Government Silliness (Warning: Contains Bureaucratic Nonsense)

For six months or so I've been attempting to get Velorum federally documented with the US Coast Guard.  It's not a requirement, but I've always documented the larger boats I've owned for a few reasons:

• The boat needs to have the documentation numbers permanently affixed in 2 places and it makes the boat a little easier to identify if stolen.
• You don't need to sticker with state numbers (although you generally still have to pay for the state registration).
• Makes it easier to check into customs when arriving in another country. I currently only have Canada on my radar, but dare to dream!

So the process is just slightly more streamlined now than when I last did it in 2007 or so, but only because you submit paperwork online instead of through the mail.  Unfortunately, it still takes them up to 60 days for each submission (and each subsequent re-submission and re-re-submission).  It's a whole lot of waiting around.  

My attempts began last June when I submitted the original application.  The application included all the general boat specification details along with a bill of sale and title.  I paid my ~$200 and hit submit thinking how easy it is now that you can submit online.  On August 20th I received and email from the National Vessel Documentation Center (NVDC) and found no Letter of Documentation and only an attached 'Letter of Deficiency'.  Apparently, I submitted a new application, but what I didn't know was that the boat had been previously documented as 'Morning Star' in the 1990s, so I had to submit a transfer application, pay another fee (just for documents this time) and reapply.  

In September, I got another email from NVDC.  Another 'Letter of Deficiency'.  This time they rejected the application because the title did not have clear chain of custody from the originally documented owner to me.  Since the previous owner who was listed on the title had passed away and had willed the boat to his friend, the NVDC needed something legal that showed that the boat was 'willed' to his friend (who sold the boat to me).  

Fortunately, the previous owner's widow was kind enough to supply me with her husband's Last Will and Testament so I submitted that as proof that the boat's ownership was transferred legally (along with another filing fee). Wishful thinking, because about a month later I received yet another Letter of Deficiency.  The new reasoning for denial was because and I quote:

Our office is in receipt of the Last Will and Testament of xxxxx; however, a will by itself does not transfer property.  If the will went through the probate process and an executor or personal representative was appointed by the court, please provide a copy of that document. The document must be certified by an official of the court.

I am not a lawyer and do not play one on TV, so I really had no idea what that even meant.  I asked the previous owner's widow and she couldn't find any probate documentation.  And just to really stick it to me, the NVDC needed the bill of sale to be notarized as well (why didn't they tell me that after the first submission).  At this point I thought I might be reaching a dead end and would have to settle for state registration and give up on federal documentation. Except....

In the last paragraph of the three page Letter of Deficiency there was the following sentence:

Please note if the vessel is state registered or state titled in the name of (Me) you may forgo submitting the above document and submit the state registration to start the chain of title. 

So as a last ditch attempt, I contacted the friend (of the deceased owner) who sold me the boat and asked if he could meet me and re-sign the bill of sale and get it notarized.  He was more than happy to help and we met up at the Hanover NH town hall on an afternoon in late October and had a notary witness our signing. 

The next day, I went to the NH DMV and registered the boat under my name with the bill of sale and paid another fee (~$150).  The clerk at the DMV was confused as to why I would want to register a boat with only a few month left in the year when the boat wasn't even in the water. I just told her it was a legal thing and I had to do it. She really didn't care as long as I paid my money and showed identification.  I went home and uploaded the notarized bill of sale along with the new NH registration on the NVDC site and hit submit thinking that I had probably wasted close to $500 for something that was never going to happen.

Fast forward to January 5th, 2026 and low and behold, I got a real letter in the mail from the NVDC.  Before I opened it, I figured they were just sending me a real letter telling me to stop bothering them and to stop submitting things to them.  However, when I opened it, there was just a single page... The Federal Documentation! No explanation, just the actual document.  Anyway, it's all just silly that the NVDC allowed a state registration to trump everything else even though it really didn't prove anything other than the fact that I drove to the DMV and paid them money, but I'll take it.

 

Odds and Ends

Happy winter solstice!  It has been too cold and windy to do much work on the boat over the past few weeks, but I did manage to knock one small project off the list.  When I purchased the boat there was no sole in floor of the head.  It didn't matter for most of the refit but with the launch date getting closer (next spring/summer) it was time to put in a proper sole.  

I only needed a small 16"x21" piece of 3/4" teak and holly marine plywood, but I couldn't find anything that small and the thought of purchasing a full 4x8 sheet for $350 was just not an option.  Fortunately, a good friend of mine happens to own a boatyard and had some extra bits lying around from a recent project and gave me a nice chunk that would be perfect.  

Since there was a seacock and strainer in that section that would need quick access, I had originally planned on cutting an access hole in the panel, but I ultimately decided to have the whole panel lift out once I found some nice snap latches that would keep the panel in place until I needed access.  This ended up saving a ton of time cutting, fitting, and finishing an access panel in the sole and only required me to use a hole saw to cut out the latch mounts.  On the other side of the panel would be 2 'lips' that fit underneath the fiberglass so once I un-do the latches the whole panel hinges up.  

I cut the panel to size, installed the latches and 'lips' and brought it over the boat for fitting.  After a bit of work on the edges to round over the underside of the panel I brought it back to the house where it was warm and started varnishing.  2 coats on the bottom and edges followed up with 10 coats on the top.  On the top, I sanded between every coat with 220 grit paper.  All told it took me about a week to build up the finish to a silly level of shine (and protection).  

So that's about it for this year, but I'm already working on the next and almost the last project.  The battery power project where I tie all the systems together so I have a starter battery for the engine and a lithium battery for the house bank that will power all the circuits in the boat.  I had a system design in mind, but I decided to hire Owen Murphy from Meridian Marine to vet (and improve) my design.  He has been really great to work with and seems to be a happy medium between fully designing and installing a system (lots of money) and helping a DIYer with good design best practices so I can confidently install the system myself.  The really cool thing about Owen's business is that he is currently sailing in Fiji on his 34 foot Crealock, but he is very responsive and easy to get a hold of.  Stay tuned...

Just in Time for Winter

With the temps in the low 30s and a snowstorm in the forecast tomorrow, I decided it was high time to install new refrigeration!  Well, not really; I had been planning it for a while and originally thought I wouldn't get to it until the spring but a few weeks back I decided to put the mast rewiring project off until spring instead. 

When I purchased the boat it had an engine driven cold plate system that reportedly worked when the boat was last in the water in 2013, but it probably used the old refrigerant type instead of the new 134A and it just took up so much space in the engine compartment.  I just didn't want to deal with engine driven compressors, belts, hoses and a series of unknown 'doodads' that probably did something, but I was not interested in finding out.  So I ripped it out when I re-did the engine compartment with the plan of installing an economical electrically driven system.

I had a number of systems in mind but finally ended purchasing an Isotherm Compact Classic 2012.  It seemed like a good combination of cost, cooling volume, and ease of installation (the system is pre-charged with quick connects).  The nice thing about the 12v electric systems is that they can be located in a number of locations as long as there is sufficient air flow to keep them cool.  They essentially consist of 3 parts, a compressor that can be remotely mounted, an evaporator plate that lives in the icebox, and a thermostat controller that can be mounted in or outside the icebox.  The one caveat of the thermostat is that one side has a temp sensor capillary tube that needs to be mounted on the evaporator plate and the other side has wires that lead back to the compressor.

After scouting a number of locations, I decided that a shelf in the port lazarette behind the icebox would be a good location for the compressor because of its close proximity to the icebox, good airflow, and mostly out of the way location.  The only issue with this location is that the shelf is sloped downward toward the side of the boat, so this would have to be leveled (the compressor should be mostly level).

I measured a 19 degree angle of slope for the shelf that I planned on mounting the compressor on and decided to put the 3d printer to use by making 2 - 19 degree wedges with holes for 2 bolts on each one to mount to the shelf.  I used an extra strong print profile (15% infill and 6 solid layer walls) that should have no trouble holding the 15 or 20lb weight of the compressor.  I epoxied a 6"x12" piece of 3/4 inch marine plywood to the blocks and tapped the 1/4" bolts that will mount the assembly to the shelf.  Finally, I through bolted the compressor bracket to the assembly and got ready to install.

I'll say up front that this was not a difficult job, but I was worried about installing the evaporator and snaking the copper tubing out of the icebox and aft to the compressor.  The tubing is pre-bent in a coil and I couldn't help but think that it would be really easy to kink the tubing if not careful. Additionally, the evaporator plate comes flat and it is longer than the length of the icebox, so it needed to be bent. Fortunately, the kit comes with a bending 'dowel' that you screw down to a piece of plywood and use it as a form to bend the evaporator around at specific locations. 

Last week just before Thanksgiving, my son and I decided to tackle the evaporator installation.  We carefully carried the bent evaporator up the ladder to the boat and started straightening out the coil once we had it in the cabin.  First we fed the tubing into the icebox and led it through the hole (from previous installation).  Once through the hole it had to be carefully bent around a corner and through a 1.5 inch hole I had drilled in the bulkhead and fed up to the shelf in the lazarette.  This is definitely a 2 person job because the copper tubing is fragile and kinking it would be a very expensive mistake.  Once we had the the tubing roughly run to where the compressor would be mounted we carefully slid the rest of the evaporator into the icebox and secured it to the vertical walls with screws that ran through 4 plastic mounts that keep the evaporator off the wall by about 1/2".  

With that completed, it was time to mount the thermostat and capillary temperature sensor.  I decided that it would be easiest if I just mounted it in the icebox in an out of the way location above the evaporator plate.  This made mounting the temp sensor quite a bit easier than mounting it outside the box.  Finally, I ran the thermostat wires out the icebox and alongside the copper tube to the compressor location.  

The most demanding part of the entire job was running power. I was determined to make the installation orderly and not a haphazard jumble of wires like I've seen on so many boat (many of them mine).  I really should have done this before I re-installed the engine, because I had to run the wire along a bundle just above the engine and not easily accessed.  I ran the 10/2 duplex wire from the panel down through the battery compartment and over to the bundle that services port side power needs.  I had to cut most of the zip ties off the bundle and snake the wire through, re-zip tying along the way. Once I had it over the port side I ran the power wire alongside the thermostat wiring and copper tubing up to the compressor location.  There was a lot of boat yoga, but I'm happy that the wiring is tidy and well secured.

With that complete, I through bolted the compressor mount assembly to the shelf and then snapped the compressor onto the assembly bracket; the isotherm bracket is a nice piece of kit and allows for a quick removal of the compressor should it need to be taken out (still have to unplug wiring and evaporator tubing though). 

Next, I crimped and shrink wrapped the power wiring and plugged the thermostat wiring into the controller on the compressor (everything is nicely labeled).  The final step was to connect the 2 copper refrigerant lines that come from the evaporator.  I cleaned up my mess and insulated the copper tubing from the compressor and zip tied everything so there will be no rattles (and subsequent chafing) in the future.

I still plan on making a plywood 'partition' around the compressor so nothing bangs into it from the lazarette and no errant water spray hits it, but I'm happy to report that even though it was only 35 degrees F in the boat today, I started up the compressor and the evaporator became noticeably colder within a few minutes.

 

Catching Up

Regular life has gotten in the way of boat work and and as result I'm a bit behind with updates on progress.  Last week I finally came to terms with the fact that our garden shed was a mess and I was faced with the prospect of spending $10-15k on having a new one built on site or fixing the rot and rebuilding the existing shed for a fraction of the cost.  I chose the cheaper route and fixed the rot.  

With that complete I moved back a few of the last boat projects before things get too cold to work.  I had been putting off installing the hoses to both the manual and high capacity bilge pumps until the engine install was completed.  With the engine installed and ready to go, I wanted to get the bilge pump hoses installed so I could screw down the floors and complete the salon interior.  

I ordered 35 feet of 1-1/2" Shields Series 140 VAC Standard Hose for both pumps and when it arrived I put on my boat yoga pants and started crawling around looking for the best route for the hoses.  I finally decided to send the hoses aft from the pumps along the starboard side of the engine and then over to the port side behind the engine to the manual pump and discharge fittings on the stern.  

I had on hand about 10 feet of heavy duty sanitation hose and decided to make the initial connections in the bilge using this and connect the Shields hose for the run out of the boat.  The sanitation hose should last longer in nasty bilge conditions.  I double clamped the sanitation hoses just below the floorboards to the Shields hoses and ran them side by side aft.  A few hours and dozens of zip ties later I had the hoses secured all the way to the manual pump.  From the manual pump the automatic pump hose diverged and continued aft to a loop above the final discharge fitting where I double clamped the hose at the stern.  I installed the new manual pump (Whale Gusher 10) in the same location as the old one and fitted the hose to that and then from the discharge side, the hose met back up with the automatic pump hose to the stern fitting (the fitting is separate, but adjacent to the automatic pump discharge).  

With that complete, I was able to lay the flooring back down and screw it into place.  I hope I won't have to take it all back up again, but testing in the spring will determine how good a job I did. I'll be bringing all the cushions back over from the basement this week and should have a fully complete salon by weeks end.  

Galley Ho!

With all the engine work going on during the past few weeks I wanted to maximize the access to the engine compartment so I could easily access everything, but now that everything is completed (mostly), it was time to get the galley back together.  I was really excited about this because this job represents the last major interior project left on the boat and I've been waiting for the moment when I can look around in the cabin and not see disasters all around me.

Throughout the refit, I had been moving the galley assembly shell all around the cabin to work on other items, but had never fitted it.  It's big and was always in the way of something but I was pleased to see that re-attaching it to the boat was a simple matter of securing 2 bolts on a thick block of wood with 2 hinges to a molded piece of fiberglass flooring that is connected to one of the stringers.  It's really a clever arrangement that allows the entire sink and peninsula to hinge forward to give unobstructed access to the engine compartment.  I have never had a boat that allowed this kind of access.  This is a good thing considering I'm 6'5" and don't quite fit into many boat spaces.

Of course, it wasn't entirely easy because the sink drain, pressure water, and foot pump are all connected to the assembly and needed to have specific lengths of hose cut or they would be too short when the galley hinges forward, or too long and get too close to the engine which would be bad.  I shudder at the thought of the sink drain getting wrapped up in the vdrive when the engine is running.

Once the assembly was bolted in place, I started with installing the sink with a bead of silicone adhesive and letting that cure for a few days before moving it.  Then I moved on to the sink drain hose since that was the most cumbersome item that had to be routed to the seacock located just forward of the galley.  This took a bit of trial and error to get the length just long enough to accommodate the additional length needed when hinged forward, but not so long that it would be too close to the engine when closed.  

Once I decided on the proper length, I connected the hose to the seacock and routed it through the bulkhead and up to the sink using loosely fit zip ties to allow it to slide when the assembly is moved.  I also 3d printed a rubber TPU gasket/grommet that screwed into the bulkhead hole to help reduce chafing from vibration.

Next, I moved onto the pressure water system.  I completed the rest of the system last summer/fall (details here), but left an open circuit to the galley that could be tapped into with Watts Aqualok T-fittings.  To complete the circuit, I added an additional 2ish feet of pex tubing for the hot and cold water and terminated it with 2 more Aqualok 1/2" male adapters.  From here I used 2 6' sections of stainless steel braided sink hose to run to the fixture.  For the fixture, I found a standard household faucet at Home Depot and mounted it in the original faucet hole at the sink.  At this point it was just a matter of routing the braided hose from the Aqualok fittings alongside the drain hose to the fixture.  

The final job was to mount the foot pump and hose from the water supply to a dedicated foot pump fixture at the sink.  To do this, I tapped into the cold water line (before the pressure pump) with an Aqualok T-fitting and ran 1/2" nylon hose from there to a valve mounted in the engine compartment.  This valve allows you to switch the foot pump from fresh water to the icebox drain if/when the icebox needs to be drained.  From the valve, the line snakes up to the fixture at the sink.  This took a bit of thinking to get the best route but it wasn't too bad and access was decent.  

All told, this took me about a week of lunch hours and after work time, but I'm really happy with the way it all turned out and represents a big step toward completion.  Of course the system hasn't been tested so I may have some adjustments to do at the connections to make sure there are no leaks, but I'm not going to do that until spring so I don't have to winterize everything.

Coming Together

It's been a few weeks since the last post but since I sorted out the PSS clearance issue, I haven't been idle.  There's just been a lot of little things going on as I start to fully check off completed systems.  My big goal before winter sets in is to have the engine and the galley fully completed.  I'm not going to run tests before winter though because I don't want to have to winterize everything so all of that will have to wait until spring.  

For the engine, there was a note in the engine survey when the previous owner had bought the boat that there was no vented loop on the raw water discharge line that connects the heat exchanger to the mixing elbow on the exhaust.  Fortunately, I was able to locate a new one on ebay that fits the odd 7/8" inside diameter hose that this engine uses.  As with all things labeled 'Marine' they are typically $150 but found this one for just $50.  

Since the engine never had a vented loop on it, I had to find a good location for it that wouldn't get in the way of other serviceable items and after some research and test fits found that it would work best just to the left of the engine (looking back) about a foot above the water line.  

The next challenge to present itself was on the same raw water hose at the mixing elbow.  Somewhere along this refit, I lost the 1/2" npt to 7/8" nipple that connects the hose to the mixing elbow.  I went to the Westerbeke parts site and found that this particular piece of kit was going to cost me $204.40 USD (part #032230).  Just crazy and I was determined not to pay it.  Small rant here: Westerbeke is not the only manufacturer to do this, but marking up a $1.50 piece of copper is just robbery and drives me nuts.  I was determined to find an alternative to giving Westerbeke my money even if it meant paying a local machinist almost as much to make me a custom part.  

After a stupid amount of time spent researching alternatives, I found almost the same part on Westerbeke (1/2" npt to 7/8" nipple with an elbow) for just $23 (part #030183). I asked the parts manager at Hansen Marine (Westerbeke distributor for Northeast US) why the original part was so expensive and he said it 'was just Westerbeke being Westerbeke' and that they don't sell too many of those parts. 

Still need double hose clamps everywhere

Anyway, the part just arrived and I've fitted it but haven't hooked up the final hose from the vented loop to the mixing elbow yet, but I did install the exhaust hose from the mixing elbow to the lift muffler.  I will get the final piece of hose along with hose clamps done later today and call it done.  

Moving on to the raw water intake, I installed the hose from the seacock to the raw water strainer and the hose from the strainer to the raw water pump on the engine.  The strainer is a groco Arg 500-s and it's a nice piece of equipment that replaced the original in the same location with no drama except for the usual tight fitting hoses on the barbs.

The only challenge with the engine wiring harness and shifting controls was to squeeze myself between the engine and cockpit sole to install zip ties to run the wires and control cables above the engine and only took about 30 minutes.  I was somewhat amazed that the control cables didn't cause me any grief but I'll take a win when I can.

The final piece to the engine is the fuel and return lines and while I haven't connected the final few feet, the lines are run and connected to the fuel filter.  With any luck I should be able to fully cross off the engine installation project off the list by the end of the week.

PSS Clearance Issues Part 2

After last week's disappointing PSS shaft install I went back to the drawing board thinking that I may have to purchase a different type of shaft seal system, but spent quite a bit of time online posting questions to both the Niagara and Westerbeke Owner's groups on Facebook.  Many Niagara owners had tight fits as well, but made them work.  I can only think that the engine beds in my Niagara were placed a bit forward of where others were, but that's just speculation.  I don't believe the original shaft seal was a PSS or if it was it was an early model that didn't use a vent and made it quite a bit shorter.  

Several people suggested taking the rotor to a machine shop and trimming it down to fit and I started to seriously consider this as an option but decided to call PSS and see if that was a possibility.  I'm glad I did.  It wasn't a surprise that they did not recommend doing that (although they never told me why), but they did say that they have a 'slow speed' stator (the carbon part where the vent normally comes out) that doesn't have a vent and is 3/4" shorter.  The only difference between the 2 is that the slow speed stator needs to be burped from time to time (when you launch for instance) to get the air trapped in the shaft seal out. 

I decided to take a chance on this route and was pleased that PSS said I could send the original stator back and they wouldn't charge me for the new one (except for shipping).  So I pulled the trigger on it and waited for it to ship from Washington state to New Hampshire.  In the meantime, I prepped the area by once again removing the transmission (I lost count after 8 removal/reinstalls) and the PSS.  Just to be sure, I put the transmission back on and checked the shaft alignment without any shaft seal in place.  

The new part finally arrived yesterday and I got to work as soon as it came.  I swapped out the original

New vs Old stators

vented stator with the new slow speed version on the nitrile bellows and installed it on the shaft log. Then I lubed up the rotor with dish soap and slid it onto the shaft up to the bellows.  Then I reinstalled the transmission yet again and installed the IsoFlex GearGuard drive saver on the transmission flange followed by the split shaft coupler.  I had previously painted the coupler with 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of black enamel to keep the rust down.  

With everything in place, I reached down under the transmission and compressed the rotor against the bellows the recommended 3/4" and set the grub screws on the rotor.  Because the access is terrible underneath the transmission, the only way to tell if the clearance is good is to stick a camera down there and take a photo.  I was happy to find that I now had about 3/8" clearance from the bottom of the transmission and I think that it acceptable.  If the shaft wobbles that much then I probably have bigger problems than it hitting the bottom of the transmission. 

I finished up by setting 2 additional grub screws in each of the rotor set screw holes to hold the first ones in place (with blue loctite) and torqued the IsoFlex and shaft coupler to spec.  Once completed, the shaft spun nicely with the transmission in neutral with no 'hard' spots along the rotation.  Just to make sure I could call it complete, I dry installed the MaxProp hub on the outside to make sure I had the proper clearances (I did).  

I really never thought that this job would take soo long to complete, hopefully the other engine install jobs which are up next won't be quite as taxing (raw water, electrical, controls, fuel).