Cinnabar is Ten years old!

I don't know how many years old that is in boat years; hopefully not as many as dog years. But I will point out that many of Cinnabar's systems are "Discontinued", or "Out of Business", or "Upgraded", all nice ways of saying we are SOL when it comes to getting parts. Of the numerous irksome incidents of this type here are a couple of recent examples...

Windlass motor = broken. Windlass brand purchased by Lewmar and "Discontinued". So Tom rebuilt the motor, sanded and repainted the body, and reassembled. This little exercise took about two weeks, including J-B Welding the magnets back into the motor case incorrectly, blow-torching them out, and re-gluing. Re-torch, re-glue. Believe me, this could be a novel all by itself.

Broadwater Marine Stove = two of the four burners inoperable, broiler inoperable. Brand is "Out of Business" and we have read on several forums of people's frustrations trying, and failing, to get parts for these stoves. One of the aft burner knobs was frozen when we purchased the boat. The valve itself was aluminum next to brass and the metals had corroded and fused. Also, inside the valve assembly the tiny thermocouple had corroded. After months of trying to find parts Tom finally found these thermocouples from a company in England and managed to convince them to sell him some.

The aluminum valve broke when we tried to separate them but Tom was able to rout it out somehow and make it serviceable.

Coming back from Hawaii in 2010 we got some salt water in the rear right burner and it was on its way to corroding too. What happens is the water goes into the burner and then runs down to the valve to start corroding everything. Bad design on an otherwise great stove, and stupid of us to let water get into the stove. Anyhow, Tom managed to pull apart the valve and regrease it so all he had to do was replace the magnetic unit in the thermocouple. He also replaced the delicate springs and e-clips on the other burners that were becoming corroded. He also serviced the burner in the broiler which had never worked before either. Now it does. He serviced and re-greased the entire stove and oven.

Honestly, I didn't think it was possible to get both of those rear burners working. We even called the boat builder in New Zealand and he said nobody services those stoves anymore so we should get a new one. HA!!!  Check it out now...

 

As you can see I'm all ready to whip up some seared scallops on potato cakes sauced with a beurre blanc and served with a side of steamed asparagus and freshly-baked rolls. Oh wait, I have four burners but I only have three pans!