ENGINE ROOM IS A DISASTER

One more step in the selling of a boat. We had the survey of the boat on Friday. One comment heard was that the engine room is a disaster. The engine room is 38 years old. The wiring is not done the way the industry does it today. It has been rewired when we bought the boat. New tinned marine wire was put in through out the boat. Through the years new equipment has been added with its wiring. That included AC units and there pumps, an electric head with it’s pump, a large generator with its wiring harness, cooling hoses and exhaust system. A multi function display with a wiring harness that covers the equipment we have plus the wiring for several other items that we do not have. The MFD was one of the latter items installed and has close to a hundred wires that just drop into the back of the rest of the wiring. Looks terrible. I also installed a small bus to handle the AIS as we want it plus wires to change it to other functions that can be done with the radios, but not while using the AIS. More wires with no place to go. It is a mess.

There was also a comment about the hoses running around. Most of the hose is very stiff and hard to make turns. There is also the hoses coming in from the cockpit shower and their hanging in the engine room. It is a mess.

There is also a bilge pump, and the fresh water pump in one area. They are set on a shelf that one has to climb over the generator or crawl under the water heater to get too. The new pumps are larger then what was around in 1979. They also have hoses and strainers. This is also where the water for the water tanks come into the boat and gets distributed. Originally there was copper tubing for water lines. They were old, corroded and leaked. I tried PVC, but that was a bad idea I will not trouble you with, so there is more hoses.

Did I mention the heavy duty diesel starting battery and the 4 golf cart batteries that make up one group of house batteries. It is a stand up engine room. That is if your no more then 5’-8” and stand in one place. You can turn 360 degrees, but you can not take a step. Most of the work is done while kneeling on a cushion. Cramps!

This whole disaster works very well. Has survived a “almost” knockdown. That is when the boat gets laid on its side. We did 45 degrees once. That was enough for this old man.

What happens now is the surveyor writes his report for the buyer. He then has 3 days to make a decision to continue and buy the boat, quit the deal or renegotiate. I understand he got the report sometime today. We should here something Thursday. If the deal goes forward, one way or the other, we would close on or before March 6^th.

Is that all?  Nooo. The surveyor was here from 8:30 till 4 pm. The boat is only 46 feet long and 12.5 feet wide. After the engine room there is not that much more to see. But they do look at everything. Yes he is making notes all the way. The boat is also lifted out of the water and he checks the hull for soft spots, checks all the through hulls, bearings and rudder. Then back into the water for a test sail.

What will be will be.