to return to work from his hunting trip.

Jim replaced the batteries, still nothing to make the stbd engine start. The port engine was fine. He started checking wiring diagrams and found that there is a wire harness that connects at the engine and goes to a “Y” where it splits to go to both helms to feed them signals for the instruments. There were some fried wires in the end of the harness at the engine. Damn. He checked the upper helm and all of the wiring going to the stbd gauges was fried. The lower helm gauges and wiring seemed to be OK.

So this morning we called the insurance company and gave them the bad news. They opened a claim and I’m now waiting for word from an adjuster. So the boat is all decorated and I’ll take some photos tomorrow night with the lights on.

I’m bummed but, if there’s a silver lining to the cloud it’s that we’re headed back down to AZ at the end of the month and he’ll have about 3 months to get it all fixed and ops checked.

 

[Zorba]

Well that's sucks. Murphy is a real bastard.

Can I ask what insurance has to do with this?


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[Quint4]

Electrical problems are a headache! Good luck with it.

 

[wyrman]

What a bummer Mike. We're going to Cedars tonight to watch the parade. I guess we won't be seeing you out there. :smt009

 

[BritLady]

That sucks, good luck in getting it fixed.


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[Gofirstclass]

Zorba, this wiring mess is a result of the issue with the runaway starter motor. The insurance company treats it like a calamity (not the proper term--they have their own term for it) and as such, it's covered, less the deductible. It's much like running aground or getting damage from a hurricane, etc.

From my discussions yesterday with the mechanic, he said the whole thing kind of went like this....The starter motor ran away and overheated. That (heat and/or current draw) melted the wiring in the harness that connects to the gauges and he suspects to the solenoid that feeds fuel to the engine, and also fed back through the wiring to the battery charger and fried some of the controls in it. That's what caused the batteries to boil dry which gave us no 24V charge. The bilge pumps run on 24V so we had no bilge pumps. Fortunately we didn't have any ingress of water or we might have come back from AZ to find Beachcomber sitting on the bottom in 15' of water in the slip.

 

[Bob & Sue]

One more reason for everyone to read their insurance policy if it were a boat policy vs yacht policy you'd be looking at a hefty bill. Good luck on getting it resolved.

 

[majoma]

I did not know that the insurance pays for electrical problem. Can someone explain that?

 

[blaster]

I did not know that the insurance pays for electrical problem. Can someone explain that?

He just did.

 

[Zorba]

Thanks for the explanation.


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[Gofirstclass]

Here’s the star of the show. I borrowed him from a neighbor who has used The Grinch as an outdoor decoration for the past couple of years.

Needless to say, we got a few strange looks as we drove from home to the marina.

Here he is, partially installed. The Grinch’s mountain is made from pallets we cut to size for him. His body is held up by being wired to a piece of 1/2 “ galvanized pipe that’s mounted to a flange that’s attached to a piece of plywood that’s screwed down to the pallet on the bottom. His arms are held up by being wired to pieces of ¾” Schedule 40 PVC.

He’s not very flexible so we pretty much had to build a platform that would hold him in the position he’s in. Here he is with the platform finished.

The lights on the sides of the boat and his “mountain” came from Walmart. They’re 4’x4’ blanket LED lights. Last year I was in our local Wally World after Christmas. They had all of their lights at 75% off. They had 60 of those blanket lights so I asked the dept head what she would sell them to me if I bought all 60. She said “a quarter a box” so I bought all 60 for $15.

Here’s the main man all lit up.

So that’s what Beachcomber would have looked like has we been able to participate in the parade. SNIFF, SNIFF. Maybe next year.

 

[wyrman]

Looks great Mike. We would have loved seeing you cruise by with that decor.
We had a great evening with Jim and Julie (Sundancer) at Cedars, all the boats looked great.
A big thank you to the Clover Island Yacht Club for putting it on.

 

[Sundancer]

Mike,

Bummer! Murphy is a frustrating dude! The boat looks great and I'm sure it would have been even better out on the water. We were hoping to see you out there as we dined in luxury with Greg and Celeste! We'll hope things go better next year and I'd suggest getting fuel FIRST next year!

 

[Alex F]

GFC,

Sorry to hear about the situation. But, it sounds like you're in good hands and it'll be taken care of. Glad ins will help offset the repairs cost. Keep us posted.

Boat decor looks great.

 

[1956olds]

Isnt that a Lions jersey?

 

[Gofirstclass]

1956, in your dreams! :smt021

 

[268 Frakenboat]

One more reason for everyone to read their insurance policy if it were a boat policy vs yacht policy you'd be looking at a hefty bill. Good luck on getting it resolved.

Hi we are just about to switch carriers, what is the difference between the two policies?

 

[Bridog]

Boat looks great. Where did you find the big Grinch? (and don't say Mount Crumpit)

 

[Gofirstclass]

Hi we are just about to switch carriers, what is the difference between the two policies?

Frankenboat, I'd suggest you look in the back of any of the major boat mags and find an insurance broker who deals with yacht insurance policies. Call him up and ask him to explain the differences. There are many differences between boat and yacht policies and, for something as important as insuring your boat you don't want to skimp.

One big difference, let's say your boat is insured for $50,000 under a boat policy and it sinks. You would expect to be paid $50K for your boat. But under a boat policy they will pay for any environmental cleanup costs and the salvage costs for your boat (up to the limits of the policy) and if there is anything left of the $50K, that is what you will be paid for your boat. If there's nothing left, you get nothing.

A yacht policy will normally pay the cleanup and salvage costs separate from the amount for your boat.

Bridog, the Grinch was made by a guy who lives a mile or so from us. He's had it in his yard for a couple of years as part of a Seahawk display. (He and his wife are both long time Seahawk fans). I drive by there every day and have seen it for all that time and got the bright idea last summer to ask him if I could borrow it for the boat parade. He was all for it so we got it for the parade.

It's about 8' tall, made of foam rubber on the inside and a fuzzy fabric on the outside. He was spray painted and they put a jersey on him. The jersey had faded badly so when I repainted him I painted the jersey back on and painted the "12" on his chest.

 

[Carpedmman]

Here’s the star of the show. I borrowed him from a neighbor who has used The Grinch as an outdoor decoration for the past couple of years.

Needless to say, we got a few strange looks as we drove from home to the marina.

Here he is, partially installed. The Grinch’s mountain is made from pallets we cut to size for him. His body is held up by being wired to a piece of 1/2 “ galvanized pipe that’s mounted to a flange that’s attached to a piece of plywood that’s screwed down to the pallet on the bottom. His arms are held up by being wired to pieces of ¾” Schedule 40 PVC.

He’s not very flexible so we pretty much had to build a platform that would hold him in the position he’s in. Here he is with the platform finished.

The lights on the sides of the boat and his “mountain” came from Walmart. They’re 4’x4’ blanket LED lights. Last year I was in our local Wally World after Christmas. They had all of their lights at 75% off. They had 60 of those blanket lights so I asked the dept head what she would sell them to me if I bought all 60. She said “a quarter a box” so I bought all 60 for $15.

Here’s the main man all lit up.

So that’s what Beachcomber would have looked like has we been able to participate in the parade. SNIFF, SNIFF. Maybe next year.

Nice "dry" run Mike! Now go fill that drink up and forget about it. Like can suck hard as a boater at times, but be VERY thankful, as I know you are, to have such a "terrible" problem as the electrical system on my yacht fried due to a starter overrun. Merry Christmas to you and GW! Hope to see you two again!