yamaha 25 refit

Jan 30, 2020
19
WTB WTB Columbia gorge/hood canal
Having succesfully trailered my new old boat home from LA about a month ago I now find myself in the process of finding things more fun to work on than sanding off 30 years of bottom paint. One such task is removing, inspecting, and replacing thru hulls and seacocks.

There is currently no inboard strainer on the raw water intake system which cools my ysm8. I plan to install an inboard strainer to remedy this. Currently the thru hull for the intake is in the bilge near the front and there is only 3 1/2" of clearance from hull to the under side of the cabin sole. Because of this, the current assembly utilizes an elbow before the ball valve and leaves little to no room for an inboard strainer close to the seacock. I dont love anything about this. Its hard to work on and assemble the various fittings in this location and if either joint at the elbow begins to leak there are very few options besides haul out to fix as the elbow is before the ball valve.

As I see it I have a couple options...

1) Clean up and re-install the thru-hull, elbow, and seacock assembly the way I found it and then place an inboard strainer in the engine bay just before the raw water pump.
2) I have removed the toilet. This means I have the toilet flush intake thru hull available for other uses and it is situated in a much more favorable location where it is easier to work on and wouldn't require any fittings between the thru hull and ball valve or proper seacock. If your familiar with the Y25 you know that this thru hull is located slightly higher than the current raw water intake. It isnt that much higher though and its very centered on the boat lengthwise so I seriously doubt I would have trouble with it coming out of the water while motoring.
3) If I choose to re-engineer the system do I go so far as to glass over the original raw water intake so that I don't have to worry about having a thru hull with fittings before the valve?

What would you do? particularly interested to hear from other Yamaha 25 owners who may have pondered/ tackled these same concerns.
 
Jan 4, 2008
147
Yamaha Y25 mkII Long Beach, Ca.
Welcome to the wild world of the Y25.
I've attached a couple of photos of the raw water strainer on my boat. it is mounted on the forward bulkhead of the engine box. The gray valve is a 3 way which allows me to fresh water flush the engine and back-flush the strainer. The hose connection is located in the anchor locker. Hope this is helpful
Play Safe
Syntonos
 

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Jan 30, 2020
19
WTB WTB Columbia gorge/hood canal
hey Syntonos, thanks for sharing your setup. Looks good. I plan to install much the same system when the parts get here. Ordered from Defender and its taking forever due to rush on orders during their sale.

I've been busy working on other mods and repairs in the meantime. I finished removing all the many coats of old bottom paint. Thank goodness. Hull seems to be 99.9% blister free. There is however a nasty crack in the keel stem at the back from what must have been a fairly violent grounding. I’ve ground it out and it doesn’t go through, hadn’t caused any significant de-lamination, and the glass around it seems to be sound still. We’ve had a good stretch of warm sunny weather to dry the hull out and I’ll be laying new CSM and biaxial in this weekend with VE resin. Also glassing over a thru hull from a speed wheel I removed now that we are in the gps era. Who cares about speed thru the water anyways...

I’ve removed all the thru hulls and will be rebuilding/replacing them as needed, again just waiting on parts.

I removed the prop, shaft, and cutless bearings and have new bearings ready for install. It was a real bear getting the shaft free of the coupling at the motor but I’m glad I took the time to puzzle my way thru it. The cutless bearings were totally shot.

I also picked up this windsurfer mast section from a buddy and then welded some brackets to mount it as a retractable bow sprit so I can fly my new Asymmetrical spinnaker which I scored from Masthead for a great price. Came with a dousing sock and fits the boat perfectly. If only it wasn’t Ronald McDonald colors...

Another victory was replacing all navigation and interior light bulbs with LED. Man what a difference it makes inside! So much brighter + even with all fixtures on I now pull .5 amp vs 5 amp with the dim old incandescent.

It’s been awesome to have the boat on a trailer at my shop for all this but I’m looking foreword to being done with all this below the waterline business so I can start reworking the interior electrical systems, installing some autopilot, and fixing one section of cabinetry that was damaged.

Starting to dream about waiting for an east wind event to splash her so I can do a downwind, downriver, Columbia cruise from Hood River to Astoria.
 

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Jan 4, 2008
147
Yamaha Y25 mkII Long Beach, Ca.
Glad to be of help. nice you have the place to "get after it" without the layday charges of a boat yard! It will be nice when your done knowing you've " been there - done that" To bad we didn't get together when you were in LA. checking out the boat. we are definitely on the same page, I to have a retractable bowsprit , created from a lido boom. chute was a local ebay chandlery deal....couldn't believe the fit and color scheme. incredibly
lucky.
Just did a similar electronic upgrade also.Updated LEDs and new Lowrance HDS-7 chartplotter on a swing arm in the companion way. Since it is a fish oriented unit it comes with three sonar functions + video....crazy. Syntonos is becoming a mini- research vessel.
Have fun, take care.
Post when you splash it!
 
Jan 30, 2020
19
WTB WTB Columbia gorge/hood canal
It seems shelter in place is very conducive to making good progress on a refit project.

In the last few weeks I completed the fiberglass work below the waterline. Glassing in the old speed wheel went smooth and my repair job to the back of the keel stem worked out really nicely.

With that done I cleaned the keel to mostly bright metal and rolled on 2 coats of interprotect HS and then faired it back to smooth with a silver tip epoxy fairing compound I mixed up. Then I coated the entire hull below the waterline with 4 coats of the epoxy barrier paint and then installed new bronze thru hulls and bedded them w/ polysulfide and finished it off with two coats of an Interlux ablative bottom paint.

Oh also In the midst of that I repaired some cracks in my rudder and dried it out and then fabricated a new 316 stainless bracket for the bottom pivot as the old one was severely deteriorated by crevice corrosion. It was so bad I was able to pull the welds apart by hand!! Yikes! Kinda scary to think I cruised the boat to Catalina island like that before I hauled it out and brought it home to Washington.

I also installed my new cutless bearings and bought a new prop. Mine was bad. Really bad. So bad that the prop shop which has been in business since 1950 asked if they could put it on the wall. Probably a blessing in disguise that the motor wasn’t working when I cruised to Catalina. Winds were pretty light at times and I surely would have put some hours on it, possibly resulting in the de-zinced prop letting go and causing damage to the hull. Thankfully my shaft checked out and didn’t need replacement.
 

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Jan 30, 2020
19
WTB WTB Columbia gorge/hood canal
With the work below the waterline finally completed I’ve been free to turn my focus to some projects with more visible results.

This weekend I installed a Chinese diesel parking heater and re-wired all my electrical systems as well as relocated the panel, radio, etc. Pretty stoked on the outcome.
 

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drew_d

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Mar 30, 2018
5
Yamaha 25mkII Ballard
great job on the electronics - that serves as great inspiration for me to redo my radio setup. last owner tucked the VHF in the starboard quarterberth which is not a very good spot; yours on the other had looks very well laid out!

i have a couple questions on your trailer, if you don't mind.... did you have to have it specifically made for the yamaha 25? any trouble with width on the highway? what's the tongue weight like?

i've been toying with the idea of getting a trailer for my y25 so i can reach some cruising destinations that i'll never have time to sail all the way to.
 
Jan 30, 2020
19
WTB WTB Columbia gorge/hood canal
Hey Drew,

Thanks! I appreciate the kind words. My radio was formerly jammed in the quarter berth as well with a whole rats nest of wires.

I built my trailer myself out of a flatbed I had. I built it at my shop in Washington and then had to drive it down to LA to get the boat. Because of that I loosely based the dimensions off the diagram in the manual but made it very adjustable. Thankfully it worked out great and seems to support the boat well. Tongue weight is probably only 300 lbs. it’s pretty well balanced with just a bit of positive tongue weight which is what I was shooting for. No issues with the width in my experience so far. I hauled 1000 mi home behind my Nissan Frontier without issue.

I’d be happy to share measurements if you need.
 

AJW

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Feb 3, 2020
7
Yamaha Y-30C Bellingham
Hi gentlemen, I have a 1978 Y30 up in Bellingham that I live on.
I just bottom painted it (and pulled the shaft) and it's supposed to go back in the water tomorrow.
I've never really thought much about my through hulls and seacocks but I wonder if I should check on those while my boat is on the hard.
Are the thru hulls on your Y25's made of bronze and if yes, have you noticed any corrosion or dezincification on them?
Thanks much!
 

AJW

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Feb 3, 2020
7
Yamaha Y-30C Bellingham
Also, assuming that you also have a 7/8 in (or 22 mm) shaft, do you use a 7/8 in (or 22.2 mm ID)/1 1/4 in (or 31.8 OD) cutlass bearing? I was originally looking for a 22 mm cutlass bearing with a 31 mm outer diameter (original specs from owners manual) but you seemingly can't get that so I thought that the above imperial measurements are close enough. What's your experience?
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
I've never really thought much about my through hulls and seacocks but I wonder if I should check on those while my boat is on the hard.
Yes. If you don't you may be regretting it next year. Make sure they are Ball valves not gate valves.

Are the thru hulls on your Y25's made of bronze and if yes, have you noticed any corrosion or dezincification on them?
The answer is unique to your boat. These boats are not brand new of an assembly line. They have had previous owners and anything may have been used. You can get valves from Home Depot. I would not recommend it but some owners have.

You have your boat in Bremerton. Unless you are on a fresh water lake up there you will want to get bronze or marelon valves. Yes you will pay more money for them. What is your boat worth to you? If it is ok to run for a year or more but then sink from a valve failure because brass was used instead of bronze... well mate it is your boat and your choice.

And do not forget to change the zinc's on your boat. They will corrode and leave your bronze or steel part alone... That is until they are gone. Then corrosion will attack the next metal in line. The sinister thing is it might not be your boat that causes the corrosion to attach your boat.

Ain't boat ownership fun. Makes one want to grow up to be a pirate.
 
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Oct 22, 2014
20,989
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Welcome to the challenge of owning a 70's boat that has a smaller following.
If you are looking for an "exact match" I would try the chandleries in Vancouver BC. They like the metric system and there are a few Yamaha boats up there. You may find an exact match and not have to worry about the conversion from metric to imperial.

Or you can do as my plumber does... Try this part to see if it works. If not try the next bet thing. Eventually he hits on the exact part the fits..
 
Jan 30, 2020
19
WTB WTB Columbia gorge/hood canal
Hey AJW,

I did go with 7/8” ID and 1 1/4” OD cutless bearings. The press fit seemed good and I don’t have much experience handling cutless bearings and prop shafts so I’m less certain of the ID fit but it seems appropriate. I’m planning to splash my boat next weekend if I can finish my deck repaint this week. When she’s back in the water and I’ve run it I’ll let you know if the “vibes”seem good.
 

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Jan 30, 2020
19
WTB WTB Columbia gorge/hood canal
@AJW I believe using brass fittings you find at Home Depot below the waterline would be a big mistake. But dont take my word for it...

Also, I mean no disrespect and I'm unsure of the many factors affecting what parts of your boat you have chosen to attend to/not attend to at this time, however with that disclaimer; I believe it would be foolish or worse to not take advantage of a haulout to, at a minimum, inspect your thru hulls and seacocks or ball valves. The fact that your not even sure what they are made of speaks to the fact that it must be time to at least remove whatever paint you may need to to figure out what youve got for thru hulls and what sort of condition are they in.

Anyways, since you asked, that would be my .02. Keep in mind I'm fairly young and have little experience owning and maintaining a keelboat.
 
Jan 30, 2020
19
WTB WTB Columbia gorge/hood canal
@jssailem Thanks! it went well for the most part. I used a Totalboat product from jamestown dist. Adhesion seems good and it went on well. The only real issue is that I tried to skimp on paint quantity on my order and needed every last drop to get one full coat on. Most of it looks good but there are areas I will want to 2nd coat. Oh well the edges and fittings are all good so should be easy enough while she is in the water to finish up. Also I forgot to prime one area that I had removed some flaking paint and the single part paint I was applying obviously didnt stick to the original gelcoat. By the time I realized my mistake I had already poured out all the Epifanes non-skid additive I had bought. So that section will definatley need re-coating and some more non-skid additive in-order to get a half decent looking repair. It should be easy to work on later now that the surrounding topcoat is a known quantity.

I also sanded the name and homeport off the transom and repainted it. That came out real sharp and I think means shes mine now...

I'll be peeling tape and re-installing/bedding deck fittings every evening this week and hope to find enough water over the ramp to trailer launch Phreatophyte this weekend. Its been really fun and rewarding going all through her and getting to know the boat but good gawd.. I am really looking forward to going sailing again.
 

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Jan 30, 2020
19
WTB WTB Columbia gorge/hood canal
At long last the day has come to move Phreatophyte back to the wet. Taking advantage of the long weekend and the assistance of my pops I opted to trailer launch her at a local boat ramp on the Columbia river. I sounded the ramp and took some measurements and concluded that according to the numbers it should work...

And it did! It was a surprisingly easy in fact. I just rigged the mast, backed her down to the water line, bolted on a tongue wheel assembly I had fabricated, chocked the trailer tires, unhooked, moved up and tensioned a 40' strap, pulled off and removed chocks, and then lowered the whole mess back into the water and she came right off.

Here is a photo through my rear windshield of lowering her in, and at the guest dock afterwords. Yeehaw, so happy to have her back in the water where she belongs. Of course there are still many small things on my to-do list but as she is bouyant, bristol, and ready to sail, I believe this marks the conclusion of my refit process and perhaps this thread. If you stumble across this because you are working on a Y25, or thinking about working on a Y25, or trailering one, feel free to post here or PM me if you have any questions. I've got loads to learn still but also loads I did learn during this process and would be happy to offer any insights I can into these lovely vessels.
 

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AJW

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Feb 3, 2020
7
Yamaha Y-30C Bellingham
Hi John and Seatane,

Sorry it took me a while to get back to the forum. Thank you both for your input regarding my questions.
I ended up hack sawing the cutlass bearing out of the strut and replace it with a 7/8 ID 1 1/4 OD bearing that seemed to fit well.
Turns out my thruhulls are the original ones and made of bronze. Half of the seacocks are originals with bronze gate valves that are in good shape; the other half are Buck Algonquin bronze ball valves with lever handles (which can't be installed in place of some of the gate valves because there's no space for a lever).
I decided to leave those alone and focus on replacing my shaft log hose and service the packing box and thrust block bearing before I reinstalled the shaft.
Everything was running smooth after the launch and I was thrilled about the reduction of noise and vibration.
Unfortunately (and fortunately), though, when I restarted the engine after sailing for a couple hours, I forgot to put the throttle back into neutral (it was in full throttle reverse to lock the shaft and fold the prop blades). The engine revved and the blades flung out hard and broke out a chunk of the prop body ( I just found out by diving under the boat, after noticing a lot more vibration and noise).
So, I found another martec prop with a 7/8 inch bore on ebay that I'll fit with my own blades (which are 1 inch longer). I'll have the prop balanced in a prop shop and hope to have that all put back together in mid June (for under $450, compared to $1750 for a new folding prop).
Live and learn...
Since my boat's gonna be back on the hard anyway, I ordered a replacement ball bearing, an additional ball bearing to replace the flanged packing box, and a dripless shaft seal. I'm pretty excited about that so I can enjoy much quieter and smoother motoring.

Check out my launch video clip from last week:

...and the one from the race course last Thursday:
Disclaimer: I'm not a racer but my yacht club is offering informal rabbit start races right now because we're all single handing for Covid-19 reasons.
 
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