Engine Removal

This covers the removal (more like extraction!) of the old Yanmar YSB12 from my Snapdragon 27. I have no idea how long the engine had been in there, the bolts where rusted in deep! I visited the boat every evening for a few days to soak the engine mounting bolts/brackets and ancillary equipment connections in Plusgas penetrating oil. Two of the bolts came out easy but typically the last rear bolts didn’t want to shift even with the biggest socket wrench I own, a pair of stilsons, and liberal application of heat. In the end I ground off the head of the bolts, but this lead to problems later on sliding the engine out. 

Engine Before Removal

 

To slide the engine out I had to place a small bottle jack under the engine to raise the brackets off the bolt stubs; I also had to remove the alternator so the engine would leave the enclosure.

Lifting out the Yanmar YSB12

I lifted out the engine using a forklift with extension forks so that I could get them centred over the top of the engine. I lifted the engine using chain and hooks through the engine lifting eye bolt. You can see my wonderful helper for the weekend ‘Mike’ whom was repaid with the promise of a sailing trip and a few beers. 

Engine Out! Huzzah!

Extracting the engine from the engine bay was a bit tricky, I am glad I had my helper for the day doing various twisting and manoeuvring whilst I worked the folklift.

End of a hard days work!

We got the engine onto a pallet and stored in my workshop. The engine still starts and runs; I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet. I may offer it up for sale, or I may take the time to freshen it up and put it into a project next year. 

I have been looking at replacement engines and speaking to manufactures and owners and I have decided the way forward will be with a Beta 20.

Apologies!

Sorry I have not updated the site for a while! My laptop suffered a catastrophic hard disc failure due to the main fan failing and the whole insides cooking; Fan now replaced, new hard disk installed and 118gb forensically restored from the old HDD block by block… it was like taping back together a phonebook that had been through a crosscut shredder! I did have two back-up too and although when browsing and verifying them they were ok, extracting them was a different story!

I am working on some new articles which will be uploaded over the next week:

·         Antifoul Removal

·         Engine Removal

·         Bilge Cleaning Products

·         Window / Portlight Replacement

Southampton Boat Show 2011

Read More at WWW.GOODTARP.COM

I attended Southampton Boat Show at the weekend after finding a local coach trip organised by Woodrolfe Brokerage at Tollesbury Marina in Essex.

 

Highlights:

• Speaking to the RNLI whom had a All-Weather Seven Class Lifeboat present at the show.

• Meeting the writer of the Yachting Monthly Cash Boat Test articles and thanking him for the work and giving me plenty of ideas and important knowledge.

• The team at Practical Boat Owner (PBO) and Yachting Monthly Meeting Hampshire Constabulary Marine Unit whom were present in their launch.

• Attending MCA presentation on Safety Communications devices including best practice using: EPRIB, DSC VHF, AIS, Navtex, MOD Devices, Satellite Phones, and CG66 Registration

• Free stickers and leaflets from the MCA to show: Life jacket locations, Safety Signals, and Emergency Radio Procedures.Speaking with many representatives for products that I was considering installing on my yacht: Beta Marine Engines, Garmin GPSMAP 750, Aqua Fax, CopperCoat Antifowling 

• Visiting the RYA stand and buying their new Offshore Sailing book by Dick McClary

I was sadly disappointed in some retailers at the show, perhaps being my youthful appearance and not wearing an expensive suit. One retailer in particular a blue Kubota based marine engine manufacturer whose sales reps were complaining about a customer who wanted to install a engine himself and the low profit of a sale so they wanted him to go elsewhere to save on paperwork; as this is what I am planning on doing I gave them a wide berth and continued onwards

I strongly recommend CG66 Registration. It is a FREE service provided by the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency which allows boat owners to register their vessel, including contact details and next of kin. 

MCA Presentation

The show was quite busy, though as I have never attended before can not compare it to previous years; Reports were that is was 9% down on last year. The food was quite expensive from the onsite vendors: £6 for a burger and £4 for a beer, I was very glad I took a pack lunch!

Beta 20 Engine

Yachting Monthly - Crash Test Boat

HMS Bulwark

Some of the boats on show

 

Stripping (Not me! The boat!)

Greetings web fans and those interest in the Snapdragon 27 Yacht.

I spent Sunday in the shed taking measurements and stripping of more deck items; rails, pushpits, pulpit, and some of the items in the locker.

I found a rather dangerous bodged bilge pump pipe. It had a Y splitter in it and one of the inputs had just been blocked with a rag held by a jubilee clip!!! Imagine if I was taking on  water and tried to empty the bilges with the incoming water just going in circles!

I also removed the existing side loading gas locker. The drain for the gas was not all downhill. The pipe had a slight loop in it as you can see in the photo which would hold gas! I am going to build a new gas locker to current regulations.

If you are following with interest regarding Antifoul stripping methods I have received a tin from International last week kindly donated by them to help with my studies. I hope to do the test in two weekends time when i have both the Saturday and Sunday free.

I'm trying to integrate this blog with my one on the main project site at www.goodtarp.com so that I have to write the blog once and not have to cut and paste it between the two

Sat in the starboard locker unbolting the Pushpit

RATHER DANGEROUS! The bilge pump had a Y connection in it and this is how one hose had been filled!

Old Diesel Tank and Side loading gas locker.

 

Exhaust Output to Stern

Deck Stripping Underway

Please see attached two pictures from my Snapdragon 27 MKII. She is a single Keel Model

The actual waterline is really quite low. The green line in the drawing shows where the gelcoat of the hull changes from Blue for the Topside, to White for the under water area. The first 2" is painted white for the boot-top, and remaining underwater area in blue anti-fowl. I will take a picture showing where I have stripped the anti-fowl and boot top to see what was underneath.

The boot top at the bow is approximately 4-6" above the actual waterline, and about 1-2" at the transom.

A previous owner contacted me through my website to say he thought she was underweight by the way she was performing, and during the complete rebuild I have found bags of sand and stone in the bilges.

The keel is encapsulated. I got my head down into the bilges to see if I could see the top of the keel to see what it contains but it is well sealed. The only way I can think of getting in there is major surgery through the side of the keel or through the cabin floor.

UPDATE:
I measured in the barn this afternoon... The waterline is 5" lower than it should be half way along the hull... oh dear.

Antifoul Removal Products Undertest

International Paints have kindly offered to send me a sample of Interstrip AF: http://www.yachtpaint.com/gbr/diy/products/special-products/interstrip-af.aspx

Cirrus Systems Ltd have agreed to send me a sample of their RemovALL 620 product, which is biodegradable and non-toxic: http://www.cirrus-systems.co.uk/index.php/Marine-/-GRP.html

My gratitude goes to both of theses companies for helping me in my studies and being able to give me first hand experience of their products.

I am still waiting to hear back from Owatrol to see if they would be willing to provide any of their products for testing.

I have decided not to use Hempel's product http://miniurl.com/123820 as unlike the others it does not claim to be safe on glassfibre and gelcoat "Use with caution on glassfibre and plastics (may harm some thermoplasts)" so I would would rather not take the risk on my precious hull.

Anti-Foul Removal

Sorry it has been a long while! It has been the summer holiday here and I started a new job which I have been getting settled into.

I have started to remove the anti-foul from the hull of my Snapdragon 27 MKII and thought I would document the results here.

The first method I am trying is the Proscraper by www.gelplane.co.uk It has a vacuum attachment to collect the scrapings which is quite useful to keep the workshop floor clean. Sarah struggles a bit with it, it requires quite a bit of force from one hand pushing down whilst pulling with the other. I can work with it quite quickly stripping paint and primer down the bare gelcoat, but it gets tiring quite quickly.

It has gouged the hull quite badly in some areas where the hull is rounded and have rounded of the edges of the blade with a metal file to try to prevent this further.

I am going to upload a photo of the area on the skeg where anti-foul has been removed.

I am going to try and get samples for some chemical gelcoat safe anti-fowl removal products and will update my progress here. I am hoping this research will help with my Yacht and Small Craft Surveying qualification which I am currently studying.