Watchet is a pretty harbour town on the north coast of Somerset. Its harbour has two parts: the outer (above) is run by the council and contains only mud!
The inner (below) is operated by Western Marinas. (Office hours 0830-1630 daily.)
Stories abound in Portishead about what is happening down at Watchet.
Having never been, except to pass through on the steam railway, Jo and I decided to go and see for ourselves.
We were there on a glorious day, so it was looking at its best and we were there for low tide.
This was a trip by car! We wanted to find out how the marina works before arriving on a Severn tide!
We spoke to the marina manager, and I can report that the marina is currently closed.
Dredging is partially complete. The aim is eventually to achieve 1.5m to 2.0m depth.
The centre pontoon is empty because that is their next area to dredge.
The gate is up in our photos; so you can see what it looks like at low water.
But the real problem for the marina is the gate. It is unreliable and can get stuck in its down position, leaving the inner harbour to dry.
The gate is 20 years old and needs a lot of maintenance.
Because of this situation the marina does not plan to offer any guaranteed depth.
The dredging leaves the seabed in the marina with a layer of mud, and this covers a hard bottom. So sinking a keel into the mud is not an option.
So even when it opens (which they hope will be soon) the destination will remain one for boats that can safely take the ground should the gate fail.
We planned maintenance on the (Quick Nautica 20BX) boiler in Molia this season because it has been making scolding hot water! This included: checking the element and its anode – did you even know there was one in there? Then checking the cylinder for scale, and adding the thermostatic valve kit from Quick to keep the hot water temperature reasonable.
Step 1 – Drain or switch off the water tank, undo the electric connections, boat disconnected from the mains obviously! Then disconnect the water and engine coolant, and remove the boiler from its holding straps.
It will be still about a third full at this point, and heavy. On Molia it only just fitted out through the locker with the cover off. (The locker cover is also the double saloon bunk base.)
Step 2 – give the locker a good clean!
Step 3 – empty the last water out. I removed the boiler to my workshop to make the next few steps easier.
Note that I had to cut the engine coolant pipes off just at the ends of their connectors. This was because they had fused on over the years! I removed these in the workshop.
Step 4 – With reference to the diagram (below, left). Remove the cap (12) and electrical connections (11,14), and then pull out the thermostat (10). The supply wire earth is attached to the cylinder earth post with a nut and washer (13,14,15). The thermostat itself is not attached with any screws – it is just clipped into the element head.
Step 5 – Getting the element out! This looks easy from the maintenance diagram in the Quick Manual (above, left), but it is not! You will need a specialist 55mm element spanner (above, centre) as the element head is recessed into the top of the cylinder.
Our old element is completely missing its anode (above, right, foreground) and there is scale and corrosion around the anode stub and the main element thread. It is possible quite cheaply to replace the anode alone; but due to the age of our element, and the scale and corrosion, I decided to replace the entire thing.
The element rating is moulded on its end – ours is 1200W. Thanks to Force4 for their fast supply of a replacement element (above, right, background).
I inspected the inside of the cylinder itself with a torch, and it did not show too much limescale. So I just washed it out a couple of times.
Step 6 – refitting the element. Don’t be fooled if the element kit contains two seals. Check the old element connection – it either uses the O-ring or the gasket supplied, not both. Ours uses the gasket. Tighten the new element into the cylinder.
Step 7 – Fitting the thermostatic valve kit – again not as easy as the diagram suggests! The threads on the cylinder’s hot and cold water connectors are aligned so that the valve (1) and T-connector (5) finish up pointing away from each other when fully tightened. This makes the supplied flexible hose way too short.
I solved the plumbing problem with a speedy trip to Screwfix, for a longer hose and extra male hose connector.
Step 8 – reconnect the water. Back on the boat, the push-fit pipes were easy to reconnect without any leaks. The new brass connectors were much more difficult to get leak-free – they needed both (don’t tell your plumber) PTFE tape and jointing compound! Leak testing needs the water filled up again (or turned on), and pressurised.
The engine cooling pipes, reconnected with their jubilee clips, proved to be leak-free first time when tested.
It was at this stage that I reattached the cylinder’s holding-down straps.
Step 9 – reconnect the electricity and replace the plastic cap over the end of the thermostat. With the water and electricity back on, check the element heats the water.
Step 10 – check the engine coolant level. Depending on how much coolant was lost during disconnection and reconnection of the coolant pipes at the cylinder, it may need topping up. Run up the engine so that the coolant is pumped through the cylinder to check for leaks. Stop the engine and allow the coolant to settle, check the level again.
Before (left) and after (right) showing the installation of the thermostatic valve kit, and everything else connected.
A note on electrical safety: depending on your experience and qualifications, you may want to employ a professional for the electrical connection and checking steps described here.
Over the last couple of seasons we noticed that putting the mainsail reefs in had become more difficult because of increasing resistance in the reefing lines, and jammed sheaves at the outboard end.
So we planned some boom maintenance before this season:
Replace the worn sheaves, ensure they run smoothly
Clean out the inside of the boom
Wash the lines
Replace the gooseneck nylon washers
The first step is to remove the lines from inside the boom, and replace them with mousing line so they can be rethreaded later. Leaves and other debris came out of the boom at this stage!
The next step is to remove the boom ends by drilling out the three 1/4 inch pot rivets at each end (6.5mm drill bit). Using a cordless drill on low speed and cutting oil, these came out easily.
At the gooseneck end, the sheaves are on hollow axles, secured in place with 3/16 inch (4.8mm drill bit) pot rivets.
At the outboard end, the sheaves are normally removable without having to take the end off. They are on a solid axle which is located in the slot you can see in the picture at the top of this article.
With the sheaves and axles out, we ordered replacement sheaves and pot rivets, and cleaned the parts in the workshop. Many thanks to Will at Eurospars in Plymouth for his help and advice, and for supplying the parts we needed.
Back at the boat, the boom is now open for a good wash out!
Even after a thorough wash, the first reefing line was still rough and frayed in places. So we decided to replace it (10mm Marlow Doublebraid – with a red fleck).
The last step is to rethread the lines and rivet the boom ends back in place, and then remount the boom with replacement nylon washers in the gooseneck.
We have had problems getting the anchor lamp to work for a couple of seasons. So with the mast down we were able to inspect the fitting in detail.
It turned out that the plastic base was cracked (probably letting moisture in) and the plastic clips that secure the bulb holder were broken (almost certainly preventing any reliable connection to the bulb.
A lucky find on eBay – the exact part: a HELLA all-round white 10W (old stock) masthead light. Condition as new, and supplied complete with a LED bulb.
This was a suggestion from Boatfolk Penarth rigger Andy Freemantle. During the mast re-step he added a temporary rope strop under the backstay tensioner and shortened the third cascade (with a knot). He also suggested using a thinner line in the tensioner.
This has three benefits: it lifts the lower tensioner block off the gelcoat, separates the tensioner lines slightly, and alters all the line angles. This makes the tensioner run more freely.
The old configuration – showing the lower tensioner block rubbing the gelcoat, and the tail of the third cascade running close to the tensioner lines.
We needed to replace the Dyneema for the third cascade, and create a new Dyneema strop for below the tensioner.
So I had to learn how to make locking eye splices in the new 8mm Marlow D12 Dyneema. This turned out to be quite straight forward – thanks to the Marlow video.
The new tensioner line is 8mm (replaces 10mm). The strop has to be doubled – it runs from the deck U-bolt (and shackle) to the lower tensioner block and back again. This is because the strop length (45cm) is only a little greater than the minimum splice length (40cm) – so there is no way to fit two eye splices in a single line strop.
Molia’s mast always had the top sheave and lower opening for a topping lift, but one was not threaded. Also, with the spinnaker control lines led aft, there is no jamming cleat for one (starboard side).
With the mast down, we have taken the opportunity to thread a new 8mm rope to make a topping lift. Its the gold fleck pictured here.
For now we will run the topping lift aft in place of the spinnaker halyard. In the future we will expand the deck organiser on the starboard side to 4 sheaves, and add an extra cleat.
The current spinnaker halyard jamming cleat is labelled SPIN.
We will leave the POLE UP line in place as we sometimes use the spinnaker pole as a whisker pole.
Our ventilator cowls are dull, scratched and dirty. After several tries at cleaning them, with various products, I decided to replace them. It seems not that much more expensive than buying an array of cleaning products! Anyway the starboard-side ventilator drips when it rains really hard, so I think the sealant may need attention.
Removed the old cowl to reveal a lot of green!
Removed the ventilator cover. Everything in here is a bit mouldy!
Giving it all a good clean with boat cleaner and water.
Removing the old sealant with our trusty can of Multisolve.
Refitted the ventilator mechanism with a good layer of new sealant. You can just see it around the edges.
Sealant applied to the cowl’s screw holes as well.
New cowls fitted. Looking good!
New covers for the ventilators on our boat are the ‘Plastimo Streamline Dorade Cover Only for P51637 P51654 51654’ supplied by Chas Newens Marine.
