Engine panel

There is not a lot to show in the way of photographs for this week Monday saw the engine panel installed and wired I took the opportunity to tidy up the wiring to the engine hours meter and the ammeter. The battery selector switch is now installed with the positive battery cables and the positive cable to the engine connected the photograph below shows the excess length of the engine wiring harness coiled up I am always a bit reluctant to cut these down I don't know why as its not likely to ever be used on this boat.

Wiring harness ready to connect to panel

Engine panel in place

Wednesday and today has been spent cutting out and laminating plywood panels to make up the mounting arrangement for the electrical switch panel not really much to photograph just bits of ply. The mounting for the switch panel will also form a trunking to carry the engine wiring harness up to its panel it will also conceal as much of the other general wiring as possible together with the distribution bus bars and connectors etc.

I finished up by running the engine fuel line from the lift pump to the primary filter and then into the starboard cockpit locker to await the installation of the fuel tank. 

Exhaust and first thoughts on electrical panel

I got back from the Dartmouth trip on Sunday took us four days with no overnight sailing the wind was on the nose most of the way and because of the timetable we did a lot of motor sailing. On Saturday it may have been hot ashore believe me crossing Lyme Bay the wind was cold.

However back to work I ordered a new 45 degree cast aluminium exhaust elbow from Parts 4 Engines and while I was waiting for it to arrive I carried on with painting the area for the engine panel mount and then started looking at the mounting position for the electrical panel as originally it had been mounted where I had decided to mount the engine panel. Looking at photographs of Moody 33s for sale it would appear that most seem to have it behind the companionway steps so that is where I decided to put it along with the battery selector switch. The original selector switch is a conventional 1,2,both or off type it looks as though it was part of the original fit out I have opened it up for a look see and decided that it is fit for further service.

Position of electrical panel

I was going to paint the area before building the panel mount but as the previous owner had started lining the transverse bulkheads with an off white laminate and as the area was pretty rough also some spare laminate came with the boat I decided to follow suite so cut and fitted the first panel. The electrical panel will be mounted in a box built in the space above this laminate panel the battery selector switch will be mounted a little bit higher than shown in the photograph at the moment its only resting on the top of the battery locker.

Laminate panel in place with battery selector switch

The exhaust elbow duly arrived on Wednesday after being ordered on Monday evening good service from Parts 4 Engines so today I got on with fitting it and getting the rest of the exhaust system sorted.

New exhaust elbow

Elbow in position

The first problem was that the exhaust elbow fouled the sea water pipe from the oil cooler to the the gearbox I can get round this by replacing the copper pipe with a flexible hose in the above photograph the pipe has already been removed. The second problem can just be seen in the above photograph the end of the elbow is very close to the inlet on the water lock the connecting hose would be very short and would need a very tight bend to connect the two this would be no problem had the engine been rigidly mounted but as the water lock is rigidly mounted and the engine on flexible mounts the short length of hose bent to a small radius would not give the required flexibility so back to the drawing board.

I spent some time moving the water lock around until I came up with a position that would give the required flexibility it meant moving the water lock and its mounting plate to the other side of the engine and turning it through 90 degrees as can be seen in the photograph below the revised position will also reduce the strain on the hose connections on the water lock all that is left to do is fit the hose clips then the exhaust system will be complete.

Revised water lock position

More on the exhaust

I have made some progress since the last post but some time has been taken up with selling the Bowman 26 what with showing the purchaser round, taking him for a test sail and moving her round for lifting out for survey but she is now sold, the new owner took her away from Conyer on Saturday I am now back to owning just the one boat which is a much more sensible state of affairs.

I have managed to get some work done to the floors for the fuel tank these are now finished and painted ready for the ply to go down, once the ply is down and I have something to stand on I will paint the rest of the locker. The hoses in the photograph are for the engine space bilge pump discharge and the smaller one is the starboard cockpit drain the red cable is the steering cable.

Floors for fuel tank support

I ordered the water lock for the engine exhaust on Thursday from ASAP supplies and it arrived on Friday and that wasn't even supposed to be their next day delivery I have gone for a GRP Centek Vernalift as the space at the after end of the engine is a bit cramped and its lower than the Vetus with equivalent water capacity and being GRP it can withstand a higher temperature should the cooling water flow fail for any reason the Centek was about a fiver cheaper than the Vetus so not much in it price wise. I had already cut out a ply mounting plate for the water lock which I screwed directly to the engine bearers after giving the under side three coats of paint just need to put a couple more coats of paint on the top face before bolting the water lock down.

Water lock

Mounting plate for water lock

Water lock in position

Once I had the water lock in position I could finalise the route of the exhaust hose I decided to route it through the forward bulkhead in the aft cabin so I used a hole saw to cut a hole through the bulkhead the original opening can be seen below that will need making good not quite sure what I will do with it yet.

Exhaust hose re-routed

I have done a couple of small jobs in the engine space fitted the primary fuel filter and fitted a valve to the calorifier connection on the engine I found a couple of half inch Crane ball valves that came with the boat and was looking for a use for them, once the fuel tank has been installed the engine will be ready for a test run so I will be able to fill the cooling system without having to connect the calorifier which can be done later I still have one to fit on top of the engine.

Primary fuel filter in place

Calorifier isolation valve

I have also started work on the internal woodwork for the engine panel mount the panel was I believe mounted in the big hole in forward cockpit bulkhead but I would rather have it inside and now that I have made good that hole it won't fit anyway. The original Moody brochure shows it alongside the companionway which is where I have decided to put it I will have to find somewhere else for the electrical panel which was there, I have some thoughts on that. Most of the internal ply panels are covered with some form of imitation wood laminate which is not in particularly good condition the previous owner had already been using some white laminate on the bulkheads so I decided to do the same with the engine panel mount. This imitation wood is probably not one of the best features of the boat so the idea is to replace it with white laminate panels and reuse the original varnished hardwood trim. I have seen a few examples of this and it looks OK.

Trial fitting for the engine panel mount

That will be about all for this week as I am off on a sailing trip to Dartmouth weather permitting hoping to be back on Sunday.