1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Splash Day! (sorta)

In a nutshell, we splashed the boat, I found a small leak, and we lifted the boat out of the water. I fixed the problem and we splashed again. And then I found another small leak that requires parts to fix. So the Roamer is in the slings and on blocks in front of the lift well at the marina. Parts are on order.

The day started off just fine. Everybody showed up when they said they would. The Travelift came over and lifted the boat, but the straps were too far forward. I mentioned that to the lift operator. He said it’d be fine. The tires for the lift were on uncompacted gravel. Lifting the boat compacted the gravel under the tires, and the lift didn’t have the oomph to get out of the depressions it made in the gravel.

So they put the boat back down and moved the lift aft three feet.

Relocating the straps

Second try with some plywood on the ground in front of the tires.

But the lift just didn’t have the power to move forward on the uncompacted gravel.

So they brought in some muscle to help out

Never seen this done before

It worked!

Getting close

Splashed!

I jumped onboard and went around checking thruhulls, and that’s when I noticed a bit of water streaming in from the starboard main engine Forespar Marelon seacock. Water was getting past the thread sealant. So I had them lift the boat clear of the water and set about fixing it.

Removing the hose wasn’t too difficult

With the hose out of the way, I removed the valve.

I found nothing out of order with the standpipe

Maybe I didn’t apply enough Gasoila thread sealant. Or maybe I didn’t fully seat the valve. I don’t know why it leaked. But I cleaned the sealant off the threads as best I could and applied a different sealant: Loctite 567.

I fully seated the valve and attached the hose

They lowered the boat again and the seal for the Forespar valve appears to have held. But I could hear a dripping sound and tracked it down to the underside of the base for the OEM Chris Craft-branded seacock that originally served the genset.

In 2009, when I splashed the boat at its original marina, that seacock was dry and tight. It made the trip to Deale without leaking a drop. So after confirming that the rubber stopper part of the valve was still soft and serviceable, I didn’t bother removing it from the standpipe. I got a new sight glass and gaskets and presumed everything would be fine. But something happened in the interim and the unit is no longer reliable.

So I ordered a new Marelon valve and it will be here sometime next week.

This was a very stressful, disappointing day…

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Splash Day Breakdown