Sailing in BC : Another Great Boat Blog

The engine mounts are basically complete and installed, ready to drop the engine on.

'Permanent' installation will have to wait until I have the area under the cockpit painted and the fuel tank installed as the tank has to go in before the engine beds are permanently bolted on. Permanently in this case means they could be unbolted and removed if I ever needed to remove the fuel tank, which goes where the heater is in these photos, but I don't expect to ever have to do that. Fabricating the engine beds was a real bitch involving endless fiberglass layup and grinding in multiple stages, but it's finally completed.

This entry was posted on April 11, 2013 at 9:34 AM and has received 17 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

A small update from Terry:

Only got about 5 hours in tonight, but I finally drilled the cockpit drain through-hull holes, among other odds and ends.

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I remember when I did the through-hulls on my boat, I was quite nervous about it in general. All was well in the end, but there is something about drilling holes in the bottom of a boat that, while logical in this case, goes against the grain kind of thing.

This entry was posted on April 10, 2013 at 10:31 AM and has received 17 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

With any luck there will be a 2014 launch!! ha.. just kidding Terry. Maybe..

Anyways, here are some updates from Terry:

After getting the propellor shaft stuffing box support installed, I did some minor glassing on the port settee where a previous owner had cut the top off to remove a holding tank and never repaired it properly.

After that, it was on to the forward end compartment under the starboard quarterberth. This required a lot of work, and took a couple of weeks of part time work, mostly because it was awkward working mostly with my left arm while cramming my arm, my head with chemical mask on, a light, and one or more tools through the top access hatch, with my glasses falling upward off my head because I was hanging upside down. Here is the hatch through the bunk top into the work area.

The first job was to clean up and remove the old delaminated glass fillets joining the aft compartment bulkhead to the hull. They had broken away from the plywood, but were still strongly attached to the hull, and had to be removed with a chisel. This was difficult to do because they were some distance back from the access hatch and I could only get one arm, my left arm, into the area so I couldn't hold the chisel and hammer at the same time. So I had to kind of jam the chisel into the glass as best I could, and then pick up the hammer and drive it in.

Here I have removed part of the delaminated glass. The wood 1x1 above it needs to have the edges and ends rounded for glassing over as the glass will not make three sharp 90 degree turns in such a short space.

Here I am using two chisels to remove the old delaminated fiberglass fillet.

After cleaning up the aft bulkhead and filling the gaps with Sikaflex, the next job was general grinding of the entire area to get a good bond between the new fiberglass and the old glass on the hull. This was really ugly work with my head and arm jammed through the hatch just inches from the grinder as I did the aft areas.

A general view of the grinding area and the aft bulkhead with the sikaflex caulking filling the gap between the hull and bulkhead.

And the grinding is more or less done. Now I have to hand sand and chisel the quarter-rounds on the 1x1s which support the top and attach it to the bulkheads. The gaps have all been filled with Sikaflex urethane caulking.

And the aft bulkhead is fiberglassed onto all surrounding surfaces. This was very difficult to do 'in place' with my left arm (I'm right handed) reaching through the hatch with the resin bucket in the compartment and my glasses constantly falling off due to my head being upside down as I reached in.

Here are a few of the tools: Fiberglass mixing bucket, 3" roller and gloves.

After getting the bulkhead glass work completed I had to build up a patch on the hull in the foreground where it had been damaged or not properly glassed, leaving an area with no glass reinforcement in the resin for several layers. This filler patch will later be buried under five layers of glass covering the whole bottom of the compartment.

Next up was one of the most difficult areas which was wrapping around the wood 1x1s that connected the bunk sides to the top, sort of right under my chin while my head and arm were crammed through the hatch upside down. This is looking up at the joint; not down at it, which would be relatively easy.

The picture above refers to the 1x1 at the top right in this photo. After completing that and again sanding everything out to get a good bond, I started to lay in the first of five layers on the bunk sides and bottom.

And here is the completed compartment. An ugly job, but it came out pretty well in the end.

Next it was time to start building the support beds for the new diesel engine. Here I have cut 20 pieces of fiberglass mat and roving (the heavy woven cloth) to make four sections each five layers thick. This will form the preliminary engine beds to get the shape which I will then remove and build up to about 1/2" thick before bolting them in place onto the already heavily reinforced bunk sides.

Here one of the flat five layer thick pieces has been laid up and will be cut to shape later.

And the bunk sides have been temporarily covered with wax paper taped in place to enable me to lay up five layers against them to get the shape of the engine beds as they wrap around the curve where the bunk sides transition from under the cockpit to the wider main cabin. The wax paper prevents the engine bed glass from adhering to the bunk sides, while the newspaper catches (most of) the drips. Here the port side engine bed is being laid up.

And here both engine bed support pieces have been laid up against the bunk sides. Next I have to brace some horizontal support blocking against them at the level the engine beds actually go and then cut and glass the flat pieces to fit against them. With the shape thus secured, I can remove them from the bunk sides and build them up to their finished thickness and strength before bolting them back onto the bunk sides with a vibration absorbing Sikaflex rubber caulking layer between the bunk sides and the engine support beds.

And that's as far as I got before getting sidetracked off back to work for a few days. Hopefully I can get back to the engine beds later in the week.

This entry was posted on April 10, 2013 at 10:27 AM and has received 20 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

A late post as Terry sent me this back on the 5th!

When I left off last time, I had bonded the shaft support piece down to the hull that carries the forward end of the propeller shaft bearing and stuffing box with a preliminary 'fix in place' glassing in. Tonight I finished that job, and laid in the thickening patches for the cockpit drain through-hulls, which were integrated into the shaft support piece glassing. Here we see the shaft support as I left it before Christmas, with the old propeller shaft in place to ensure correct alignment of the bearing.

Having removed the propeller shaft and stuffing box, I next cleaned up the excess glass around the support piece and proceeded to sand it to remove rough edges and get a good bond with the final glassing into place.

Here the forward side has been cleaned up and sanded ready for the final glass layers.

And the back side also needed cleanup and sanding.

I next cut the 6 layers of fiberglass cloth pieces that would reinforce the hull for the cockpit drain through-hulls and solidly bond the shaft support piece to the hull.

Here the forward end has been bonded to the hull with 5 layers of glass cloth and mat.

The forward side then received 6 layers of bi-directional cloth and mat to lock it permanently to the hull.

The fiberglass reinforcing carried about a foot forward to thicken and strengthen the hull where the two 1 1/4" cockpit drain through-hulls will go. Here the glass has all been laid in and the resin is curing.

And after 10 hours of that, it was time to remove the chemical mask and go home for a shower and some sleep. That's 7 AM on the clock.

This entry was posted on January 21, 2013 at 6:42 PM and has received 74 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

One of the remaining chores to prepare for installing the new diesel engine was to create a proper support for the forward propellor shaft bearing and stuffing box. At some point subsequent to being glassed into the hull, perhaps during the original installation, or maybe by a subsequent owner, the bronze stern tube holding the Cutlass bearing and stuffing box had been roughly cut in two and a section removed, being replaced by a length of overlapping rubber hose connecting the two pieces, presumably to move the engine further aft.

At any rate, the cut was poorly made and the two cut ends were neither square, smooth, nor matching; both being longer at the top of the cut and open at the bottom. So, the first job was to square the roughly cut ends and make a pair of smooth square ends with gently beveled edges that would not tend to cut into the rubber connecting hose under vibration, nor chafe on each other.

Here the short stub of stern tube in the stuffing box is being filed smooth and square.

Next up came the end of the stern tube embedded in the hull. This was a lot more awkward to do given it's location under the cockpit floor. Here the top half has been filed square, but needs to come down more to clean up the bottom edge which was cut away at an angle.

Here is a general overview of the work location.

Checking the end for square as I file it.

Done. Now to clean up the sharp edges and remove all the filings, especially from inside the tube.

Next came cleaning up the tube to remove remaining old paint and fiberglass so the rubber hose will get a good waterproof seal on it. After cleaning it was wrapped in masking tape to protect it from fiberglass and paint.

Next step was to fit the pre-made fiberglass support to the tube and drill the bolt holes. The masking tape is to provide a tight fit to centre the stuffing box in the hole in the fiberglass support, which was drilled slightly oversize to allow for some vibration without transmitting it directly to the support and hull. Ditto the bolt holes. The bolts will be seated on rubber washers to absorb vibration.

Here the fiberglass support has been glassed down to the hull. It will later be strengthened as the thickening patches for the cockpit drain through-hulls a few inches ahead of it lap up onto the forward side of the stuffing box support.

Here is a closer view of the installed support. The shaft and stuffing box are serving to locate the fiberglass support dead centre and square to the stern tube and will later be removed so I can complete glassing the aft side in and paint the general area, so the long bolts and masking tape are only temporary.

Here is a view from the aft side showing a hose clamp centred over the two stern tube pieces keeping them in alignment while the fiberglass cures.

And another view of the installed support piece. Next step is to install the cockpit drain through-hull patches which will also reinforce the forward side of this fiberglass support, and glass up the aft side to complete the job.

And that's all for today's edition, folks, and in fact, for 2012 in general. The world did not end on the Equinox, so I guess I will carry on with the engine installation in 2013.

Happy New Year.

This entry was posted on December 31, 2012 at 9:05 PM and has received 98 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Last night's 10 hour project was to finish up the fiberglass work around the engine room hatch at the forward end of the cockpit. This basically entailed lying on my back between the bunks under the hatch and working over my head folding the fiberglass from the inside of the hatch support piece around the bottom edge of the hatch lip and back up the outside of the cockpit inside the boat. If that makes sense. ;-)

The pictures will (hopefully) explain it. Lets just say it was awkward work, since gravity was not co-operating.

I finished all the preparatory filling, sanding and grinding a couple of days ago, so I was able to proceed directly to the fiberglassing.

Here is a general shot of the work area looking aft toward it. I was working up inside that box in the foreground and wrapping down around the bottom edge of it and back up the outside to properly seal and support the rim that supports the engine compartment hatch.

Here the first section of fiberglass has been applied to the starboard side. This shows the inside with the engine room hatch, which is in place, at the top, and the freshly applied fiberglass wrapping from the underside lip groove of the hatch support down around the bottom of the cockpit and (out of sight) back up the outside for a few inches.

Mirror image on the Port side. Working the fiberglass up into the groove was a bit tricky with it being upside down and continually tying to fall out (the gravity thing). Since I couldn't get the roller up into the grove, I had to push it up into place bit by bit and work the bubbles out with a paint stirring stick.

Looking forward with the forward edge of the engine hatch support at the bottom and the hatch in place above it. It would have been much more convenient to do this work with the hatch cover off, but being winter in Canada, that wasn't possible as it was only 4 degrees outside and if I removed the hatch cover it would be much too cold in the boat for the fiberglass resin to cure.

This shows the work area looking up at the completed and trimmed Port side (left) and about-to-be-glassed forward side (right).

Mirror image on the Starboard side. The excess fiberglass has been cut away and the cured glass lightly sanded to remove sharp shards and needles created by resin soaking into standing strands and hardening.

Here the forward edge has been glassed in, completing the sealing and support for the hatch support piece.

And here it is from the outside showing how the glass wraps around the bottom of the hatch support piece and back up the outside.

The end result is a clean and sturdy support for the engine compartment hatch. While I was working with fiberglass anyway, I also completed a few minor touch-ups like sealing the trimmed off and sanded main companionway threshold support and fairing up a few areas on the cockpit to bunk top supports.

With the threshold now completed, I contact cemented the vinyl flaps back into place on either side of it and sealed the edges with Sikaflex. They will later be painted white, so the contrasting colours will disappear.

Next up, after sanding off the cured fiberglass, is glassing the support piece for the forward end of the propellor shaft stuffing box to the hull.

This entry was posted on December 30, 2012 at 5:27 PM and has received 97 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.