Some of you may have noticed that it's been quite a few days since my last article. Well 12 to be precise. While I have plenty to write about, the time just has not been there to sit down and focus on telling the story.
Since returning from Lake Park on Sunday, March 2, I have literally been working from sunrise to late in the evening each day (except last weekend - see future article). The challenge is working with Outer Reef to resolve the many problems that wind up on my punch list. As of today, that list shows 9 open active items. 3 items being held in abeyance and, thankfully, 65 resolved problems.
All told, we have encounter 77 problems as of this writing. Why so many you ask? Well, for starters we, meaning Outer Reef and myself by mutual agreement, rushed the commissioning. They wanted the boat in the Miami Boat Show and so did we as it would eliminate one of our four boat show obligations. We also wanted to move aboard.
Outer Reef usually takes 30 days or more to commission a boat. Given our mutual goal, that time was reduced to eight days. We took delivery on the 10th and moved the boat to Miami the following day. The other factor is simply the result of using the boat. Problems bubbled to the surface as the result of living aboard and cruising. To date the boat has moved six times; a sea trial on the 10th, Fort Lauderdale to Miami on the 11th, Miami to Fort Lauderdale on the 19th, a Cat warrant activation sea trial on the 19th, a run to Lake Park on the 26th and a return to Fort Lauderdale from the Lake Park Trawlerfest on March 2.
Further, while annoying, the problems themselves are not significant. Just stuff that needs to be corrected. Moreover, Outer Reef has stepped up to the plate with action. Hard to complain about Outer Reef.
Just for perspective, our much smaller and far less complex 2006 48 Sundancer had over 80 items on the punch list and one of them was very significant. Sea Ray had built a boat with and partially enclosed hardtop and failed to consider the possibility of condensation on the windshield and therefore did not include a defroster. Sea Ray had to retrofit a defroster and it took them two years to engineer a marginal solution.
So why the stress? My best explanation is a cliché; "good things come in bunches like bananas." Stuff seems to happen all at once and on a continuous basis. Several people often at the same time looking for us to make decisions and, while dealing with their issue, we often encountered other problems. The note pad in my pocket kept filling with notes. Even while trying to capture the problems on my punch list other issues would come up. Meanwhile the phone is ringing of the hook. Evenings are spent consolidating what I learned on procedural checklists.
Last Wednesday (3/5) is a good example. I told Captain Randy, who heads the commissioning team, that I would like to top off my fuel tanks. Reason: We need full fuel to determine if the boat needed to ballasted to compensate for the weight distribution of the stuff we brought aboard. Randy had the fuel truck at the dock at 8:30AM just as I was taking the furry kid for a walk. Fortunately, the 86 also needed fuel. When I returned Randy advised me to transfer fuel from the main tanks to the auxiliaries. Two reasons: 1. So I could practice and 2, so we only had to fuel two instead of four tanks.
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| Fuel Transfer Manifold with valves positioned |
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| Tank valves opened (the step I forgot) |
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| Fuel Transfer Control Panel |
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| Fuel Polishing Filter |
Turns out I was not totally schooled in fuel transfer. Fortunately Randy was close by and helped me resolve the problem. I forgot open the tank transfer valves, which resulted on the system reporting a clogged filter. Transfer complete we start fueling, which takes a bit of communication with the person on deck and the person watching the site gauges on the tank. Meanwhile, while this was going on we get an GOST alarm activation for no apparent reason, which precluded me from capturing what I just learned on my ever growing procedural checklist.
Fueling finished I try to resolve the false alarm and in the process discover that Concord, the electronics supplier, failed to program the names of the 13 zones monitored by the security system. As a result, the text messages I got had a zone number only. It was impossible to figure out the problem (unless I had memorized the name of each zone). Now I needed to spend almost two hours on the phone with GOST resolving that issue. Intermixed with all this was the discovery of several new problems and the need to verify problems that Outer Reef was reporting as resolved. I can't even remember what else happened that day.
Below is an example of the kind of problem were dealing with. Why is there water in the bilge?
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| Dual water pumps is forward bilge with water that does not belong there |
Here's the good news. We can see light at the end of the tunnel (otherwise I would not be writing this article).
Stay tuned for more articles. All of the next ones will be more upbeat.
Written by Les
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