New Owner With A Question

k9th · Post by **k9th** » Fri May 22, 2009 5:40 pm

I had the boat surveyed just this week by a good friend of mine who is a certified surveyor and a former owner of a marina and boat repair shop of thirty + years. He gave it a very thorough inspection and had a couple of items that have been fixed. She is as ready to go as she will ever be.

I had a seasoned captain go out with me last weekend to teach me how to deal with the twin engine differential steering and he said I did well and was a natural. Guess he just wanted his money with that compliment - eh? He also went over all of the systems with me and was very informative. He personally owns a 12 meter Trojan F series and loves it.

Tomorrow we leave and have to drop a car at our new marina and then drive back to the other marina where the boat is. We will then unload the car and ready the boat for an early morning departure on Sunday. Should be a great trip.

Thanks for all your help - you're a great group of Trojan lovers!

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Sun May 24, 2009 6:30 am

if you are in the baltimore, middle river, towson area, and within the sound of my voice, NEVER EVER under any circumstances, use RON PETRICK as the person to survey your boat. had i known then, what i've learned now, i would have run as fast as i could away from this guy. what ticks me off is that i had not joined this forum before i bought my f-32 or sought the advice from my dad who owned the tri cabin for almost 37 years. if any of you want to know, feel free to email me personally.
needless to say, i am putting out forest fires from the previous owner that, from other slip holders in my marina have told me had just let go or not done at all for the last few years. what boggles my mind is that there were absolutely NO service records or maintenance logs kept, much less any manuals for the genset and the a/c unit. when i spoke to the 'broker' about this, his response was, ''well, you have to expect that in a used boat." BULL CRAP!!!!!!! my dad STILL has copies of every last thing that was done to BUBALA 3, even the ORIGINAL trojan sales order from february 1972. the first thing i did when i bought the f-32 was create a 'service record log book' with everything that has been done to her since august of 2008. i only feel that that is the responsible thing to do and i know each and every one of you will agree with me. when i pass her onto a new owner, he or she will have a record of what was done and when. i could go on and on, but, i want to give you an idea...... as some of you know, i ran out of time last october and had a 'marine mechanic' winterize my engines (if you want to know the schmuck that did it, email me). when i went to the shop to settle up, the owner said, 'oh, by the way, the mechanic 'accidentally' broke one of your seacock lock nuts. it was frozen and he gently tapped it and it broke off but we put the intake hoses in the upright position above the waterline so no water will leak into the bilge' immediately my stomach turned. tapped the lock? HELL NO, IT WAS SHEARED OFF AT THE SIDE PLATE. little did i know everything in the old groco seacocks works in tandem and keeps things closed. last friday when i went to the boat, i noticed that she was 'sitting funny' in her slip. sort of listing a bit so i discovered that the 'gently tapped seacock' was leaking---- it's amazing the amount of water that comes in a sixteenth of an inch crack in a seacock with 13,000 lbs of boat pushing down on it. long story short, i called edwards boat yard and they said 'get her here now and we will haul and block her immediately' you have never seen me move so fast and i did it with the assistance of a fellow slip holder. new ballvalves look great and very easy to use!! new bottom paint and zincs (oh i cant wait to tell you guys about how the transom zinc was put on by the previous owner---ass backwards!!!) they hauled her, blocked her, painted her and put in new ball valves in a week. she is back in her slip, safe and sound.
if any of you need great work, done correctly, and at a fair price, i HIGHLY RECOMMEND EDWARDS BOAT YARD in middle river. i actually watched the fiberglass guy work on a silverton and he is a true master at what he does. i also needed new fiberglassing where the new ball valves did not match up wtih the holes from the old ones and before she was launched, i inspected the hull..... i could not tell that anything was done to her. in fact, the glass guy said he loves working on trojans because of the technique that was used when they were made. apparently trojan used a great resin and lots of glass that is really easy to repair and holds new glass like it was never patched. can anyone expand on this for me? what made trojan resin and glass so special? was it the polyester resin?

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Sun May 24, 2009 7:53 am

Arron I thought you where going to replace The ball valves durring you winter haul out . Well I am glad you got it fixxed .

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Sun May 24, 2009 8:00 am

hi paul, i kept her in for the winter..... i actually don't like having it on the hard over the winter.... after what i've read about shrink wrapping the entire boat and the mold problems, i like having it just sit in the water like she was meant to. i'm actually thankful that the old seacocks did not rupture over the winter. you should see these new ones that edwards put in. apollo with a big movable yellow handle and very easy to operate. the genset and a/c valves work just fine and for now, i will stick with what i have.
like i said, edwards boat yard did a fantastic job.

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Sun May 24, 2009 8:28 am

Great hope you get to use the boat this weekend .

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Sun May 24, 2009 8:43 am

i wish i could paul, but i am on call for the next 5 days. i'm so low on the totem pole that i could get a call from the crew desk any minute. phil and i did take her out for a spin yesterday when we were taking her 'home', and like you said, i could not get the wheel away from him. he really had a blast at the helm. my docking her was another matter. god what a fiasco that was..... i totally sucked at it and was so embarrassed that i buttoned her up and headed home...... for some reason i could not let the boat work for me even with calm winds and virtually no surface current, the undercurrent was wicked. it took me 5 tries to get her in the slip. this old guy at my marina said, ''that should have been a no brainer for you. you really need a lot of help'' yeah, that made me feel good....... anyway, i think i fried my genset impeller too on the short cruise. as phil was piloting her, i looked over the back rail and noticed that water was not flowing from the genset port. i immediately shut it off and opened up the hatch.... it smelled warm, but not like anything was burning (i hope to hell i got to it in time). one thing that did send up a red flag--- the intake hose from the seacock to the waterpump was warm to hot to the touch. what i think happened is that some schmutz got caught into the scoop (its a rectangular screen scoop) and stopped all water flow. when i docked, i detached the genset intake hose and put another one on the seacock and opened her up..... plenty of water flow so that's not clogged. i then put the waterpump hose in a bucket of water and turned it on briefly..... nope, no suction there. i tried to get to the impeller, but onan did not make these iron beasties very DIY friendly (give me a kohler or westerbeke any day!!). one has to remove all the hoses from the water pump and actually take it off to service it and to be honest, i lack the skill, knowledge and every thing else to attempt it. i called my trusty onan guy at cobe marine and hopefully he can come to me in the next few weeks. while i dont 'need' it to go out, i would 'like it' to atleast function. i only hope that pieces of the impeller are not stuck in the heat exchanger or some other place.

k9th · Post by **k9th** » Tue May 26, 2009 9:39 pm

Well we left Sunday at noon and traveled 5 hours the first day until 3-5 foot waves forced us off Lake Huron at Port Sanilac. Spent the night there and left early the next morning with beautiful sunshine but quite breezy. We were forced off of the lake two hours later while in 5-7 foot waves at Harbor Beach, MI. Left there early this morning with rolling waves on the starboard bow at 2-4 feet. Got as far as Port Austin in 90 minutes and forced off again in 3-5 foot breakers.

Boat is performing flawlessly and couldn't be happier with our purchase. Fuel burn has been as outlined in owner's manual getting a little over 1mpg at 2800 RPM.

Using laptop on Wifi and will post updates if anyone is interested.

MattSC · Post by **MattSC** » Tue May 26, 2009 10:27 pm

Thanks for the update, have a safe trip

Jerry · Post by **Jerry** » Tue May 26, 2009 11:13 pm

I hope your trip gets better. I know the wind has been blowing pretty good here for the last 36 hours or so.
Gotta love that WiFi. I am on my boat as we type.
Keep us updated.

LSP · Post by **LSP** » Tue May 26, 2009 11:31 pm

k9th ...it's much easier dealing with the weather conditions when your vessel's performing so well. Keep us updated....take care

k9th · Post by **k9th** » Wed May 27, 2009 3:01 pm

It is Wednesday and we were weathered out today with dense fog all along our intended route the day. I have radar but the antenna has not been mounted yet. I am getting a special mast made and it was not ready before we left. No fun trying to dodge the freighters and fishing boats in the fog. It is 3pm and visibility is still less than 1/2 mile. Sometimes I can barely see the break wall that is about 200 yards away.

Will try again in the morning. Our next destination is Cheboygan, MI about 120 miles from here. The weather is not supposed to be great but hopefully travelable.

I am getting very familiar with SeaDog's various systems and making notes of changes I want to make, like overhead lights in the engine room and the forward area where the water heater, holding tank, and vacu-flush system is located.

This ship has a very gentle ride - even in 4-6 foot breaking waves. I have been very happy with her on every front.

More tomorrow - hopefully from Cheboygan, MI.

k9th · Post by **k9th** » Thu May 28, 2009 8:39 am

Well here it is Thursday morning and the fog is so thick I can't see the marina office a mere 80 yards away. Water has calmed down from 4-7 footers overnight. Still saying 3-5 out there but supposed to subside to 1-2 footers by noon and fog supposed to lift by then.

Looks like a front coming through with the wind shifts predicted in the forecast. Hoping to get out late this morning if the fog ever goes away. If we are weathered out today I will have to consider finishing the trip on succeeding weekends as vacation is over and we both need to be back at work on Monday.

I find it very interesting that the only weather system that I can see bringing any problems at all right now in the entire US is right over us. Spring time on the great lakes - what can I tell you.

More later.

gjrylands · Post by **gjrylands** » Thu May 28, 2009 9:52 am

Murphyâ€™s Law! I hope the fog lifts and you can continue you journey. According to the marine forecast, you should have good traveling conditions once the fog lifts. I hope youâ€™re able to make it to Cheboygan tonight. It should be around a 7 hr run if you are able to run at cruising speed. At least you have one thing going for you, it stays light pretty long this time of year being on the western edge of the eastern time zone.

Keep safe and keep us informed.

k9th · Post by **k9th** » Thu May 28, 2009 8:50 pm

Greetings from Presque Isle, MI. We left Port Austin at 1pm under partly sunny skies after the fog lifted. We soon ran back into it and spent most of the 5 1/2 hr trip today in visibility less than 2 miles - a lot of it in visibility less than a mile. It was accompanied by rain, drizzle, and cold temps. But the water was 1-2 foot waves and very travelable. Not something I would recommend anhyone do without radar, but these are my home waters and I knew where to be on the lookout for freighters.

I am really beginning to appreciate the quality, craftsmanship, and great design of this boat. Again she ran flawlessly without so much as a hiccup. One thine I need to figure out though - the proper fuel management strategy. I have the optional 230 gallons of fuel and I am assuming that the generator draws fuel from the larger starboard tank. I have not yet located that fuel crossover valve but need to. The dock hand did not comkpletely fill the port tank and when I docked 5 1/2 hours later, the starboard tank was reading 1/8 full and the port tank was reading nearly 5/8 full. I need to balance this better somehow. Will opening the crossover do that?

Hope to leave for Lake Michigan tomorrow and the forecast is sunny with following seas and 1-2 foot waves for Friday - Sunday. Finally some nice weather.

More tomorrow as we press toward Michigan City,IN and SeaDog's new home.

LSP · Post by **LSP** » Thu May 28, 2009 9:13 pm

Good hearing from you k9th ... keep the updates coming. Take care