Congratulations on your purchase! I look forward to following the thread.

 

I went through a few of those after buying my 400DB. I got a new alternator from Seaboard Marine (sbmar.com). I got replacement Carling Switches and interior cabinet latches from Flounder Pounder.

Good luck with everything.

 

The boat cleared customs and we officially closed on Friday, 7/18. The mechanic will be starting work on the motors starting this week, and go for about 2 weeks. Aside from some computer ECM upgrades, we're going through the entire cooling system, full fluids flush, oil change, new SMX water pumps, etc. The boat has 1000 hours on it, and was maintained 'ok' - just not up to our expectations yet. No blow-by, makes RPM just fine... But just don't put the port motor in reverse! That made docking fun!

The canvas guy came Saturday, 7/19 for a materials list and walk through. He pulled the original (circa 2004) canvas yesterday. We're replacing the entire bridge canvas (and top bimini frame). We'll be full Makrolon when it's done in a few weeks.

And, the boat detailer has been workin' overtime on the boat giving it a full compound, wax, and polish of all surfaces. It's been outside all it's life, but the sun up here isn't nearly has bad as it is down south (on either coast).

Here's a pick with the canvas off. The goal this week is to have the new bimini's installed and templates done for the front panels. We'll have a big fold up panel in the front, and 2 on the sides. On the back, the center will fold up.

 

Congrats...quite a move up!

 

Love those boats...congrats!

 

Nice boat. Always fun (and a little expensive) to get them where you want them. Sounds like you're committed to getting a quick and thorough start!

One thing I noticed is that in your first pictures, there appears to be a Sea View glass/wiper insert in the center bridge panel. You indicate your new enclosure will have a fold-up center panel. The Sea View seems like it would be particularly useful in the Seattle area but you've obviously vetted out the deicsion to go without it. FWIW I've found mine to be very useful. I only mention it because there have been other bridge owners on here looking to buy one, and I believe Sea View is no longer in business. You might get some interest here from others willing to help you part with it if you want to sell it.

Enjoy the project and keep us posted - this will be good to follow!

 

I am not a fan of the Sea View. I understand it's value, surely, but I have found that as long as the Makrolon is fairly vertical, that it repels water fairly well. And frankly, if the weather is that bad, we'll stay on the dock and wait it out. With young kids, it's not worth the risk for us.

If anyone is interested in the Sea View, shoot me a PM. Shipping will be a pain, but it's a good unit. I have to remove the switch and washer fluid reservoir still, but consider it available. I know these were expensive.

My other option is my canvas guy will make me another center panel to mount the sea view in... and I can put it up in the winter, remove in the summer kind of thing... I'm not sure it's worth it to me.

 

Here's one that's worth a laugh.

The boat came with 2 single Polyform fender holders. great! Only, one of them was mounted. The other had the mounts on the rail, but the basket was in a closet in the master stateroom. It was missing 2 screws that mount the basket to the U-rail mount. ok, no big deal.

I like using factory parts where possible... I called Polyform (who are out of the Seattle area) - and ask for 2 screws. They proceed to inform me that these screws are 'special', and are made in Europe just for them (one of the Scandinavian countries).

So, I fell for the snake oil... $16 later for 2 screws the basket is on. At least the screws worked and weren't stripped out or anything. Better than buying an entirely new basket...

 

You got screwed.......sorry couldn't resist.

 

Haha! That's true!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Todd

 

As I continue to recover from the reaming of paying $17 for 2 screws, I received a better package in the mail from Marinebeam.

Approximately 50 LED bulbs to update the halogens. I chose not to go with the highest power LEDs available - we're not trying to light up a football field. The boat gets plenty of light. All the Sea Ray puck lights (this boat has almost 30 of them) gets the new 9 LED back pin. Apparently, these are just about as bright as the 10 LED, with more efficiency, and significantly cheaper. Picked up some festoons to replace the courtesy lighting, some side pins for the closet/bilge lights with adapters, etc... Anyone know how the warm the 'warm white' really is compared to the halogens?

Jeff gave me a great club sea ray discount, and the quantity discount sure helps.

 

Anyone know how the warm the 'warm white' really is compared to the halogens?

We just finished the same upgrade from Marinebeam. They are the same color just brighter as the originals. You'll be happy with results.

Bill

 

The Marinebeam LEDs are almost all in....

I replaced 28 of the halogen g4's that were in all the ceiling puck lights and the reading lights in the staterooms. Replaced some of the outside lights, and the bilge bayonet lights (with adapters and side pin g4's).

I didn't want 'more' light. I was also very worried about how blue these LEDs would look compared to a traditional halogen.

Kudos to marinebeam... I was going to spend the money on a 10 or 12 LED setup, but they pointed me to a cheaper 9 LED version that replaces the 6 on their website.... Newer chipset/technology for greater efficiency and output. I am very, very happy.

Can anyone guess which one is the LED?

 

Question for folks...

Does ANYONE know how to get the Zenith flatscreen off it's mount in the salon? This is baffling me... I posted on the 44 db, but haven't gotten any ideas from over there.

 

If it is like my 44 Dancer remove the grill above the TV. There are 4 black screws that hold it in and there should be access to the TV.

 

Well, when you don't know quite how to take something apart, you just start peeling back the onion. I started with the HVAC vent above the TV for access. Nope, that's an enclosed cabinet (good time to clean it out though!)

So, I went lower, and started looking at how to disassemble the electronics panel (I'll need to anyway). Low and behold, there are 2 silver screws on each side of the panel. I only started with the one's I could easily get to, and I felt a thud on my head and the TV swung down.

Ingenious way of mounting for sure... It makes finding some spacers and screws to mount the new 28" Samsung alot easier than dealing with a mount. And for serviceability - 2 screws and it's down!

 

Along with the TV, came the bigger weekend project....

The boat had no hot water. You'd think, during the survey, the Canadian surveyor would have powered it up and tested it. Nope. No mention. There was mention that 'the hot water tank might need servicing' based on a visual inspection and identification of some corrosion at the installation location. That was all.

Well, when we got the boat into the states, and fired it right up -- and saw there was no power registering on the meter. I opened the valve, and there was pink coming out of the tank. Apparently, they winterized it, and never de-winterized it (who knows how long ago that was!)

There are no heat exchanger lines hooked up from the factory (not sure why).

I looked at alot of replacement options, but it appeared that most all of them are made by the same company. I stuck with an 11 gallon. I did a brief inspection in the lazarette pre purchase to see if there were any obvious limitations to consider in terms of size.

I went with a Kuuma brand - aluminized. Most all of them in that $250-$400 range are aluminized. I figure, this one went 8-10 years. If the new one lasts that long, money well spent.

Access to the tank is limited. You definitely have to remove the starboard motor exhaust pipe, and at least 1 of the bow thruster batteries. Getting the mounting screws out and unwiring the unit wasn't too bad. But, good luck if you want to drain the tank. Sheesh. I shut off the feed line, and the pressure pump - and let the faucets do their best. But, I couldn't get a drain hose hooked up as the drain valve points towards the hull and was too low. After 4 beers and alot of swearing, I unplugged all the hoses, let those drain a bit, and then pulled the tank closer to mid-ship in the bilge. I drained it there before taking it off the boat.

Installing was much better with an empty tank. Fit was definitely a little tight, and required a little re-routing of a wire harness and the bilge wash down valve.

Expected the swap to take 2-3 hours... max. Well, 6 hours later it was finally done. Fair Game has a fresh hot water supply. The mechanics are going to put heat exchanger lines in for me (with valves), and put the exhaust stack back on.

We'll see how long the Kuuma lasts. I think I paid $280ish for it. You can easily spend 750-900 on a tank. Seems outrageous. All but one valve (the pressure relief) was a straight swap with some teflon tape.

 

We're making progress. We've now got all new bridge canvas up. Seamark on the top bimini's, and Makrolon panels all around. The center front, 2 sides, and the rear panel all fold up so we can get air flow without removing panels. My canvas guy made me some sleeves for the other rear canvas panels for storage behind the hatch when we want to pull all of them off. Should last another 10 years!

 

Nice work. Did you get to head south this weekend?

 

We did finally finish with the mechanic and some of the other work in Bellingham. The boat is now down to Lake Union for it's winter home. BTW - I need to connect with you for that switch!

While the boat was up in bellingham for a few weeks, we tore down the cooling system, installed new SMX pumps from sbmar, serviced the aftercoolers, heat exchangers, gear coolers, replaced a fuel cooler, full fluids on all mechanicals, valve adjustments, replaced one of the alternators, new belts, and replaced multiple hoses/fuel lines/oil lines. Updated the ECMs on the 480CE's, and so far, she's running great. Hopefully that means we can focus on everything else now. Not alot of pictures to take of the service work - it was more of a marathon push with the mechanic and myself to go through everything.

Here's the co-captain for our trip down south. He loves the new boat.

 

I just found this thread so I'm late coming to the "Congrats Party", but let me add my congratulations to you on the purchase of a nice looking boat. The improvements and upgrades you're making will make this a more enjoyable NW Cruiser!

Where are you on Lake Union?

 

Where are you on Lake Union?

South end of Lake Union in the Fairview Marina (over by Daniel's Broiler). Thanks for the welcoming!

 

anybody know what this is behind my hot water tank? There is one on the starboard side as well behind my waste tank.

This wouldn't be the vacuum generators/pressure tanks for my vacuflush, would it?

 

Yes, indeed. Vacuum generator for head.

 

Canvas job looks great. Awesome boat.

 

Canvas looks great! Congrats on the new boat!

 

Hey CC, I did the same tear down and cleaning of my coolant system when I bought my boat, which included replacing an aftercooler. I also had to get a new alternator. But how did you determine you needed to replace fuel and oil hoses? Were there obvious leaks?

 

I had a various number of hoses that were showing a fair bit of wear, rubbing on an engine mount, corroded, or somehow was used incorrectly for the application. This boat was in mechanically rough shape, but no blow by.... The core of the motors were good, but it seemed like there were a few areas of patchwork. I replaced a couple of hoses just because they were difficult to get to if I ever did have a problem and I was already digging around that area of the motor. We had one collapsed fuel cooler, which is a hard one to imagine, but it can happen. Hind sight, I should have just removed the fuel coolers altogether since they are just on the return side. The big mechanical snafu was that the port motor would stall when bumped in reverse. Crazy, but it appears to be somewhat common for the motors, and was a computer ECM update more than anything.

Every used boat will need some work mechanically, this one was just one that had a great 'core', but needed alot of TLC. it will be an ongoing project. We also added heat exchanger lines off the starboard motor to the water heater (which I also replaced). Why Sea Ray didn't put those in is beyond me. I have cutoff valves for those as well.

 

Just found this. Great boat! Unlike the day boats, these boats generally are at the dock with electrical power or out running with the generator on at least a few hours a day, so, no real need for a raw water heat exchanger on the water heater. On my 250, I had replace the water heater just because of the huge mess on the raw water side. If you could find a way to flush it without affecting the engines, that would be great.

Is there any progress with Makrolon over the last few years? I loved that stuff on my 340 except where it crazed after a few years.

 

I Put valves that shut off the heat exchanger lines from the hot water tank if I need to isolate things. That should make it easier for me if there is ever an issue. I appreciate the value that the heat exchanger brings -- we don't usually run with the genny on - unless we need A/C. That way, the admiral can still have hot water. And, if we're just out sitting quiet for a bit, hot water will last.


As for the Makrolon, I think it completely depends on where the boat is. Up here in the Pacific Northwest, a well cared for Makrolon enclosure can last easily 10-12 years. I think down south (east or west), the sun just does more damage. We love the feeling of 'windows' that it brings rather than rolling up canvas. For me, the price was not significantly different for Makrolon versus an upper end strata glass.

 

Congrats and happy cruisin'!!

 

Made some progress on the TV finally. I'm not super happy with the $6 mount, but it will work for now until I find something better. This is the 28" Samsung TV from Costco. Fits between the cabinet ends quite well I'd say. It is straight (even though the pic shows a bit of a tilt). OTA HD signals come in great in our slip. I just used about 1.25" spacers off the mount to the TV to make up for the gap between the fold down panel, and where the TV is. That much spacer creates a little more flex than I would like - as does a $6 tv mount have a bit more flex. But, it'll work for now.

We'll be adding KVH satellite in the coming weeks, but at least we have a start!

Pics are from what it was, to what it is as of Friday!