Finally bought a boat

[Fighterpilot]

You have seem me posting on the site for a number of months and I appreciate all the information you have furnished. Gave me confidence in buying a Californian. The boat is a 1983 Wellcraft-Californian 34LRC with the 3208 cats. Not with out some issues but at $25,000 I felt I could stand a few projects.


-- Edited by Fighterpilot on Friday 21st of October 2011 03:38:08 PM

 

[Edelweiss]

Wow!! looks good and at a great price too. *Where are you going to keep her? *Better start working on a name??

Congratulations and welcome to the Californian owners club

Larry B

 

[Fighterpilot]

Thanks, home port will be Milton, Fl, over in the panhandle of Florida. The present name is Amazing Grace, which has a nice ring to it. We're thinking about the name.

Of interest the props are 22 x 24 which was a surprise. Wasn't expecting the 24 pitch since the boat did reach engine rated 2800 rpm at wot. Of course we were light so may have to consider removing some pitch after I get it loaded. Boatdiesel.com calculator says a 25 and 1/2 inch pitch prop is called for with the 22 inch dia. and a displacment of 23,000 lbs. I added 5000 lbs to the out the door 18,000 to come up with a load--may be too conservative here. That is considering the 210 hp engines so maybe 24 pictch will work. An extra set of props came with it so I can have the old ones reworked if need be.* New A/C 4 years ago but only 16,000 BTU so not sure if it will do the job, although owner assured me it would.

One of the issues is the leaking port fuel tank. From the posts on this forum it appears I can cut the deck and replace the tank or cut the tank and replace with smaller multiple tanks that will fit thu the aft hatch or down thru the cabin hatches past the engines and the generator. Not sure which way to go. Cut deck or multiple tanks. Also, shower drains into the bilge--is that common? The forums thoughts are welcomed.

 

[Anthonyd]

In my opinion all waste water should go to a tank, gray or otherwise. Rain and spray should go overboard. It can be difficult to get all of the water out of a bilge due to ease of access. Water in the bilge can promote mold and other problems. Your condition of shower water going to the bilges may indicate another problem.

 

[Edelweiss]

Fighterpilot wrote:
Thanks, home port will be Milton, Fl, over in the panhandle of Florida. The present name is Amazing Grace, which has a nice ring to it. We're thinking about the name.

Also, shower drains into the bilge--is that common? The forums thoughts are welcomed.

Wow!! *That's a great name, not bad. *I kept the original name on mine too. *Bad luck to change a boat name, I'm told!!

I can't imagine Wellcraft removed the shower pumpout when they took over production from Marshall and let the shower drain into the bilge? (not a good idea!!) So you probably have a pumpout button/switch near the water valves in the shower. *Either the switch or pump has failed and they disconnected the hose at the pump and are letting it run into the bilge. *Drain pumps on mine are PAR diaphram pumps probably under the floor or mounted inside the engine room on a bulkhead. If you can locate the pump they are rebuildable. *(Let me know if you need help with this.)

Flywright, I believe posted something about replacing the tanks on a 34', mine is a 37' aftcabin so the tanks are a completely different setup. (You would like mine, pick up the aft double bed flooring and lift them out!)

Best of luck

Larry B


-- Edited by Edelweiss on Saturday 22nd of October 2011 12:12:32 PM

 

[FlyWright]

FP,

Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the club!!

My shower has a pushutton on/off switch in the shower to cycle the pump on and off. The water passes out a through-hull on the stbd side. Should be fairly easy to retrofit to an above-waterline through-hull. There's room to work in the stbd side cabinet area aft of the head sink.

 

[Larry M]

Fighterpilot wrote:
....*Also, shower drains into the bilge--is that common?...

*
<h3 class="dialog_title">Rule Shower Sump System</h3>
<table style="width:100%;" border="0"><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2" align="left" valign="top" width="100">

</td></tr></tbody></table>

For ~$100.* They do periodically take a little maintenance to clean the screen.* You can also drain your AC condensate pans into them.** And congratulations on the new boat.

 

[Fighterpilot]

Will get some pictures of the table. PO says shower water is pumped out thru side thru hull. Brought it home yesterday. Initially, port engine wanted to heat up at 2500RPM so ran 5 hours at 8knots. For the last half mile ran 2500 knots again and temp stayed around 182. Suspect the thermostat was sticking since boat hadn't been used much during the last year and after 5 hours of use or sometime before it freed up. I posted on the trawler site a question about the doors. Hard to open an close. Hope that isn't standard.


-- Edited by Fighterpilot on Thursday 3rd of November 2011 06:20:02 PM

 

[Delia Rosa]

I'm looking forward to pictures of the table too.... we need to build a new table for Delia Rosa and I am looking for ideas!

 

[Fighterpilot]

Delia Rosa, PM me your email and I'll send you some pictures.

 

[Per]

congrats with your Californian, she looks great.

our shower has a sump pump actuated by presence of water, it pumps out thru hull.

fuel tank is going to be a bitch, let us know how that works out.
i like the idea of cutting up the old tanks and installing smaller units, not having to cut open the deck..
honestly, you dont really need that much fuel. 100-150 gallons i think is just fine.

what kind of cruise speed / top speed do you see ? wot?
do you use a heat gun for the engine temps?
the installed meters are often not very accurate.

 

[Fighterpilot]

Lightly loaded saw 21knots wot and 16knots at 2400rpm. Used a heat gun to check engine temps. Trying to repair water leak from port engine, inboard riser--fiber glass tube that hooks to elbow crushed a bit and water leaking there. This has the cabin sag like a number have mentioned. Water pooling at the aft corners of the cabin.

Will need more fuel. 24nm run to the pass into the gulf and than run out 25nm for fishing, than run to different spots out there so we are looking at a minimum of 125 miles, a hundred of that will be at 2400 to 2500 rpm. Maybe 1nm per gallon. Did consider cuting out tank and replace it with multiple tanks, but after looking at access thru the hatch and the job of hooking the tanks together and securing the tanks have decided to cut the deck and have a tank made just like the one we took out. Besides taking it out whole will give us a chance to examine it. Maybe can save it and reuse. . Now the question is how far aft of the cabin sill do we have to go to get the tank out and the replacement in? Probably need to consider bracing up the aft cabin corner if we start cutting some of the deck away back there.

 

[Per]

good speed you are getting there, perhaps lightly loaded is part of the equation but still looks good.