Winter 2012 begins

The weather has continued to be great and we took advantage of it on Saturday to take down the bimini top. That involves removing the 12 side curtain sections, passing them down to the deck and them loading them in the car. Definitely a two-person job. Some cold winter weekend, we'll lay them out on the living room floor and clean the plastic windows.

With the top down, we installed the bridge cover.  It's certainly a nice thing to have to protect the bridge over the winter in the shed.

The October 29-30 snow storm that blacked out so many homes in Connecticut caught us with the boat still in the water. By the time we got to it, about a foot of wet snow had accumulated on the boat and the weight on the top of the bimini bent one of the three supporting frames. We'll replace the bent frame but it is just one more thing on our list that we didn't expect.

We have a number of things that we want to do this winter to bring the maintenance up to where we know what has and what has not been replaced or rebuilt. That involves replacing all the fuel lines (that is done) and also both carbs.  The carbs are ready to go on but we're holding off on that until the exhaust risers are replaced. Those parts have been ordered.  While we're down there with the carbs off, it's an ideal time to also remove the heat exchangers and have them boiled out. Again, we have no idea when this was last done, if it ever was. Might as well do it, while we can get at them.  This week we talked to Frank Proto, Jr., owner of the Auto Radiator Hospital in East Hartford, who will boil them out and reseal them for $75.00 each.  Frank did a heat exchanger for us years ago and it turned out perfectly so he's our guy. Nice how these old businesses still exist and that they don't charge and arm and leg.

These heat exchangers each have five hose connections and since these are a little different from the ones we have owned before, we took a few minutes to map out the water flows. These heat exchangers cool both the block and the exhaust manifold.

We know you're probably laughing at our drawing but it will be handy when we have to reassemble these thing.

Frank suggested that I also flush out the transmission oil coolers. "You'll find lots of junk in them," he told us. He's probably right. The transmission coolers are the first thing the water encounters after it leaves the sea water pumps.

Lots of hoses to disconnect when these things come off.

The boat next to us in the shed is this winter is owned by Rob, an old friend, who is always in the same shed as we are during the winter. Rob has a 34 ft. Luhrs with 454 Crusaders and he is also planning on changing his exhaust risers and refurbish his heat exchangers. We suggested that we both use Frank at the Auto Radiator Hospital and Rob thought that was a great idea. We volunteered to deliver the heat exchangers and pick them up, since we are close to East Hartford. Rob is fast, and in no time, his heat exchangers were in the back of our station wagon. Next weekend, we'll remove ours and then it's off to Frank in East Hartford.

We used to ski during the winter months but this is much more fun.