Princess 45 Flybridge Cruiser at Brighton Marina. Held in lifting slings during an Insurance Survey
After a few delays with the lifting hoist, this Princess 45 Flybridge Cruiser was safely lifted for the inspection of the underwater parts of the hull & propulsion equipment. Once it was found that all hull anodes were in need of replacement, it was decided that she would remain ashore for the next few days. This was quite fortunate for me because the subsequent testing of the through-hull valves resulted in the fracture of one of the underwater fittings. If the vessel had been afloat, this find would have at least given me a partial soaking. I always keep a range of softwood bungs in my toolbag for such an eventuality.
Although the vessel's generator had only been used for 39 hours, the skin fitting of the cooling intake failed when lightly tapped
It's not just the underwater parts of the boat that suffer from corrosion. Even in the relatively dry atmosphere of the engine compartment, metallic parts will still corrode, particularly if they are made from mild steel. The corroded exhaust hose clamp shown below was one of a pair that secured a length of exhaust hose to the exhaust elbow of the starboard engine. Not particularly unusual for an engine of this age, but to leave these hose clamps to decay and fail, even after a fairly recent engine service, is leaving the engines at risk of failure.
Broken exhaust hose clamp on Volvo Penta TAMD 71-A engine
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