Well it has been a six months since the last posting and it has been busy. Once the ski season passed for us it was time to roll up the sleeves and get to work on the boat.

Mich and I both being techies decided we would use a web-based tool called GitHub to track all maintenance items, documents, and general boat information going forward. The value for us is that the information is stored in the cloud, is multi-user, and allows for offline updates. We track everything from the largest project down to a missing screw that needs attention later. It has been a huge leap forward in productivity over how we managed our last boat which was usually written lists and post it notes which invariably are lost. It also has the benefit that everything ever entered is searchable so you can go back and see years later what work you may have done in the past on a part.

So here is a list of the major items we have worked on in the last 4-5 months. Hopefully this will be helpful to future Defever owners on what areas we saw issues with.

• Replaced both John Deere (JD) engine water pumps
• Replaced oil transfer lines from JD engine to oil transfer pump
• JD heat exchangers pulled and cleaned
• Fixed port JD coolant leak (heat exchanger seal)
• Added valve between JD coolant bottles and coolant tank
• Replaced starboard PSS shaft seal. Leaked while underway
• Replaced washer/dryer water supply union.
• Troubleshooted AIS SWR error. Bad extension cable
• Replaced failed fresh water pump pressure switch
• Replaced failed sump bilge pump
• Installed secondary sump for heat pump in master stateroom
• Replaced leaking shower cold water valve
• Full JD engine fluids change
• Full Westerbeke generator fluids change

So far not so impressed with John Deere warranty work. We had two failed water pumps that leaked at the internal seal. In addition we had a coolant leak on one engine that was leaking on a heat exchanger seal. I would not expect to see these seals fail within a few hundred hours of operation. The last piece that really called into question JD factory quality was when our mechanic was pulling off the heat exchangers on one engine and he found that the thermostats were installed backwards from the factory. Still fighting it out with JD on that item to be covered under warranty.

The other item that was a surprise was how poor the up-fitting of the external hose connections in the engines and fuel system were. Between the oil transfer lines, oil re-breather drain line, and fuel transfer pump were not done in a way for long term reliability. Essentially hoses were not the correct type and used poor fittings. Our mechanic relayed this is not uncommon to see on boats where the up-fitting is done in China. Not overly expensive to do correctly, just time consuming. Right now we are down to a single leak in the engine room which is awaiting a hose replacement.

We have had a chance to finally to get an actual new fun project completed. Beginning when we took possession of Adventuress we knew that we wanted a better way to manage the lines. Up until today they had been coiled up and placed on a shelf above the rudders. It was always a pain to know which size rope you where pulling when they are piled together. Working together we determined we wanted boards to hang our lines. I had made something similar at home for hanging skiis. It’s simple and elegant.

I milled up some boards from some spare maple I had and painted with a high quality exterior acrylic latex paint to seal them. I even went so far as to color match the existing wall color. Mich color marked the ends of the line and we had color plaques made up so we know every line size and it’s place on the boat. We finally feel that we are making progress on getting our boat shipshape and Bristol fashion.