Repower
Chaser
Due to major failures involving the
main engines of SSS Chaser, the ship was not able to cruise over much of the
past two years.
Replacement of the engines and upgrades of other components was
undertaken which required a major fundraising effort.
For more information on this need,
and ways you can help out, please click on
this link.
For more background information, and current status reports on the project. please
click on this
link and this link.
We are happy to report that the
major portion of the upgrades has taken place and Chaser is once again a
cruising vessel.
The following pictures are of the
previous equipment that was replaced thanks to our many supporters.
Our new engines arrived, and were
waiting for installation.
Of course, we needed to protect our
new engines until they were installed.
We removed the overhead and deck of
the crew's quarters in order to have access to the engine
room so we could begin the changes.
On
August 11, 2006, the time finally came for us to remove the old engines from
the Chaser. We knew we had some "heavy lifting" to do, and Skipper Shellhorn
felt his "Crane Truck" might need a little assistance.
So, we called in Precision Crane
Service of Santa Rosa with a larger rig. This crane is so big that it even has its own
support truck just to transport the 23 tons of counter weights. The
following pictures show some of the process of getting the crane ready.
After the crane was assembled, it
had a much longer reach with the boom.
The soon to be removed engines were
ready to be lifted out of Chaser
First out were the old generators,
and they were carefully placed on a trailer since they have been sold. Load
balancing was critical on the trailer as the first position made the front
end of the tow truck start lifting off the ground.
After the engines were removed, the
engine room looked a little emptier. That will change in 3 days after
the space is cleaned and painted in preparation for installing the new
engines.
Shim plates for alignment
of the new main engines with the reduction gear were moved in so they could
be painted along with the rest of the space. Also, how did the
crane operator know what he was doing when he couldn't see the Chaser?
Radio communications between the crane crew made it seem simple.
Since we were now done with the
crane for a couple of days, it was time to take it apart and send it "home"
to Santa Rosa for the weekend.
For more of the "action",
watch our video from August 11th. This is a RealVideo file and can be
accessed by clicking here.
During the weekend of August 12th &
13th, we pressure washed the engine room and painted it out. It's nice
to start with clean white bulkheads.
On August 14th, we again brought the
crane in for installation of our new equipment which was waiting for us on
the trailer.
We started with the starboard main
engine getting rigged for the trip to Chaser.
Placing the engines in Chaser
required a little more clearance than we had with our rigging, so we ended
up removing the engine from the first attempt and revised our methods.
Our second attempt with the first
engine was successful. We were still dealing with clearances of less
than an inch at times.
Our port engine came next.
What we learned on the first engine also applied to this one, so it was
prepared the same as the successful attempt.
Next came our first generator.
It was placed on wooden skids in the center of the engine room, and then
pulled aft into the generator room to make room for the second engine to be
lowered in.
All of the new equipment was now
located in the engineering spaces, but not in the final position yet.
Now, it was time to move the deck
and overhead of the crews quarters back into place.
Wow, that was lots of work, but
there is lots more to do!
For more of the "action",
watch our video from August 14th. This is a RealVideo file and can be
accessed by clicking here.
At 7:39 p.m. on October 8, 2006, our
new engines started operational testing in their new locations.
For a December, 2006, status report, click here.
