Is that what you call someone who installs propellers? A propper?

Okay enough dad jokes. This past weekend was a quick trip down to check on progress. They got pretty far but there is still a lot to do.

The Good

Here’s the good news section. Some not-so-good news later.

Drain Bramage

The drainage problem down in the engine room is fixed! Water, oil, and all manner of junk used to collect in these small areas on the side of the engine and there was no way for it to drain. They just built a box and it looks great! Even more awesome it will be a little easier to navigate around it. Some paint is still needed though, and the through hulls now have to move a little further forward. I might ask for a handle on the wall or ceiling to make that easier when the engine is warm.

The through hulls had to be redone anyway. As it turns out, the intake vents were facing forward. This is really bad because when you sail, it forces water into the engine. This explains the engine flooding with water after pushing Jane’O up to 10 knots under sail. This is a definite no-no for a sailboat, and a bad idea for powerboats too.

Filter Kilter

Check out these raw water filters! They cleaned them and rebuilt them using rebuild kits, then added some paint. WOW. Now I know the water will be filtered correctly on intake.

Not only that, but the water hoses are all upgraded to ³⁄₄” hose. Anything before the water pump has a vacuum, so I used reinforced hose designed to handle the vacuum. Anything past them pump will be silicone hose which should last forever.

Silicone hoses don’t wear out like rubber hoses. They remain flexible probably until the engine stops working. Since these engines lasted 30 years, this should mean another 30 years of service. The only minus is that they are slightly permeable, so some of the coolant can evaporate through the silicone hoses, but the losses are very small

The Bad

Okay, maybe not BAD but not so great.

A couple of couplers

The first big problem we ran into was that the couplers on the shaft don’t mate with the transmission. I had to order some new couplers and, because the shaft is an odd 25mm, they are somewhat rare. My friends at PYI have two in stock, or can get them to me before Friday. For those unfamiliar, here’s a link to someone selling them in the UK with pictures and a description.

Harness the power

I was able to run the harness from the control panel area to the starboard engine after removing a lot of old wiring. Interestingly, there is still a lot more dead wire to remove. When I looked carefully at the connector, I noticed it was damaged, probably from shipping. I am going to hope it doesn’t cause us any problems.

This is the long harness that connects the control panel from the port side of the boat to the starboard engine. If something doesn’t work, we’ll know why.