Louisia and I do the routine maintenance and repair work on Pine Knot. Luckily, nothing has gone wrong up to now that we haven't been able to handle. We feel the best approach to maintaining Pine Knot's equipment and systems is an aggressive Preventive Maintenance Program.
We use a computer-based PM Program to help us avoid many equipment and systems failures before they happen, or before they turn into major problems. Here are a few screenshots of our PM Program. You can click on them for a larger view. Sorry they are not so sharp, but maybe you can get the general idea.
[Screenshot-Pine Knot's PM Program Main Screen]
We identified over 300 separate tests, measurements, adjustments, services, and parts replacements necessary for Pine Knot's continuing good health. We gleaned our list from the Kadey-Krogen Operations Manual, equipment manuals, internet research, maintenance books, and just plain common sense.
Our PM Program schedules and tracks these items and keeps up with the maintenance history for each.
[Screenshot-Pine Knot's PM Program History Screen]
We weren't able to find a pre-packaged, boat-specific preventive maintenance program. I suppose they do exist. We purchased "Fleet Maintenance Pro" by Innovative Maintenance Systems, a program for maintaining individual items in a fleet of vehicles. We downloaded and use the standard edition.
[Screenshot-Pine Knot's PM Program Location/Category Screen]
We settled on the concept that Pine Knot's machinery and systems is collection of three separate fleet items: the main engine and propulsion system, the generator, and the dinghy outboard. Treating each as a fleet item enables us to track preventive maintenance on the basis of their individual operating hours or calendar days. Ancillary items--such as AC filters, bilge pumps, seacocks--are simply tracked by calendar days.
To begin, we listen all 300+ maintenance items on index cards. Setting up the program was complicated, but once we got the hang of how the items needed to be categorized and the schedules established, things began to fall into place. We're happy with our PM Program and don't understand how we could keep up with it any other way.
In addition to the computer-based PM Program we keep two hand written spiral notebooks. One is Pine Knot's "To Do List" and the other is Pine Knot's "Repairs List." In the "To-Do List", we write down things we see that need to be fixed. In the "Repairs List", we write down repairs actually done. We consider repairs to be outside the scope of the Preventive Maintenance Items, so we track repairs separately from routine maintenance items.
Next: Oil Test Reports: Generator
