Aboard Mahdee, we have countless tasks that must be done daily, weekly, seasonally, or by some other interval. Some of them are quite rewarding–cleaning the boat gives us a spiffy interior; varnishing the covering boards nets us a lovely classic look and numerous compliments from fellow boaters; keeping the hull clean and clear of bottom growth helps us sail faster through the water. Building and installing anything new is a rewarding experience. Then, we have what I call the “thankless tasks” which are truly invisible. Some sailors just don’t bother with the thankless tasks–after all, no one really knows if you’ve done them or not. You can just avoid thinking about them, too. There is no instant gratification, no reward, and as a matter of fact, your spare time is sucked into the black hole of these tasks, the bank account says “ouch!” and the cruising kitty diminishes all for…what…”what was it we did last week?” Yes, these tasks are not only “thankless” but so invisible that you forget you’ve done them at all. Why do them? well, in our case, it is for increased peace of mind–knowing that something probably won’t break down when it is most needed.

As our friends who have been reading the blog and website all along know, we did an extensive rebuild/restoration of Mahdee between 2007-2009. The previous owner had purchased numerous boat parts that we installed with the rebuild. An important big part was a brand new Cummins 5.9L 125 hp engine. He purchased it in the mid-1990’s but the build date on the engine was 1991. Old but yet never installed. We replaced belts and hoses and David rebuilt the Hurth transmission suspecting the seals would be bad but beyond that we just installed it in 2008 and with the re-launch of Mahdee in 4/2009 we’ve used it for more than 500 hours of engine time. I’m somewhat surprised we’ve used it that much in these past 4 years of primarily sailing.

Our engine maintenance since 2009 has been pretty minimal: We did flush the engine cooling fluids several times at the beginning but otherwise our use has been normal–changing the zinc anodes, the oil and replacing the raw water impeller as well as cleaning out the heat exchanger periodically has been the extent of maintenance. Last month, we purchased a variety of parts to do the first real tune-up on the engine. Some of the stuff was that which people would normally replace after 500 hours–David checked and set valve clearances so we had to replace the valve cover gaskets. BTW, the new ones are a pretty “Cummins Blue” vs the old black ones. We cleaned the air filter system and replaced various filters on the engine. We also replaced the belt which drives the water pump and alternator, as well as replaced the thermostat and associated seals.

Putting the valve covers back on. Note a yogurt container is perfect for covering the air intake while the air filter system is off the engine.

Some of the stuff fits into the “Thankless Tasks” category and isn’t of the variety that most folks would replace at 500 hours–but we felt this engine is so very old that we’d just, um, “feel better” if we replaced a few things.

We bought a new fresh water pump (a throw-away-not-rebuildable-part) and installed it. Looking at the rusted old one, I’m glad we replaced it.

Old

New

We replaced a couple cooling hoses, well, “just because” we hadn’t replaced them when launching the boat so they were original ones over 20 years old. On the “it’s old, let’s replace it front” we also replaced the lift pump for the engine. If that would fail, the high pressure injection pump would likely fail and, well, that would be bad. The raw water pump was leaking a tiny drip of water when running so we knew we needed to get a rebuild kit for it (not a thankless task). We decided to make it into a “thankless task” and bought a brand new raw water pump (checking account “ouch!” at more than $600) as well as the major rebuild kit (another $100) so we could rebuild the old pump (to be kept as a spare) and install the new one. All sounds good until the new raw water pump shows up and it’s bright bronze (unpainted). Thus, another “thankless task” for me was to paint it white to match the rest of the engine.

Old raw water pump on the left, new one on the right

There is a purpose to the paint–with everything painted a light color it is easy to see leaks or warnings of wear. In the case of the old raw water pump, on inspection, we could see a stain of green bronze oxidation where the pump was leaking. Early warning of things to come. If I didn’t paint the new pump, not only would it not “match” the engine, heaven forbid! it also would likely turn green all over and we’d not have that warning stain before a larger doom was upon us. Even so, it’s a pretty thankless task to paint the thing. Once installed, it resides between the engine and a bulkhead–can’t stare at it and think “isn’t it lovely” without a flashlight, mirror, and basically standing on your head. I did touch up paint on all of the engine at the same time, so I can preen about that, too–if I remember to do so while staring at the motor. Hum, like that’s going to happen.

Painted and ready to install

David installed a (ouch! costly) bypass oil filter system. I suppose he can stare at it in wonderment and think “isn’t this nice” but in the overall scheme of things, it fits the “thankless task” category perfectly.

The engine tune-up included other thankless tasks but since David performed them and they’re nowhere to be seen now, I don’t know what they may have been. And that’s the thing about thankless tasks–only YOU know they’ve been done and that’s only as long as you manage to remember them. Unless you take photos, who’s to say they really happened?