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Well I have no idea if this is the kind of project people are interested in, but when I start working on a project I get the urge to 'document it' online, so I'll post up some bits from what I'm doing and see if I get any interest. The story starts a couple of years ago, I'd just sold my Sadler 25 sailing boat. I'd bought it for song back in 2010 and had been doing it up / sailing it for the 5 years since, but it was time for something bigger, faster and newer (relatively speaking). For posterity here a couple of before and afters of the previous boat:     It was pretty sad to see her go to her new owner, but onwards and upwards. I'd already settled on the boat I'd like next, however owners tend to hang on to them so they don't come up for sale that often, and when they do its hard to knock money off because they're still pretty sought after. To cut a long story short we found one up for sale in Hartlepool and after some negotiation it was mine. She's a 1986 boat built by Marine Glass (now defunct) in Scotland. There's nothing majorly wrong with her overall, but my goal is to get her from 'all right' condition, up to excellent over the course of a few years. Some pics of her as bought (including some of the obvious issues), and from the trip bringing her home. (the little boat we're towing is a stray we picked up, there was no wind and their engine had packed in, we saved them a 15 mile row!)          
So onto the actual work. The first job to do was to fix the alternator which had not been charging on the return trip and to stop the water pump from leaking as it was dripping the whole way back. I bought a kit to rebuild the waterpump, it was a bit fiddly and required the use of a gear puller, hammer and lots of swearing, but it did the job.       The alternator turned out to just be a case of bad wiring, it was missing the link between the + terminal and the starter + terminal. With that on it worked fine. Excuse the appalling wiring, its on the job list.  
Next I added a 240v Battery charger, as I don't run the engine that much, I needed some other way to keep the batteries topped up. Again the installation is temporary until I can come back to it. 
Fast forward to winter and it was time to sort out the engine. A reliable engine is a big safety issue in the area I sail from, the one that came with her is the original Penta 2001 9hp diesel, it started pretty reliably, but the paint was old and peeling, rust stains everywhere and it was due a bit of TLC. The first job was to gain access and get the lump out of the boat.       
Now I stripped the engine top end, send the head away to have the valves reground and the surface skimmed, painted all the components and built it back up on the stand. I also replaced the exhaust elbow, painted out the engine compartment, serviced the sail drive and repainted the clamping ring.      
I feel like I've yapped on enough for one day if anyone's interested I'll keep posting. |
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carry on I'm watching! not a lover of water but I like boats it must be all that stainless, brass and hardwood!
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Neat. Never really thought about what is inside a boat. Please do go on!
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We all like to learn something new so please do carry on updating this.
How reliable is a Penta, and how easy to get spares and servicing consumables?
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Last Edit: Apr 9, 2018 14:25:48 GMT by Morris63: Ruddy autocorrect - Pentagon!
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Well it was built in 1986, sits unused for long periods and then is run for shorts periods, basically everything you aren't supposed to do with a diesel and it still starts on the key when warm, and after about 10 seconds cranking when cold. (Which is fairly standard for them as they lose some compression)
Volvo after support is fantastic, you can get pretty much any part anywhere in the world, even now. However you do pay a premium for the privilege, some of the parts are eye wateringly expensive, luckily there's still a few after market options.
The only thing you have to watch out for is the waterways in the head silting up with salt deposits (sea water is pumped around it to keep it cool) and corrosion in the exhaust elbow where sea water is injected to cool the exhaust / quieten it down a bit.
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I'm still playing catch up, so I'll crack on. Next on the list was the hull, it looked, well frankly a bit curse word. Chalky oxidised gelcoat, lots of waterline staining, scuffs bumps and scratches. I borrowed a proper polishing machine and went to town with G3 cutting compound, switching to 1200 wet and dry for the tougher stains. I followed up with two coats of Autoglym polish and protect. Unfortunately the photos don’t do her justice, but she looked great!    After that was anti-fouling, varnishing the tiller, bushing the worn rudder gudgeons, and finally dropping her back into the sludgy brown waters of the estuary.     Through gritted teeth I bought a new alternator for £130. The old one had been whining, and when I dismantled it to replace the bearings, I basically ruined it. To my defence 30 years of salty air had taken their toll.  When refitting the iron sail a few of the fasteners had been just turning, its a common problem with these sail drives, there's a plate encapsulated in the GRP that's threaded to take the bolts, and its unheard of to put them back without at least one stripping. Luckily Helicoil are based in Hull and I know people who work there and they set me up with a thread repair kit.    The astute will notice that the pick up I fitted on the oil filter for the oil temp and pressure is gone, unfortunately pushing the filter forward by 3/4" meant it was obstructing the engine cover, so unfortunately it had to go. Its managed 30 years without them so I'm sure it will be fine. |
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I’ve been using eBay for years, and its been a mostly positive experience, so when I saw a seller with good feedback offering a used Penta 2001 for cheap I didn’t hesitate. The idea is that because spares are so expensive for these engines I’d could pinch them off the new one when required. Or just to do it up and keep it as a spare. Anyway, the thing arrived fairly well packaged. But on closer inspection the oil was basically full of milky white curse word, classic indicators of head gasket issues. I called the guy after initially bullshitting that maybe it had been left out in the rain. Said he’d refund me, but of course I had to post it back. In the end I couldn’t be bothered, I changed the oil, got it running in the drive, then changed the oil 3 more times until it was completely clean. I’ll eventually strip it and rebuild, but for now its mothballed in the back of my garage. Apart from the tachometer from the control panel, I swapped that across as mine didn't come with one.   ![]()  I took advantage of the improving weather go the sails bent on and the rest of the boat rigged. I was nice to have some sunshine.   One of the upgrades in the near future are some modern instruments and a decent chart plotter. In preparation for this I took down the headlining in the saloon and started removing some of old wires that would no longer be required. The headling around the mast had never looked like it fitted particularly well, but on removal it was pretty obvious why. Metres of wires just stuffed in any old how, massive chocolate blocks for the wiring that didn’t fit into the available space and just a general rats nest. I’ve made a start on clearing it up, but it needs some work.       Yet more sins of previous owners are uncovered… Mild steel screws used in the heads, there’s literally no need for it, for the sake of a few pence saved I have to put up with rusty curse word cluttering up the cabin. The other pictures shows the backing plate for one of the aft cleats, its nice that it has a backing plate, but its not doing a whole lot of good bridging two high spots, the whole section underneath it needs to be filled.   Finally, the boat came with some nice curtains that are supposed to be velcroed into place. At some point over the years, the velcro attachments must have come loose. I’ve fitted some new velcro, and hopefully I can get a good nights sleep onboard now! |
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Excellent
Looking forward to following this thread
Please keep the updates coming
Bookmarked
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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Not had a good boat thread for ages. Bookmarked! I saw a guy flying the Red Ensign in a boat near identical to your old one parked up off a little bar near Subic Bay a while ago. I remember thinking that must have been a fair old blow to get him that far off course!  |
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Last Edit: Apr 10, 2018 8:28:02 GMT by georgeb
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Glad that people find it interesting. I also hope it dispels some of the myths that boat owners are absolutely loaded. Most of us can only afford it because we keep the boat in small members clubs, do all the work ourselves and give up other things in order to afford it. Still catching up, next was installing some new electronics. The plan had been to wait until the end of summer, but once they arrived I decided to just get on with it. First of all I had to remove the old instruments and fill in the redundant holes. The plan was to install the Vulcan 7 on the starboard side, however due to a stock shortage I ended up fitting the display that I bought for the chart table. I’ll move it when the plotter arrives.         The state of the wiring behind the switch panels is really quite bad, unfortunately its going to have to wait until the end of the season. I made an attempt to neaten things up, unfortunately half the switches on the original panel don’t work, and its really just a mish mash to keep me going. It’s going to take a while to do a proper job, and I’d rather be sailing!    The two displays at the companionway. The colour match of the gelcoat isn’t very good where I filled the old instruments. My plan is to have the cockpit area spray gelcoated eventually, so for the moment it will do, its far more obvious to me as I did it.  The new electronics work on a network standard called NMEA2000. Its and upgrade for the older serial style NMEA183, it basically allows the boat instruments to share information with each other. The idea being that information from one can be accessed by an other anywhere on the boat. Its basically a CANBUS setup, so you have a network backbone, which is terminated with a resistor at each end, and you have 'spurs' running off the backbone that you connect to individual displays or sensors. Due to the layout of the boat I intended to install some things in a way that wasn't quite the standard protocol, so I gave a bit of a 'bench' (well more of a floor) test to check it would all work. (which it did)  I went up the mast to change the wind transducer, no photos unfortunately, I was up there for well over an hour with someone sending me drills / tools / parts up in a bucket! We deployed the hoist and got the boat out the water in order to gain access to the through hull transducer. The original NASA marine one was a little bit too small for the new AIRMAR unit. And one of the previous owners had glassed over the top of the tube making removal quite hard work.        An hour or so with a cutting multi tool and I got the old piece out along with a rotten backing pad. The hole was enlarged and new transducer fit and sealed, I made a backing pad out of G10 fibreglass sheet. Once done it was back in the water. I also found time to polish the prop and boss, since we sit in mud and a combination of fresh / salt water, we don’t really get any fouling here, so the prop is better left clean.   ![]() That's me up to about June last year, up until now I've been copying an old blog, but now I can't copy and past my update pace may slow a little! |
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Cor, that lifting strop was close.
How does the folding prop work? Do the blades flick out when the shaft starts turning, and then fold flat with the rush of water from sail power when the engine's off?
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hopeso
Part of things
Posts: 349 
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Apr 10, 2018 10:56:34 GMT
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To a land lubber this is an education. Keep them coming please.
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Apr 10, 2018 11:43:57 GMT
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Cor, that lifting strop was close. How does the folding prop work? Do the blades flick out when the shaft starts turning, and then fold flat with the rush of water from sail power when the engine's off? Pretty much spot on. Just have to leave the engine in gear when sailing to stop the gearbox spinning. The lifting strop actually slipped a touch. I have stickers on the hull to show the lift points. |
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Apr 10, 2018 17:44:14 GMT
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Now for some reason, I can't find my stash of work in progress pics for the rest of 2017, but in summary, I finished the installation of the new instruments, botched together the switch panel and did a bit of sailing. Unfortunately I got a bit deep working on my RX7 and didn't sail as much as I wanted, but we did make it to Scarborough regatta and got a 3rd in class. (Plus a few crucial drinking sessions)       So skipping forward to this years jobs, my first job is to move the batteries. Currently they sit at the back of the boat, but the space is very small, and I couldn't do a particularly neat installation so I decided to re purpose an old water tank for the job. Originally she came with two 20 gallon fresh water tanks, moulded under the port and starboard settees, however over time these had cracked and degraded as they weren't constructed very well. The port (left) tank had a flexible bladder tank inside it and the starboard was empty. The first job was to sand and paint it, a perfect finish isn't necessary, just so its not an eyesore, it won't be visible most of the time anyway. Next I made a wooden base for the new batteries, this sounds easier than it is. Bear in mind that none of the sides of the locker are square, level, or even straight.   Next I started offering up and fitting the various fuses / wires etc I would need.       So the two batteries, engine start and domestic are both fused, I've also added a VSR battery combiner that links both batteries together when the engine is running so that the alternator will charge both of them. The shunt on the negative side of the main battery is for a DC ampere counter so I can monitor the battery state and see how much power I've used. The boat is currently in a state of dissaray as I've had to take half of it apart to do the wiring runs.    Repaired some trim while it was in pieces.  Also with access at an all time high it made sense to do my 'favourite' job. A bit of varnishing.   |
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borcombe
Part of things
Newport, Northern Beaches
Posts: 55
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Book marked, love a resto boat project.
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Thanks for the positive comments, I had no idea people would find this so interesting! Anyway update time. I've been cracking on with the varnishing, well somewhat. The plan was to be disciplined and do a bit every weekend, but it never works out like that!      Sticking with wood related projects, on most yachts the 'door' (Or companionway as we like to call it) is basically drop boards that run in two channels. On mine the 35 year old wood was splitting away, it hadn't been the best design to start with as it had a few very weak joins in it. Time for a replacement. Old:   (You can see my new nicely varnished bulkhead!) First up, get the local joinery shop to plane up and dado (is it a dado? I've no idea) some Iroko to use for channels. Iroko is called poor mans teak, its almost as rot resistant, but its not quite as beautiful a wood. But at £20 for the pair as compared to probably 4x that for teak, it was an easy decision.  Then using the palm router, put a radius on the back edge so that it will sit flush against the radius on the hatch surround. I also put one on the front to make it look a little smoother.  Time to start offering it up:    At this point I realised I couldn't countersink the screws with my trust countersink.  I improvised and used an oversized drill bit, but ran it backwards so I didn't accidentally go through the whole thing. Next up was the belt sander for some sweet radii on the ends. ![]()  I also used the belt sander to square and flatten the edges of the hatchway, they had obviously been fairly roughly cut out of the mould as they were pretty skewiff.   Starting on the edge trim.   The edge trim is oak (the only hardwood I have a bit of lying about), I quite like the colour differential. If I change my mind then I can always redo it later using these bits as patterns.  Finally a got a couple of coats of International Woodskin on them to protect them.   I still need to do trim on some of the other raw edges, but the boats watertight again, I'll come back to this in later months, but right now its time to focus on getting this thing ready to sail as the season is starting. Next on the list is to get the mast up, with it down I basically had to: - Give all the shroud fittings and wires a good inspection for cracks and obvious fatigue. They have a ten year life before insurance want them replaced so I should get another 5 years yet. - Replace the masthead light - New VHF antenna and wiring - New steaming and deck light - Shim the wind instrument so that it sits level. - Remove and refit all stainless bolts with duralac.  Old crappy antenna.   New steaming / deck light. Note the heatshrink terminals with glue adhesive, this wiring is pretty exposed to the elements so its important to protect it.  A previous year I'd noticed that the heater smelled of diesel exhaust, not wanting to die carbon monoxide poisoning I decided to not use the heater until I investigated and I'm glad I did. I'd noticed a mild steel exhaust clamp, which is never a good sign for anything installed on a boat, I decided to remove the exhaust completely, I was expecting a pin hole or poor connection, what actually happened was the whole thing came apart in my hands! Literally crumbled away, leaking exhaust into the same locker that fresh air is drawn!   As well as replacing this, I think I'll reroute the air intake to somewhere else in the boat. Also gratuitous shot of the boat in the sun.  And another of the daily with the river in the background, not looking to bad for a Renault!  |
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Excellent keep them coming
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It will come in handy even if you never use it
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Marvellous stuff. Presumably a previous owner was a bit of a border?
Glad she's in sympathetic hands now.
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Scott
Part of things
Posts: 51
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Must admit to loving boats,,, Ive been fallowing a lot of the projects on the wooden boat forum for many years now. There was a lad on here last year with an old Admiralty launch that he was working on restoring but that seems to have fallen silent  Ive never really appreciated sailing boats as much as I should because they always seem like so much work just to sail them.. Thats doesn't stop then being beautiful right enough,, but I'm lazy and so if I won the lottery it would be a 45' aft cabin motor cruiser Id want Your hull & brightwork have come up great and the new companionway entrance looks amazing too... Please continue to share your adventures with us! (Bookmarked not to miss anything) Whats your forward plans, are you planning on LED lighting to reduce consumption? |
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Last Edit: May 5, 2018 22:45:49 GMT by Scott
What looks right is not necessarily right,
but what looks wrong is definitely not right!
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Moris63:
Yes, previous owner was big on talk on small on action. Examples include:
- Touting the 'brand new batteries' in the sales ad. Presumably he didn't think to check the Alternator as that wasn't charging and was probably the reason they required replacing at all.
- Engine stop cable snapped 'Oh I just take the cover off and pull it manually' - Not the best of ideas on a moving boat to put your hand next to a running engine.
- Various 'improvements' that IMO made her worse
- No upkeep of varnish and brightwork
- Various other minor misdemeanors
However the owners before him seem to have spent a good bit of money on the boat, including a custom one off lead (rather than cast iron) keel, this must have cost a small fortune as he got the boats original designer to draw up the plans and Iron Bros on the south coast (Who are well known for their quality keels) to do the work,
Scott.
Thanks for the comments, she's slowly getting there.
I've already changed most of the cabin lights to LEDs, the new deck and steaming light is LED. The masthead light I did have LEDs for but I managed to lose them so when it came time to put the mast up I've just gone with standard incandescent bulbs for the present.
Forward plans are to finish rewiring once and for all, this time I'm going do it properly even if it takes longer, this is a pretty big job.
I would like to add running water, fit the coolbox fridge / compressor I have lying around and then finally properly spruce up the cabin. Which will be new cushions, re-varnishing, new bits of trim on a few parts and lining the Hull with wooden slats (or ceiling as we call it on boats). Its going to take a bit of thinking about as I don't want to add too much weight.
Oh and I also want to re-do the port water tank.
Basically I've years worth of projects left! Short term I'll settle for the electrics and a few cosmetic jobs.
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