Guided Discovery: Shipyard Visit: Week 43

Note to Readers: This article is very technical.

Below are three photos. The first is that of a finished engine room. The second and third are of my engine room as of Week 42.

Finished engine room looking aft

Week 42. Engine Room looking forward

Week 42. Engine Room looking aft
Newly installed Racor filter system for engine and generators

While helpful, the photos fail to reveal much of the equipment and the great job that Tania and Outer Reef does in locating equipment in a way that it can be accessed for maintenance. In fact during my exploration of the engine room I only found one item that would be difficult to access and that was a generator starting battery for the 16KW unit of the starboard side. Removal of this battery requires the person to be a bit of a contortionist and a Rubik's Cube expert.

1. Starboard side forward bulkhead
Reverso Fuel polishing system control (top left)
Reverso Quick Oil Change manifold and valves (bottom left)
ABT TRAC hydraulic system reservoir with filter (top right)
ABT TRAC hydraulic system manifold (bottom right)

2. Port side forward bulkhead
Fuel manifold (upper half of the box)
Fuel polishing system fuel management valves

3. Fuel polishing system pump and filter mounted on port fuel tank
Port fuel tank site glass (right side of photo)

Explanatory Note: Filtration of fuel is a critical issue with diesel engines and the cause for most problems. Diesel fuel can contain water and dirt, which is related to timing of marina fuel deliveries or drawing fuel from the bottom of the marina's tanks. It can also contain bacteria related to sitting in the boat's fuel tanks (and, quite possibly, from marina's where they sell very little diesel). Either of these problems can cause the engine(s) to fail.

The 63 is equipped to deal with these problems of three levels. These include the 20 micron Racors (second line of defense), the 2 micron on-engine fuel filters (3rd line of defense) and the fuel polishing system (first line of defense), which eliminates bacteria, dirt and water).

4. Groco port engine sea water strainer

Explanatory Note - Raw Water Strainers: Modern diesel engines have self contained cooling systems that use an engine driven pump to circulate coolant (antifreeze) through the block. The coolant is cooled by running sea water through heat exchangers attached to the block (see photo below - the heat exchanger is the area of the engine labeled "CAT Marine Power"). The addition of a heat exchanger is one of the modifications that converts a truck engine into a marine engine.

Raw water enters the boat through a "through" hull fitting into the raw water or sea strainer where debris is caught in a filter. Filtered water then is pumped into the heat exchanger. The sea strainers eliminates blockage on the heat exchanger passages and prevents engine overheating.

5. CAT C9 (503HP) Engine
Heat exchanger marked "CAT Marine Power"

6. Looking in to engine room from the master stateroom
Groco sea water strainers in foreground, from left to right:
Starboard engine
Chilled Water System
Hydraulic system
Port engine
Chilled water system water pump and back-up (behind strainers)

Explanatory Note: Outer Reef installs Groco sea strainers with stainless steel filter baskets inside a glass container. The use of glass enables the operator to visually inspect the sea strainer for debris caught in the filter.

This is a substantial improvement over the system in the 48 Sundancer which had a brass container. The strainer had to be opened in order to check for debris. In principle, this should have been easy. Unfortunately, Sea Ray located the strainers in a position where the sea cocks could not be easily operated and therefore the flow of water could not be shut off. When the strainer was opened sea water flowed into the boat. Checking the filter basket was a nightmare.

7. Close up of raw water pumps for the Cruisair Chilled Water HAVC System
The second pump is installed as a back-up

8. ABT TRAC raw water pump for hydraulic system cooling mounted forward of the starboard engine

Explanatory Note: The rather small innocent looking pump in the photo above is the most critical pump on the 63. It pumps raw water into a heat exchanger located on the hydraulic reservoir (see photo above). Overheating of the hydraulic fluid requires the both the hydraulic system and both engines to be shut down if the temperature reaches 180 degrees, after which severe damage occurs to the hydraulic system. Engine shut down is required as the hydraulic system pumps are driven by power takeoffs mounted to the engines (see photo 9 below). ABT TRAC has recently redesigned their raw water pump to incorporate a stainless steel impeller rather than one made of rubber thereby greatly reducing the chance of impeller failure.

9. Port engine power take-off hydraulic system pump
Powers the hydraulic system including thrusters, stabilizers and windlass

10. ABT TRACK Stabilizer Actuator located forward of the engine room.
Note: The stabilizer actuator in accessed through handing lockers on the aft bulkhead in the master stateroom

11. Cruisair Chilled Water HAVC System

Explanatory Note: The Cruisair Chilled Water AC system is very different than the HVAC treatment in the 48 Sundancer. The 48 had four self contained systems located in the four major spaces (V-berth, salon, guest stateroom and helm area). Each unit contained a compressor, condenser and air handler mounted within the space that they serve. Two problems arise from this type of installation, noise from the machinery and tight installations making maintenance and repair more difficult. The self contained unit in the salon was actually accessed through a panel in the guest SR. It's removal would have required disassembly of the surrounding woodwork and considerable expense.

The condenser and compressor for the chilled water (aka "tempered water") system is located in the engine room thus greatly reducing noise (especially in the 63 where the engine room is heavily insulated). The chilled or heated fresh water is then pumped through an insulated piping loop to air handlers which are located in the living spaces (salon, galley, pilothouse, VIP SR, guest SR and master SR). The engine room components are readily serviceable.

12. Starboard engine exhaust leading to mufflers installed in the lazarette
Charles ISO Boost Transformers and breaker boxes (to the left of the worker)

13. Engine starting battery (port side)
Hydraulic pump in the foreground

14. Cruisair Chilled Water HVAC System controls mounted in the lazarette

15. Combination battery charger/inverter for the house batteries

Explanatory Note: The inverter converts 12 volt battery power to 120 volt AC. This enables us to power a limited number of appliances while underway, such as the refrigerator and freezer, without having to turn on the generators. The inverter can run a TV, computer printer, microwave and even power tools. However, it does not have the power to operate equipment with a high amperage draw like, for example, the HVAC system. For that we need to operate the generator.

16. House battery banks located in the lazarette
Cruisair Chilled Water System control boxes (on bulkhead)

17. Port aft bulkhead (close to catwalk)
Battery switches
Generator controls with engine gauges
Generator breaker box (top of photo)

18. Port aft bulkhead (closest to hull)
12KW generator, muffler left rear, and 24 volt charger for engine starting batteries

The following equipment relates to the operation of the galley, heads, HVAC and sinks.

19. Fresh water pumps located on top of the 300 gallon water tank

Explanatory Note: Outer Reef installs two water pumps. Either can be used as the primary or the backup. Notice the yellow control valves. The backup is the one with the yellow handle pointed up.