320 Open Engine Room Refit

[irishrogue]

Our 32 open is a 1998 with twin cat 3116 diesels and a little over 1000 orig hrs. We have decided for a variety of reasons to keep the boat for another 8-10 years. This summer when we went to routinely replace an impeller, a firm tug on the raw water intake hose revealed what could have been a catastrophic failure at sea - the hose separated and split....Replacement of both hozes (10yrs old) was done in water that same day by us with little problem. BUT It highlighted the fact that fuel lines, waste etc are 10 yrs old, thru hulls are not working as smoothly as they should, exhaust hoses and risers have never been opened and inspected, etc...and I wont even tell you how rusty the trannies and back ends of the Cats are....it aint pretty.

So, plans are being finalized to pull both cats and genset out this winter, sandblast, prime and paint, rehose and reclamp the motors/genset. while the engines are out we are going to move some things around, replace a number of items while we can get to them with motors out, clean, fair, prime and paint engine room white along with some other possible items.

Apart from the motors/genset, as far as routine items what am i missing -

replace fuel lines, waste, waste tank, fresh water tanks. we will down size fresh water tank size on starboard and may eliminate the port tank since the boat lists to port slightly. Check shafts and engine mounts. Complete bottom job planned. Running gear will be checked - possibly removed and rebedded.

Apart from this list, what else should we be thinking about for planned upgrades -

hynautic controls (found a super clean dual station set used)
dripless shaft logs
possible insulation of P/S fishboxes
possible freezer plate install in S fishbox
vacuflush?
redo engine room insulation
install demister engine room vents with fan
install diaphragm pump to keep bilges totally dry
install new oil exchanger plumbed to engines, genset and trannies back to lazarette
replace 2 8Ds with 4 group 31s in parallel - all 4 to be mounted on centerline with new cover. removal of port 8D (125 lbs) and port water (175 lbs) will hopefully get rid of port list.
relocate racors filters?
Floscans

Repairs:

one outboard transverse stringer separated from the main stringer. we bolted with aluminim angle - now that we have access we will have it reglassed. another transverse stringer by the genset also separated a bit and will be repaired.

deck split where gas struts mount for bridge deck - remove brackets, reglass. electric engine hatch already installed like later models so struts not needed.

ISSUES:

quite simply, the factory does not make it easy to remove motors....the bridgedeck needs to be completely removed. we are going to terminate all connections at the bottom of the console and then reconnect with bus bars rather than trying to disconnect all wires at the source. first motor will likely need to be partially disassembled for removal....AHHEM IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE IF LUHRS COULD HAVE RESPONDED TO MY EMAILS (I emailed Derek, Brad and Jamie...) about engine removal. I m not sure who is still in customer service but I have to believe that one or two of them must be.....The good news is that cutting of the deck does not appear to be required....fingers crossed.

So what are we missing that is either routine or would be a good time to upgrade or relocate?

[dpdash]

Wow is all I can say! Sounds like a total refit and will certainly give you confidence heading offshore. Why 4 31's vs two 8d's? Soundshield on the genset? How about a hot tub in the forward v berth?:001_cool: Good luck, post pics of the progress!

[Rusty]

Wow!! Wow!!

I see a lot of dollars.
Why not think about a new boat. There are some great deals out there right now.

Best of Luck!!!

Rusty

[irishrogue]

realistically, i think that getting into a new boat would be hard to do. the only option would be to trade in on a dealer owned boat. even upgrading to something in the 38-40 range (say a Luhrs 380 Open or Ocean 40 SF) would "cost" net $100k+ and with a 6-8yr old boat we would be again looking at upgrading electronics, etc.

We have already invested about $25k+ in upgrades over the past few years (electronics, stidd, enclosure, upholstery) that we will never get out of it on trade/resale. The refit is going to cost us $15-25k. Dollars that we wont get back out, but a small price to pay for another trouble free 8-10 years.

feel free to tell me if i m wrong....

[Douglas Fairchild]

You should disassemble after cooler, bring to radiator shop and have it cleaned out. Go through entire raw water system. A three stage fuel filter system, fleetguard 30 Mic to 10, to 2 would pay big dividends. Boatdiesel.com has articles on suggestions to improve your propulsion.

[irishrogue]

douglas,

thanks. we already did aftercoolers and exchangers ourselves at about 700hrs. we will be checking them again and cleaning turbos along with inspecting exhaust elbows from the inside...i have found a ton of great info on boatdiesel. i m torn on the fleetguard set up. we have the big racors and run 20mics in them followed up by the cat filters - not as easy as a bank set up but not hard either.....

definitely going to add the basic primer bulb and bypass valve set up though! that is a no brainer.

[irishrogue]

2 group 31s in parallel for each motor give more cranking amps than a single 8D in the same footprint and are infinitely easier to move around/locate. our boat lists to port a bit so we are removing the 8D in front of the port motor and dropping 4 group 31 on centerline bilge with a cover over them.

FourWinns did the hotub under the Vberth in a 31 cruiser back in the mid 90s i think...funniest thing i ever saw....

we dont sleep on the boat ever so a soundshield doesnt make sense for us....instead we will completely redo the engine room insulation with 2" soundown foam.

Wow is all I can say! Sounds like a total refit and will certainly give you confidence heading offshore. Why 4 31's vs two 8d's? Soundshield on the genset? How about a hot tub in the forward v berth?:001_cool: Good luck, post pics of the progress!

[dpdash]

I think your logic is sound as far as spending the $$ now. Trouble free(relatively speaking) running is priceless, especially making canyon runs. If you like the boat, are planning on keeping it and it does what you want, go ahead and be proactive and fix things on your schedule.

Since when has anything about owning a boat been sound fiscally? You could invest that $$ in the market.:willy_nilly:

[irishrogue]

Well, the boat is in drydock at Forked River diesel with owner John Lane in Waretown, NJ.

The console was removed so that the engine hatch could be completely lifted up (but not removed) for more clearance to get the motors out. We decided that instread of unhooking every electrical connection at the source, that all wires would be terminated at the bottom of the console, carefully labeled and then reconnected with bus bars at the bottom of the console. We estimate that this saved around 20 or more labor hours and will allow for much easier engine removal in the future if needed.

With the hatch fully open, John was able to disconnect and remove the Cat 3116s without removing a single component - engine and trannies came out intact....That is the good news.

The not so good news is that the motor mounts are shot and we may have a real issue with the ZFs. New motor mounts, not a big deal. Bad trannies...uh oh....At first, we labored under the misimpression that the rusting trannies could simply get new cases and replace the rusted oil pump/cooler and oil lines. Not so. recasing the trannies essentially requires a full rebuild. Parts cost is prohibitive so we are looking at buying rebuilds or new ones IF they determine that ours are shot. looks like we will send the trannies to FL or MA to one of the big ZF shops that specialize in trannies.

The other good news - the motors dont look that bad (at least compared to the trannies). quite a few parts that will need to be replaced but overall the block, pans and accessories are in good shape.

The other bad news - genset is ugly....still looking for somewhere to send it out for repair, replacement parts (sea water pump, pulleys, heat exchanger, etc), clean up and repaint. Hoping that the electrical side internals are not rusted...

More bad news - seems like using 2 part epoxy or polyurethane paints over bilge coat is not a good idea....cant stomach cleaning and sanding the engine room/bilge only to use crappy bilgecoat again. may use rustoleum industrial 2 part epoxy paint as recommended on boatdiesel.com....more to come.

enjoy the pics....(3 genset, 3 trannie, 2 motor, 3 engine room)

[dpdash]

Sean, your genny doesn't look that bad compared to mine. Sorry to hear about the tranny's. Keep your fingers crossed. You don't have engine intake strainers or just not pictured? I'd love to see some wider angle, bigger picture shots of the engine room/hatch for perspective. Also some shots of the wiring termination at the console would be great.

[irishrogue]

doug,

i will get some more shots over thanksgiving of the engine room and the underside of the console. i want to be sure i have plenty of before/after shots.

[witeagle]

My 32 open has screened intakes built into the hull. Not sure if it's the best idea, but it performs the same function and you don't have to clean them.

[irishrogue]

well 20 hrs of labor later and the engine room/bilge spaces are on their way to being clean and degreased ( i took pics before we finished). we removed all of the pumps, tanks and bonding wires along with some misc items. clearing the way for sanding and repainting....

you can also see the split deck from the hatch supports and that the engine hatch will go full vertical once the helm console is removed...

[CrazyIslandMoFo]

Thank you for the pics...!!!

[dpdash]

great pics, keep them coming!

[Rusty]

Looks like your project is going well !! Thanks for the pictures and explanations. Please continue with updates including items that were unexpected, as well as, cost data that you feel free to reveal.

I have a 1999 - 32 ft. Open and will consider the same project if I stay in this boat. I would like to "move up";however, "trade in" in this market and dollars are the factor.

Rusty

[irishrogue]

rusty,

i will definitely keep updating the site with progress reports, pics etc. I ll probably wait til spring to do a final run down of costs - everything is sort of piecemeal at this point - i think i need it to all come together to give an accurate picture of cost. final cost will also be impacted quite a bit by the vendors/manufacturers we are using who are providing products either at cost or at no cost. before we started the process, i decided to discuss the idea of writing an article with several boating/fishing publications - these type of projects are great sources of information for other boat owners and visibility for vendors/manufacturers....While we havent done it yet, I expect to speak to Luhrs marketing/customer service to see if they are interested in publishing the article in their owner's magazine - my undersatandng is that the 320 Open is the most popular model in their line up - the 290, 260 and 380/400 opens are similar in nearly all respects - I have to believe that the article would be of interest to the many hundreds of Luhrs owners out there...I think this would be a great project for Luhrs to get behind and support given some of the recent bad press on the 41 and a down economy - they need a happy/well supported owner base to help weather these tough times. We are big fans and looking forward to another 10 yrs in our 32'.

I hope to post new pics of some minor fiberglass repairs that we had done on 2 stringers by this weekend - largely cosmetic but something that was easily done while the engine are out.

[witeagle]

I am not so sure that Luhrs would want to back an article like this. Think about it, you are doing a complete engine room refit/redesign on a 10 year old boat. Now if you were doing a restoration project like this after a major catastrophe such as a huricane, I could understand. If it was my company, I would want the press that my new production boats are going to need a complete engine room refit after only 10 years.

By the way, my 32 open engine room looks similar to yours and I sure hope I don't have to do the same thing in the near future.

[irishrogue]

Wit:

I definitely see your point but the reality is that we all know that some maintenence items can be done ongoing and there are others that either cannot be done or are too difficult to do unless approached as more of a major undertaking.

the reality is that the boat did not necessarily have to get most of this work done. we decided that although the boat has held up tremendously well over 10 years, that we want to ensure its integrity and safety for another ten years. Luhrs monitors this board so I hope that they will chime in. We do not feel that any portion of this refit is on account of poor construction or use of shoddy materials. Actually quite the contrary. Many of the items we are addressing is by virtue of the size of the boat and the difficulty and expense of servicing/replacing some items. For example, after 10 years, most experts agree that the thru hulls and struts should be pulled, inspected, checked for crevice corrosion, rebedded and reinstalled with new bronze bolts - the reality is that trying to do this with engines in place would be hard to impossible. I am not sure how you could reasonably build a 32' boat with diesels that would easily allow such access to do this....i could name another 6 items that fall in the same category.

take cosmetics - our boat is waxed 2x per year and covered in the winter in dry dock. after 10 yrs the hull sides look great and the top decks are pretty darn shiny too. never have we seriously compounded or wet sanded the glass. noone who sees our boat thinks that is 10 yrs old. this is an item of ongoing maintenence that is "easy" to do. A number of items in the engine room not so easy. hopefully you get my point.

ok, since i always try to be honest when talking about our luhrs (both good and bad).....there are a few things that we are addressing as part of the refit that are not simply deferred maintence items. First, some minor glass repair to 2 stringers - 2 of the transverse stringers had some minor mat cracking/separation - nothing was moving and it was determined to be largely cosmetic. Should it have happened? i suppose not. is it a big deal? no. with the motors in, we bolted a piece of AL angle in the one spot 2 yrs ago. now, with the motors out, we repaired both spots for $350 and we added a little glass to the top of the two bulkhead that was cut out for the waste tank to port. The other glass repair - deck separation where the engine hatch brackets bolt to the deck sole - the deck cracked/pulled away on the underside (see pics) from the weight pulling down on the screws/bolts on the brackets - previously we notified Luhrs and it was taken care of. unfortunately we tried a short cut fix that split again. this time we are permanently removing the brackets and the gas struts and relying only on the new hatchlift that we installed. by the way the glass repair on both sides was covered by the $350 repair above....other issues? not really...the standard stuffing boxes are fine, luhrs offered dripless option, we are upgrading. oil x changers werent exactly common on boats under 40' in '98, so we are adding one...you get the point...

anyway, i m curious how others feel....




I am not so sure that Luhrs would want to back an article like this....

[witeagle]

So thinking about the gas struts and brackets. I have an electric lift on my engine hatch. Was thinking about taking out the struts and brackets due to them just always being in the way when I try to get back on the outsides of the engines. I figured it would be best to leave them due to the stability they add. Guess they really could just be removed??

[dpdash]

I was going to add an electric ram to lift the hatch but decided against it as I felt it would take up too much room between engines. I have replaced the gas shocks and feel that they do a more than adequate job. Project looks great.

[irishrogue]

we installed the hatch lift down centerline. i agree that it gets in the way a bit but less so IMO than the gas strut brackets hanging down when you are trying to get outboard of the motors...the lift capacity should be more than adequate even without the "help" of the gas struts.

[witeagle]

Irish,

So with your new lift, you feel you can remove the gas shocks and their supports. I agree, they get in the way and are a PITA. I don't mind having the electric lift in the. I work around mine.

[irishrogue]

we have the lenco hatch lift which is good for 500lbs.....we have ours mounted straight up and down very close to centerline for maximum force/leverage. even with the gas struts removed, there is no way that it is even 250 lbs to push that hatch up....we will leave the OEM flip down bar so that we can always pull the pin on the hatch lift if we need to drop it down and gain better access....

[irishrogue]

Hey guys...sorry no new pictures right now....but I thought I would post a quick update...

1. just spent 10-15 hrs sanding the engine room - removed about 80% of the bilge coat paint from the chine on down. Aggressive sanding substantially removed much of the mat/roving print through. I m hoping that the high build primer will make it even smoother. it will be finished with interlux perfection in white (polyurethane).

2. check out Livos technologies (livostech.com). Mike just sent me the CAD drawing for the new demister/airboxes with integral 12volt fans that will be installed to eliminate salt water/mist in the engine room. Mike designed for Delta T before heading out on his own so he knows his stuff...The demisters coupled with dripless seals, a dry bilge system (see below) and engine crankcase heating pads should equal a dry and salt free engine room....no moisture = no corrosion....

3. well I found a company called aridbilge that has a very cool product. a vacuum pump with multiple pickups to completely dry all bilge spaces. downside = cost over $3000. I have spent countless hours confguring and talking to people to build my own. Close to success....we will have a 12 volt vacuum pump connected to a 12 votl timer that will cycle the pump on at set intervals. the pump will be connected to a manifold with 6 solenoid valves connected to relays triggered by the timer so they operate sequentially. pickups will be places in 6 locations - understep bilge, forward bilge, both sides of motors, midship bilge and aft bilge. I have tested the pump and pickups and they work great. I am waiting on my electrical guy to modify the timer and build a circuit board with relays. i found a manifold and the valves. quite a few pieces still need to come together but i am feeling good....it wont be cheap but if it is works it will be key.

4. looks like wolverine engine heater pads will be mounted on the bottom of our cats and left on all the time. tony athens on boatdiesel swears by keeping an engine room warm and dry. it will avoid early AM condensation in the compartment....

5. ready to order nearly $1000 in genset parts for the "rehab" of the Kohler....

6. found one new tranny for about 40% off retail. we decided that we will try to save the other one that is in better shape...fingers crossed otherwise $3500...

7. we have settled on new Racor air filters and crankcase breathers - hoping for a bit more sound attenuation and cleaner air with the breathers.

8. received some new stuff from soundown. we ordered new seam tape and pin mounts for the 2" insulation. also purchased some new vinyl barrier for the main engine deck and under the bench seats - you need a barrier and an absorbing layer....we removed the lead/fiberglass OEM insulation and just installed sounddown foam to absorb. huge improvement. i m hoping that adding back a barrier layer will make it even better.

9. still debating the cost of smartrails....

hopefully i ll have some more pictures next weekend....

-Sean

[witeagle]

I believe we both have the same engines... Do you have the model/part numbers for the Racor air filters and crankcase breathers?

[irishrogue]

Racor AFM408512 air filters $302.90 each.
Racor 4500 CCV crankcase breathers $215 each.

Racor sells install kits for the CCVs but they are overpriced and just made up of standard size hose clamps and engine hose....check out the attachment

[dpdash]

Sounds great Sean, pics, we need pics!

[irishrogue]

sorry for the delay....it has been cold and we have done very little work...

i have been trolling ebay though and landed a few items....

i found a clean edson wheel for the helm. and then picked up the new stainless edson power knowb with rubber finger grips...sweet!

picked up a pair of walker airseps for the cats. was going to get the racors but got a price on airseps that i couldnt say no to...they are proven at reducing the turbo whine on cats....

the new tuffmass vinyl barrier from soundown arrived along with pin mounts for the 2" thick foam and some new fabric tape for the seams.

picked up 2 pairs of new LED spreaders from coastalnightlights.com. will mount one pair on the hardtop and the other pair up high on the buggy top looking down. the hardtop lights will be aimed to the side a bit. nice looking lights for the price...

also had coastal make me a semi custom underwater LED light - they joined two double long lights and wired them together so i only have to drill one hole in the transom. their lights represent a good balance on cost vs quality/performance.

here are a couple of pics of the OEM air intakes after we took a grinder to the airboxes. Livos marine demisters with fans will mount flush to the hull. from the outside you will see the white louvers. should look cool.

note: you can see the black sundown foam in one of the shots below - note the poor fitting job...with the motors out, we will redo all of this insulation and will completelty cover the backsides of the benchseats and cabin bulkhead.

more to follow but not for a few weeks....headed to denver for 4 wks....it will be a busy spring starting late march....

[irishrogue]

here is the shot showing the insulation...

[witeagle]

Not sure of the air fan? What is this for and where did you put it? Did you also install florocent lights?

[irishrogue]

wit,

the air fans are built in to the demisters - they can be set up to exhaust or draw in fresh air. i expect that we will have one drawing in and one exhausting. with diesels, there is no gas fume risk. it would be nice to have reversible fans that could draw air in when running and exhaust when back at dock to cool down engine room.

[witeagle]

Many electric motors (including fan motors) should be reversible in a DC circuit by just reversing the polarity. You can design a circuit simlar to a lower priced Windlass motor that uses a relay (Contactor) to reverse polarity from the switches.

[BOAT BULLY]

Any update on your boat. We all enjoy your photos and ideads...

[irishrogue]

i know, i know....

things have been moving quickly and i just havent had time to get good pictures.

here is a quick update -

the bottom has been almost completely sanded (see pic). no blisters. a few small cracks.
seahawk tuff stuff barrier coat goes on in 2wks followed by Interlux VC Offshore

old stuffing boxes removed and new tides dripless seals installed

new 4 blade nibral props ready to get tweaked

shafts checked for true

engine room/bilge painted in white

exhaust hose running from engine room under cockpit being replaced with fiberglass tube

livos demister airvents arrived (see pic) ready for install

cats are repainted (see pic) ready for install. one new ZF tranny, 1 rebuilt

genset rehab'd/painted ready for install

hynautic hydraulic engine controls being installed this week

i will have a slew of better pics in the coming weeks as we move towards completion...

[witeagle]

Irish,

It really is starting to come together. I was just telling my dad about your project as I was in my engine room doing some work.


Your engine boat is going to be better than new when your done!

Justin

[BillD]

Irishrogue, I saw you post on my 31 Blackfin repower. You have a pretty nasty looking bilge. I know how you feel, kind of overwhelming.

A couple of observations.

1. The generator. It needs a cleaning, a paint job, maybe some new hoses and the normal stuff you change, impellers etc. One thing I would do is change out the exhauster mixer, it's probaly shot.

Here's my before and after pics of the generator.
Pic 1, gen set out
Pic 2, the mess and the aluminum mounts
Pic 3, the gen with a cleanup, degreasing, rust spots touched up with POR-15 Rust Preventer and a final coat of POR-15 single part polyurethane high gloss white "Flex Cote"

2. The trannies "at least by the pics" can be cleaned up. New hoses are cheap. I'd unbolt the round bell housing tranny plate and take off of flywheel. Now, the older ZFs...mid 90s had aluminum round bell housing plates, check with a magnet.
Tape up the inside of the case, take an hour or two and sandblast with the fine stuff, outdoors, it will look as good as new. Here's a pic of a new ZF, same as yours. Everything on it not painted red or shiny steel is aluminum. The round bell housing plate on a new ZF is steel.
Here's a pic of new, I'll get you a closeup of a new ZF tomorrow.

3. The motor mounts that are junk look like Barry Mounts, same as on the Cummins, figure $600 per engine.

I'll look over more, see if the rusted stringer mounts are good, the POR-15 works miracles.
BillD, wpdesmarais

[BillD]

Sorry about that, I did'n read to the end of the posts. A new forum to me. The CAT looks good. Progress is going good for you. I'll keep an eye on these posts.
BillD

[irishrogue]

bill,

thanks for coming over and checking out our project! yeah we did the exact same stuff to our genset. it looks line new.

as for the trannies, they were pretty bad. we found one new one cheap and the other we swapped ours for a rebuild that has a new oil pump. we also upgraded to new vulkan dampers over the oem for smoother shifting.

we are replacing the engine mounts. the stringer brackets were pretty clean as they are aluminum.

more pics to come in the next 2 weeks or so as everything starts to come back together...

[BillD]

I'm about 4 weeks away from dropping engines in.

[dpdash]

Wow Sean, I'm jealous! Nice job

[irishrogue]

ok, well a lot has been happening this spring as we get closer to getting finished and getting in the water.

here are some shots of the Kolher 5EOZ genset...look back at some of the earlier shots of the rusted genset...she cleaned up nicely. About $1000 in parts replacing the pan, mounts, sea water cooler and other minor parts. of course imron white makes all the difference....match that up with some blue silicone hose and it looks almost new....

[irishrogue]

new engine mounts are more solid than the OEM mounts. The main bolt is much larger. The new engine mounts are crucial to keeping the motors perfectly aligned so there are no problems with the new dripless shaft seals...

[irishrogue]

Smaller water tanks replace the OEM tanks. The new tanks are only 13 gals a side. They are secured by 250lb test plastic wire ties. note the inspection ports on top to allow us to clean the tanks and to completely dry them out in the winter rather than running RV antifreeze through the system which never seems to flush out...These smaller tanks will also allow us to get outboard of the motors easier as well as you can lie on top of these tanks much easier.

[irishrogue]

A freshly painted cat 3116 gets boomed in... ready to set back in the boat.

[irishrogue]

despite 2 marinas thinking that partial dissembly would be required to get the motors in/out....only John at Forked River eyeballed it and said, "looks like they will come out in one piece." Only John said, it will cost no more than $x to pull them and put them back in....Last fall, John pulled both cats with NO dissembly at all. And of course this spring, he is sliding them right back in...

[irishrogue]

ok, last shots for now...

you can see the new dripless shaft seals and the new couplings (much heavier than OEM with a single set screw to hold it to the shaft).

you can see the custom aluminum brackets for the hynautic hydraulic controls for the throttle and shift actuators.

oh, dont miss the new waker airseps on the cats too...

while you can see it in every picture, i would be remiss not to point out the now white epoxied bilge/engine room. hours and hours of cleaning/degreasing/sanding followed by paint....there will be alot of touch up when they are done installing motors/genset but it should still look great at end of day....

[witeagle]

Sean,

Amazing - it's going to be like new. It seems like you had so much fun with the project, we can trade boats and you can redo the same project :)

If I ever undertake this type of project I will have to ensure that the engines are pulled in one piece - or run to forked river - only 60 miles south or so. Problem would be that all the rest of the work I want to do while the engines are out would be a pain being that far south.

[dpdash]

Excellent shots Sean and congrats on the job. Looks first rate. If you can remember, can you email/post some shots of the generator from all 4 sides without the shrink wrap on? You'res looks like it has some different parts on it than mine. Mine isn't quite as clean either.:drool5:

[irishrogue]

dash, i will try. i may not get back to take pics before it goes in the boat...

[Maka Koa]

So what was the total cost? How long did the job take? My boat is in the yard now and I'm looking at many of the same issues...:banghead:

[irishrogue]

the final bill is not yet in. the boat should be finished by next week. estimated cost for the full scope of work completed (you can look back in the posts to get an idea of what was redone/replaced/upgraded) is around $30-35k although i have not added up all of the receipts and final labor is not in. certainly not inexpensive but that figure includes over $15k worth of upgrades including demisters, walker airseps, dripless seals, and props.

i will post more after the boat is complete along with final pictures and a better cost breakdown.

[irishrogue]

My apologies for posting this last installment here instead of on my later thread "headed to Millville" which can be read here....

http://www.luhrsowners.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6244#post6244

I am pleased to bring this thread (and the related refit thread above) to a close and provide you with the final installment... We went to Millville last week to do a final inspection of the boat and to go over the work completed by the factory this winter. Many of you will recall that we decided to take the boat up to Millville this winter as the final installment of a 2-3 yr refit/upgrade of our 1998 320 Open.

Following in person inspections of the boat by Luhrs (they drive from Millville to Cape May to inspect the boat) and prior to starting work on our 32', Luhrs provided estimates as follows -

Work Order #1 - Remove rubrail, remove bowrail, unbolt forward tower legs, pressurize cabin with blower, check for leaks at all cabin penetrations and deck/hull joint. Reseal as needed hull to deck joint, reinstall rubrail, rebed and remount bow rails, rebed forward tower legs. Estimate approx $2,400.00

Final Invoice #1 - completed all work identified above, sent multiple pictures of air bubble leaks with cabin under positive pressure. Add'l work completed included refiberglassing under the bow pulpit, removal of all forward hatches and seal all screw holes for hinges, install add'l hatch gasketing, remove and reseal enclosure lower tracks. Boat was pressure tested. Boat subjected to multiple hose tests from the exterior. Luhrs guaranteed that all customer identified leaks were located and sealed. Final cost $2,400 + $321 charge that was disclosed and agreed to by customer before being incurred.

Work Order #2 - Repair customer identified gelcoat cracks/splits/chips/screw holes. See pictures (before and after). Luhrs inspected the boat with customer and agreed on cracks/splits that could cause core damage vs aesthetic stress cracks. Estimate given in advance for agreed repairs $2,000.

Final Invoice #2 - completed all work identified including several areas not identified by customer. Final Cost $2,000.

Work Order #3 - haul/launch, pressurewash, winterization of motors/genset, winter storage. Estimate $1,400

Final Invoice #3 - completed all work identified above. In addition, the boat was washed twice and has been stored indoors at the factory on a rolling cradle covered in plastic since it was delivered in the fall. They offered to continue storing the boat indoors until we take delivery and launch in early April. Final Cost $1,400.

******
I would sum up our experience in Millville as follows - from the first email I sent to Silverton inquiring about refit work they were courteous, responsive, complete, thoughtful, professional, competent....Two factory reps travelled over an hour from Millville to inspect our boat and prepare a firm estimate to address the leaks. Upon delivery of the boat to them, two reps spent about 40 mins going over the work to be done and inspecting the fiberglass work to be done. Then a factory tour and a candid discussion of the challenges all manufacturers are going through. Email updates and pictures sent to us every couple of weeks. Constant communication as they found leaks and repaired them. Final invoices matching the estimates. Additional work done and indoor storage all winter without further charge.

The folks in Millville inherited the Luhrs brand and have embraced it completely. We continue to be proud owners and supporters of the brand. And we look forward to many more years of enjoyment of our 320 Open.

Below are a few before and after pictures of some of the glass work and a shot of the add'l tower leg rod holder we had them add to match (exactly) the one that were factory installed 13 yrs ago!

Thank you Silverton and Luhrs. And a special thanks to Rich Karrasch head of customer service and Bob Cerami head of operations.

[dpdash]

Wow Sean, Wow. Boat looks fantastic and those numbers are very very fair. I know which 32 Open I'd want to buy.:drool5: Congrats on the refit. Post this on THT, I dare you lol.

[irishrogue]

doug,

thanks.

yeah i try to keep a low profile over on THT.....the board is crazy with haters. kind of funny since 90% of the guys have never even been on a luhrs. you would think everyone over there owns a cabo, yellowfin or viking....

so we have a few more items before summer...i think i m going to do the propspeed and follow your lead. and we are sanding all of the teak in the cabin and doing it all in high gloss varnish or 2 part urethane/epoxy....still researching products...

[witeagle]

Posting this refit on THT would get a roar outa many, especially with the new 30 footer thread started by LI32...


I also agree that most people on there who spam Luhrs have no clue what they are talking about. I agree that Luhrs isn't a Cabo or other overpriced boat, most people bash because they jump on someone's bandwagon.

Ironically many of the bashers have never been on a Luhrs and are running around in old beat up 20 footers powered by some smokey 2 stroke outboard that they bought for $9,000 including the rusty trailer! The other bashers are pulling up the marina to jump on their 42' yellowfin in 1985 Toyota Tercel with there feet sticking out through floorboards since they dumped all their money into the boat! :sneaky2:

[chick]

Not to hijack this thread but it does seem we have a few more people supporting Luhrs on THT or maybe a few less bashers.