10 year Maintenance in 2026

                      Several items required more maintenance than usual.

                                                  Main Cabin Deck

The main cabin polyester deck showed the last few years in wintertime some blisters, not in an amount that it worried me, no leakage but it did not look to nice.                                                                            In November 2025 I opened a few and the smell was like vinegar which indicates osmosis.  A bit strange for a boat built in 1969 where there was never an indication of the mentioned issue nor that it would happen in an area which is not below the water line, which is in most cases the issue with polyester boats. A few of the blisters were opened flushed out with fresh water sanded out till clean polyester was reached degrease and filled with polyester putty and left over for the winter time.               This way I could check if the planned repair would hold over the winter period, bear in mind the boat is not dry stored during the winter months but remains in the water and is not covered.

Although not many pictures were taken from the repairs the following pictures will give you an indication of the repairs. When temperatures rises in July and dry conditions were expected all the blisters were manually opened and flushed out with lots of fresh water they were then sanded out with course sand paper in a larger area than the actual blister. The "strange" thing is that most of the damage was on one side of the deck while the other side had minor damages. Nor on the roof of the steering cabin blisters have been been found.                                                                                                         After the blister removal the complete deck was sanded and some more smaller blisters were found and removed. The compete deck was then degrease and the holes filled with 2 component polyester putty. then the complete deck was sanded again and low areas of the deck were again filled with 2 component polyester putty.

All was sanded again degrease and the first coat of two component epoxy paint was added.following the drying and applying requirements for the paint 4 more layers were applied. This looks a lot but in between some of the layers of paint sanding was required.

The deck looked then good and acceptable.

To get a nicer finish the deck was then polished with 3 different types of polishing compound from course to very fine.

Grab rails were the put back used tape to prevent the least amount of Sikaflex onto the deck just covering under the grab rail supports

Hand Rails were put back into position and all looked again as it supposed to be.

           

Transom Hull Side Planks

                                     

These type of boats do have an area which is the aft side where the water runs of the deck this is a small area where the transom meets the side.

This is an area which requires yearly inspection. If this is not done one can end up with the same issues I had when I bought the boat, replacing hull planks at the above mentioned area .

During my inspection this year I did see a few spots in the paint which showed that there was some damage to the paint. As can be seen from the below picture I ended up with easily removing all the paint from the end of the side hull planks.

Checked with a Moisture meter the water ingress into the wood but this was a low percentage, this is expected since the planks are above the water line. Planks were painted again with the proper paint procedure primer tree layers and 3 layers of finishing paint. This ob can easily be done while the ship is in the water, at least it was for me. When the ship was out of the water at the end of the year the same area below the water line was inspected but no issues found.

                                                 Deck house Wood Maintenance

In 2025 the starboard side and aft side of the deck house was sanded and protected with Owatrol D1 and D2 Oil.

This year the front area and the port side was done, as can be seen this was required although every year when necessary light sanding was performed an a new layer of D2 oil was added but as can be seen from the pictures the wood lost it's color and a few area's the full protection was gone.

The area near the engine inlet covers had more damaged paint.

The complete layer of oil was removed first with course sand paper and then with the required type of sand paper by Owatrol.

Dust from the sanding was removed, complete area degrease and 15 layers of Owatrol D1 were applied.

Although this looks like a lot and a lot of work it is actually done in one warm sunny day. It dries quickly and the first few layers can be applied one after another. as can be seen it brings the color back into the wood. It shows that the area under the engine inlet cover was also discolored. This area was not completely sanded till the bare wood but protected with a few layers of Owatrol D2.

After the Owatrol D1 was applied 8 layers of Owatrol D2 were applied this takes some more time 2 layers per day preferably 12 hours apart. This took me 4 days. Then several days of letting the oil harden out before the engine inlet cover was put back. The same procedure was followed for the front window frame.

  

As can be seen from the next picture even after a year there is already some discoloring due to the UV light starboard side done 2025 front side 2026.

                                      Transom maintenance.

As could be seen from above pictures the transom of the boat did not look very representative.               A few years ago when the boat was out of the water the 2 component epoxy paint let loose at some spots on the transom. Never found an explanation or reason this happened could be a procedure mistake from my side. During that time I applied two layers of 2 component epoxy paint but as can be seen there is a discoloring between the original and repainted area's. Therefore when the boat was out of the water at the end of the season the transom was repainted.

Hardware was removed and even then I found some kind of de-lamination between the epoxy and epoxy paint.

 

Whole area was sanded till bare wood with different types of sandpaper from course to fine.

Area was cleaned with a tack cloth and degrease. then the following procedure was followed taking in account the required drying and sanding requirements for the type of epoxy and 2 component clear epoxy paint I used, this could be different for another type of materials used therefore no specific drying and sanding requirements are mentioned.

First layer of 2 component impregnating epoxy with some brow coloring was applied, the reason for some coloring paste used was that there is less chance that the wood would discolor over the years of time..

Then 3 layers of normal 2 component epoxy was applied followed by 4 layers of 2 component clear epoxy paint .

The result of this work was satisfying.

Hardware was installed again as well as the name and home port of the boat.Transom below the water line was painted with anti fouling paint sides were cleaned and some minor touch ups of white paint and then the boat was ready to go into the water.

Cleaning of the Coolwater Cooler.

                                                    Cleaning of the cooler.

The cool water cooler for the starboard engine was cleaned last year but for the port side engine this was impossible due to the fact that the cooler could not be removed since the fuel tank was in the way. Since the fuel tanks were removed it was now possible to remove the cooler as well. How the cooler needs to be removed speaks for itself loosen the nuts and pull the cooler out.

Although difficult to see on the pictures the cooler was pretty dirty and I presume that it has never been removed since the engines were installed.

The cooler was placed in a bin filled with normal house hold cleaning agent, vinegar. To make sure that there was a reasonable flow through the cooler a small aquarium pump was placed into the bin and the flow through de cooler was directed opposite the normal flow from the round part to the square part.

Since I did not see a lot of difference after 24 hours I let the cooler into  liquid the for another 48 hours.

When the cooler then was removed one could see some improvement and looking into the bin there was quite some dirt on the bottom.

For those interested there is a number on the cooler which I presume is the part number for the Volvo Penta MD 32A.

New O-rings were installed on the cooler new gaskets made and the cooler was installed again on the engine. First impression after having a test run with the engine while docked is that the cleaning of the cooler was required, engine temperature stays now cooler than before the cleaning.

Fuel Tanks Replacement

 

                                                      Replacement of the Fuel Tanks

 The last two years I have had issues with one engine in particular, starboard side, was that the fuel pump got clogged with dirt. First idea is as always did the filters perform as designed , I think they did but nothing could be found in the filters. Water ingress into the fuel tank is then the next guess but no water could be found in the thanks. Nor was a “ bacterial slime” visible on the fuel filters. Bear in mind the  fuel is not completely consumed which is loaded on a yearly base. Looking into the tanks through the levels sensor hole I did see in the tank a kind of brown floating particles. So I added chemicals to let them clog together which the filter then should catch them. Well this did not work fuel pump got clogged for the second time with brown material. Contacted a tank cleaning company to have the tanks cleaned and hatches in the tanks installed , these are the original tanks delivered with the boat in 1969, no without cleaning hatches to access the tank.. This became an challenge due to space available for working as well as that only two hatches could be made into the tanks one on each end. The middle part no hatch could be made and this is between two baffle plates in the middle to prevent fuel moving too fast through the tanks.  In my opinion the tanks could never be 100 cleaned and disinfected.              The price for this upgrade was beyond my budget compared to two new tanks with equipment and new fuel lines, which should be replaced anyway even if hatches were made in the original tanks.

 Tanks, stainless steel, were removed and inspected and as can be seen from the below pictures tanks do have a buildup on the inside.

The removed tanks Diameter 54 centimeter and 155 centimeter high capacity 300 liter.

Next step was to remove all the fuel lines inspect them and clean them .  The fuel lines between  the tank en the engine supply and return were thrown away. The fuel lines on the engines were cleaned , first soaked into white spirit and then manual with the following method.

A small brush was pushed through the pipe, this worked but I was not able to completely clean the pipes 100% as well that I was unable to inspect them. This resulted into that the pipes were cut at a point where they would be easy to reassemble and not at a point of a support bracket. Pipes are made from hard steel.

The brush is of the type used to clean for example aquarium hoses.

The next step was to go through the pipe with a small piece of cloth to make sure that no residue was left behind.

The last step was that all pipes were blown through with air. 

Although difficult to see on below pictures one can see the difference between a dirty and clean pipe. Below Dirty pipes , you can click on the picture and it will enlarge

The below pictures show the cleaned pipes.                                            

The cut fuel lines were reassembled with a fuel hose with clamps. Although this looks not very professional one should bear in mind that the pipes are filled with low pressure fuel and that they are supported with brackets or connected to the fuel filter or engine and are unable to move.

Not only the pipes were cleaned but the fuel filter housing completely taken apart and completely cleaned with chemicals, brush and rags. The same for the delivery pump, which had a lot of small parts.

Delivery Pump was tested with clean fuel before mounted on the engine again. The above was done for one engine. For the second engine which was still operational the supply and return fuel lines to the engine were replaced. The fuel pipes on the engine were not cut but cleaned in the same way as described above. The same for the delivery  pump and fuel filter housing.

The next step was to decide what seize new tank would be installed as well the material, I decided to install a nonmetal tank smaller in seize. Less chance of condensation and less chance of that the fuel will get bad due to standing too long in the tanks.

The advantage after removing the tanks was that I was now able to clean and paint the hull  which was impossible till so far. The actual removing of the tanks was actually simple , after removing the floor boards and the foundations for the floor boards the tanks could be lifted out between the engines and the walls of the steering cabin without having to remove any other structure.

Instead of making complete new foundations for the new tanks , which was the original plan, I decided to modify the original tank foundations since they are following the hull roundness. The darker wood is the original tank foundation.

To fill the the round foundation to a flat foundation the same thickness of wood was used and with bras screws connected to the original foundation. The most forward foundation was placed one frame to the aft since the new tanks are shorter. To make the "perfect" round fill piece with a reciprocating saw a support was used to make a straight cut in the wood, below picture will explain the process.

The pieces which filled the original foundation were cut in such a way that the new tank would lay horizontal in the boat the same way as the original tanks, this was checked before removing the original tanks. The parts were then checked again if there were no mistakes made before installing them onto the frames. 

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For extra strength additional beams were placed between the frames at the same time the beams will support the wood where the tanks will be placed onto.

The fix the tanks in position straps should be used this is a recommendation from the manufacturer of the tanks if the tanks get full they might expand a bid and the straps will adjust to this expansion.             I bought tank supports with straps as suggested, unfortunately I'm no pleased with this construction the thanks slide over these plastic supports and I decided to remove them and place a so called non slip mat under the tanks, same type of non slip mats which are used under a rug to prevent it from sliding over a wood floor.

Tanks were temporarily installed with the straps to see how the straps would end and could be positioned in the best way with the most support to keep the tanks in place.

Some different positions of the straps were tried out to get the best fixing to the tanks support. Eventually it ended with 4 straps over the tank two lengthwise of the boat and two transverse

at the end of the tank I noticed that the straps could slide off the tank this was corrected with straps between them further the end of the straps were fixed onto the ships construction see also below pictures for additional information.

Next came the running of the fuel hoses  this since I stepped away from the original copper pipes and hoses between the pipes and engine connections. I ran only hoses between the tank and engines taking in account that there should be some slack in the hose where they are connected to the engine.

The hoses themselves where connected to the ships structure with special hose clamps which are metal with rubber lining , hose outside diameter is 15 mm the hose clamp when tightened is 14 mm this way the hose can never be compressed while at the same time it is fixed to the boat. Hose clamps were placed on a short distance from each other.

New tank filling lines were installed on one tank the heating unit was connected , vent lines were connected to the tanks those were fixed again in such a way that no water ingress into the tanks could be possible, big loop was made under decks next to the filling point. Vent point in the hull is lower than the highest point of the ventline.

Tanks in position and partly filled with Diesel, The plan is to switch to HVO 100 fuel in the near future.