Water tanks: fill pipes, vent lines, and manifolds

I have eight water tanks under the sole of the forward cabins. The total capacity of the tanks is about 380 gallons. I guess I'll find out for sure what the capacity is once I fill all of them and begin using water. But for right now, I'm sticking with the story of 380 gallons in eight stainless steel tanks.

Because I have 8 tanks I decided to connect all the tanks together via the supply line feeding the fresh water pump. I installed a gate valve at each tank giving me the ability to isolate any one of the eight tanks. I would hate to have a water leak in one tank, and have that leak drain all the tanks. If I do develop a tank problem, I want to be able to isolate it quickly then deal with it on my terms and time. In order to totally isolate the tanks on the suction side, I had to be able to isolate them on the vent and fill side too. Manifolds were the easiest way I could think to accomplish what I had to do.

My deck fill line is 1 1/2" that manifolds to 1" that will fill each tank. I used 1" PVC ball valves and pressure fittings to build the manifolds.

My vent lines are 1/2" leaving the tank, then bush up to 3/4" tube witch goes into 3/4 ball valves, then into a 1" manifold. 1" stainless steel welded into the deck with a goose neck completes the vent. Again, I used PVC ball valves and pressure fittings for all the fittings.

My suction line feeding my pump is 3/4" wire reinforced tube rated for food service. All the ball valves on the suction line are 3/4" brass.

For the vent lines I welded 1" stainless steel into the the hull, then welded a goose neck on the vent above the deck. I epoxied 1" PVC couplers on to the 1" stainless thru hull, then bushed down to my 1" PVC manifold, bushed down to 3/4" slip x thread ball valves, threaded in 3/4" x 1/2" barbs, then went to the each tank with 1/2" tube.

The deck fill is 1 1/2" stainless deck fill bolted the the deck going into a 1 1/2" flexible PVC tubing, that leads to the 1 1/2" sch. 40 manifold.

I had to position the fill manifold ball valves so they would be flush behind the hull liner. The valve handles are easy to operate even though one is turned facing the hull sheathing. I'll have an easy to get to access port in the hull liner behind a cabinet to operate the valves if the need happens.

In some of the pictures, you can see the 1 1/2" bilge pump discharge lines plumbed next to the fill manifold. I have two 1 1/2" bilge pump discharge lines on each side of the hull. More on that later.

All my "behind the wall" construction is done regarding my water tank fill and vent. For that matter all the work under the sole concerning the water tanks is also complete. I'm getting pretty close to start installing the finished hull liner material.

Cabin Foam

While waiting for parts for the Carver boat, I finished foaming the hull. I used 1800 board feet of material to foam the forward hull area, and I'd guess I have a net of 2+ inches on average, maybe closer to 3". As you can see from the pictures, I foamed down to the water line. I did not want to foam below the water line, but I did add insulating beads into my paint to try to minimize condensation below the water line. I did not have enough to foam the anchor chain locker, so I'm going to buy a small 200 board foot kit to foam that area. I was really not ready to foam the anchor locker as I've yet to paint the floor of the chain locker with a rubberized product. I think something like bed liner is what I'll be using to coat the chain locker floor. I will probably also fiberglass over the foam in the chain locker to help protect the foam from getting destroyed by the chain.

I decided to wire the boat after the foaming as I was not too keen on burying wire in the foam. I know I'll have a little bit of a fight getting conduits and wire in now that the foam is in place, but I did spend a day gluing cleats to the hull in strategic spots so I'd be able to attached wires, water lines, hydraulic lines and conduits. My plan as of now, is to keep all my electrical stuff up in the ceilings, and all my water and hydraulic lines lower in the hull below the water line. I'm going to try and use conduit as much as possible, but I'm not opposed to stapling some wires to the framing. My biggest concern is to protect everything and be aware as to not run a screw through any wire as I finish the interior.

I'm going to foam the anchor locker myself. I'm too far into the foam to bring in a contractor to do such a small job as the chain locker, but I will not do the wheel house and salon myself. I'll be bringing in a contractor to finish those areas some time next year. While I'm foaming the chain locker, I'm going to foam the engine side of the engine room door. Right now, the engine room door is my weak link in sound deadening, and with a foam job( or left over rock wool), and some sort of liner, I think I'll be able to quadruple it's sound rating. I'll have a little engineering involved in keeping the door's grease fittings accessible, but I'm not to worried about figuring that one out. My main goal with the engine room door is to give it the ole college try and see what I can do about minimizing sound transmission. If you look at the picture of the engine room door, you can see how thick that wall has become...thick with insulation ( about 7").

The difference in the hull is amazing now that the foam is in. Not only is it much more quiet, the temperature difference is much more noticeable. Once I close things up with the hatch and port lights, I doubt I'll be able to hear any outside noise.

I purchased my foam from www.betterenergy.com, and I was totally happy with the service I got from Michael.

Detour

I've got to take a little detour on the yacht build to take care of some other business. Spring has for sure sprung in my neck of the woods, and work on the yard and work on our 28' cruiser is demanding my time.

The boating season officially opens this weekend as this is when my contract begins on my harbor space. Our plastic cruiser boat is a 1977 Carver that I restored about eight years ago. Late last season, we had a catastrophic failure of the gimbal ring on the TRS drive, and it's a little past time that I get working on it.

I bought a used transom assembly off of Ebay that I am going to re build. Yesterday, I removed my stern drive, and transom assembly off of the Carver, and this morning I steam cleaned all of the parts and started getting things ready for the re build. I'm putting new bellows, gaskets, lower and upper pins, bearings, and seals in the used transom assembly. I'm also going to paint all of the parts with Acrylic Urethane paint while I have everything apart.

I've made a list of parts I think I need but I'm still going to put the transom assembly in a box and bring it down to the local marine repair shop and have him do a parts take off and order what I need. Once I get everything back, I think I can have it all back together and back on the boat in two days time.

While I'm waiting on my parts to come in, I'll paint the stern drive and transom assembly. I'm also going to give the boats bright work a couple of coats of urethane, and some general cleaning. At the end of last season, I purchased a galvanic isolator that needs to be installed along with a new cranking battery and two batteries for the house. In three weeks time, I should be ready to splash her.

Harvest Moon has been a good boat for me, but I'm going to throw a for sale sign on her this season. I need the money from the sale to buy some parts for the yacht. While I dread being boat less for a season, I'm going to commit to launching the yacht for the 2012 boating season.

The shop is about as full as it can get with having Harvest Moon in my working bay. I've always like the size of Harvest Moon, and to be honest with you, it's been plenty of boat for us with 28' LOD, and her 10' beam. But seeing Harvest Moon sitting next the the yacht, motivates me that much more to get the yacht done and love all that space I'm going to have.

I painted the the new transom assembly and stern drive today. I'm going to give them a day or so to cure, then I'll assemble everything this weekend. Hopefully, I'll have her out of the shop by the middle of the week. I'm starting to have some withdrawal from not working on the yacht, and I'm anxious to get Harvest Moon back in the water.

Expansion Tank

My main engine is cooled with a keel cooler welded to the hull. Because coolant will expand as it warms up to operation temperature, I needed to give the coolant a place to go without building pressure on the system and causing the fill cap to burp off coolant.

The expansion tank is at the highest elevation of the cooling system. This will allow me to get air out of the system and also use the expansion tank as the fill point for the cooling system. I made the tank out of a 12" piece of thin walled pipe. Welding a place for the pressurized fill cap, end caps, mounting brackets, level check sight glass, connector fitting on the bottom, and drain fitting on the bottom plus and extra fitting on top was all it took to make the tank. Well I might as well throw in finding the pipe, getting the pipe, cutting the pipe, cutting the end caps, fabricating the fill neck and mounting brackets, air testing, sand blasting, and painting. Now that I think of it, building the expansion tank was a pain in the ass, and if I had to put a pencil to it, I'd say I have 12 hours in it. I could have purchased one for a dump truck for about $250.00 but given my nature of tripping over a dollar to save a dime, I decided to fabricate mine.

I Installed a sight glass in the tank to make checking fluid level easy. Due to height constraints, peering down the fill cap would be difficult, a dip stick would be a pain in the ass, so the sight glass, hands down, is the way to go.

I built the tank a couple of years ago, and now that I have the engine room finished sheathed, I can go ahead and permanently mount the tank. I was able to make the permanent connections to the keel cooler from the engine, and also all the connections to the expansion tank.

I mounted the tank to the bulkhead by using studs welded to the framing. I messed up on one set in regard to how far the studs projected and ending up having to use couplings on the studs then bolting the tank to the coupling. I wanted every part of the tank to be higher than the engine coolant tank, and while I was cutting it close, all the elevations worked out fine. The street 90 at the bottom of the tank is 3/4" higher than the street 90 in the engine.

Oh how nice it is to finally see projects going from the shop shelves to their final resting spot on the boat.

Sea Chest Complete

I finished the sea chest, and installed it.

I've been hunting for a used sea strainer, and finally found one on Ebay. The dude I bought if from had purchased it for his boat then had a change of mind. The strainer is in new condition having never seen the water.

I welded a leg on to the manifold that I will screw on to the fixed panel that covers part of the fuel tank. I'll be able to access the fuel tank clean out without having to take the sea chest apart as the panel I'm using as a brace is adjacent to the access panel.

The final elevation of the top of the "T" is 1" below the water line ( DWL). You can see a line drawn on the fuel tank inspection cover that represents the DWL. I"ll have to extend a nipple up above the DWL, and put a cap on it. Maybe I'm not seeing something in my approach to using a T vs a 90, but I like being able to peek down into the "T" just to see what I can see. I also used a coupling on the end of the manifold that will have a plug in it, so I easily be able to expand my sea chest by adding on to the coupling/manifold. I can also expand the sea chest via the T, but I'd have to go with a self priming device due to elevation concerns.

I think I'm going to remove the plastic bowl on the sea chest and stash it away while I do more fitting out in the engine room. I also have to cut away the piece of angle under the third valve as it is no longer needed and is sort of in the way of the last valve. I think I'll extend the sole under the sea strainer now that I know what the final elevation is going to be. As you can see from the picture, I have enough room to put the valve handles behind the sea chest. Having the handles in the rear is really dumb luck on my part, but nice in that the handles are out of the way and won't snag one as they move past the sea chest.

Now that the sea chest is complete, I can finalize the generator connections.

I like having all my thru hull fittings in one location that is easy to get to. Every time I enter the engine room, it will be impossible not to look at the condition of the sea chest.

Work Bench

I'm kind of in need of a quick easy project ( if there is such a thing on a yacht build), so I decided to build a work bench for the engine room. I have quite a few engine room projects coming up and I want to be able to sit comfortably while I get things done. I'm also getting tired of having tools and parts scattered everywhere, so I'm also contemplating some cabinets and a tool box in the not to distant future.

I don't have any decent plywood laying around the shop, but I do have about 1600 board feet of rough sawn Cherry that's been air drying for the last three years. It's a bit more work to have to joint boards and edge glue them together vs sawing some plywood, but I don't mind. If I can save myself $50.00 for the cost of a sheet of plywood and a trip to the supply house, I'm happy to use some of the rough sawn lumber I have.

It's been a while since I've messed in wood so I had to go over the jointer and make sure it was tuned up. I only had to make a slight adjustment to get the two beds parallel, but other than that, all looked good. After I planed some stock to 3/4", I ran the stock through the table saw a few times to straighten it out a bit. I cut the stock a few inches long, then I ran it all through the jointer to finish the edge. Using a biscuit joiner with #2 biscuits to reinforce the joints, I glued up the panel.

After the glue had cured, I flattened the panel with my air sander using 80 grit paper. My next step was to go over the panel with a DA sander a few times, finishing up with 220 grit. I rounded over the outside edge of the panel, and applied a fiddle to the starboard side. I put a fiddle on this edge since anything that can roll this direction has a good chance of landing in the bilge underneath the engine. Retrieving things from this area would be a pain so I'm trying to head things off with the fiddle.

I'm putting a satin finish on the work bench just to help it stay a little clean. I've never had a finish on a work bench as most of my work benches are steel. I want a wood surface on the boat so I'm not limited as to what I can do at the bench. Steel benches and wood working tools don't mix so well, so wood makes the most sense.

Installing the bench against #9 bulkhead was about as straight forward as one can get. I did have to mess around with the height of my stool/bench combination. The height of the bench came to 33", and the height of the stool will be 23". This is a comfortable height and allows me to sit upright while not hitting my my head on frame #10. I screwed cleats to the fuel tank and #9 bulkhead to support the bench and also fabricated a leg out of stainless steel tube. If the need arises, the bench will be very easy to remove and replace.

I bought a 5" vise to install on the bench, but after sitting the vice on the bench I was not happy with it. The vice dominated the bench, and just plain took up too much room. A smaller vice would not be the answer, as I hate being limited by having too small a vice for such an important tool. A vice is one of my most used tools in my shop, and I want one on my boat. I compromised with myself, and found another location. Aft of the bench where the sole steps up will actually become a good location for the vice. I can sit comfortably on the step and work at the vice. I'm not as limited to the size of work as I would have been in the work bench corner. I can also remove the sole on the step below the vice and pick up another 10" of depth if need be. I"ll have to remove the sole around the vice, reinforce things, then re install a dedicated piece of sole that the vice bolts through. By doing this, I can leave the vice bolted in place and remove pieces of sole to a gain access under the sole for maintenance and future work.

Even though the bench is not as large as I'm used too, it's going to be nice having a work bench on my boat.

Engine room sole

The engine room sole is sheathed with 1/4" aluminum diamond plate.

I was planning on using plywood for the sole due to cost concerns on my part, but having found this plate at the scrap yard has allowed me to go with, what I consider, a more attractive sole. Because of being in the engine room, and also I believe it could be a common event to have to lift pieces of the sole off for maintenance I bolted wood firing to my steel framing and then attach the aluminum sheathing to the wood. If I had screwed the aluminum sheathing directly to the steel I had visions in the not to distant future of broken screws, corrosion where screws penetrated the steel, and just more difficult maintenance in general. Having wood to screw the aluminum in to will also give me a little vibration dampening in my opinion. I'm using #12 x 1.50" stainless steel wood screws that I'm countersinking as my fastener. The sole is complete as I write this post, and to date, I've used 150 of the stainless screws to fasten the aluminum down.

I wanted as much level area in the engine room as I could build, so I stepped the sole framing up as the sole moves aft in the engine room. These steps, while some might not like, give me places of access underneath the sole, and also give me a place to sit while I'm in the engine room. Whenever I give friends tours of the progress, almost everyone sits on one of these steps. This picture to the left shows the platform I built for my tool box, and my hydraulic system reservoir.

I think the largest piece of material I've used for the engine room sole is a finished cut piece of 24"x 24". I don't want to be having to man handle large pieces when I'm I have to access under the sole. I would rather be able to lift smaller pieces, to gain access and still be kneeling or sitting on the level sole. The down side to having all these smaller pieces is I used quite a few screws.

I'm getting a pretty good feel on how the engine room is going to layout and I think I've found locations for the various equipment I'm going to need. I'm going to dedicate the port side of the room up against the main bulkhead at frame #9 as my area for my work bench. While the head room is around 5"4" in this area, I'll be able to use a short stool with a lower work bench to be able to work in a comfortable position. I'll post more about the engine room as a whole once I begin to install the various components.

The last piece of the sole for me to build is the area over the stuffing box. I'm almost out of aluminum plate so I have to give it some thought on how I want to treat this area so I don't waste any material. I think I'm going to hinge a part of this area so I can gain quick access to the stuffing box for maintenance, daily checks for leaks, and stuffing box temperature.

I have 4' 10" of head room on the starboard side of the engine, and 5' 2" on the port side of the engine. I have more headroom on the port side by my design as I knew this area would house my work bench. I'd love to have a stand up engine room, but on a boat my size, I think that would be almost impossible. I think once you get into the 50' range, stand up engine rooms start to appear. I'm totally happy with the size of the engine room, and very pleased with the head room I do have. I'll be able to easily do all my maintenance work in this space in comfort.

The scrap yard aluminum worked out great. There are some blemishes, and some cleaning that will have to be done. I know as construction progresses, the dings I put in the sole, will blend in to what was there. I'll probably never do much more than clean up the mess's I make. I have to say that I love the way the engine room is shaping up.