A Start at last

Well, it finally happened - Bill the boatbuilder turned up at my house and we began working on the boat! I had been helping him on another job for about a month, then we raced to Fiji together, which was great as we got to discuss the job a little. Anyway, one of the first jobs that Bill did was to cut a hole in the foredeck. This will be the hatch for the anchor locker, so the bulkhead on the aft end will be watertight. The locker will drain overboard and there will be an empty void under the floor.

One of the unpleasant things we have found (not totally unexpected) is significant rot under the deck. I think the main point of entry was under the forestay fitting, as back in Hawaii we found that the threaded rod connecting the forestay to the stemhead was broken. The fitting had lifted at some previous time and let the water in, rotting the plywood pad under the forestay as well as allowing water to wick back through the plywood core. The centreline appears to be OK, while it is quite rotten along the outboard edge. We have been cutting 73mm holes in various places and heating the inside of the boat in an attempt to dry the area out but I think we might have to be more aggressive with our treatment, maybe more holes and more heat.


The anchor locker bulkhead is all ready to fit and that will make me very happy - it is very exciting to be putting stuff in rather than taking it to the dump!



We can even say something is finished - Bill gelcoated the inside of the locker today and there is nothing else to do to those two surfaces. A small but very satisfying victory.

It has taken me quite some time to finish the cover over the boat, there has been some difficult engineering created to ensure we can park cars, access the garage etc etc, while trying very hard (well a little bit anyway) not to piss the neighbours off. We have had some pretty windy and wet days and it is still in place so fingers crossed it will stay there.

We have also removed the two forward hatches, which both collapsed as soon as the were lifted off the sealant. There is a raised fibreglass lip which is very lightly screwed on to the back of the teak base. We will need to cut these flanges off for the new Lewmar hatches.

Hello Beta

It seems like a cargo cult at present, still waiting for the boatbuilder to finish on his current job and make a start here. To fill in the time I have been shopping, always a little dangerous. Anyway, my first major purchase has arrived, a very shiny new Beta BV3300 75hp engine. I'm impressed!

Goodbye Mr Perkins

Well, finally got a friend to help direct the hiab and we removed the engine. It came out very easily, even with the gearbox still on. I have sold it to a friend who has a Peterson 44 with a dodgy motor.



Below the engine was a foetid mixture that would probably resemble the time long ago when life began. I have bailed out about 20 litres of stinking black stuff. I am looking forward to having this area cleaned out and newly painted.



The saloon floor came out with a little struggle and exposed the 2 "stainless steel" water tanks. It was hardly "stainless" and full of holes, someone had attempted to patch it with fiberglass. It was quite a job to pull these out of the walkway hatch by myself!



So, the next stage is to clean up a little!

Engine room work

Removal of the floor has started. I am leaving the bearers until the boatbuilder advises I can remove them - something has got to hold some shape together!



I have removed the generator and the main engine is now ready to be pulled out this week. I needed to remove the generator before I could access the shaft coupling, which was firmly rusted in after 30 years of neglect. It took a long time to remove two of the bolts, lots of cursing the designers of the thing as there was not enough access for a socket or ring spanner, and the bolts are some weird size so my metric or imperial open-end spanners were not a perfect fit. So after two of the four bolts rounded off I was forced to grind the bolt heads off, finishing that process with my Dremel tool. Engine mounts were next, I managed to unbolt either the main top bolt or the lag screws into the bearers. Thankfully I can say that I don't believe there is too much more serious un-engineering to do!

I have now pulled most of the wiring from the boat, there are only a few wires to the aft cabin still in place. What do you do with old wires, is there any value in the copper?

I am not spending any time with the engine, I have not even removed the new oil hosework which we added in Hawaii (at great expense and trouble!).