Running Repairs

One of the advantages of living aboard a boat full time is that you can keep on top of maintenance and repairs.  If you look around any marina or boatyard you will see lots of boats looking neglected.  Quite often life get in the way of good intentions and owners don’t get to their boats often enough.  We, on the other hand, have the luxury(?) of seeing issues as they arise and therefore being able to address them before they have a chance to get out of hand.

One particular issue we have had to deal with is that one of our fairleads was ripped out of the toe rail.  When we were on our drying mooring we continually had to adjust our mooring lines to deal with changes in weather and tides.  We were conscious of not interfering with other boats around us as the winds shifted direction, but invariably no matter how much we tried we would end up resting against other boats.  Whilst we were off our boat for a few days our bow lines were adjusted and weights put on by a well-intentioned boat owner.  However, this put an undue strain on the fairlead resulting in it being torn from the wooden toe rail.  I did a temporary repair by moving it inboard but it needed a permanent repair.  Thankfully I had some spare material to fashion a repair piece which I have glued and screwed into the toe rail.  I just need to make the capping piece and refit the fairlead to finish the job.  I find it very satisfying working with wood and hand tools.

 

A less pleasant repair job has been the toilet pump (no photos!)  We noticed a leak coming from the manual toilet pump.  I managed to get hold of a service kit for the pump and set about stripping it down.  Many years of accumulated debris and calcified deposits had blocked the pump and needed to be removed.  Pump cleaned and new seals fitted……and the pump still leaks.  From researching on the internet it would appear that the manufacturers have changed the design slightly.  The two halves of the pump case used to be bolted together but now they use self-tapping screws into plastic.  As a result the plastic threads tend to get stripped out making it difficult to clamp the two halves together.  I have ended up using some sealant in the hope that this will stop the leak.  Fingers crossed!