Update
on SSS Chaser from Skipper Shellhorn
December 18th
2006
Hello Friends
and Shipmates –
With the
installation of our engines starting on August 12, our goal was to rapidly
put the Chaser back on the water cruising
San Francisco
Bay
. Over this weekend, leaving Saturday morning and returning Sunday
afternoon, the Chaser went on her first “real cruise” since February
’05. We cruised down the
Napa
River
on a day that was supposed to be cloudy and rainy, but Lady Luck smiled on
us and we had a beautiful day down the river and across the bay to
Petaluma
, the destination and location of the 2006 Christmas dance.
This was
actually the fourth movement of the vessel since the installation of the
new engines in August. Our first three cruises were learning experiences.
We have to remind ourselves that we have used equipment-- good used
equipment but nonetheless it’s still only new to us. We had trouble with
the main engines smoking upon
acceleration,
enough smoke on occasion to almost literally blot out the sun. Some of
this problem was based on incorrect timing of one main engine. Other
smoking issues were excessive load from the ship’s original propellers.
The two items
mentioned above, timing and propellers, were pretty much remedied by
retiming the port engine to optimum performance, and by the work of
ship’s officer and former crew member Daniel Lloyd who dived under the
ship and removed fouling from the props (two inches of barnacles from our
year and half of sitting and not moving the ship). These two items seem to
have improved the ship’s overall performance. Even though we’re not
quite to the performance level we would like, the cruise over the weekend
was quite successful. The engines performed without mishap for our
six-and-a- half hour cruise both directions. The ship was able to maintain
an average cruising speed up with and against the current of between 9.4
and 11.3 knots. Our engine RPM was approximately 900 RPM with the engine
exhaust temperatures running at 800°F. We felt that this was within the
normal operating range. Our cruising speed expectation of eleven to twelve
knots was not obtained, so modifications to the propellers to correct this
is probably our next step.
The ship is
running, lots of work has been accomplished but there is much more left to
do. With the removal of the old engines and modification and installation
of the new ones, this Herculean task is nearing a very fruitful
completion. A short list of projects that have been accomplished reads as
follows:
 |
Dismantling
the crews quarters and cutting a hole through two decks
|
|
Removal of
the two main engines
|
|
Removal of
the two ship’s service generators
|
|
Cleaning and
painting of the inside of the empty engine room
|
|
Installation
of the new foundation plates
|
|
Flooding of
the ships fuel tanks for vessels stability during engine installation
|
|
Installation
of the two main engines
|
|
Installation
of the two main ship service generators
|
|
Cleaning of
the ship’s fuel tanks and resealing
|
|
Removal of
the ship’s old electrical panels
|
|
Installation
of new updated electrical panels
|
|
Removal of
old generator switchgear
|
|
Installation
of new generator switchgear
|
|
Installation
of new main engine exhaust piping
|
|
Insulating
main engine exhaust pipe.
|
|
Installation
of new generator exhaust piping
|
|
Insulating
new generator exhaust piping
|
|
New fuel
piping for all four engines -2 main eng and 2-gen. eng
|
|
New air
piping for all main engine air starters
|
|
New air
piping for main generator starters
|
|
Rebuilding
instrument panels for all engines
|
|
Rebuilding
alarm panels for main engines
|
|
Designed and
built electrical panels for main ship service generators
|
|
Aligned main
engines to reduction gears to five thousandths of an inch
|
The list of
projects goes on and on, but one project of note was the installation of a
single cylinder diesel engine to operate a ship service air compressor.
This air compressor was needed in case the ship finds itself with no
electrical power and no way to make air to start any of the engines. In
the event of this type of calamity we can hand start the air compressor
diesel and bring the ship back to life.
At this time
almost all ships systems are up and operational and all electronics are
working. The ships galley and crews quarters have been put back together.
One cruise can make a tremendous difference in the condition of the ship,
and having to live aboard for just a weekend makes everything shipshape.
This letter was just to bring everybody up to speed. I hope that it has
been informative, and gives you a little perspective as to the scope of
work that has been accomplished by our crew. Please go to our web site, www.SSSChaser.com
And I would like
to thank everybody for their support of the ship and the young people we
have here today.
Very truly yours
Carl Shellhorn
Skipper, Sea
Scout Ship Chaser
