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Stupidity of the day


tehmarks

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I almost started this thread last week after some particularly egregious stupidity involving a Par Max water pump, the quick-release connectors, the accidentally disconnecting thereof and the subsequent surprise, brief but massive flood of water to the cabin via my face.

 

I felt I had to start it today after I came back to the boat yesterday after a week away. Getting ready for bed, I discovered the bedding was thoroughly soaked. I've had a mild leak around the porthole, but nowhere near enough to explain the huge quantity of water where water isn't welcome. Panic mode, "what the....where the....'ck!?", bedding removed, all the worst-case scenarios going through my mind. Has it come through the porthole, or the mushroom vent forward of it? The veneer by the mattress is soaked, the mattress is soaked, and I'm worrying that a huge volume of unseen water has gone between the hull and the lining into the bilge.

 

A quick external torch inspection quickly identified the culprit. I'd left the porthole open. A week of however much rain had gone straight through the gaping hole. Whoops. ?

 

Go on then, tell us about your maintenance-related stupidity of the day...

Edited by tehmarks
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On our boat the rainwater from the roof discharges directly over a hopper window which is easily left open with similar consequences to tehmarks. After this had happened I blocked off the outlet which is at the low point of the roof - I can cope with a small puddle as the rainwater then finds its way off the roof by the next outlet.

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Currently re-wiring a complete disaster of a 12v system for a friend...Tracing the tunnel light live wire back to the stern,it went from a blue wire at the light,to black,to yellow and finally ended up as a red and white wire at the fuse box!?...All joined with insulation tape!!.?

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15 minutes ago, Leggers do it lying down said:

Currently re-wiring a complete disaster of a 12v system for a friend...Tracing the tunnel light live wire back to the stern,it went from a blue wire at the light,to black,to yellow and finally ended up as a red and white wire at the fuse box!?...All joined with insulation tape!!.?

Did it work before you started?

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31 minutes ago, Leggers do it lying down said:

Currently re-wiring a complete disaster of a 12v system for a friend...Tracing the tunnel light live wire back to the stern,it went from a blue wire at the light,to black,to yellow and finally ended up as a red and white wire at the fuse box!?...All joined with insulation tape!!.?

How thick was the wire?

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A couple of weeks ago I fitted a new 25mm2 cable pair from batteries at the rear of the rear cabin, to a junction box at the rear of the lounge, then continuing to another junction boax at the front of the lounge.

 

The plan was to feed power from each junction box to various "things", so I left the nuts on the studs in each box, loose, having fitted the cables.

 

Having fitted the thinner cables to various "things" at the front of the boat, I turned the power on at the breaker switch near the batteries.

 

Something wasn't right so I checked the voltage at the front junction box, where it was only about 11.5V, despite it being over 13V at the breaker near the batteries. I rechecked the voltage drop calculation, wondering if it could be that bad. Then, when checking the voltage at the junction box at the rear of the lounge, (13+ volts), I must have touched one of the studs, and it was really hot.

 

I hadn't tightened up the nuts on the outgoing studs in this box, such that the poor connection created big resistance and lots of heat.

 

Close call. Lesson learned - I hope!

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Young lad on the boat next to mine had re-painted the bedroom, sorted out a new more comfy mattress and given things a good airing by opening the Houdini hatch above the bed.  All done prior to a planned steamy night with his new girlfriend.  After a rainy evening they returned to the boat to find..............................??

 

 

 

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43 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

On a borrowed boat, emerging from one of the loops of the BCN - the horn button and the engine stop button were next to each other... 

 

I'm sure you can guess the rest, and the resultant panic and confusion

Virtual Greenie!

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Removing a gearbox, pushed shaft and prop right back into the stuffing box, finished job, used scaffold pole to lever shaft back into position, tightened everything up, started engine, engaged forward. hell of a banging and clattering, forgot to remove scaffold pole, prop a different shape than it used to be.

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I cut through a set of cables to an alternator regulator without disconnecting from the batteries first. For some reason in my mind none of the wires would be live because the engine wasn't running... ?  Puff of smoke and a small bang but fortunately no damage to the regulator.

 

The other one that I've done several times is switching on my inverter without remembering to switch off my battery charger. So the charger comes on and attempts to run the inverter which is powering the charger... Yes, I know it's not wired correctly. I've just put a sign on the inverter switch to remind me to switch off the charger first.

 

One I've just remembered was in Limehouse basin going through my engine bay to check everything was ok before a night trip with a couple of other boats through London up the Thames to Teddington. One of my alternator belts needed tightening so I loosened the clamp and used a mooring pin to get a bit of leverage on the body of the alternator to get some more tension on the belt as I tightened the clamp back up. The next day at Teddington I happened to be rummaging around in the engine bay and noticed the mooring pin was still wedged between the alternator and the belt! I must have been distracted by something and forgotten to remove it. Either that or early onset alzheimers. Half of the belt had been worn away by the mooring pin but it hadn't snapped. I was very fortunate that time.

Edited by blackrose
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13 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Did it work before you started?

No,there was one earth wire leading from the battery.This lead a quarter of the way along the boat,and all the other earth wires were twisted to this as the common!.The light's earth had been pulled out from the tangled mess!!.?

13 hours ago, nbfiresprite said:

How thick was the wire?

About half was 5mm,the rest was about 2mm!. ?

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Possibly the biggest  mistake I made was fitting the wrong pitch of prop on one drive on a twin engined boat. I had wrongly identified the pitch by referring to an internet forum rather than by waiting for the boat to be lifted to check the pit ch actually fitted. The new prop looked superficially the same. The outcome was one engine was doing most of the work which at first seemed like  a fuel issue . After much investigation the true cause dawned on me.

 

I replaced an ignition switch and had a starter motor refurbished  both at some expense. The starter motor removal/refitting was physically challenging.  However this expense and work  failed to cure an intermittent starting problem. Later I found  a corroded electrical connection which cost nothing to make good.

 

Not so much maintenance related but I have on more than one occasion attempted to depart from a mooring with a rope attached  ashore.

Once tried to depart  with a shore power cable attached- which did the cable no harm but ripped the electrical fitting out of the pontoon.

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Put the tiller extension on the tiller, started the engine, untied the mooring lines, set off, kersplash! Forgot to disconnect the shore lead from the electric bollard. It pulled the bollard from its base and sunk it in five feet of water. Fortunately for me, the bollards were then due to be replaced soon anyway, so I didn't have to pay for a new one.

Jen

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We had a dodgy starter , and being rare and expensive were awaiting a new one. First time it went wrong I had taken it off cleaned it and replaced. This worked well. Repeat scenario several times, as we limped our way down the trent and mersey. I got really good at it.

Up coffee turn on electrics, go into rear cabin , press starter button, swear, strip starter, replace, press starter go boating.

Very puzzled as to why striping starter caused functionality but hey ho.

At Stone I got up and carried out the am routine. Got into the engine room stripped starter etc.

Mrs S then popped her head round the door and said ‘ why didnt you test it first’

She hadn't heard the clunk of a non start.

I meanwhile hadnt turned the battery on !

 

She helped that day ( being an engineer) and muttered something about thats not right while juggling the thing.

The end plate was cracked where the big nut sits.

A bit of jiggling and we found we could start every time by holding the nut in place with a big spanner. By stripping the motor I had simply been re aligning the thing each time and then vibration had misaligned it again.

Starting was a two person process till the new motor arrived.

Moral if you are married to an engineer let her fox things!

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8 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

On a borrowed boat, emerging from one of the loops of the BCN - the horn button and the engine stop button were next to each other... 

 

I'm sure you can guess the rest, and the resultant panic and confusion

Done similar, except I was winding and was being over generous with the revs, engine stopped and i crashed into the concrete edging, I swear the boat almost rode out of the water and tried to park on the bank.

 

Topping the fire up and a coal dropped out onto the floor, automatically I picked up the coal and threw it back into the fire, ohhh it was a tad warm

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This is the bit that plugs into the outdoor socket on the front bulkhead,  the cable goes through the scupper drain and to a multi socket for our outside lights the mooring.

Went for pumpout and coal cruise. Leaving the Wharf, pushed the back out and then noticed the front wasnt leaving the wharf, front end still tied on......thought of this thread.

 

Back to mooring.

Plugged landline back in and the bollard tripped out. Tripped it back on, outside lights didnt come on...that's when I discovered the plug and cable.....thought of this thread again....I hadnt unplugged and taken the plug through the scupper before setting off.

20201121_170856.jpg

Edited by matty40s
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6 hours ago, twbm said:

caught the water from a U-bend in a bowl then emptied said bowl in to the sink I've just disconnected. 

  

Yep, done that one!   I dumped the water along with the stinking black sludge that was obstructing the U-bend in the first place!   

 

A Laurel and Hardy moment. 

Edited by bagginz
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