Bad Things and New Projects

Vero Beach
No LL

I told yesterday about the broken screw in the propeller. Last night, our main battery voltage suddenly dropped to 10.5 volts on both batteries! That's really dead.

I scrambled to start the Honda generator to charge them up. The starter rope broke off when I pulled it. Double Oh no.

This morning, I opened up the engine compartment and started to remove the batteries to take them back to the store and trade them for new ones. First though, I checked the water level in the cells. Surprise! They were very low on water. I don't really understand that. I have been checking the water level every month or so and it was always fine. I don't know if the low water was the cause of a battery problem or a symptom of some other problem. Anyhow, I refilled the cells with distilled water and we'll try them for a few days before taking any other action.

I then set out to repair the Honda generator. I never had a recoil starter apart before. Needless to say, as I took it off, the recoil spring unwound. What a pain that was. It took Libby and I 3 hours to rewind that spring and put it back. Now, I have the whole thing together with a new rope. It started, but it makes a bad noise. There is a nylon pawl that sticks out to start, and should retract when running. It's not retracting and it hits on the rotating parts, making the noise. I don't know what to do about that. Does anyone have experience with small engine recoil starters?

This afternoon I started with paint stripper. I'm removing the old deck paint in preparation for repainting. The old paint I used, Interlux Topsider, turned out to be very unsatisfactory. It didn't stick, flaking off in places. That could be poor preparation on my part. It also wore completely through three coasts in high traffic areas in less than a year. It also seems to absorb dirt and it looks dirty everywhere we walk.

I bought a gallon of tug boat deck paint. That stuff, I hope will be immune to all those problems. It is also non-skid. One applies is with a very coarse roller.

We also ordered new cockpit cushions. We have custom fitted vinly covered foam cushions. They are ideal for our purpose, but the vinly came the end of life and began to crack and split in multiple places. New custom cushions are very expensive. Nearly $900. But we can't get along without them.