Winter refit. Part 1 - Dismantling and keel-bolt removal

'Enfys' needs some fairly major maintenance and this has been in the planning for about a year. She had a busy 2018 sailing season with about twenty five separate trips and short voyages but with concerns about the condition of her sterntube we decided to carry out work over the winter 2018/2019.
She was brought by road to a yard in Pembroke Dock after mast was unstopped and all heavy and loose gear was removed.

Loaded up for short journey to Pembroke Dock

Sheeted-up to keep the weather out whilst work is carried out

Chocked up and sheeted-over the first job was to unbolt and lift out her engine and associated gear including fuel tank.  The inboard nuts of the two aftermost centreline ballast keel bolts are under the engine.

Engine out to give access for the work to come

The centreboard lifting wire was disconnected and pivot bolt removed - here it is after just four seasons' use showing the wasting caused by the fretting and movement of the 'plate in use.  This is an M24 bolt.

Centreplate pivot bolt - 50% gone after four seasons' use

The yacht was lifted off her centreplate to extract it and then set down on blocks high enough to enable the keel bolts to be driven out.

Finesse centreplate - this has been dispatched to be repaired and re-galvanised

Raised up on blocks

The heads of the nuts of the after two centreline bolts had almost completely dissolved away and their remains were chiselled away and the bolts driven out after the mortar encasing the heads in the ballast keel was broken out. Also removed were the first two forward of the centreboard slot. Their nuts were OK as they are rarely wet compared with the aft ones which are normally submerged in bilge water.
There is one further bolt right at the forward end of the ballast keel but its nut is hidden under the heads and it has been left for now.
All the bolts were intact and the forward ones were still dripping with tar from when they were first installed. The main area of wastage of these was in way of the main timber keel.  These centreline bolts are 3/4" BSW and range in length from 250mm to 290mm. (Going metric for the replacements!)

Forward keel bolts driven out - still covered in their original tar.

The next stage was to expose the inboard ends of the keel bolts alongside the centreboard case.  There are four of these each side but they are underneath the centreplate case upper part and capping so we had no option but to remove it all.  This casing needs attention though as there have been 'rusty weeps' seeping in through the lower part for years and this was only going to get worse with time.

A bit of dismantling of the galley unit and the companionway step was required to free the centreplate case sides and they were carefully unfastened. A replacement forward capping had been Sikaflexed and screwed to the forward face at sometime in an attempt to stem the seepage and the Sika sticks so well I had no choice but to chisel the capping to bits to get it off.

'Plate case forward capping had to be chiselled off

Most of the screws holding the cabin sole capping had to be drilled or broke off but eventually it was free to prise off.

Lower capping - evidence of minor weeping through the sealant

After removing some battens that had been added to the foot of the case and rows of screws and the copper through-fastenings the case sides were freed and removed. The original glue lines had long failed and the step joints were full of mud and crumbling sealant - no wonder she was leaking.

Centreplate case - starboard side. Circular scour is from lifting wire attachment point.

Plugs over the ballast keel bolts were identified and drilled and picked out. We had to take care to identify the ballast bolts as there are others between them which only fasten the centreboard case to the hog/keel and these were not to be disturbed.

The nuts of these bolts were drilled/chiselled away and all but two of these were able to be driven out but put up more of a fight than the centre bolts as they are much longer; up to 420mm. They are (or were when new) 5/8" diameter.

Nuts under the plugs were all badly corroded.

Two of them refused to give despite a serious beating; one is so wasted it just bent, the other moved a bit but is now solid. We plan to come back to this with a drilling machine to set up over these.

Two very stubborn bolts - resisting a serious beating

Now that there is nothing much holding the ballast keel on we put a temporary length of M12 threaded rod through two of the holes till the new bolts can be fitted.

Temporary studding installed and nutted-up

Propulsion Machinery - Final mechanical post for now, I promise

This will be the last of the posts I have done about Enfys' machinery - until something else goes rusty or falls off! 


I had to get the engine up to replace a very rusty sump-oil-drain tube and whilst the motor was up out of the bilge I tacked a few other jobs. Having no facilities or need to remove the engine completely from the boat I devised a pair of 'A' frames that stood on the side decks with a strongback between them, over the engine. From this I slung a basic chain hoist with a 500kg capacity (the Beta 20 has a stated weight of 105kg). After disconnecting the engine's pipes, cables and wires and spending a whole afternoon unbolting the rusty clamp coupling and getting the mounting screws out the engine was ready to lift.
The engine was lifted up and turned through 90degrees and placed on blocks that spanned the cockpit floor frames.

Lifting engine



Engine now reasonably accessible

The sump oil was drained and the after a bit of a struggle the rusty elbow and pipe was persuaded to part company with the sump.  New parts were obtained from Beta marine and elsewhere to renew these and also the flexible engine mounts.
Now, I have to say that in my opinion, none of these parts is really suitable for use in a damp salty marine environment; the drain hose is a standard industrial hydraulic hose and the crimped ferrule was just crumbling. Three of the four flexible mounts were totally 'minty'. I found that they were of Italian manufacture and are most commonly fitted to air compressors; made of pressed mild steel and cad plated. To try and prolong the life of the replacements I painted them thoroughly with zinc-rich primer and a few coats of machine enamel.

Rotten sump oil drain connection

Beta engine mounts disintegrating in the marine environment

The whole lot of rusty engine parts were cleaned, treated and painted in some 'Carmine Red' enamel to match the supplier's original spec before being reassembled.


New engine mounted loosely fitted

Whilst the engine was accessible I fitted the Beta-supplied (and very expensive) 'upgrade' of the poly-vee auxiliary belt and pulleys to rid her of the curse of the 'black-dust' and tri-annual re-tensioning of the original 'V' belt. I stripped the alternator again to clean the belt dust from its innards.

Front of motor caked in belt dust - a well-know problem with these early Beta engines

New parts obtained and ready for fitting

Poly-vee kit fitted. A chunk had to be ground off the raw-water pump to let the belt pass.

Whilst the engine was out the bilges were cleaned and painted and the prop shaft was withdrawn to enable replacement of the outboard 'cutless' bearing. The propeller shaft was found to be worn and we were concerned at how badly the propeller had been corroding.

Bilges cleaned...

....and painted.

 

Badly pitted prop, and worn shaft

The 'cutless' bearing was chopped up and pulled out and the housing polished inside with emery on my electric drill. A new sleeve was pressed in as shown...

Method of getting the old 'cutless' out

Winding in a new bearing sleeve

New 'cutless' in place

A new shaft and propeller had been ordered and reeling from the cost I was determined to find out what was wrong with the existing galvanic (cathodic) protection (or lack of it!).
Enfys has a pair of zinc anodes bolted back-to-back through her sternpost that appeared to be connected to the outboard bearing housing. Inboard there was a wire connected between the stuffing box and engine's gearbox.
I made some continuity checks and found that although there was a circuit between the anodes and outer bearing there was no circuit through the stern-tube - it was open circuit, which was quite a surprise! This fact, coupled with the fact that the cable between stuffer and engine was also O/C and that there is an insulating flexible member in the propeller shaft coupling meant that the prop had probably been fizzing away merrily.
What I did to mitigate this was to fit a 'new' anode to the hull with through-hull studs (more holes in the planking.. arrgggh!) which was connected to the stuffing box and engine by new cables. At the prop shaft coupling a stiff copper wire bridges the flexible member. Now, checking continuity the propeller and shaft are all bonded to the anode.

Something odd - sterntube is corroding inside shaft log/sternpost - no continuity to the outboard end, too.

New zinc 'pear' anode fitted to hull

Connecting wires fitted to studs - backing pads will be needed at a later date.

Cable clamped to stuffer with a jubilee clip

Bonding wire connected to gearbox - flexi coupling was also bridged.

Engine back in place, lined-up and coupled

Engine back in place

 The lifting frame was rebuilt and the engine lowered back into place and carefully re-aligned with the shaft coupling.

Another job that I did whilst the shaft was out was to renew the stuffing box packing. A horrible fiddly job that required kneeling in the bilges - but I'm glad I've done it as the annoying drip from the gland has now gone!

The 'plumbing' and wiring was all re-connected, fuel tank refitted and filled, fuel pumped and system bled, batteries switched on, water hose laid on and she started and runs!



Engine Work 2

Here is the second of a few non-Finesse specific posts but as a practical boat owner who does all their own repairs and maintenance I thought I would share on the blog..


On re-commissioning Enfys last season we discovered that the engine's alternator was not charging. A quick check of engine wiring loom and controls revealed that the alternator was receiving its excitation voltage but the output was dead.

N-D Alternator - Loose wire protruding from rear cover is a direct connection to one phase
of the AC windings and provides a pulse-train for the tachometer

I removed the alternator and took it home.  Usefully (not) the engine mariniser had sprayed paint all over the data plate making it illegible so it took a bit of detective work to find out that the alternator is a 'Nippon-Denso' with an output of 40A.  It was the internal voltage regulator that had failed - there was no visible damage or corrosion - it just decided to stop working after the winter lay-up. I must say how poorly and cheaply-made this machine is; not really suitable for the marine environment, in my opinion. Pricing up a replacement showed that it was not cheap to buy though... despite being the same as used on plant-based Kubota engines.

The regulator is the module on the left with a heatsink on its back.

Regulator assembly

After a couple of attempts a correct replacement regulator was sourced from an auto-electrical parts supplier and the machine was re-assembled and tested on the bench by spinning it with my electric drill. Whilst in the vice I blew copious amounts of black dust, from the 'V' belt, out of the machine's internals.

Connected up for test. My 'test' battery is a little tired.

Engine Work 1

Not unique to a Finesse but Enfys' engine is a 20hp Beta based on a 3-Cyl Kubota industrial engine.  Sometime prior to our purchase of the yacht there had been a water leak at the raw water outlet at the back of the engine probably caused by a poorly-fitted hose. This would have been typical of the shoddy standard of this particular engine installation that was noticeable elsewhere too.
The exhaust outlet was heavily corroded and I noticed a crack had appeared in it - time for replacement.

Finally got the old elbow off leaving three broken bolts in situ.


The fixing bolts were M8 mild steel and might as well have been made of chocolate as three of them sheared off as soon as I put the spanner onto them. After a bit of sawing and hacking I got the elbow off.

Remains of the elbow after my hacksaw had done its stuff

The reason why the corrosion was so bad soon became apparent; the heat exchanger and elbow are made of aluminium alloy and were jointed by a copper-faced gasket.. doh!

Copper faced gasket had been used on original assembly

I had to remove the whole heat exchanger from the engine and put it on the bench to tackle the removal of the broken bolts.  It was assumed that these would need to be drilled out and the trashed holes would need to be 'Helicoiled', however, to my surprise I got all four out and cleaned up the blind holes with a tap. A new elbow and joint gasket were sourced from Beta Marine - the new gasket was fibre. Instead of using new bolts I 'Locktighted' M8 threaded studs into the holes in the casting and bolted it up with nuts and washers - hopefully making it easier to remove next time.

Studs fitted once mating face had been cleaned up

New elbow fitted to heat exchanger

Next post will cover another corroded pipe and fittings on this engine...

Hatch slider repair

Whilst working on Enfys' deck and grasping hold of one of the hatch runners I felt my fingers dig into the forward end of the port side one - a soft-spot had been developing adjacent to where a fastening holds it through the cabin top.  I didn't want to leave this freshwater decay too long in case rot spreads into the ply cabin top - much more difficult to repair - in my opinion.

Tell-tale blackened timber

The slider top was removed and the runner cut down and back to sound timber. A single screw fastening was removed - driven through from below. Once cleaned up I found that the runners had been fastened down on top of the deck sheathing so the plywood deck had only been getting wet in the area immediately around the single screw fastening and seems sound. The original glue was very dark - Resourcinol?

Cutting back to good timber

A simple 'scarf' was cut and a new piece of Iroko was worked to suit. This was epoxy glued and screwed into place.

New section glued and screwed

Job done. A bit of sandpaper and varnish was then all that was required.

There is a similar patch forming on the forward end other rail and this will have to go on the next winter 'worklist'.

Finesse 24 Standing Rigging replacement

The existing standing rigging on Enfys was more than 10-years old, possibly even older.  Although it looked in good condition the surveyor had 'recommended' its replacement.
At the end of the bad winter weather we chose a time to get the lay-up cover off and with the boat on hard-standing I arranged a small team of helpers and we lowered her mast.  A ladder lashed to the pushpit was the landing place and it came down without incident.
The six shrouds, backstay and forestay were removed together with their bottlescrews - all marked to show their original in-service lengths.  There was a bit of head-scratching as to how the headsail furler came apart but eventually I worked it out and dismantled the inner liner allowing the wire to drop out. The complete set was sent away to the riggers and a couple of weeks later a nice new set arrived by courier.

Forestay inside lower end of furling tube

Whilst I was waiting for the new rigging to arrive I took the furler top swivel and furling drum apart to service their bearings since they both felt stiff and a bit 'gritty'.  I like their design; being able to completely strip them down to clean and re-grease the ball bearings before re-assembling them.

Furler top-swivel in bits

Furling drum bearing assembly removed for overhaul

Another job that was done with the mast down was to remove the wind speed and direction unit - the anemometer had lost its cups shortly after we bought Enfys and I decided not to spend £120 on a new one! I pulled a new cable in for the masthead light and as I did so an electrical cable tie was wrapped around every yard or so and left full length in an attempt to wedge the loose wires in place inside the mast to stop the annoying cable slap we had been enduring whilst afloat.

Nice shiny new rigging. The bottlescrews are chrome-plated bronze

Cap shrouds re-fitted to cross-trees

Re-fitting forestay. The liner is an open figure '8' of plastic that had to be slid in 1m sections into the tube

With all the rigging re-mounted and a new staysail halyard and block shackled to the fore side of the mast a party was assembled and the mast was re-stepped. To my relief all the lengths were spot on - thanks to the care taken by the riggers.  They had informed me that although both cap shrouds were identical in length, all four of the lowers were different! They re-created the differences and one can only assume it is to do with variations in the heights of the boat's chain plates.

Preparing to raise her mast..

She's up.