Boat Plans Catamaran
OK, Im getting kind of tired of the re-work, but I had to move my sea chest location once again. I had abandoned the first location as the intake was to small, increased the size of the intake and moved the sea chest to the area in front of the generator. After doing some assembly, I realized that the sea chest was going to be to close to the water line, and I want it a below the water line. I also felt that having it in front of the generator was going to be a pain in the ass, and Im sure Id be regretting it years down the road as I banged into it while servicing the generator. So, as much as it pained me, I moved the sea chest again. I turned it 90 degrees, and moved it another foot away from the generator.
During my recent visits to the scrap yards ( selling scrap metal), Ive been scrounging around for some for some 2" 316 stainless. No luck on finding some, so I had to break down and make a small purchase of some new material. M
aking sure all my parts were 316L was important to me so having to buy new material was not such a bad thing given I could assure quality.The first line of business on the sea chest was building the manifold. I used a 12" piece of 2" along with two 1" x 4" nipples. I cut the nipples in half on my lathe so I ended up with the four pieces needed for my valves. Using a hole saw, I bored four holes in the 2"x12" nipple so I would be able to weld in the valve stubs. I was going to use a boring head to make the bores, but the hole saw did just fine by using the micro feed on my mill and running water on the bit to keep it cool.
Welding the 1" nipples in the manifold was pretty easy. I stood the 1" stubs on the work bench then lowered the 2" manifold on to the stubs and held the manifold up with blocks. This way I was able to keep the stubs pl
umb, level, and square with the manifold without having to come up with a clamping contraption. I tacked the stubs in place, then placed the manifold in the vice and welded her up. I made two passes around the each stub. I air tested the manifold to 40 psi and Ill be damned if it passed on the first try.I bolted the stainless flange to the flange I welded into the hull, and just for kicks I tested to see if they were electrically isolated. The electric isolation test was good.
Ive yet to find a used 2" sea strainer, so Im unable to finalize the assembly. Im going to need to brace the manifold both vertically and horizontally, but I cant make the brace until I know the final location of the end after the sea strainer is in place. I also think I can lower the manifold 2" by using a close nipple vs the 4" nipple I have between the ball valve and the "T". Im going to keep my eyes open for another valve that with an overall length of 4" vs the 6" valves I have now. I really cant finalize any of this until I I have a sea strainer.
Im very happy with how the sea chest looks, and more happy with its location. This set up will be extremely easy to service and bring various water intakes on or off line as I need them. I went with a "T" vs a 90 on building the sea chest in case I had to blow a clog out of the intake while under way. I can screw a nipple down in to the "T" to get above the water line, and clear any thing away without having to get into the water. If I had used a 90, cleaning from the inside would be difficult at best.
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ne sees on production trawlers, the engine sucks water in to the cooling system from outside the boat, cools the engine, then pumps the water overboard. The problem with this is that screens get plugged, impellers go bad, engines overheat ( this can kill an engine in a moment), and maintenance for sure increases. Overall, the reliability of such a system is not very high and detracts from the boat as a whole in my opinion. The last thing I want to be dealing with on a night time passage is an overheating engine due to a Walmart baggie being sucked into the engine intake screen, or worse, loosing an engine due to a baggie that costs 1/10 of one penny.
keel cooler work better but this was not a big deal. Because of the large volume of coolant I needed an expansion tank to give the coolant a place to go as things up to operating temperature. I also will use this expansion tank as the fill point to add coolant and a way to get the air out of the system. My engine modification was basically removing the fill cap from the engine heat exchanger and moving it to the expansion tank, then connecting the expansion tank back to the engine heat exchanger. The expansion tank is at a slightly higher elevation than the engines heat exchanger so getting the air out should be easier. Im using extended life coolant that is premixed using distilled water and coolant. Im also thi
nking of adding coolant filters as part of my system. Coolant filters need to be compatible with ones coolant ( either organic or non organic).
marine type air conditioner. While traveling down and aroun various harbors, Im amazed at the number of boaters that leave their air condtioners running while away from their boats for extended periods of time. I know of one boat that has been sunk due to the marine air conditioning unit failing and pumping water into the boat. While I dont think Ill leave the air conditioners runnig while Im not on the boat, with keel cooling I will have the ability to leave boat and not have to worry about the air conditioners. For the air conditoner coolers I used 2" sch. 40 pipe split in half and welded to the keel. Becuase the air conditioners will be used while the boat is sitting still I wanted to get the coolers as low in the water as I could. There is a cooler on each side of the hull for each air conditioner. The cooler for the forward cabins enters and leaves the hull amid ship, and the cooler for the upper areas of the boat enter and leave the hull more aft.
