The motor is purring!

As of yesterday, the motor is in and running like a champ.   It was an interesting experience working with the installer.   The motor is completely electronic.  Part of that scares me, but the inner nerd is very excited.  I have a feeling it will make us revisit the electrical and charging layout.

The guys at VB Engineering are finishing some cleanup tasks and reinstalling all that was removed to clear the engine room.  If all goes well, we expect to sea-trial on Thursday the 18th!!   We are very excited to get Perspective back after 8 weeks and get to work on our personal refit list.

The engine is mounted!

Brad is currently in Australia so it is my turn to give you a ship yard update, here goes nothing!

1.  Our prop is now reinstalled and do I dare say….pretty?! Am I allowed to say such a thing? 😉

Pretty Prop Shiny Prop

2.  The engine is no longer sitting on wooden blocks; the mounts have been fabricated and installed.

Engine Mount

3.  The binnacle is in the process of being put back together- they had it taken apart during the engine removal and installation to run a hoist down to the engine room.

Binnacle

Every boat visit comes with a learning lesson.  This week’s lesson was to remember to turn off any switches that you turn on, or you’ll be making a 7am trip down to the boat yard to turn things off.

The evil panel. 🙂

Switches

7am Boat Yard Views!

7am Boat Yard Views

 

 

Hoping to splash next week

We have had a couple of delays and we are now at 5 weeks in the yard. The original conservative estimate was 3 weeks. Next time I’ll plan for at least 50% over time and money budget! 

The upgrade from a normally aspirated to turbo Diesel engine means we need to change the exhaust system. Going from 2.5 to 3″ doesn’t sound like a lot, but the exhaust has no straight shot from the engine room.  This means it has to be snaked out the port side of the engine room, make a 90degree turn to aft, wrap over and around the fuel tank, around the head, under the master bunk to the exhaust port through holes designed for smaller hose.  This alone took three man days!

While we were changing the exhaust, I made the decision to upgrade the generator exhaust.  The original system had the genset exhaust connecting to the engine exhaust via a Y fitting and sharing an outlet.  This is not ideal, so we added another exhaust fitting to keep the two separate. 

Motor mounts are reportedly done and the install is going on now.  

Fingers crossed for no more surprises!

Refit Update: Bottom Paint and Prop Shaft

We have mostly completed the bottom paint and replaced most of the seacocks and thru-hulls.   The prop shaft has been balanced and a new dripless seal installed.   Horray to a dry(er) bilge!

New Dripless shaft seal
New Dripless shaft seal
Propshaft in Engine Compartment
New Bottom Paint
New Bottom Paint

Out with the old…

Perspective is now on the Hard.   Grinding the blisters on the bottom began today.   Perspective Tented

Also, say goodbye to our Pathfinder 85MF.  We will be installing a brand new Yanmar 4JH80 in Perspective over the next couple of weeks.   We can’t wait to get it back in the water and see the difference!

Pathfinder Removal
Pathfinder Removal
Old Pathfinder on pallet
Old Pathfinder on pallet
New Yanmar CR80 on Pallet
New Yanmar CR80 on Pallet

Perspective on the hard

We put Perspective on the hard today for a refit. We discovered a number of items we wanted to fix ASAP.

  1. The Pathfinder 85MF had significant blowby. Imagine the dipstick puffing like a little steam engine…  Replace with a brand new Yanmar CR80.
  2. Replace stuffing box with a new dripless shaft seal.
  3. Lots of blisters were discovered on the initial survey. Grind and patch.
  4. New bottom paint.
  5. Replace Y-Valves and hose in both heads.  Many were frozen and we couldn’t deal with the smell.
  6. Replace thru-holes and seacocks as appropriate.

We hope to have her back in the water in 3 weeks!