After the great engine fiasco of 2011/2012 and the subsequent wrapping up of the court case, it was time to order new, *working* engines, haul the boat out and have everything fitted up. Nice and easy, just like that. Hahahahaha. If only.
First up - hauling out the boat. Now, living on a boat in the water is quite easy. There's unlimited water, showers and toilet facilities aboard, etc etc. Living on the hard? No siree. The saving grace this time was the yard's new facilities block but goodness me, I won't miss the trudge between shower and boat again. I digress, the boat hauled out just fine and everything looked ok underneath.
Next! The engines duly arrived, looking splendid in Bayside Blue (ala Ford Blue). On the not so splendid side, they were slightly larger than quoted so the boat needed some.. ah... adjusting.. with an angle grinder. 5mm (1/4 for you American & Canadian lot) to spare all round? Perfect!
Craning them in - always a boat owner's nightmare, having 300kg (660lbs) of marine hardware dangling above your head. Still, all went well and no-one lost any fingers. Spectacular.
And the follow up - engines roughly placed, the crane and it's £150 an hour bill sent on it's way. Now to work out how to move them a foot either way.....
Ta-da! Yes, I'm aware that knot doesn't look very strong and health and safety likely wouldn't approve (it gets worse. I was sitting between these two engines, holding the lifting chain with my feet whilst unbolting and bolting on the new engine feet. Somehow, I still have all digits and toes. Time to buy a lottery ticket? Uh huh....) Anyway, engines now more-or-less aligned.
Next.... props. What a tale. In short, I bashed in the propshafts with a metal hammer, thus destroying the threads that the nut screws onto, that hold the prop in place. Still following? One nut was stuck on, one was off, and the one that was on disintegrated when hit with a blow torch. Balls. Bearing in mind this is T-minus one week to re-launch. Cue hurried run to the engine guys for new nuts to be ordered.... a few days pass (now at T-minus 72 hours to launch...)... the nuts are ordered!! Aaaargh. They then arrive the day before and didn't fit. The air was bluer than the boat beside me at this point. Anyway, the launch was scrubbed due to high winds and I headed off to eventually have the nuts re-threaded and re-tapped the propshafts for a similar thread. After that came the afternoon (and 20 drill bits) of drilling a hole through the nut, through the shaft then putting in a clevis pin to hold everything together. Clear as mud? I'll find another pic.
So with the launch scrubbed, what was I going to do for two weeks? PAINT! Now, some of you will know I can be a tad fussy and with the boat already going through iterations of white, black and grey, a new colour was needed. Thankfully the guy two boats over had a nice blue anti-foul, so off went a sample to the paint place and back came some test paint. This is it after a coat, some filler and some sanding.
And this is it after coats 1 & 2.
And another... here you see the magnitude of the disas... I mean, experience that has been rebuilding this boat.
A new entrance hatch was also required, courtesy of the fabulous English summer and it's unrelenting rain. With the molds made, it was time to chop up the mat....
And glass....
Trimming and paint to follow.
Anyway, with all that done, time to put it back in the water. Hi-ho, hi-ho, off to the launch ramp we go....
And big boat, meet little boat. I know, I know, they match in colour (the speed boat will be changed over the summer) but for now, all is back to normal.
(On that note, did I mention about the little boat? Maybe not. I've always had RIBs and they always go flat on me, so it was time to add a bit of James Bond into my life and find a speed boat that could be put on davits on the back end of the mothership. Much ebay'ing in Australia later - bingo - one for sale in Norfolk. 48 hours after touching down in ol' Blighty, it was off and up to collect and bring it back - a thousand thank you's again Jax! - then get it in the water and do some... testing. Hahaha. The outboard needs a bit of work and there's new paint, a windscreen, etc but essentially, it's a 10 ft unsinkable speed boat. The crack up? A chap walked past and after looking at it, commented on what a HUGE project it'd be to repaint and clean up. Perspective, I guess.....)
'til the next rainy Friday morning when I have more to add....
