Ship's Systems
In hand
Maintenance Log
What has actually been done to Swallow, and when. A boat with no service history is worth less and is harder to own, so this is the start of one.
Why this page exists
Swallow came to us with no service history at all. Not a thin one — none. There is a survey from June 2026 and a stack of receipts for parts we have bought since, and before that there is nothing but the boat herself.
That turns out to matter more than it sounds. Almost every decision on the refit has run into the same wall: is this original, or was it replaced eight years ago?
And the trap is thinking the answer is to replace things on age, because age is exactly the thing we do not have. Occasionally the part carries a manufacturer's date code and we get it for free. Otherwise there are two honest responses, and neither of them is a guess. If it is an annual service item, assume it is due and do it. If it is life-limited, it becomes a risk assessment: what does it cost to run this one too long, and can the thing be inspected? Where you can look at it, look at it. Where the failure mode is invisible — crevice corrosion inside a swage terminal, rubber that has gone soft, a bronze fitting that has quietly dezincified — you replace early, because no amount of looking will ever tell you otherwise.
So this is the record we wished we had been handed. Every service, every modification, every renewal, with a date against it — and an equally honest account of what has never been touched.
How to read it
There are three layers to how Swallow is run, and they answer different questions.
| Layer | Question it answers | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| The maintenance card | What is due, and roughly when? | Laminated, aboard |
| Ship's Systems | How is this thing arranged, and how do I service it? | This section |
| This page | What was actually done, and on what date? | Here |
The card is deliberately short — it is read standing up. This page is the long-form record behind it, and it is the one that will matter in five years, or to whoever buys her next.
What is due
Intervals are by the calendar, not the hour meter. Swallow has covered 542 hours in thirty-three years, about sixteen a year, so a "100 hours or annually" interval reaches annually first every single time by a factor of six. Oil degrades by sitting as readily as by running.
| Item | Interval | Last done | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil and filter | Annually, at spring commissioning | Unknown | Full change planned before any hard running |
| Fuel filters — primary and secondary | Annually, and carry spares | Unknown | Racor 220R-pattern primary; NAPA 3386 on the engine |
| Raw-water impeller | Annually | Unknown | |
| Gearbox oil | At least annually | Unknown | ZF Hurth HBW50-3, 0.30 L, Dexron III |
| Coolant | Own cycle | Unknown | Recovery bottle low and dark at survey |
| Bilge pump rubber components | Three years, regardless of condition | Unknown | Diaphragm, valve set, connecting rod. Manufacturer's figure |
| Sacrificial anode | Every haul-out | Unknown | Almost gone at the June 2026 survey |
| Stuffing box | Inspect every haul-out | Unknown | Confirmed a traditional packing gland, August 2026 |
| Shore-power GFCI at the dock | Monthly test button | September 2026 | It is a consumable, and it fails by not tripping |
| ELCI test button | Monthly, once fitted | Not yet fitted | |
| Fresh-water system and water heater | Drain before the first hard freeze | — | In Texas this, not lay-up, is what decommissioning means |
The record
Newest first.
September 2026
| Date | System | Work | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Sep | Bilge | Pump located, identified and photographed | Jabsco 37202-2012 diaphragm pump, port aft locker under the berth. 10 A fuse. Mounting found loose |
| 6 Sep | Hull | Main bilge and engine containment pan both confirmed dry | Six weeks without rain and one week with no bilge pump at all. Establishes that ingress is rainwater, not the stuffing box |
| 6 Sep | Charging | Charles 20 A ferroresonant charger passed to another club member | Removed from the boat during the August charger swap |
| 4 Sep | DC | Heavy DC negative main landed on the battery-bay busbar | The cable found disconnected on 30 August. Its far end had never been connected |
| 4 Sep | Bilge | Correctly-sized spade terminals fitted to the pump leads at the panel | Panel energised, meter reading 13.4 V |
| 4 Sep | Bilge | Automatic bilge protection restored | Proven three ways: runs with the DC master off, runs on the float lifted by hand, and lights the panel's pump running lamp on both float and manual |
August 2026
| Date | System | Work | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Aug | DC | New 2 AWG positive run, Class-T load side to battery switch BAT-1 | |
| 29 Aug | Charging | Charles ferroresonant charger removed; Victron Phoenix Smart IP43 12/30 (1+1) mounted and charging | Port lazarette. Set to the lithium profile before the DC cable was landed |
| 29 Aug | AC | Weatherproof two-gang IP66 outlet box fitted in the port lazarette | Both chargers plug in and switch independently |
| 28 Aug | AC / DC | Original distribution panel removed; Catalina Direct Z2636 fitted with a Blue Sea 5511e battery switch | Every wire labelled before disconnection. Shore power energised through it; AC lamp lit, reversed-polarity lamp dark |
| 28 Aug | Monitoring | Victron GX LTE 4G-A commissioned; VRM portal live | Firmware updated on both Cerbo and GX LTE |
| 23 Aug | DC | Epoch 12105A-H 105 Ah LiFePO₄ house battery installed | Serial E2BF-481772. Old box and straps removed, bay cleaned, matched tray fitted |
| 23 Aug | Monitoring | Victron Cerbo GX MK2 and SmartShunt installed and commissioned | |
| 23 Aug | DC | Class-T fuse fitted on the house positive | |
| 21 Aug | Comfort | Portable air conditioner rigged to the forward hatch | Interim measure while the permanent unit is deferred |
| 15 Aug | Structure | Four equipment backing boards painted, two coats | Paint rather than epoxy: none of them lives anywhere that sees water routinely |
| 15 Aug | Structure | New backing board bonded into the port lazarette with thickened epoxy | |
| 15 Aug | Shore power | Dock cord run secured the length of the dock on rubber-lined P-clips | |
| 8 Aug | Drivetrain | Shaft seal identified as a traditional stuffing box, not a dripless seal | Recorded because it changes the haul-out procedure and removes a bellows-failure risk we had been carrying |
July 2026
| Date | System | Work | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Jul | Shore power | Oversized ring terminals at the panel replaced with correctly-sized 8 AWG parts | Including a ground ring that had been trimmed and bent to fit |
| 26 Jul | Air conditioning | Raw-water seacock reopened and the circulating pump re-primed | It had been shut for the lay-up and run dry. The pump survived |
| 25 Jul | Shore power | SmartPlug inlet fitted and shore power energised for the first time | Through the galvanic isolator. Mounting is temporary and is being redone |
| 19 Jul | Shore power | Internal feed cable replaced, 10 AWG to 8 AWG, with service loops at both ends | Old cable removed from the boat entirely |
| 19 Jul | Shore power | Galvanic isolator backing board bonded into the port rear locker; isolator mounted | |
| 19 Jul | Structure | Battery-compartment backing board bonded in | |
| Jul | Compliance | Texas registration renewed | TX 2538HA. Sticker in hand, not yet applied to the hull |
| 13 Jul | Safety | Carbon monoxide detector fitted in the cabin | |
| 5 Jul | — | Moved to her permanent slip under her own power | Engine started and ran the passage |
| 5 Jul | Engine | Containment pan pumped dry to establish a monitoring baseline | The pan does not drain to the bilge by design |
| 5 Jul | Deck | New dock lines and a bow fender rigged at the new slip |
June 2026
| Date | System | Work | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Jun | Compliance | Texas title transferred and vessel registered at TPWD; sales tax paid | Registration TX 2538HA |
| 25 Jun | DC | Both original batteries removed — both stone dead, one reading about 3 millivolts | Original pair were Optima BlueTop D34M |
| 25 Jun | DC | Interim Group 24 flooded start battery and an Odyssey ODX-AGM24M fitted | Wired as before; no topology change at this stage |
| 25 Jun | Charging | Charging path verified at 13.7–13.8 V with the engine running | Closes the 16 V overcharge finding in the survey, which was the dead batteries rather than the alternator |
| 18 Jun | — | DCYC membership approved | |
| 8 Jun | — | Purchased. Sea trial completed | Air conditioning repaired by the seller before closing |
| 4 Jun | — | SAMS survey | Fair market value $17,500 against $15,000 paid |
What we have not touched
As useful as the record above, and for a thirty-three-year-old boat arguably more so. Nothing here has a known service date.
| Item | Status | What we know |
|---|---|---|
| Standing rigging | Believed original, 1993 | No evidence it has ever been replaced. Being re-rigged when the mast next comes down — the dominant failure mode is crevice corrosion inside the swage terminals, which no visual inspection can clear |
| Through-hulls and seacocks | Believed original | Scheduled for replacement in composite at the winter haul |
| Engine mounts | Age unknown | New set in hand, to be fitted with the shaft alignment |
| Fuel tank | Never cleaned or polished as far as we know | The previous owner was dosing biocide. Filters get changed before any hard running, and again before the first real trip |
| Engine wiring harness | Factory, with the original 8-pin connector | Replacement in hand. The connector is a known failure point on this generation of Catalina |
| Cockpit engine panel | Original | The tachometer reads roughly half the true speed, confirmed against an optical tach. Replacement in hand |
Water heater — Seaward S600 | Original, not working | Kept switched off. Replacement deferred |
Air conditioning — King Marine Aire D16000 | Original, not refrigerating | Compressor confirmed not moving heat. Replacement selected |
Fresh-water pump — SHURflo 2088-423-244 | Leaking at the housing | Recorded in the survey. Replacement on order |
Bilge pump — Jabsco 37202-2012 | Working, condition good, age unknown | Mounting is loose. Rubber components are on a three-year interval that has never been recorded as done |
| Propeller | A piece missing from one blade | Has been running out of balance for an unknown period. Feathering replacement planned; the shaft gets checked for run-out at the same time |
| Cabin sole | Flexes underfoot; structure sound | Re-tab planned |
| Deck penetrations | Leaking at the forward hatch, the mid-port settee area and the emergency tiller port | Confirmed rain-sourced rather than below the waterline. These leaks are the cause of the corrosion driving most of the electrical work |
In hand, not yet fitted
Bought and aboard or at home, waiting on a session, a haul-out or the job in front of it.
- Blue Sea
8100ELCI main panel - Victron Blue Smart IP67 12/17 start-battery charger
- Catalina Direct
Z2855cockpit engine panel, with theZ3717tachometer calibration tool - Raymarine EV-100 wheel pilot — sensor, drive, control head
- Two Lewmar 30 self-tailing winches, with G10 for the backing pads
- Midship cleats, with the same G10
- Cutlass bearing and a sacrificial anode, for the next haul-out
- Three injector assemblies for the M20
- A set of engine mounts
- Engine wiring harness, panel to engine
- Lifesling 2
- Float switches and a bilge-run monitoring relay
- Fresh-water pump, Catalina Direct
Z6033
Ownership and compliance
| Record | Date | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase | 8 June 2026 | $15,000 |
| Marine survey | 4 June 2026 | SAMS surveyor, 26 pages. Fair market value $17,500 |
| Title and registration | 26 June 2026 | Texas Parks and Wildlife. TX 2538HA |
| Registration renewal | July 2026 | Current sticker in hand |
| Insurance | June 2026 | Bound from the day of purchase |
| Club membership | 18 June 2026 | Dallas Corinthian Yacht Club |