New F32 owner

comodave · Post by **comodave** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:33 am

Last fall we bought a F32 in Michigan. We had it winterized and put it into storage for the next year and one half. We plan to retire then and spend the summers on the boat in Michigan. We live in Tucson, AZ. I am traveling to Michigan in April to do some preliminary work on the boat, mostly investigating what needs to be done to it. I know that it has some soft spots in the deck near the anchor chocks and along the cabin sides. I plan to remove the bow rail to make this work easier and I am sure the rail needs rebedding anyway. My question is what are the tricks to removing the rails? What tools do I need to bring on the airplane with me to remove the rails? I have lots of updating to do to the boat as the previous owner did not do much to keep it up to date, electronics, decor, etc. He did however have new fuel tanks put in and the engines were recently rebuilt. The stringers do not have any rot that we could find. He did mount a non-ignition protected air conditioner in the engine room... That has to go. I like the Mermaid brand of A/Cs. Does anyone know which discharge direction you need to mount it in the area that Trojan designed for the A/C and HWH? Thanks in advance for any advice.

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 5:05 am

first off, welcome to the forum. you will find many great people and lots of assistance here. second, don't take any tools in the cabin with you. the TSA will stop you in a heartbeat. trust me on this, either ship tools ahead or check them in the cargo bay. to remove the stanchions, you will need phillips or straight blade screw drivers, and a ratchet socket set as these babies are through bolted and cannot be removed just by unscrewing from above. you will end up just turning the entire assembly round and round and digging into the fiberglass underneath. you will also need another person to either operate the screw driver above or hold the bolt from below. some of the head liner along the edges in the cabin will need to be pulled back as well since this is often the only way to gain access to the bolts. the soft spot around the anchor area on the forward deck is not uncommon. this was a notorious achilles heel from day one. the anchor rope pass through was often just drilled and the balsa was never sealed. and, over time, water seeps into the screws that hold the anchor chocks thus resulting in core rot.
i recommend coosa board for your new core material. several have used this on the site with great success. my marine mechanic also highly recommends this product. it is easy to use and bonds very well
http://www.coosacomposites.com

the water heater is mounted in a small compartment just to the right of the removable steps going down into the galley/dinette area. i believe it is an 11 gallon unit, at least it was on my f-32 when i had one. as for the a/c system compressor, on the f-32 it is normally located under the aft deck on top of the fresh water tank, the water circulation pump just aft of that. there should be a sea cock in that area if it is factory spec. don't forget to use a water strainer too. the water discharge for the compressor goes out the transom. the cabin units are normally located in the forward stateroom above the bunk and in the salon to the right of the cabin entry door in the storage areas. you might want to directly discharge the condensate overboard as well if you are doing the renovation. this way, the bilge will not have any condensate drip into the bilge. i did not have that on my f-32 and my bilge was constantly wet in the humid summer months here in baltimore. our tri cabin has the condensate discharge over board and i love it. my bilge is dry even on the hottest days and you can see the condensate running out of the small thru hull fittings after the a/c has been running for a while.
keep us posted, and again, welcome to the forum. the f-32 is a great boat, hence it's long production run.
aaron in baltimore

k9th · Post by **k9th** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 5:24 am

Welcome aboard. Where in Michigan will you be?

Allen Sr · Post by **Allen Sr** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 5:50 am

Welcome aboard

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 6:23 am

Welcome to the forum

g36 · Post by **g36** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 6:41 am

welcome to the forum also. many of us f32 guys here you'll find a boat load of info. ....just had to say it

TADTOOMUCH · Post by **TADTOOMUCH** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 8:50 am

Welcome to the forum. There are a lot of helpful people here and they have provided me with quite a bit of information that has saved me tons of money and time.

I mounted my AC unit behind the three drawers that are under the aft dinette cushion. I have three outlets. One behind the helm blowing into the dinette area, one in the v-berth and one larger one in the salon on the starboard side just inside the glass door.

I had to modify my drawer units to shorten them an inch or so and the unit I bought was a Webasto FCF 16,000 BTU unit.

I agree with Aaron on the rail removal. You will have to remove some headliner to get at the bottom of the bolts.

Also don't try to take any tools with you in a carry on. I had forgotten one time that my duffle had a combination tool in it once when I went through security and they looked at me like I was stupid when I denied I had any tools in my bag.
I had to forfeit the tool to get on the plane. Good thing it was cheap.

Good luck. We will keep an eye out for you here in Michigan.

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:04 am

TADTOOMUCH wrote:Welcome to the forum. There are a lot of helpful people here and they have provided me with quite a bit of information that has saved me tons of money and time.

I mounted my AC unit behind the three drawers that are under the aft dinette cushion. I have three outlets. One behind the helm blowing into the dinette area, one in the v-berth and one larger one in the salon on the starboard side just inside the glass door.

I had to modify my drawer units to shorten them an inch or so and the unit I bought was a Webasto FCF 16,000 BTU unit.

I agree with Aaron on the rail removal. You will have to remove some headliner to get at the bottom of the bolts.

Also don't try to take any tools with you in a carry on. I had forgotten one time that my duffle had a combination tool in it once when I went through security and they looked at me like I was stupid when I denied I had any tools in my bag.
I had to forfeit the tool to get on the plane. Good thing it was cheap.

Good luck. We will keep an eye out for you here in Michigan.

i'd love to see the air cond set up you have. always looking for upgrade type of ideas. and you are right about the tools. that's why i added that to my original answer to him...... i can't tell you how many times i am heading to my flight only to be delayed due to stuff like that. if only more folks would visit the TSA website.
aaron, your friendly inflight director

Stripermann2 · Post by **Stripermann2** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:05 am

Welcome to the group!

I found it was much easier to ship tools to the marina to hold for me in advance of my arrival to the boat. It was in Florida, I am in Maryland.

Be sure that you are not confusing the a/c unit in the engine room for a split system compressor. There are basically two types of a/c systems. Self contained, whereas, the whole compressor, condenser and evaporator are one unit. This unit fits best as Tad mentioned and is also what I have and located in same place. Not in the engine room.

The split system uses a compressor and condensing unit which is ignition protected (Cruisair for one) and can be stowed in the engine room and is often found on many boats, I have seen them on F32s. The evaporator is located elsewhere on the boats with refridgerant lines running to the evaporator.

Any other questions, fire away...

gettaway · Post by **gettaway** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:53 am

Welcome! Im repling via my droid at the moment but ill send you some photos of therefore rail removal on the f32 i did this last year to rebed the stanchion bases and it was actually pretty easy and fast. Id suggest you google the nearest harbor frieght tools by the boat and just get a few tools and leave them on the boat. You' ll need straight and philips screwdrivers,3 vise grips , small ones, you can clamp them to the nuts on the bac side then turn the screws topside. One person method. A cordless drill with a good bit makes easy fast work of this. Plus youll have to remove the interior panels to get to the back side where the nuts are. Photos to follow

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:01 pm

gettaway wrote:Welcome! Im repling via my droid at the moment but ill send you some photos of therefore rail removal on the f32 i did this last year to rebed the stanchion bases and it was actually pretty easy and fast. Id suggest you google the nearest harbor frieght tools by the boat and just get a few tools and leave them on the boat. You' ll need straight and philips screwdrivers,3 vise grips , small ones, you can clamp them to the nuts on the bac side then turn the screws topside. One person method. A cordless drill with a good bit makes easy fast work of this. Plus youll have to remove the interior panels to get to the back side where the nuts are. Photos to follow

what a great idea w/ the vise grips for a 1 person job. i have a question though. what happens when the screw looses contact w /the nut? does the entire set up fall away? nut and grips i mean?
aaron
and bravo w/ the harbor freight tools. cheap stuff, but handy!

gettaway · Post by **gettaway** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:21 pm

Arron, yes the vise grips and nut fall but on the f32 there really isnt any hidden caverns that you'll lose the tool.
Harbor frieghts quality has gotten better and do the job especially as a spare set.

I do this often when i travel for work and saves checking a bag, carryimg tools or losimg my good ones.

Stripermann2 · Post by **Stripermann2** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:43 pm

Gettaway, I'll be looking forward to those photos as well...

Thanks.

gettaway · Post by **gettaway** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:58 pm

kallen · Post by **kallen** » Thu Feb 09, 2012 5:44 pm

Did it done it. Get a vacumn. Remove all the cushions as there will be lots of dirt. You will also need a drill and bits to drill out the plugs that hide the screws in the v berth shelf fronts and shelves. A awl or ice pick works to remove the remainder of the plug.Dont drill to big (3/16 or less) or deep as you will hit the head of the phillips screw and then you are drilling the head of the screw off. Purchase a very good quality phillips screwdriver or bit(buy several). You really only have 1 chance to turn out the screw. I replaced all the screws and lock nuts with stainless as some of them strip coming out or are full of caulking. You might as well reseal the nav. lights to.Dont let the spouse see how easy it is to remove the panels or you will be changing that material to. Not sure what to recommend for a bedding compound but I find that I have to redo them every 6 years. You will also need a stple gun and stainless staples to.

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