Sea cocks and engine mounts

With a bit of a temperature rise on Monday I decided to epoxy in the new ply backing pads for the galley waste and cockpit drain sea cocks I had cut them out some time ago but the weather had been too cold for epoxy. I drilled a hole in the centre using the hole saw pilot drill and epoxied them in place with a nut and bolt and a piece of scrap ply to hold them in place until the epoxy had cured.

Backing pad held in place

This morning I removed the bolts and put the hole saw through to open up the hole in the pad working from both sides to reduce the risk of splintering as the hole saw broke through.

Hole cut out

Just need to give them a coat of epoxy then I can fit the sea cocks decided to go with Marelon plastic its a carbon reinforced nylon.

After a bit of searching around Ifound some flexible engine mounts that will fit I calculated that there was 40mm between the engine feet and the bearers I found that the mounts that Parts 4 Engines sell for the Perkins 4-108 are only 38.5mm high without the height adjusting stud so a quick e-mail to the firm to confirm that they can be installed by bolting them directly to the engine feet and then any height adjustment can be carried out with shims under the mount. Tony Robins at Parts 4 Engines is very helpful and prompt with replies to queries. The next problem is the original mounts had bolts on 5.5" centres and the new ones are on 4" centres the plan is to recess some 50mm x 10mm steel into the top face of the engine bearers and then drill and tap at 4" centres and bolt the new mounts down with 10mm set bolts.

Original position of engine mount

The two aft mounts are secured by coach screws directly into the timber engine bearers this method will be reused to secure the steel plates the forward mounts are secured with nuts and bolts as there is sufficient depth in the bearer to allow a slot through the bearer so as to be able to fit nuts and bolts.

Recess cut out for mounting plate

Mounting plate in place

The mounting plates will be drilled and tapped once the engine has been put in place and lined up

Prop Shaft

I had a dry run with the prop shaft and 'P' bracket today as I need to replace the engine mounts and I was unsure of the amount of space that I had. The engine has a 1:1 gearbox which means that the output shaft is on the crankshaft centre line there is not a lot of space between the engine feet and the bearers, the original Perkins mounts were recessed into the bearers and unfortunately as far as I can see are obsolete so it looks as though I shall have to use whatever is available and modify the bearers to suite

Shaft and 'P' bracket in place

Set up for measuring shaft height above engine bearers

Shaft in place

I turned up a sleeve to hold the shaft centrally in the stern tube, the black object in the picture I left the square in order to be able to remove it, so as to get the shaft in its correct position.

After that I Tied up a few loose ends by fitting the last handrail stanchion base which I now have courtesy of the previous owner also fitted the missing spinnaker sheet block which came with the stanchion base.

Finally pulled in the new genoa halyard which went without a hitch always a relief when it emerges still attached to the mousing line.  With the mousing line free I removed the spinnaker halyard which will go into the wash tomorrow. The plan is to work through the running rigging and clean it all up and then replace as necessary I think most of it is ok its amazing what a good wash will do.

Genoa halyard emerges from the mast.

Running Riging

A job that has been bugging me for a while was the genoa halyard which had been removed from the mast without leaving a mousing line so while the mast is down decided to give it a go on Friday the first attempt was with a spring steel mouse but couldn't get it much more than a metre or two down the mast from whichever way it was entered. The mast is the original Proctor job with a welded head fitting so no chance of removing it and trying from the top a case of back to the drawing board for a plan B. Plan B was to use another halyard to pull a mousing line through the mast and the favourite was the topping lift as the masthead sheave is directly opposite the genoa halyard sheave so the eye end of the topping lift was pulled up to the masthead and secured and I found that by pulling the other end tight I could see the topping lift through the genoa halyard exit only needed a bit of bent wire to hook it out see photograph. This photograph was staged today as I had not got the camera on Friday the already inserted mousing line can be seen.

Topping lift with mousing line attached

I was then only a matter of attaching the end of the mousing line to the topping lift with some sticky tape and carefully pulling on the eye end of the topping lift until the mousing line appeared at the masthead sheave then I passed a long hook through the mast from the genoa halyard sheave and pulled the mousing line through and the job was done only took about five minutes.

Masthead topping lift is on the left

The original halyard was a combined wire and three strand rope so I decided to replace it with a new braid on braid so off to the Kent Boat Jumble yesterday to see George the rope man, I now have 25 metres of 12mm braid on braid just need to splice an eye in the end and pull it in and as they say the jobs a good un.

Started Painting

Started painting today with the engine space bilge using grey garage floor paint from Tool Station according to the 'experts' on the YBW forum its as good as the proper stuff but much cheaper time will tell. Gave it a good wash out with Screwfix No Nonsense degreaser and a good wire brushing then another wash with sugar soap.

Before

After

The forward and aft cockpit drains are linked up the green hose but are temporarily led out through the opening for the engine cooling water sea cock the cockpit drain sea cocks require new skin fittings and when the weather is a bit warmer I will epoxy in the backing pads.

I have started putting some of the original woodwork back into the saloon to get a feel for how I intend to progress in this area. The previous owner had made up some new panels lined with white laminate for the fore cabin which I will use but I am undecided about the saloon at the moment.

Saloon dinette area

My youngest daughter paid a visit on Monday and these photographs with the exception of the painted engine space bilge are her work.

Finally I got the pulpit on today no photograph I am afraid the camera battery gave up the ghost.