Inside

In The Water!

Spring Launch, 2009

I have been busting BUTT to get this done............

Look at that SHINE!

And the boat lift. Not far to go this year!

And the good news is .... she ran GREAT too.

Galley - New Microwave

The first 2 pictures are the "Old" Microwave. I think it was a .7 cu. ft. model and it just crapped out. I replaced it with a little larger one that is .9 cu. ft. with all the similar bells and whistles. The new one was taller, so notice the cabinet distance above the old microwave. Another view of the old microwave.

Now here's the "New" Microwave. I just cut the sides and top so it would fit in the cabinet. It pretty much looks like an exact replacement. Notice that it does not have any wood trim work around it. I didn't really like having almost a 1/2" cap around the top and 2 sides.

So I wanted to sea if it looked better with trim work that matches the rest of the Tambour Door finish.
I kinda like the trim work.

Macerator Vacuum Pump Replacement

The original Macerator (in the center) was kind of nasty looking and didn't work. Turns out 1 of the 2 duckbill valves were in backwards. But judging from the condition, I replaced the Macerator anyway.
Here's the new one. Much better!

Another view, but notice the "white" inlet hose. It is now heading upwards like it should have. The reason is, if you ever want to do any kind of work on the macerator, the original inlet hose came over from the bottom of the holding tank, stayed low, and then continued to the Macerator inlet.
What's wrong with that picture?

Come on... Sea Ray.
If anything is in the holding tank, which there usually is, Daaa, well it would be able to gravity free flow down to the Macerator. When you replace the duckbill valves inside, you have to take apart the hoses.
Get the picture?
Not a nice atmosphere to be working in.
And how would you clean, flush out, or otherwise winterize this thing in place either?

The bottom hose is the old, original way the inlet hose went.

My new way was to put a "Tee" in-line with a connection at the top for a 3/4" hose line to be able to flush the line and Macerator with antifreeze. The 3/4" hose is not shown yet in this picture. The new tee has to be as high as it can be and about as high as the highest fluid level inside the holding tank.Now it's a "Piece of Cake" to flush, clean and winterize!

Water Heater By-Pass

The original way the water heater was hooked up. The "blue" 15 mm pipe connection in the center is the cold water inlet. A tee in the cold water line also sent cold water to the tempering valve on the upper left side. The tempering valve blends the very hot water in the tank with cold water. You can then near set the tempered water to around 110 degree so nobody burns themselves and also extends the actual amount of hot water available for use.

But to winterize this, you either have to fill the entire hot water heater with 6 gallons of antifreeze - or - disconnect to cold water pipe and connect it to the hot water pipe.

To me, that's cumbersome and ridiculous.
The original tempering valve connection. You can sea I also added a hose from the tank drain valve, down and directly into the bilge. It's brownish / gray in this picture, but I've since then put a clear hose on the tank drain to witness draining. This prevents everything from getting wet when you drain the tank.

The original cold water connection.
In order to install what they call the "by-pass kit", you have to arrange for some additional pipe nipples to fit your application. A "check valve" comes with the kit which gets installed on the hot water outlet side of the water heater, just before the new "tee" for the by-pass.

Now...... to winterize, (after you drain the tank) you just have to rotate the by-pass valve in the cold water supply line to the by-pass position. Remember to turn it back and fill up the tank before you start back up in the spring!

A view of the new water heater "by-pass kit" and the replaced Macerator Vacuum Pump.

Dinette Area - Wiring and Receptacles

I added a convenience 120 Volt and 12 Volt Receptacle in the Dinette Area. This makes it easier to charge cell phones and use the laptop computer.

V Berth - Bose Speakers and Shelving

Port Side. Above the new HDTV. There are several other pictures and views of this located with the TV blog.
Starboard side.

V Berth - Port Side Shelving

Just a convenience shelf to put some more stuff on.

And yes, when we start to fill up the boat in the spring, there is never a "shortage" of "stuff"!

I split the shelf over the 120 Volt receptacle over here. Just so you don't sea the wires as much!

V Berth - Starboard Side Shelving

You can never have enough storage space, shelving or places to put things on a boat. So I added these shelves.

Here's where I added the 12 Volt socket, (black) and the 120 Volt receptacle. We can now use the computer, play games, charge phones, charge the hand held VHF radio, run a 12 volt fan, etc. up here.

In the upper left hand corner is the Carbon Monoxide detector. Now this is another matter that to me is a ploblem area. Carbon Monoxide is a heavy gas and falls lower than air...... So why does Sea Ray mount them high? I know the location of the V Berth is good but mounting it "high" is questionable. So, I added another one of these "low" in the Mid-Cabin.