This section contains some maintenance data and also notes on the repairs that we have carried out on our Pearson. Some of these are specific to the 28-1 model, and others are more generic in nature and will apply to the Triton and the newer 28's as well. These procedures are difficult to fully describe in text, so if something is not clear or you need more detail, send me a message, maybe I can help.
ENGINE & FUEL SYSTEM
[Since my 28 has a Diesel, Atomic Four sailors should visit Captain Ron's website (follow the link in the Resources section) for information on that engine.]
Basic Information: Universal Atomic Diesel, model 5411. 2 cylinder, 11 hp, 31 cu.in. displacement, 22:1 compression ratio, 2:1 reduction gearbox, raw water cooled. This is a marinized Kubota Z500 block, which is the engine used in the Kubota B5100 tractor.
Engine Oil: SAE 30, Diesel grade. I use Pennzoil stock no. 3745 (2 1/2 gallon jug) that I buy at the farm store as the 'Marts' ('K'&'Wal') don't seem to carry single-viscosity oil (at least in my area) anymore. Approximately 2 1/2 quarts per change. I can just get to the oil pan drain plug (19 mm socket) on this boat, and use it to dump the oil onto the drip pan under the engine instead of pulling it out of the dipstick hole. I still have to pump the old oil up out of the drip pan, but the engine drains better this way.
Oil Filter: AC-Delco PF53. I use these as the Fram units sold in the marine stores seem kind of light, like something has been left out. Check out a great webpage on oil filters here.
Thermostat: Universal P/N 275965, Gasket 261144
Water Pump Impeller: Sherwood 10077K
Alternator Belt: Gates XXXX(number soon)
Fuel Separator: Our boat has the Racor model 200FG fuel separator. These units have been obsolete for some time now, but subsequent models use the same filter element so there is no problem getting them. The element is a Racor model 2000SM-OR, rated at 2-microns, and is available at West Marine and other stores for about ten bucks including replacement "O" Rings. NOTE: Don't put alcohol through this device as it will attack the see-through plastic sediment bowl, and there are no more of these available! (I found this out the hard way) There is a metal replacement bowl available, and I bought one of these from Marine Partsfinders in North Palm Beach, Florida. The metal bowl has the mounting bracket integrated into it as one piece, and is tapped at the bottom for ¼" pipe thread. This is smaller than the original drain valve hole, so a new drain valve assembly kit with a plug to cap it (required for Coast-Guard approval) is needed to finish the installation. http://www.marineparts.com/default.htm
Fuel Filter: Universal P/N 298854 (spin-on type)
Fuel Tank: Florida Marine Tanks, Inc. Model FMT 22-PS, 5052 Aluminum, .090" thick. 24"l x 18"w x 12"h (22 gallons)
Diesel Sludge: This being our first diesel engine boat, I was horrified to find black sludge in the engine feed line and fuel separator after the second season with it. I have since found out that this is a fairly common problem with diesels, and at least I got off light as it was caught before there were any performance problems with the engine. As the boat was already hauled out, I figured it was the best time to deal with it. I drained the fuel from the tank by attaching polyethylene tubing to the fuel feed line ahead of the separator, and leading it over the side to jerry cans on the ground. Crawling down into the portside sail locker and removing the pegboard divider, I was able to disconnect all of the lines leading to the tank and the straps that hold it in place. Because our boat has wheel steering, it was necessary to remove the elbow fitting for the vent line at the rear of the tank to clear the pedestal sheaves. I was then able to lift the tank at the front, slide it forward a little, and pick it up out of its mounting block. This required a fair amount of sweating and swearing, the biggest snag being the fill hose. Fortunately, the tank fit out through the seat hatch opening. With the tank out, I took it home and removed the plastic fill elbow. I was then able to dump out most of the sludge. After rinsing with some kerosene, I flushed the tank out with the garden hose. I then filled it ¼ full with hot water and mixed in some dish detergent which I sloshed around, let sit a while and dumped out. I repeated this several times until the tank was shiny clean inside. Don't ask about the runoff, but suffice to say that the grass is still growing just fine along the back of the house.
APPEARANCE
Cleaners: I mostly use one detergent, Knight's "Spray Nine", which is made by the Knight Chemical Corp. in Johnstown, NY. This stuff works the best of anything I have tried over the years for boat cleaning. "Soft Scrub" cleanser is good for cleaning up bird droppings and other stubborn stains, but rinse well when using cleansers as they leave behind an abrasive residue, which seems to like to accumulate in the main hatch slides.
Polishes: A product sold in the 'Marts', auto stores and some drugstore chains called "NuFinish" works great on cars, and even better on boats. It can be applied by hand or with a low-speed buffer using a terrycloth bonnet. I have been using this stuff for about ten years now and couldn't be more pleased with it. Meguiar's makes a great product called "Heavy Duty Fiberglass Restorer" which can help with chalked gelcoat, and also works great with a low-speed buffer. Novus "Fine Scratch Remover" and "Plastic Clean and Shine" work great on plastic parts like the Lexan opening ports and the sliding doors in the main cabin storage cubbyholes. These products are usually available in motorcycle shops. We were able to use them to make our hazy opening ports as good as new. We use "Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish" for all of our metal parts, it works wonders on stainless and brass even though it is billed as being for mag wheels.
Rubrail: The white vinyl rubrails used on Pearsons and many other sail and power boats can get downright ugly as the years go by. Dirt, mildew and creosote stains from dock pilings seem to get worked right into the plastic, and making it look nice again be difficult. The worst part is that there is roughly sixty feet of rubrail on the 28, and getting it done using household or even marine-grade cleaning products can be too time consuming, especially if it is a good sailing day. The best approach I have found is to solvent wash the vinyl, and this will brighten it up like new. At first blush this might sound like a really bad idea, but I have been doing this since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon with no problems- it works great. I use acetone and clean terrycloth car towels that I cut into quarters. The acetone should be used semi-liberally, and of course latex or other solvent resistant gloves should be worn so your skin does not get de-fatted by the solvent. Work on a section of rubrail about 12 to 18 inches long at a time, less if it is a really hot and/or windy day. The dirt and the oxidized layer of vinyl at the surface of the rubrail will come off with moderate rubbing, and it will be necessary to keep turning the rag to new cloth as it gets coated with the dirt and dead vinyl. Bring plenty of solvent and rags for the job, and work carefully to avoid spilling the solvent on the boat. For this reason, it is good to work from a small size can or bottle so spills are minimized. I have had the wind knock over solvent cans on me, and of course have blundered into them and sat on them, etc. It always causes some excitement I would be better off without, not to mention the expense and the hassle if it is several miles to the store or if it is the weekend and they are closed or just sold out until the Monday delivery. When you are done the rubrail will look like new again, and you won't believe the difference it makes on the overall appearance of the boat. But don't stand around gawking at it, get to work on those lifelines because acetone works great for cleaning the vinyl on those, too.
Bilge: As long as there are no large amounts of fuel present in the bilge, you can clean it quickly and easily using a garden hose and a 'Shop-Vac' type vacuum cleaner in wet pick-up mode. With this machine you can get out all of that parking lot grit, hair, carpet fuzz and junk that finds it's way down in there- before it clogs up the bilge pump intake. Use the hose to sluice out all of the nooks and crannies of the bilge, and flush it all down into the keel stub. Then use the vacuum cleaner to pick up the water and all of the junk will go out with it. A few notes of caution, however. First and most important, make sure you don't pick up any fuel or oil with the vac, as the fumes could be ignited by sparking of the electric motor in the vacuum cleaner. Also, be aware of how much water is going into the vac, as it can get really heavy in a very short time. Finally, when emptying the machine be cognizant of the overboard discharge regulations. You may have to wheel the vac shoreside to dump out the water to avoid any possible misunderstandings that could result from dumping it out over the side. At the very least, dump it into the cockpit and let the water go out the scuppers, and only do this if you are POSITIVE that it is not contaminated with any oil. This method is something my son and I came up with one day while working on the boat, and it is just the ticket for getting the bilge really clean and dry before storing the boat for the Winter. If you take out the pegboard from one side of the engine enclosure, you can access the sump area of the skeg aft of the stuffing box and get out the water that collects in there, too. I can't believe we didn't figure this out sooner. It really burns me to think of all those years I spent cleaning bilges with a bucket, a Par pump and a sponge when it can be done so quickly with a simple workshop vacuum cleaner.
REPAIRS
Loose Cleats: When we bought our boat, the jibsheet cleats were a little loose. Worse yet, there was some ugly brown water leaking from the base of one of them. This meant that the plywood core in the cockpit coaming had picked up some water, and that is never a good thing. I removed the cleats, and let the area dry out a little while I came up with a plan. Since the coaming storage box allows access to the cleats from below, at least it would be easy to work on the problem.
There are several ways to approach this repair, and I chose to go with back-up blocks. I got two pieces of 3/8" thick aluminum jig plate about 5"x7" in size from a friend that works at a machine shop. Using the opening in the cockpit coaming, I centered up the aluminum blocks under where the cleats are mounted and marked where the bolt holes for the cleats should go in the aluminum.(they were different left to right) Using the cleats themselves as guides, I drilled and tapped the backup blocks 1/4-20 for the bolts that hold the cleats.
To get rid of the wet core, I used a hole saw and a 90° attachment for my electric drill to remove the water damaged plywood from below. Working through the opening in the cockpit backrest, I was able to cut through the inner skin of the deck and into the plywood core with the holesaw. It was easy because I was able to use the bolt holes for the cleat to center the pilot drill of the holesaw in. I kept moving up to larger holesaws until dry wood chips started to come out. I ended up using a 2" holesaw for the job. It was necessary to cut only a little bit at a time to avoid digging into the fiberglass of the deck. A small mirror was used to check the progress of each holesaw cut. I stopped just short of cutting into the deck, and then withdrew the saw. I then used a screwdriver to pry out the plug, and used my knife and the tip of the screwdriver to scrape out the last remaining layer of plywood. Since there are two bolt holes for the cleat, I ended up with a figure-eight shaped void in the core of the coaming under each cleat.
I filled this void with "Tiger Hair" which is waterproof polyester auto body filler with fiberglass strands in it for extra strength. It is thick enough that it can be used in an overhead situation like this without running all over. Before starting, I put a thin coat of silicone grease on the threads of the cleat bolts and put the cleat and bolts in place. I then mixed the filler and packed it into the void, right around the bolts. I also put a thin coat of filler on the backup block itself and pressed it into place from below, and then drew up on the bolts to squeeze out the excess putty. West System epoxy with #403 microfibers or #404 high-density filler, if mixed to a thick enough consistency, could also work great for this job.
After the filler was cured, I backed out the bolts (the grease acted as a release agent) and slightly countersunk the holes in the deck so that they would hold sealant a little better, and re-attached the cleats using caulking and slightly longer bolts so that they would protrude right through the backup blocks. This way I could put a washer and a nut on at the bottom to lock the bolts in place. A nice way to avoid snags on the ends of the bolts is to finish up with an acorn nut.
Ceiling: The interior hull lining in the P28-1 and many other boats is made of vinyl yard goods backed with foam. This is glued in place to finish off and somewhat insulate the rough 'glass portions of the hull. With time, the foam breaks down and the liner comes loose and sags. The only way to fix it is to remove it and clean out all of the dried foam, and if you are going to go that far with the project, you might as well consider going the rest of the way and replace the whole ceiling.
I originally thought that a traditional wood slat ceiling would be great, but I got over this notion real quick after I priced out the teakwood molding that is made for this purpose. I even looked at wood flooring as an alternative, but it is not always easy to get this in long enough lengths, and it is not a whole lot cheaper than the teak anyway. Besides, there is quite a weight penalty to consider with the wood slat ceiling installation after you add it all up.
There is fabric available with foam bonded to it made especially for this use, but the per yard price of this material is staggering. We ended up buying fabric supported vinyl and ½ inch sheet upholstery foam from a fabric warehouse for the job, and it was still not exactly what I'd call cheap.
We started the project in the forward cabin by removing the teak fiddles from the shelves and taking up the teakwood strips that hold down the edges of the vinyl on the bulkheads and berth platforms. As the job progressed, we gave the teak parts a light sanding and a couple of coats of oil during work breaks, and saved them aside.
Next came the tearing out of the old ceiling, and scraping up the deteriorated foam and glue residue using an old wood chisel.(putty knives just bounced off) This was really the worst part of the job. A shop vac is a must here, and consider putting down some plastic or a dropcloth to keep the old glue and foam matrix from sticking to the berth platform. With the mess cleaned up, it was time to cut the foam and glue it in place on the hull. This needs to be one continuous piece for each section, lapping it onto the bulkheads for a smooth transition through the corners. It is best to cut the pieces a little big and trim them to size later, as you must expect a little bit of placement error when using contact cement. Also, both the foam and the vinyl will "grow" a little as the solvents in the glue do soften them a little. To get things to fit properly, I butted the foam up to the shelves, and ran it up to a point about one inch below the sheerline. I finished by trimming the ends and bottom edge of the foam along the centerline of where the teak retaining strips go. I did not put any foam on the top or bottom surfaces of the shelves.
With the foam in place and the glue dry, the fabric can be put on over top of it. We found that cutting the fabric panels big all the way around and then trimming the edges to fit with scissors after it is glued in position is the way to go. You can leave the perimeter if the fabric unglued for easier handling and positioning, and then stick the edges down after the piece is pulled and smoothed into position. We lapped the fabric right onto the inside of the hull at the sheerline to seal up the top edge of the foam. The glue gives you a little bit of time to remove and replace the fabric to smooth out wrinkles, but don't push your luck too far. After the panels are set, the edges where the teak retainers go can be trimmed so that the edge of the fabric is covered by the teak. An alternative is to fasten the teak strips down right over the untrimmed edge of the vinyl, and then cut off the excess with a razor knife.
Lessons learned:
Bilge Pump: The boat had a Whale Gusher 8 Mark III manual bilge pump that was installed in it when it was built. It was broken when we bought her, and I tried for a long time to find a replacement rocker arm for it with no luck. I called IMTRA in New Bedford MA, who is the U.S. distributor of Whale pumps, and was told that the only parts still available for the pump are replacement diaphragms. I eventually came to the realization that I was going to have to update to the current model, the Gusher 10 Mark III. This meant changing the hose, the through-hull fitting and the inlet strainer as the Gusher 10 uses 1½" hose, and the old pump used 1". To boot, the bolt pattern is slightly different which meant drilling two more holes in the cockpit well. Bummer. At least the new pump is made out of metal instead of plastic, and is rated at a higher capacity.
I bought new 1½" bilge pump hose and a plastic through-hull fitting with a rubber flap check valve in it, and enlarged the hole in the transom using a rotary rasp bit chucked in an electric drill. Working inside the sail locker, I removed the old through hull and traced the hole layout for the new fitting on the inside of the hull in pencil, using a large washer that happened to be just the right size as a template. The rasp made easy work of the fiberglass, and I taped a paper bag to the inside of the transom just below the hole to catch the dust so it wouldn't blow all over inside the boat.
Mast Step: When the boat was delivered, we discovered the cast aluminum mast step was a little loose in the bilge. I found that the head was broken off of the aft hold down screw, and the forward tab on the casting was bent upwards. I think the mast was stuck a little in the step when they took the spar down to ship the boat, and that is how it got goofed up. I removed the step and cleaned off the corrosion gunk with a wire brush, but when I tried to straighten the tab, it broke off.
I was able to buy a new step casting from D&R Marine in Massachusetts. I threw out the rusted original hardware and picked up some stainless steel lag screws and washers at the hardware store, and set to work on the mounting holes in the bilge. It was quite a bear to get the stub of the broken lag screw out of the keel, but finally I was able to grab onto it with vice-grip pliers and twist it out by using a back-and-forth motion. I put some acetone down in the holes to pick up any moisture, and then blew it out with compressed air from one of those 'Dust Off' canisters with a piece of flexible tubing fitted to the nozzle. With the holes clean and dry, I filled them with epoxy. When it cured, I re-drilled the holes for the lag screws. Before putting the new step in the boat, I placed it into the base of the mast and drilled a 3/8" hole right through the sail track and into the opening in the center of the casting for a drain. I then put a skim coat of "Tiger Hair" filler on the bottom of the step casting for a solid bedding, and fastened it into place just prior to stepping the mast so the weight of the spar would press out the excess filler.
To keep the step dry, I put a small automatic electric bilge pump in the lower aft portion of the bilge, and fed the output to the sink drain by replacing the sink tailpiece with one with a tap for a dishwasher. I looped the hose up as high as I could under the sink cabinet to avoid back-siphoning when the boat heels, and put a flap-type check valve in the line near the pump to keep the water in the output hose from running back into the bilge when the pump shuts off. This setup may not be considered a 'proper' installation by many, but it works well to keep the nuisance water like ice chest runoff and shaft log drips pumped out of the bilge.
Lessons learned:
This repair really only brought the boat back to it's original condition, with the added improvement of providing the drain hole for the mast. I think that if I was ever to do this again, I would cut one or two inches off from the butt of the mast, and get a block of phenolic or some other inert, high-compression strength material the size of the step casting and the same thickness as the mast cut, and use this to space the step casting up out of the bilge a little more. Better yet, a whole new higher mast step could be milled from phenolic to eliminate the casting altogether. This would get you totally away from the corrosion that occurs between the aluminum alloy of the mast and that which is used for the step casting. Pearson was onto something putting the jog in the keel to key the ballast fin to the hull and raise the mast out of the bilgewater, but they could have made that jog-up a bit higher in my opinion.
Disclaimer: The maintenance notes and procedures listed herein are my own, and are provided only as a guide to the reader. This is what works for me, but as it is often said "your mileage may vary". There are certainly other materials and methods that can be used to accomplish the same tasks. It is up to the reader to determine the suitability of the information presented here, and assume final responsibility for its use.