And The Work Begins.

Before Jonas got back I hauled the engine. This went as follows.

We kinda  realized from the word go that the engine was a bit of non starter in more than one sense. The last owner took the head off and he left here nine years ago so it could have been off for even longer than that. But we`ll get back to that in a bit. You can see the damage in the photos.

Thankfully George on Lisbeth II who I mentioned in my first post is a Mechanic and Electrician so he played a big role in this part. I started by supporting the boom because the topping lift was and still is too far gone for any kind of strain. We then tied the mainsheet still in its blocks to the boom so we could use this for pulling the engine forward out of the huge engine room and up through the companion way. Once everything was ready we took the Transmission off. We then set about sorting through the mess of tangled wires, plumbing and other things that were in the way. Next step was to take the engine mounts apart but this was a much bigger task than it might sound. The bolts were all seized and only two came off without a fight the others we had to attack with a hacksaw. Eventually after fighting for a while with these we managed to get it loose. We then lashed it up and attached it to the mainsheet and with George pushing and me pulling on the mainsheet we shifted it inch by inch forward into the saloon. Next step was to lighten it by taking off anything that would come off so the bell house, fly wheel, starter motor and a few other smaller things. Then we heaved it up and into the cockpit. Even when everything`s off it stills ways well over 300 pounds. The Tortugal maintenance crew then worked there awesome Guatemalan genius of being able to move anything no matter what the size. They managed to shift it to the workshop.

We still haven`t taken a good look at it by taking things apart but it looks like it would be cheaper to get a new one than to rebuild this one. It`s a Perkins 4-154.

We`re now thinking of going engineless with just an outboard on the back, because we have plenty of time and after all it is a sailboat right.

After a few months of waiting for Jonas he finally arived and we started of course with dreaming about how it's going to look on the inside. We want something different but still accommodating. We plan to do charters when it's finished to save up enough money to do the Pacific in style.

We started by waterproofing the deck. We took all the deck fittings like stanchions and cleats of and drilled them out, dried them with a heat gun then filled the holes with epoxy. There are two spots that I need to grind out and re glass.

Originally, to save on the work we were going to keep a fair amount of the interior but as we looked and looked again we came to the conclusion that what we were going to keep was only OK and that's just not good enough. So we went ahead with ripping everything out. Now all that is left is the soul (floor), and some of the electrics and plumbing. In time everything is going to come out. As you'll see in the pictures we have cut everything out that was fiberglassed to the hull in a bit leaving a ledge this was solely to save on the glass dust.

After all the fit out was destroyed except the soul we set about taking apart each and every part of it to save the best of the left over plywood and all the stainless screws and fittings. This is as far as we've got so far, work will resume at the weekend.

Next steps are to take apart what little is left. sorting the crap from the crap, keeping what's worth keeping. Then outcome what is left of the electrics and wiring and the plumbing. We then have the horrible job of taking a crow bar and hammer to the ledges that are left on the hull getting rid of all the old fiber glass tape holding in the old bulkheads and such like. Then the floor and any tanks or other things that might be hiding under there.