It's Been A While But We're Still Afloat
It's been so long since i added anything that this could end up being quite a long post. Here Goes!!
I Thought You Were Leaving?
We had been planning on a trip around the UK this year but things didn’t quite turn out as we’d hoped, we had a planned delay to starting so Jacob could have all his inoculations before we set off and were going to leave Grimsby at the beginning of July. The engine decided otherwise though, it had been running a little rough and finally decided it would stop after a short time motoring, i had hoped this was just because of an air leak in the fuel line, after replacing all the fuel hoses we went out for another short trip in the river, heading back in the engine died again and would only start after i had pulled out and wire brushed the injectors, i decided this wasn’t a good idea with Jacob on board so set to and overhauled the engine.
Work On The Engine
Since buying Jeanne i had been unhappy with the movement from the engine and on a closer inspection of the feet found they were completely shot, i had also seen a split in the flexible coupling between the gearbox and the shaft a while back so decided to do things properly and pull out the engine using two mainsheets and the boom. I stripped the top end of the engine in the cockpit and replaced a blown head gasket, lapped the valves and gave it a general clean up and re-paint. I also measured the fuel delivery from the injector pump and found a large difference between the two pistons, rather than just re-building the pump i took it to have it and the injectors tested, it turned out the pump was rather worn and the pressure was leaking back, i left it to be re-built and finished the engine. Replacing the engine mounts wasn’t as straight forward as i would have liked, the worn out mounts were very low and the only ones of a similar height were not made to cope with side ways loading, i ended up buying a good set of engine mounts from a non marine supplier and lowering the bearers to make up the difference in height. On putting the engine back in the difference was very noticeable, much quieter and the whole boat didn’t vibrate when it was in gear, it also ran without stopping on our test trip to Bull Sand Fort and back to Grimsby, one of the hardest trips i have done, making myself motor to test the engine instead of sailing as soon as we were in the river as we’d usually do.
Electrickery & Oddments
As we’ve been fairly stationary I’ve also had chance to make a few repairs to the spiders web of corroding wires on board, i’ve re-built the switchboard and replaced the worst of the wiring. There’s a new tri-colour/anchor light on top of the mast with new tinned three core going to it, replacing the previous unit which had corroded beyond repair and wires in which the copper was black as far back as i cut before throwing it all out. I’ve fitted a better system for the heater, we can now set a temperature we’d like to boat to be and it will turn on if it drops to the set temperature. I’ve finally made our stack pack, it looks good and works very well, just have to make a spray hood and cockpit tent when i have spare time and money.
The Engine Works, Where To Go?
Once the engine was back in we were hoping to have a few weeks away, just nip up to the Orkneys if we could. A few personal issues cropped up at this time with family however and we decided to stay put and help out as we could until things were back to normal, we’re nearly there now and hope to be moving back on board in January. The plan for 2016 is roughly, leave Grimsby, head out the Humber, turn left and keep going. If we can spend a while on the west coat of Scotland then head back when the weather begins to turn we'd be very pleased. It's just a rough plan though and we'll have to see how Suzanne and Jacob get on while we're sailing.
I Thought You Were Leaving?
We had been planning on a trip around the UK this year but things didn’t quite turn out as we’d hoped, we had a planned delay to starting so Jacob could have all his inoculations before we set off and were going to leave Grimsby at the beginning of July. The engine decided otherwise though, it had been running a little rough and finally decided it would stop after a short time motoring, i had hoped this was just because of an air leak in the fuel line, after replacing all the fuel hoses we went out for another short trip in the river, heading back in the engine died again and would only start after i had pulled out and wire brushed the injectors, i decided this wasn’t a good idea with Jacob on board so set to and overhauled the engine.
Work On The Engine
Since buying Jeanne i had been unhappy with the movement from the engine and on a closer inspection of the feet found they were completely shot, i had also seen a split in the flexible coupling between the gearbox and the shaft a while back so decided to do things properly and pull out the engine using two mainsheets and the boom. I stripped the top end of the engine in the cockpit and replaced a blown head gasket, lapped the valves and gave it a general clean up and re-paint. I also measured the fuel delivery from the injector pump and found a large difference between the two pistons, rather than just re-building the pump i took it to have it and the injectors tested, it turned out the pump was rather worn and the pressure was leaking back, i left it to be re-built and finished the engine. Replacing the engine mounts wasn’t as straight forward as i would have liked, the worn out mounts were very low and the only ones of a similar height were not made to cope with side ways loading, i ended up buying a good set of engine mounts from a non marine supplier and lowering the bearers to make up the difference in height. On putting the engine back in the difference was very noticeable, much quieter and the whole boat didn’t vibrate when it was in gear, it also ran without stopping on our test trip to Bull Sand Fort and back to Grimsby, one of the hardest trips i have done, making myself motor to test the engine instead of sailing as soon as we were in the river as we’d usually do.
Electrickery & Oddments
As we’ve been fairly stationary I’ve also had chance to make a few repairs to the spiders web of corroding wires on board, i’ve re-built the switchboard and replaced the worst of the wiring. There’s a new tri-colour/anchor light on top of the mast with new tinned three core going to it, replacing the previous unit which had corroded beyond repair and wires in which the copper was black as far back as i cut before throwing it all out. I’ve fitted a better system for the heater, we can now set a temperature we’d like to boat to be and it will turn on if it drops to the set temperature. I’ve finally made our stack pack, it looks good and works very well, just have to make a spray hood and cockpit tent when i have spare time and money.
The Engine Works, Where To Go?
Once the engine was back in we were hoping to have a few weeks away, just nip up to the Orkneys if we could. A few personal issues cropped up at this time with family however and we decided to stay put and help out as we could until things were back to normal, we’re nearly there now and hope to be moving back on board in January. The plan for 2016 is roughly, leave Grimsby, head out the Humber, turn left and keep going. If we can spend a while on the west coat of Scotland then head back when the weather begins to turn we'd be very pleased. It's just a rough plan though and we'll have to see how Suzanne and Jacob get on while we're sailing.