Sea Ray SSS 1993 63 ft

Hey any of you guys that use an iPhone or iPad check out boat beacon ais app.
It turns your device into an ais receiver transmitter with a 60 mile range.
Pretty neat you can see every boat with ais in that area and all the info they are transmitting. They also see you if they have an ais receiver. You can also hail them and chat. Very very neat app for all boaters think it costs around 10 bucks.
 
Rob,

relying on the internet and relay stations for AIS isn't accurate enough. Sometimes it takes ages to update. On my last boat I had AIS and it amazed me how many boats I was seeing on my chart plotter here in Pittwater but they weren't showing on the internet. I think in a few years they will really come down in price. Honestly I think everyone should have them..might have stopped some of the fatal night time collisions we have had in the Harbour over the last 5 years.

here is a link to the ais site (world wide)

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

Oh, yes the two boats travelling together were not the ones that lost their lives. They were the initial boats I mentioned that traveled to Lord Howe and had to put a fuel bladder on the front deck, sorry for the confusion

Ozzie
 
Ozzie: Thanks for the warning of that form of ais not being reliable!
Boating at night is always scary for me as Sydney harbor has so much traffic between the very numerous high speed ferries and so many private boats, the lights of the boats tend to meld into the city lights and it can be quite hard to see them they just blend right in and you have to really look!
I always tune my radar really well at night and use that to assist me with spotting other boats.
I am thinking of getting a plotter with ais just to make my night time boating safer although if the other boats on the water don't have it then what's the use.
Think that would be a good law that all boats on a super busy waterway like Sydney harbor have to have ais when operating at night.
One idiot in a 40 plus boat was doing well over 20 knots at night once and damn near went right into the side of me missed by like 10 ft Was pretty scary! Considering the harbor is always so busy and has many lights on all the shores making it hard to spot other boats it is just plain stupid to fly around at high speeds at night!
My dad was killed by a drunk driver on i95 in Atlantic city! I don't have any patience or tolerance for idiots that endanger others! I go out of my way to report them and get them caught and in trouble!
Unfortunately just like on the roads the waterways are so full of idiots doing risky stuff! would be awesome if ais for all vessels on the harbor at night would be mandatory! Yeah it may be expensive but your life is worth much more!

I hadn't heard about the collisions on the harbor. I know one thing for sure the blow boaters need to be better regulated as they constantly cause dangerous situations and have no regard for other boats on the water! They sail around like they own the place and don't even look before they do anything it's crazy!
 
DSC00314.jpgbest.jpg

Anyone know what kind of boat this is??
 
Paul: thanks for that!! was going through some pics i had from where i was berthed in florida and came across that one.... remember spending like 20 mins just ogling at it!! just went to sun seeker and looked at the interior....wow!! thats it this is my 5 year goal! i don't care what i have to do but 5 years from now thats my boat!! well actually this one http://www.sunseeker.com/showboat.php?bid=26 hahha I will find a way!!
 
Rob,

They are very good looking boats! One day would love to be cruising around on something like that.. If you're up for another project there is currently a mortgagee in posession sale of a 2000 75 Predator in QLD which looks interesting.. No idea what price it would go for? http://www.aamanagement.com.au/event_gallery.php?id=39

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You got that right paul they are beautiful. I don't really like the interior on some of the older models but the newer ones just wow so incredible. I went in a 53 sunseeker fly bridge and it was so cramped I could not believe how little room it had in comparison to our boats, I mean seriously cramped compared to the space we have my friend and I were both pretty shocked so did not like the design and layout of the smaller ones in the 50 range.

So how is this for ultimate dumbass rob maneuver. I'm at the boat tonight and the owner of the yard tells me I may want to leave until tomorrow afternoon as tugs are coming in to move that big barge I posted a pic
Of awhile back and I could get crushed or hit as there is not much room and shallows all around, two tugs and that barge being
Moved in that little area one mistake and crunch! He did not have to tell me twice.... so 3am, I warm her up squeegee the windows get it all ready cast off the bow line front springer get on the boat cast off the stern and depart nice and slow. All of a
Sudden the boat starts swinging quickly towards the barge I'm berthed next to!
Forgot to take off the rear spring rushing around in the dark. Luckily I pull out slowly so didn't hit too hard and did no damage but man what a dumbass careless move!! So out at anchor until tomorrow afternoon. Last time I anchored here I dragged in between two sail boats ! Woke up to people screaming. The bottom is full of crap like car tires, wood, bug cables just tons of junk. It's hard to set a good anchor plus there is no room as the bay is tight and always full of boats,, just can not let out the right amount of chain. So will be sleeping with one eye open hahah got my anchor alarm set.

Oh and on the 75 repo that's a nice boat! This business I'm making is starting in a month. I am
Editing the book I wrote and writing two others, training together a come back acrobatic act with a girl and trying to keep this boat up so there's no room for any extra projects can barely keep up as it is!! Would be a fun project though!!!
I am gonna get that sunseeker 90 one day lol don't care what I have to do, rob a bank mug mark zukerberg, rig the lotto whatever then I'm going around the world with that puppy!! And
Blogging the whole thing !! Now you could definitely go to Lorde Howe island safely in that thing!! Something like that you could go anywhere!! Fuel bill would be a little much though haha they need to make solar powered cruisers or better still ones that's engines run on salt water how awesome would that be!

Dreams of grandeur haha

Just in case anyone reading this feels like answering some boat maintenance questions!

I have been reading Detroit diesel engine forums as I just don't know enough about these things which is not good! I read that you should empty the water from your water separator before and after each trip. I don't even know where that is let alone how to empty it ?? Any advice guys?

I also was advised that your coolant should be checked on a regular basis or it can blow a hole in your cylinder linings, it's some phenomenon that in particular detroits are prone to but exists on every boat engine with wet diesels which I believe is a nickname for two strokes?. You have to keep it in a certain balance and add certain additives. Any idea if there is a kit with instructions you can get for that?? I have looked all over the web but haven't found much.

Never even heard of half this stuff which is really bad considering I own two large detroits. Will kill them quickly if I don't know how to maintain them right so have to learn this stuff!

Is there a regular interval racors are changed on or just check them often and change when they look dirty. These engine are quite intimidating so much to them and so much to keep up on!

My starboard seems to run a little hotter than the port and get up to operating temp much faster. I checked the strainer and the coolant what would be the next step the impeller?

I still have steam coming out of the port engine at high loads. The engine is not running hot. My mechanic seems to think its no big deal or any problem. Somehow I just don't buy that an engine blowing steam even though it's minor is nothing to be concerned about. Dunno!
I'm
Not losing coolant so my guess is one of the seals in the raw water system has a small leak dunno... Any ideas anyone?
 
Hi Rob,
Coolant systems run coolant, usually it is a green colour, I have seen pink as well. Now when coolants first came into use, you bought it as a concentrate then mixed it with water. As it progressed it got better and better in quality. To where most of it is bought now premixed.
I have been out of Service Management for a long while now, so I may not be fully current. However some of the coolants used to have a recommended life span. I think you can buy test kits, similar to testing pool water you are testing PH Balance or similar

Check with MTU Diesel, they are the Detroit agents located at Chipping Norton, ( just down the road from me)


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Rob, the racors are water separators as well as filters. If they have caught any water, you should be able to see it at the bottom of the bowl under the filter. There should be a petcock at the bottom to drain it out. The fuel filters on the engine may have water drains as well that need to be checked. I believe the maintenance interval for the racor filters is one year unless you see a problem or get a load of bad fuel.
 
Hi ian, thanks for the reply!

I also was under the impression just coolant is fine for these engines, but here is what an expert wrote to me regarding them.... have you ever heard of this before???

The coolant. These engines experience a phenomenon known as "liner pitting". All "wet" sleeved diesels do to some degree but the 92, in my experience, is more susceptible to this condition than any other engine I have ever worked on. Liner pitting is where small bubbles form in the coolant adjacent to the surface of the piston liner and then explode, supersonically, and blast away tiny fragments of the liner. Ultimately a hole appears in the liner and coolant then leaks into the combustion chamber. This can be almost eliminated with proper coolant maintenance. The proper coolant chemicals need to be present at all times and their levels need to be periodically adjusted in that they do deteriorate over time. This maintenance is achieved through coolant sampling, testing and adjustment using something called SCA or Supplemental Coolant Additives. There are a variety of "systems" available for achieving this alchemy. Some use coolant filters with the additive in the filter itself. But any system still needs to be monitored. Remember this...70% of all catastrophic engine failure begins in the cooling system. This goes for ALL engines.

This is why i asked the questions on it, seems like just regular coolant is not the right thing for the detroit 8v92 engines...

Alnav, thank you very much for the info i am headed down to my engine right now to check for water!! do you mean in that little stainless steel bowl that is under the clear part of the filter? or is the fluid in the clear part all water, looks like thats diesel....so I'm guessing some how the filter extracts the water into that little stainless bowl under it ..???...i have 2 racers for each engine and currently i am running on all 4!! should i only be running on one per engine so the second one can be used in case of a clog? Also in between the two filters is a button when i pushed it, it sounded like some sort of pump went off..... would this be a priming pump for after you change the filter...its the only thing i can think of? When i changed the filters i just poured diesel back in on top when done until it was full...if this is index some kind of pump to fill them back up after a filter change that is just plain awesome :)


Seems like every time i anchor something happens, i must of done several 360 turns around my anchor over the course of the night as i ended up wrapped around a big marker bouy! My anchor chain was all twisted really badly, so the windlass struggled to pull it in!! is there some technique to untwisting the anchor chain when this happens, i got it off the bottom and it spun out until it was straight again but had to pull in around 30 ft of chain all twisted up first where the windlass was making a pretty ugly sound!!
 
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Ray, there is a standard for coolants across makers and all should have a minimum amount of SCA in them but it would probably be best to get the Cat brand if you can. Cat brands test strips as well and you might want to get a kit and test what you have as of now. If it's deficient you add more SCA until the tests come out right. How long has it been since your coolant has been changed? The interval can be quite long but if yours hasn't been done since you bought it and you don't know the history you might want to do a flush (which is usually done when changing the fluid) and refill.

Yes, any water the racors extract goes to the bottom of the bowl at the bottom and can be drained. You might want to open the petcocks on each with a bucket underneath; hopefully you'll just get pure fuel. Running both filters on each engine sort of defeats the purpose of your set-up which is to allow you to quickly shift filters in the event of a blockage while underway so I would recommend changing the setting to one side or the other then periodically change it around to get equal use. Not sure about the button but a priming pump makes sense. On some older engines you have to manually prime if you ever get air into the fuel system which can be a real pain but important to get the air out and not let it get to the injectors.

Found this thread about Cat coolant that might be useful: http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/8194-Replacing-coolant-3116TA-Cats
 
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Alnav: Thanks a ton for the coolant and other info it is very helpful as your posts always are :) My coolant was changed only a few months ago but i do not think he flushed the system ..so think i may do it again as the boat will be getting a lot of use soon ..so doing everything, oil, coolant, filters the works!

Going to a diesel engine place tomorrow so will get new racor filter elements and switch one side off so i can have a clean side in case of emergencies, thanks for that info too alnav :) hey there is also a fuel filter on the engine right, should that also be changed at the same time as a razor element?

I can't believe my bottom already has barnacles again grrrrr!! the anitfoul i have is for the caribbean and does not seem to be working here in australia..so will be a haul out and anti foul in the not to distant future!!

You know the gold stick on trim that is on all the hand railings etc ..anyone have any idea where you can order that from?
I could not find the trim that goes around the doors and mirrors anywhere so i sanded those ones down with very fine paper repainted gold with metallic paint and put a clear coat over the top they turned out great :)

Alnav many thanks once more you always offer great advice whenever i have questions your awesome :)
 
Rob,

just had my boat antifouled at a cost of $5400. Dropped back in the water yesterday.Actually, it looked to good to drop back in the water. my initial quote was for $2700 + $800 for top side polish (hull only) However, this did not include the Hydraulic swim platform (an extra $600) then prop-speed and extra $700 for shafts and props. There were so many barnacles (shell) on the shafts and the props the guy mentioned the previous coat was very thinly applied. Then there were two large anodes $400 and another couple for side power ( thruster) labour cost, environment levy and the bill just creeps up and up..

The previous place I had it done was over near Ruschutters Bay when I purchased the boat. Had the boat surveyed and whilst it was on the stand thought I would have her antifouled etc (save on an extra haul out $700). I left the boat at around 4pm and they hadn't started to prep the boat for antifouling. I was back the next morning around 10 am and the boat was already back in the water...uhm???

This time my boat was out Monday (lunch time) and went back in on Wednesday 4pm

Ozzie
 
Rob, yes, it makes sense to change out all the fuel filters at the same time. Do you know what size your racors are supposed to be? Normally, the racor size is somewhat larger than the engine filter, say, 30 microns on the racor and 2 micron on the engine. Only mentioning this since sometimes folks will put 2 micron racor filters in which may be too small and lead to clogging; the principle is that the racors catch the large chunks then the engine filter does the finer and last filtering.
 
Alnav : thanks so much my friend!! I will be sure to check and make sure I get te exact right micron filters for it all!! Your advice has been a very big help as always :)

I am sooo irritated right now. Was at DH left so I didn't have to pay 200 bucks to just sleep. My berth has again been re arranged so it is very tricky to get into. Would not attempt it at night. I am between a 100 ft catamaran and the end of a barge in front of a house boat hard to explain but I have to go in sideways and only have about 3 ft of lee way both astern and on the now so not something you want to do at night in the dark! Gotta use the engines and thruster just right for her to glide in sideways.

So anyways went to my usual anchoring spot and it's full of boats so went around the corner to black wattle bay. Never anchored in here before. Well it took 8 try's to get the anchor to hold. Dunno what the deal is must be the composition of the bottom it's just would not bloody grab!!
Finally got it to grab and set it
In really good perfectly spaced between te shore and other boats here. Ok here is the weird part that I just can not bloody figure out the windows coming from the north blowing SE every boat in the bay "all sail boats" are of course with the wind to the SE well my stupid boat has done two 360s already and is facing exactly opposite of the wind and the other boats wtf gives. It has brought me at one point pretty close to shore and right now close to a boat I thought I would get nowhere near with the direction of the wind. How the hell or rather why the hell is my boat doing the opposite of what it should be lol it's messed up !! Only thing I can think of is the tide is going out and maybe the current is taking me I'm in some sort of tidal stream. If that is the case why are the sailboats not affected with their keel sticking way down in the water !! They should be worse affected than me. Makes no sense I'm so annoyed just want to sleep, hate anchoring hahah my boat is being a rebel and refusing to co operate grrrrrrrrtrtrrrrr
 
Hi Rob, AlNav

Just thought I would throw my antifoul in. It came up,a couple of weeks ago for anodes on the legs, and they recommended that we should antifoul it now instead of October when I had it booked.

So just got bak from China and my wife handed me the mail, the marina monthly invoice was in there.

Antifoul and prop speed was approx $2000 Plus $420 to polish the hull, the top is getting done this week.

Boat is a 36' so quite a bit less area than yours to do. But I thought it was pretty good. It was up on the slip for 2 days.


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My report after our antifoul

We took the boat for a run yesterday, idled to RMYC here in Pittwater (no wake zone) filled up with fuel $1.56pl (diesel) and filled up with water..then headed out of the no-wake zone to see what see will do with the clean bottom..before antifoul wot 22knts 2230rpm load 100% Now she does 29.7 knts and wot reached 2515rpm Cat c9 rated at 2500rpm (full fuel, full water, and 2pob)

Ozzie
 
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Ian: not bad at all for everything you had done!! Where abouts did you have the work done, somewhere up this way or down in the Port Hacking area ?? Congrats on it all being done must feel great to have her anti fouled new zincs and all polished :) plus she was up on the slip for two days and protected in the wind storm that took out a ton of boats in your area !! Pretty damned good all around! You go to China a ton!!!

Ozzie: that is an absolute massive difference!! Your bottom
Must have been pretty bad? Or was that just normal growth? Nice you will burn much less fuel now and get to where you are going quicker !! How long has it been since anti foul ? Since you got the boat, last June right ?

Ok I am joining the band wagon, you guys talked me into it hahah. Got the gear together and going under the boat again this week :) will be anti fouling in two months but until then my scuba work will have to do!

Pretty proud of myself I will take pics and post tomorrow of where I am berthed now. I literally have 3 ft on either end of the boat my boat is 60 over all from tip of anchor to end of swim platform and i have 65 ft of space, I managed to safely bring her into dock without even a tiny bump in 15 knot winds. You guys will understand when I post the pics. It's very very tight so getting pretty good at this stuff !!

bb.jpg Le cabaret at darling harbour
 
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I have been looking for awhile for different types of trim for the interior of the boat... The gold adhesive trim that goes on all the hand rails and the T moulding trim that goes on the doors around the mirrors... has been pretty hard to find but i have found places that supply them, so posting it here for everyone in case any one els needs to find these parts at some time! They are difficult to find over in this part of the world anyway, part of it may of been i did not know exactly what it was called..

Anyways

T-moulding to go around mirrors etc http://greatlakesskipper.com/produc...e-white-gold-flex-boat-t-molding-10-foot.html

Metallic adhesive backed trim, commonly used on hand rails etc http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Chrome-I...Media&var=&hash=item7917f8f90d#ht_5094wt_1165

Hope this helps someone looking for this stuff :)
 
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