Wednesday Started the day by telling Kathrine that we are having to stay home for at least 14 days because Helen seems to have the Covid virus. She already has emails about how to request, accept and return work from the school so she followed those instructions and has spent the day catching up… Continue reading 14 days self isolation – With the boat on the drive ! Tough on Helen, Grace and Kathrine but couldn’t have been better for me.
Using up my annual leave before 1st of April 2020.
Friday 13th March 2020 Another day off so set off for storage at 7:30. Not really ready to try putting the mast up as we will need to have some wood to act as props or a davit to help getting it upright so I didn’t bring Rathenice home just yet. I did tidy… Continue reading Using up my annual leave before 1st of April 2020.
Mast and rigging.
This was a relatively long term section of the overall project which was mostly carried out in the garden rather than at storage. This has actually been going on in the background from the first morning the boat was mine (26/8/2016) with a lot of the progress taking place in 2020 just before the boat… Continue reading Mast and rigging.
Engine – Part 6 Drive shaft, propeller and shaft seals. Followed by installing the engine!
Ok so this blog section is more about boat building rather than engines. Some of this I now about in theory from reading all those boat magazines and build your own boat books when I was younger. So here’s how this part is meant to look in a traditional wooden boat or a plywood speedboat.… Continue reading Engine – Part 6 Drive shaft, propeller and shaft seals. Followed by installing the engine!
Engine part 5 – Not about the engine but needed doing before it goes back in. – Galvanic protection and lightning safety.
Lots of people have written about whether or not you need galvanic protection for metalwork in contact with water. There are plenty of boat books which try to describe the corrosion problem and university level chemistry education does not give me any particularly different slant on that. What I do have though is some electrical… Continue reading Engine part 5 – Not about the engine but needed doing before it goes back in. – Galvanic protection and lightning safety.
The rudder – January 2016 to April 2019
I guess one of the major challenges of re-building a boat that you know very little detail about will be making decisions about how to handle restoration of parts that are not present or obvious how they originally were intended to go together. The rudder and tiller are one of those problems as I started… Continue reading The rudder – January 2016 to April 2019
Engine – Part 4. Gas to the galley, Fuel plumbing, Cooling water (through holes) and exhaust systems.
So, what do all of these have in common other than involving various diameters of pipes? In my case those pipes are all entirely or partially located inside the engine compartment and will be impossible or extremely difficult to work on after the engine has been re-installed. As the boat was received all three systems… Continue reading Engine – Part 4. Gas to the galley, Fuel plumbing, Cooling water (through holes) and exhaust systems.
Engine – Part 3 Engine electrical system – Starting, Battery charging, Choke, Ignition cut-off and fuel cut-off solenoid valve.
This blog post may be a little too technical if you are not into electrical engineering so please feel free to skip this and the later one about the boat electrical system. This post is mainly about the move from the original system that came with the boat to a slightly upgraded one to match… Continue reading Engine – Part 3 Engine electrical system – Starting, Battery charging, Choke, Ignition cut-off and fuel cut-off solenoid valve.
Engine – Part 2 Engine cooling system assembly, Zinc pencil, Engine mounts & adding the controls.
Tuesday 19/9/2017 – Temporarily put the exhaust “Resonator” back on the engine so I can measure control cable movements. Assembled the new control lever box with the cables in the right places for the movements required. With the gear mounting adapter in it’s current position it needs around 3cm to move from neutral to… Continue reading Engine – Part 2 Engine cooling system assembly, Zinc pencil, Engine mounts & adding the controls.
Engine – Part 1 Dismantling and Initial rebuild.
Wednesday 22/2/2017 Step one of the engine work was lifting it out of it’s space under the cabin access step and taking it home to the garage workbench where it stayed for 18 months as it gradually transformed and the boat systems were readied for it’s return. On inspection and dismantling of the peripheral parts… Continue reading Engine – Part 1 Dismantling and Initial rebuild.