Launch day

We got to the boat early. Louise tided up, frantically putting tools away. I knocked out some of the blocks holding Ishtar in her cradle and Louise dabbed on some antifoul in the gaps. Then, it was 10:00, and the yard lads approached.....

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Time to go"][/caption]

 

I had not been there when Louise cut and fitted the new packing for the stuffing box, nor when she and Vince had fitted the new through hull fitting. With visions of water flooding into the boat, Ishtar was gently lowered down the ramp into Cardiff bay.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="And in"][/caption]

 

Louise crawled into the engine compartment, and there was an anxious wait until , a few minutes later, she emerged through the cockpit locker with a big grin. 'Completely dry' she said. I could not believe it. I climbed aboard and checked. The tissue paper she had wrapped around all the new fitings and stern gland were bone dry. Louise had done a fantastic job.

We lef the crane and, with the help of a few friends, pulled Ishtar along the pontoon on ropes, tying her up ready to start commisioning the engine.



Next job. Prime the engine. I had diesel in the fuel pipe after the primary filter (water separator with glass bowl) but, try as I might, I could not get a clear flow of diesel at the secondary filter, lots of air. We spent an hour, trying with the hand operated lever on the fuel lift pump to no avail.

Eventually, I resorted to using our old oil sump pump, connected it to the end of the fuel pipe and a few quick pumps relulted in the unmistakeable bubbling of air, clearly coming from the primary filter O ring.

Rather than mess about (the filter had ony done about 20 hours) Louise replaced the filter and O rings, top and bottom. Within 2 minutes, I had a clear flow of diesel, first at the secondary filter, then at the injector pump. It was now or never.

I'd been so used to turning the key on the Bukh for 20 seconds or more, I didn't realise the engine had started immediately. It was a strange moment. We'd done it. It was in, no leaks, and purring away like a dream.

The warranty checklist required we checked for leaks, adjusted the gear linkeage to ensure the clutch was not slipping, run the engine on the pontoon for 20 minutes and then go for sea trials. We worked through the list, still expecting to find the inevitable things we'd missed or done wrongly. Couldn't find any.

Eventually I stood on the pontoon and asked Louise to slip it into forward gear, and then just into astern. The boat eased forward and then back, perfectly. I panicked slightly when I heard a loud squeaking noise, until I realised it was Louise, giggliing like a 5 year old, a huge smile on her face.

I climbed aboard, let loose the mooring lines and set off to our own pontoon berth. The travel on the throttle was around half what it was on the Bukh, and we had around twice the power, so I had  no idea we were speeding along at 5 knots, creating quite a wake. The last time I had tested the Bukh, we could barely reach 4 knots flat out.

It was brilliant. A lot of friends were there on Saturday afternoon, and other boats had been launched too. It felt great, motoring up between the pontoons, people cheering, waving and clapping at us, and we both felt very proud that we had done all the work ourselves (with a fair bit of help from my father and friends, of course).

Not much left to do now.

We had six days left before launch, to fit the prop, run in the new electrical cables and fuel lines, mount the console, fit the through hull fitting for the water intake and a 'few other bits and pieces'. We'd do it easily.

Then work intervened, and I ended up spending most of the week in Bristol, leaving a huge amount of pressure on Louise. She coped admirably, above and beyond every other woman I know, working night shifts before returning to the boatyard for an hour or two, sleeping in the car before continuing her work. I would never have managed without her.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Hero"][/caption]

 

I'd cut and pinned all the new engine cables, Louise fitted all the connectors and connected the system up. Lights on, and engine live first time! The tricky bit was fitting 3 x 50mm cables into the '1-2-all' switch, but Louise did a lovely job.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Tight fit"][/caption]

Our friend Vince came to the rescue as well, fitting the new water intake

 



And doing a beautiful job of splicing in a piece of teak to our rubbing strake, which repleced a rotted piece. Thanks Vince.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Vince, repairing our rubbing strake"][/caption]

 

With the boat out of the water, security was an important issue. It was vital to ensure that anyone intent on breaking into the boat and stealing our new engine was kept at bay:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Beware of the dog"][/caption]

 

We gradually ticked off the jobs, with me doing little bits whenever I could. I broke three De Walt 'Extreme' bits drilling a hole in the prop shaft for a split pin. A simple job, still took nearly 2 hours:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Prop shaft hole"][/caption]

And on with the prop:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="prop"][/caption]

 

Then, suddenly, it was late on Friday evening. Ishtar was being launched at 10:00 on Saturday morning. There were tools and mess everywhere. The fuel lines had still not been fitted, and we'd completely forgotten the through hull fitting for the speed log was leaking, and needed a dab more sikaflex. Louise quickly did it, and picked up a curry on her way home. She'd not slept for 36 hours.

And in with the new.

The new Engine is a Beta 20HP, 3 cylinder engine running at a max 3600rpm. Louise picked it up from the factory in Gloucester.

Beta were very nice to deal with, did us a great price and were very helpful and professional with great communication.

Here's our new engine, sitting in the garage at home.





I was working when the engine was lifted into Ishtar, using a JCB at the club. Louise organised it, with the help of my father.





Our club JCB driver, 'Big ray' did a sterling job of lowering the 100Kg+ engine, gently, into the cabin.





Then she was in. Hopefully, when the propshaft, prop, bearing and so on arrived, the installation would go like a dream......





Meanwhile, there was plenty to get on with. The original Rudder 'shoe', which bolted on to the base of the skeg to support the rudder was made from 3mm stainless stell, and badly pitted. I bought 2 x 10mm 316 stainless plates from a local supplier and, with my father's help, set about welding a new one.





It looks fine. It became clear why the original was made in such thin steel, however, getting all of the angles right in 10mm steel was a pain. In 3mm, you could just bend it to shape. It took 3 visits to the boat, and as many wooden templates to get it right. I think it may last........

I blagged a piece of scrap hardwood from Graham, a mate refitting his boat. Lots of sanding and polishing and it looked like it would make a suitable mount to cover up the hole where the Bukh control panel used to be:





It's quite frightening. managing the project, you break the task down into subtasks, such as the mechanics of fitting the engine, electrics, pipes, running gear and so on. Each of these breaks down further, so, in the scheme of things, making and fitting the new control panel plate was a minor job, as was, say, fitting an air intake fan for the engine room.

The reality, once you break down the project in this way, and add up all of the time required, is completely different to what you originally guesstimate.

Anyway, another small job ticked off:





The day of the fit arrived. Our friend Vince was on hand, and he, together with my father and I, gently slid the engine onto it's new mountings.



Disaster. The front mounting fitted, but the rear was out by 20mm. No idea how that happened. Crouching in the cramped space behind the engine, I could see the engine installation slide, new feet welded up, a new date for fitting, and us missing our agreed launch date with the club. My heart sank.

Then a brainwave. All we had to do was cut the plate bolted to the engine to support the feet slightly and it would work. I was convinced it would. I discussed it with my father, and less than an hour later, we started tightening the engine mountings, ready to take final measuments of the prop shaft for cutting.

Not long after that, we set the workbench up, cut the shaft and fitted the flange. I was starting to feel hopeful.





Tired now, and with just the two of us, we finally slid the engine in, and set about checking the alignment with feeler guages.

[

0.125mm torerance was converted into thousands of an inch. Gradually spinning the adjustable feet up and down, we achieved half the allowable tolerance. We'd check again once she was in the water and had run for an hour or so, but for now, job done.

Planning the installation

When we first started talking about whether we could/should put in a new engine, it was a no brainer that I'd get someone to do it for us. I have little to no experience of engines, prop shafts, bearings, shaft seals and so on. There was just no way I'd be able to take it on. We're trying to do our house up as well, and, after a quiet period, work was picking up too.

A few phonecalls later and the £4k or so cost of a new engine would be doubled, or thereabouts if we had it fitted commercially. That simply was not going to happen. We had barely enough to pay for the engine, having put off our garden wall project until next year. I'd have to do it.

I started thinking. The wiring was OK - I was happy with that. The engine, itself, was held down by 4 engine feet, just nuts and bolts, and was bolted on to th eprop shaft, more nuts and bolts. I knew alingnment with the prop shaft was critical, but the adjustable engine feet made that easier. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that, having failed at nothing I'd ever really put my mind to, I could do it.

We quickly narrowed the engines down to a choice between a Nanni 21HP and a Beta 20HP. There was little in it, both being based on the same Kubota base engine. With the Southampton boat show approaching, however, Beta offered us a 'show only' deal that was far better than we'd hoped for. So Beta it was. We placed the order, removed the old engine and waited.

We'd been told by Beta Marine that we'd likely need a new prop. Looking at the prop shaft, it made sense to replace that as well - it was worn, and initial calculations suggested it was 75mm too short. Order placed.

I then examined the cutlass bearing, what was left of it at least.



Part of it was cracked, and part worn through. The prop shaft moved significantly, so an order was placed to replace the original white metal bearing with a composite one.

Then we turned our attentions to the engine mountings. The original ones, which we sold with the Bukh, were set into two fibreglass plinths, set at an angle., and seen in the above photo. The new engine mountings did not quite fit the pattern, and, by our calculations based on drawings from Beta, were around 30mm too low.

We could ask Beta to modify the engine feet, to fit the old engine mounting position, or try it ourselves.

I came up with a plan. Bolt a 20mm thick steel plate to the original engine mountings, and tap into that for the new mountings. A further 10mm plate, fitted as a spacer, would give us our 30mm raise in height, and a couple of large holes drilled in that would hide the heads of the bolts holding down the bottom plate. I'd use sikaflex 291 marine bonding agent and sealant in addition to the bolts, for extra strength.

Here are the lower, 20mm plates, bolted and sikaflexed down. You may be able to make out the tapped holes for the new engine mounting bolts.



The upper, 10mm plates, being primed. You can see the larger holes which will fit over the bolt heads in the lower plate.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Upper Plates"][/caption]

 

And the upper mounts in position. The holes for the lower plate bolt heads, and clearance holes for the engine mounting bolts to penetrate into the lower plate, just visible.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Mounts"][/caption]

 Hopefully, the following diagram shows what the photos do not:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="350" caption="Diagram"][/caption]

For the electrics, I'd need to manufacture something. The old bukh control panel was larger than the newer, Beta one, and there was a hole in the console that needed covering. I'd also planned to move the water intake. It was positioned behind the engine, necessitating a trip into the cockpit locker to switch the seacock on and off for Louise. I wanted to put it in front of the engine.

Whilst the boat was out, there was also a worn rudder bearing, a pitted rudder 'shoe' and various other jobs, all of which it made sense to tackle whilst the boat was out of the water.

More to follow.

Out with the old....

I'd advertised our old Bukh 10HP on BoatsAndOutboards, with a few words and a link to my own web page with plenty of photos, details on the engine and even a video of it running. Anyone reading this blog could see the mileage we'd done, so the engine must have worked at least a bit.

I still had visions of the old engine being in our garage all winter, stubbornly refusing to sell. In the end, we need not have worried, we had several people interested, and it came down to who could get a deposit to us first. That was Mark, from Worcester. I'd ensured everyone was clear that we felt the engine underpowered for our boat. Mark wanted it for a 24fter, so I was happy.

We picked the worst possible day to remove it, very heavy rain, and we were all soaked by the end of it, covered in diesel and oil too. The day before, I'd disconected all the electric cables and diesel and water pipes. Finally I loosened the flywheel and removed that - must have weighed a good 30kg!

My father and Mark started undoing the engine mountings and I disconnected the throttle and gear cables, and undid the bolts holding the gearbox flange to the prop shaft.

We inserted two longish 6x2" planks and eased the engine up onto them, using them as levers.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="240" caption="Heave"][/caption]

 

My father and Mark then pulled on a rope around the engine whilst I pushed from behind, in the engine compartment. Heavy, dirty, oily and wet, but gradually she slid forward into the saloon.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="320" caption="Easy does it"][/caption]

 

Just in time for us, our mate, Allan turned up. With strong ropes secured all around the engine, the four of us managed to lift it out of the boat, and onto a pallet alongside, in the torrential rain. Mark then set about securing it as we lifted it into the trailer. It was late afternoon, just as the rain stopped that I waved him off.

Job done.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Gone!"][/caption]

 

You couldn't recognise the engine room a few days later, once Louise had been in there with her cleaning fluids, potions, unguents and paint!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="240" caption="Shiny"][/caption]

Biting the bullet

We've ordered a new engine.

Ishtar is a sailing boat, and as such, the engine is supposed to take us from our place of mooring, or anchorage, to a point where we can raise the canvas and sail away into the sunset.

The reality of course, is somewhat different. There are times when we simply must get back, for work or other commitments. Times where there is no wind, or times, like earlier on this year, where we just really don't want to be out in rough conditions and a worsening sea state.

Our Bukh 10HP was fine for getting us from our mooring to getting the canvas up, but, we feel, not much use apart from that. In other areas of the UK, or in the Med, we'd be quite happy with the engine, but in the Bristol channel and Pembrokeshire, and the strong tides, we've several times been stuck going nowhere, or backwards. Luckily, we've managed to sail ourselves out of trouble, but may not always be so lucky.

Our friends who also have a 28ft, similar design to Ishtar, have a 17hp engine, which seems to cope well with the channel. Calculations suggest around 4HP per tonne. Ishtar is 3.5 tonnes probably in excess of 4 tonnes fully laden, suggesting 16-17hp is about right. 10HP seems wrong.

Our friend Tom visited us recently and we went for a sail, He seemed quite happy with Ishtar generally, but his comments on changing the engine made us think, and we started to realise that it was something we would have to do.

This winter we had planned to rebuild our retaining wall at the back of the house. That plan has been shelved until next spring, and the money we had saved to do that (All Louise's night shifts) will now go to wards the new engine.

So, watch this space.

Time for a rest

It's been over 2 years since Ishtar was last on dry land. We'd thought about bringing her out this winter for some new antifoul and a general tidy up, possibly some more major work too if we could find the money. When I mentioned November to our compound master I nearly had to call an ambulance.

It was out for a month now, or wait until March. That was too late, so hasty arrangements were made.

We arrived at the club 08:00 this morning and got Ishtar ready. We'd left our cradle at the club 2 years ago. I found it and reattached a couple of pads. The compound guys turned up at 10, and we eased Ishtar into the hoist.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Ready to lift out"][/caption]

 

The club uses a tractor to move the hoist, and this is attached to a powerful winch when lifting in and out using the club slipway. Up she came.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Lifting out"][/caption]

 

A spot of deft manoeuvring by Ian on the Tractor, and Ishtar was inched backwards towards her cradle:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Nearly there"][/caption]

 Wedges, blocks, and a fair bit of 'Is she standing up straight?' type questions and that was that. Louise started tidying, I started making a list of jobs to be done. As we readied the car to leave, a small black person rushed to the bows, with a 'Have you forgotten something' look on his face!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="All done"][/caption]