Anchor windlass and further engine work

Over last weekend I painted the anchor windlass with some Hammerite special metals primer on the bare patches on the aluminium gear case followed up with two coats of smooth Hammerite white paint. On Monday morning I assembled the gipsy and clutch and fitted the new stainless steel cable stripper in place with plenty of Duralac past which hopefully will make it easier to remove in future also put Duralac paste on the pinch bolt. Then it was just a matter of lifting the windlass on board generously anointing with Sikaflex and bolting into position just leaving the bolts hand tight until the Sikaflex has cured so as not to squeeze it all out. In future the plan is to leave the clutch disengaged which hopefully will prevent it from jamming again.

Windlass clutch cone pinned in place

Windlass bolted in place

After that I put another coat of varnish on some locker lids and some of the fiddle rails to the berths which I had recently identified most of the locker lids are finished now just the four for the aft cabin to do these are a bit lower down the list at the moment as the aft cabin is a bit of a glory hole at the moment somewhere to dump stuff out of the way.

On Wednesday I finished varnishing the fiddle rails first and then tightened down the windlass bolts before running the engine wiring harness round the engine space and out into the saloon the plan was to put the engine panel above the chart table but looking at it again today I decided not to put it there as it would not leave much room for the navigation instruments, VHF radio etc further thoughts are required on that one. I cut out a plywood panel to fit above the chart table for the instruments I just need to work out the layout.

To finish off the day I started on the building up of the shaft log the first job was to prevent any epoxy coming into contact with the propeller shaft and glueing it up solid instead of using cling film I decided to use a piece of plastic waste pipe which i split down and wrapped around the shaft and pushed into the gap between the shaft and the log I kept cutting the plastic away until the pipe just fitted in the gap with the ends meeting. I took the precaution of greasing the shaft and giving the outside of the plastic pipe several coats of wax polish hopefully it will come out again easily, we will see on Monday morning.

Split plastic waste pipe in place

Started off today by coating the flange on the stern tube with plenty of wax together with the bolts that secure it  then mixed up some thickened epoxy and liberally applied it to the log then pressed the stern tube into place with the dummy bearing to hold it in alignment then wiped away the excess epoxy which had squeezed out. Just have to wait now until the epoxy has cured to see which bits are stuck together at least the shaft was still turning freely when I left this evening. 

Stern tube in place

My original thought was to replace the original stern gland with a PSS dripless shaft seal I used one on my other boat when I replaced the engine which has not so far caused any problems but after cleaning up the original gland I have decided to re-use it albeit with new packing thus saving the best part of 200 beer tokens.

While in epoxy mode I mixed up some more to fair up the opening for the engine raw water sea cock the gel goat was not as badly affected as that around the cockpit drain sea cocks. As the marelon sea cocks have a comparatively large diameter mating face I levelled up the upper face of the backing pad as this one had been secured with glass cloth around the edges which left an uneven surface.

Engine alignment

After another coat of varnish on the locker lids I got on with lining up the engine with the propeller shaft I started by setting the engine roughly in its fore and aft position using the wear marks on the propeller shaft in way of the cutlass bearing and surprise surprise the new mounts did not seem to match the position of the originals it almost appears as if the engine has grown in length impossible I know but. I decided to ignore that bit for the time being and got on with lining up the engine and shaft I used various bits of steel packing pieces to achieve the correct height then after measuring the total thickness of packing at each foot I machined up solid packing pieces for each foot came to a shade under 9mm a lot more than I had calculated but at least I was on the right side I wasn't looking to lower the engine which would have been a bit more problematic.

Machining packing piece

All four packing pieces

After a little research on the engine number it would appear that the engine was manufactured in 1988 so not the original engine however it had been used in the boat I guess the mounts may have been modified to suit the bolt holes in the bearers, possibly elongated holes in the mounts? I don't know what the original engine was but most of these boats seem to have a Thornycroft T90 which possibly had a shorter distance between the mounts.

After another coat of varnish this morning I removed the temporary packing and fitted the purpose made ones and reconnected the coupling. Going back to the problem with the engine mounts I decided to turn them so that I could get the bolts in to secure the mounting plates without fouling the mounts which you can just see in the photograph the mounts are turned inwards towards each other so that the propeller thrust doesn't try and push the engine to one side.

Engine lined up and connected to the shaft

The next job is to build up the end of the shaft log, with some thickened epoxy, so that the stern tube sits square with the shaft this will need to be done with the shaft in place and hopefully without glueing the shaft to the stern tube probably wrap with cling film.

The engine goes in

First thing this morning I managed another coat of varnish on the locker lids before the engine turned up in a friends trailer. It was a nice easy straightforward lift to get it in one of the great positives of centre cockpit boats lift out the cockpit floor and drop it straight in especially with heavier engines. On checking the alignment with the propeller shaft it looks pretty good the engine needs lifting by about 6mm a bit more than I had calculated but easily done with shims and at least its on the right side if the engine needed lowering it would have required the mounting plates to have been further recessed into the bearers.

Engine in place

Last Friday I removed the temporary cockpit drain hoses through the engine raw water opening and connected the drains to the sea cocks that will allow the engine raw water sea cock to be fitted.

Anchor windlass

After removing the gipsy from the anchor windlass I had put it on one side but further investigation showed that the clutch cone was jammed into the gipsy and had not been moved even when I removed the gipsy with wedges the clutch being a press fit on the shaft. After tapping all round the back of the cone it came out quite easily now the cone is made of tufnol or similar but it seems to have an attraction for rust which was stuck to it. Also I discovered that the clutch cone is pinned to the shaft with a roll pin which had sheared off, one reason may have been that the pin had not been driven right through the shaft which meant that only half of it was driving which may have contributed to it shearing off. The roll pins are quarter inch by two inches long which I sourced from Amazon they arrived today so that will be the weekends homework putting it all back together. I feel a bit guilty about using Amazon especially after their antics over tax in this country however if you go in to the Amazon site via the RNLI site they get a donation reduces the guilt feeling a bit although the donation from the purchase of a packet of roll pins would be fairly insignificant.

Sheared roll pin

Gipsy and clutch cone

The rest of the week has been spent mostly sanding and varnishing locker lids gradually working through them takes a bit of time to get three coats of varnish on both sides of each one.

The yard crane is booked for Monday next week to lift the engine in so there will be another post once that has been done. 

Homework

The weather over the weekend was ideal for getting a coat or two of paint on the engine gave it a good wash down with No Nonsense heavy duty de-greaser from Screwfix I find this stuff to be effective and a reasonable price. I used it to clean out the well under the engine when replacing the engine on the Bowman it was a real mess down there old grease from the stern tube, old engine oil amongst other things put on neat with a brush then rinse off with water. Found dark green spray can of smooth Hammerite in the workshop so that settled the colour choice I needed another to finish the job the engine had previously been painted in Hammerite yes I know the air filter needs painting its just there to prevent anything falling in for the moment.

Resplendent in dark green with new flexible mounts 

The ancillary bits and pieces, starter, alternator, coolers etc, still have to be fitted but the plan is to do this after the engine has been lined up with the propeller shaft it leaves a bit more space and reduces the weight considerably. Tomorrow I will see if I can organise the yard crane to lift the engine in.

Today I turned my attention to the Simpson Lawrence anchor windlass the chain gipsy was very tight on its shaft probably too tight to allow the anchoer to drop under its own weight. I had tried pumping grease in to no avail. I had previously had a half hearted attempt to remove it but the bolt holding the chain stripper was seized in the aluminium casting and sheared off when I tried to remove it and the stainless steel stripper was also seized so it was time to bite the bullet and hacksaw through the stripper I shall make a new one later its only half inch stainless bar. To remove the gipsy required a hammer and wedges  and once off the reason for the stiffness was obvious the grease was not getting to the shaft the grease outlet was solid with congealed grease which required drilling out. I removed the cover to inspect gears and everything appears to be in good order with plenty of grease so after a bit of fettling and painting the windlass will be fit for further service. 

Windlass shaft after removing the gipsy 

The rest of the week will probably be spent on sanding and varnishing the internal locker lids there are rather a lot about 20 I think

Best laid plans and the first scent of spring

The intention had been to spray paint the engine last weekend and lift it into place today while the yard crane was loading a boat onto transport however the weather was not conducive to spraying paint outside, wind and rain, this has been put off until this coming weekend. Instead on Monday I built up around the openings for the sea cocks with thickened epoxy as the mastic that had been used previously did not seem to have compatible with the gelcoat which had crazed somewhat. While the epoxy was curing I fitted the 'P' bracket permanently with plenty of Sikaflex then nipped up the bolts until the Sikaflex started to squeeze out which I used to fair off round the bracket then left it to cure. To finish off the day I pulled the newly washed topping lift back into the mast and took out the main halyard for washing.

On Wednesday I sanded the epoxy round the sea cock openings and cut the skin fittings to the correct length as fitting the sea cocks is a two handed job I had to leave any further work on them for the time being.

Opening for sea cock after building up and sanding back

I tightened the 'P' bracket bolts and fitted the propeller shaft and stern tube the stern tube bolts directly to the inside of the hull and was originally bedded on what looked like an epoxy putty some of which was missing so I built up with thickened epoxy and some GRP flat bar unfortunately I now have an alignment problem with the stern tube I am going to leave it until the engine is in and lined up then I will re-bed the stern tube as original. The Sikaflex needs cleaning up around the 'P' bracket

  

'P' bracket in place

To finish off I pulled the newly washed main halyard back into the mast just the genoa furling line and signal halyards to do, the genoa furling gear is a Sailspar continuous line system not sure how to get the line out without cutting it yet cutting and re-splicing used braid on braid is difficult if not impossible the best way is to perhaps wash it while it is still in place.

Today a friend turned up in the yard and so the opportunity was taken to fit four of the sea cocks the two for the cockpit drains, the galley waste and the heads water intake the engine intake will have to wait until the cockpit drains are permanently connected, the current temporary arrangement utilises the engine intake opening, and the heads discharge I have a bit of a problem with fitting a 1.5" Marelon sea cock as it will foul the inner moulding in the heads I think it is possible to get a Marelon unit with a 90 degree hose tail but this may not be ideal for the heads discharge the risk of blockage in this area needs to be kept to an absolute minimum I may have to bite the bullet and shell out for one of those expensive Blake's units.

Marelon sea cock

Starboard cockpit drain sea cock in place

Heads intake sea cock in place

Outside view showing skin fitting

And so to the first scent of spring no not spring flowers but the smell of new varnish I have been cleaning up some of the internal locker lids some of these unfortunately had been affected by the rain water leaking in however I had washed them with a bleach solution to get rid of the black mould and gave them a sanding and with todays fine warmish weather I took the opportunity to get some varnish on some of them.

The first scent of spring