glassed up

After a short trip to Foxes to fetch some fibreglass, and a bit more expoxy resin, I set too in finishing the bulkhead.

Actually, I was up early before Foxes opened, so spent a pleasant hour first, scraping some more blue gunk from the cockpit.... its an endless task.

Anyway.... 4 strips of 100mm woven cloth, and a top layer of 300gsm chopped strand to neaten it all up, and the wood is in place... just need to wait for it to cure now, which is always a nervous time, where you start to fret about whether you got the mix of resin and hardener right!.... particularly nervous this time, as the first pot started to exotherm (yep, straight back to O level chemistry), and smoked in the pot so much I threw it over the side.... fortunately, a thin layer on the glass doesn't get so hot, and will cure OK.

From aft

from forward

a few more tasks

I forgot to mention earlier the joy of removing the gearbox coupling from the prop shaft.... The flexible coupling came off easily enough, but I had to take the propshaft to the old gearbox on the floor outside  and bolt the flange on the coupling back to the one on the gearbox, but with a large nut inbetween... tightening the bolts then pressed the shaft out of the coupling... at least far enough to finish the job with a few 'gentle' applications of a hammer!

I have also put in the headlining in the forepeak this evening... I've tried drilling the trim out to 12mm for the new teak plugs to cover the screw heads, but its too soft and the drill bit grabs... so I need to yse my pillar drill at home which offers much more control... will get that done, along with the door handles and then the forepeak is pretty much finished. 

Headlining panels in place, without the wooden trim.

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Finally, I spent another joyous couple of hours scraping the blue rubbery gunk off the cockpit floor... well on the way now with that awful task!

bulkhead

With the engine room painted up nicely, and the aquadrive having arrived, it was time to fit the bulkhead to mount it.

basically, it fixes to a new bulkhead to take the thrust from the prop, that is normally taken by the engine and gearbox and through the engine mounts into the hull. ait also has a constant velocity shaft so that engine alignment to the propshaft is less critical.

So.... I made up a bulkhead in cardboard, and after MUCH trimming and measuring to get it in the right  place, and to fit the gap neatly, I transferred the shape to 18mm ply and cut it out with a jig saw... as is expected in these cases, the wood didn't fit neatly, so more trimming until it was a good fit, the propshaft was central in the cutlass bearing and the distance for the engine/gearbox was right... this took several hours!

Finally, I sanded the hull where the wood fitted to ensure a good bond, and mixed up some epoxy and micro balloon filler... I've glued the wood in place roughly using this 'paste' and once its set, will remove the aquadrive that was fitted to ensure alignment, and glass the wood in properly.

before and after

It's just struck me that it would be good to do a before and after picture, to show how much the engine compartment has improved, and as some motivation for me!

Would it help to label them 'before' and 'after'? :)

engine bay done...

Final bit of engine bay now painted. It looks great, and is now ready for the bulkhead to be fitted to mount the aquadrive.

As the picture also shows, quite a bit of work needed tidying up the wiring and mounting it neatly to be done yet....

And finally, a bit of additional tidying up more generally around the boat... looks so much better when you've wandered around filling a bin bag!.... and then homeward bound.

some good progress

I've made some decent steps forward in the last 24 hours... after arriving last night, I got the sander out and finished the sole board in the forepeak, and then cleared the dust up.... 

This left me clear today for a feee run on finishing the engine room clean up.... connecting a hose pipe with a tap on the end allowed me to run water and clean without having to lug water up and down the ladder each time.... so a few hours work proved highly productive, with a clean compartment slowly emerging....  I still had a good quantity of gunk to remove from the very bottom by hand, but that was a lot easier than previous... and by lunchtime, the compartment was pretty clean.

So, I then finished the dust clean up and stuck the first coat of oil on the forepeak floor.... looks good.

I then started the job that I've been looking forward to getting behind me.... painting the engine compartment.... by 19:00, I stopped for the evening with the job nearly done, and it looks great.

Just the bits by the engine bearers to do tomorrow.

The forepeak has dried, and that too looks good.

It'll need sanding later and then the next coat on.... that's a job for later.

more bits ordered

I've ordered a few more bits to get towards the finish line!

Today, a nice shiny alloy expansion tank is on its way to me.

I need an expansion tank, as the addition of a calorifier to the colling circuit adds a lot of additional fluid into the system, so the risk of too much water being chucked out of the overflow is quite high as the system gets hot... so a simple expansion bottle is needed, so that the ejected water is retained and reharvested as the system cools. I'll also need a replacement radiator cap for the existing filler, that doesn't have a pressure spring in it...but they're a few quid from eBay.

I've also ordered a metre of Sapele dowel at 22mm diameter.... random. And not related to the engine!.... its for the doors.... the old handles and catches needed a second hole for the lock, and while the new catches cover this hole up, its right where the screws are, so I'll plug the hole with a length of this dowel.... belts and braces!

I've got a pile of other bits to order yet for the engine... besides the engine and gearbox themselves, I'll also need:

Antisiphon loop and pipework

heater hose and fittings

exhaust hose

water trap

Cooling water inlet filter

new prop

throttle and gearshift cable

air bleed valve for calorifier circuit

and bet i've forgotten things too!

I'm getting all excited about getting the engine in now.... the end is in sight... and once the engine is in, then the jobs list to be done before being able to leave the marina is getting quite short!

prop off

Yard have been in touch.... prop is off!

That means I can get the shaft out this weekend, and finish cleaning up.... I may even be able to get a little of the paint on, up to roughly where the new bulkhead will be for the aquadrive.

The shaft can be pulled out inside, as there is a lot of room forwards, certainly enough to clear the cutlass bearing... which is good, as the shaft coupling is still on at the gearbox end, and it wil be a LOT easier to remove out of situ. My plan is to bolt it back onto the gearbox with a large nut or similar in between the two and basically press the coupling off.

In the meantime, while I wait for the aquadrive to turn up so that I can locate the bulkhead, I'll finish sanding the forepeak sole and hopefully get a coat of hard wax oil on... I may also drill the holes in the headlining trim and get them fitted as well.... will be good to see what it looks like!.... that means I might drag the doors back down and fit them too... busy busy!

Aquadrive

I figured it would be of interest to some readers to discuss the aquadrive I've ordered, and why.

Firstly, what are the reasons?

I have a set of engine bearers in the engine bay that will certainly be in the wrong place... they were put in for a large and heavy old engine. They will be too far apart and too low for the new engine. I will address this via some new feet, but these will need careful measuring. The less I need to do this to an exact tolerance the better. The aquadrive reduces the need for millimetre accurate location.

Secondly, I can make the feet slightly shorter as the aquadrive can accomodate a misalignment, so shorter feet will face less leverage related loads.

Last, but not least, the engine compartment is virtually impossible to insulate against sound transmission as it, along with the gearboxand propshaft sits in a long a deep bilge that runs right under the aft cabin. So, the more that the shaft can be isolated, the lower the levels of sound transmission from it through the hull, especially as it also allows the use of softer engine mounts reducing vibration transmission from the engine too.

Next is the question of which aquadrive.

There were two choices, the 10.10 rated to 65Hp and its bigger brother the 15.10, which is rated to 100Hp.

I have chosen the latter. While the smaller one would be within tolerance, the vendor did some life time calculations for me, that rated the 10.10 at 1800hrs and the 15.10 at 8000hrs. It's a sensible decision for the extra £150. Furthermore, it allows more angular misalignment, so an no brainer.

All I need to do now is make up a bulkhead to mount the aquadrive to... I've bought a sheet of 18mm ply, thatI will shape and then glass completely to make it water tight, as well as obviously to fix securely to the hull.

I do have the luxury of being able to mount the bulkhead (within reason) where its easy to fit and then measure the feet to fit, unlike many owners who need to position it precisely to their existing engine installation.

More engine bay cleaning this weekend, before starting the paint up and glasswork!

10 years of drivel

Another weekend of cleaning the engine compartment behind me..... its getting closer.... which is good as I am sick of having filthy hands that won't come quite clean! :)

I've also taken the opportunity to start ordering the bits neccessary to finish the engine bay.... all bar the engine!... that's in hand, but not quite done yet... I have however, confirmed the gearbox type, so that I can order the correct aquadrive.... it'll be a ZF25 Hydraulic, with a 1.97 reduction.

I have actually ordered the aquadrive and shaft seal (I've gone for a PSS after the advice of Vyv Cox, who I trust a great deal).

I've also asked the yard to remove the prop. I have found that my own puller will never work, so need a plate style one... they aren't cheap, so better to get the yard to do it. I can then pull the shaft out and clean the rest of the engine bay.

I've also ordered the bilge paint. I have decided to go with floor paint after all, and have ordered 5L white.

And finally.....

I have noticed that a big milestone has been quietly passed with little fanfare.... I have been writing this blog for a remarkable ten years. Not remarkable in the quality of the content, but remarkable only in its endurance.... I have enjoyed writing it a great deal, and have loved the comments and messages from  around the world... I have also made some firm new friends in far flung places. Most of all, I now have a great record that I can look back on as I see fit. Priceless.