Sept. 5, 2005

Labor Day weekend - I spent it working on Bella Vita. I have decided to repower with a rebuilt Yanmar 46. We are going to fire it up this week and if no problems are found, I will start removing the old Perkins. After it's out I need to clean the bilge and the keel fuel tank. I don't think I has ever been cleaned and I want it done before I head offshore and the bottom sludge gets all stirred up. The swap looks pretty straight forward and I hope to have it done by Sept. 16.

Sept. 9, 2005

We fired up the new engine yesterday. It started right up after sitting for about eight months and ran fine so I am proceeding with the repower. I had the old engine stripped and ready to pull out in about four hours and this morning Walt, from the boatyard, and I started removing the old engine. It took all day but we finally got it out. That engine was really heavy! I had removed the transmission, about 150 lbs, before we started and we removed the flywheel, about the same weight as the tranmission, after we started raising the engine. I think the new engine is about 300 lbs lighter than the old one. We removed it by jacking it up about eight inches at a time and blocking it up with 8x8 timbers. The hard dodger prevented getting the line from the hoist into the cabin. I had thought of cutting out the bottom of the cockpit out since that would have allowed a straight shot to the engine. It would have greatly simlified the operation but then I would always have another opening in the hull that I would have to keep sealed. The stack of lumber shown was ALL inside, with more in the cockpit, as we performed the extraction. I have this weekend to clean the bilge of the spilled engine oil, cooling water and diesel fuel. We will need to pull the boat next week to remove the prop and shaft and get the new ones. The operating speeds of the two engines are so different that the old prop will not work well with the new engine.

Sept. 16, 2005

Well, it's the 16th and the new engine is not in place yet. We did not get the boat hauled until Tues. I pulled the propeller and shaft Tues and took them to Baltimore to order new ones. Since the old engine had a 2" exhaust and the new one is a 3", the muffler, hoses and transom port all need to be changed. Since all the new components are larger they don't fit in the space available. The hose goes through 3 frames and of course the holes for the hose are not big enough for the new hose and had to opened up. This is one time that a fiberglass boat would have been nice. Cutting 3.5" holes in 1/4 inch steel is tough. The new shaft and prop came today and I will install them over the weekend so we will be able to launch Monday morning. We will drop the new engine in as soon as the boat is back in the water so it should be in place Monday afternoon. After that I still have to align the engine, hookup the fuel, water, exhaust, wiring and controls. Sounds like a lot of work but I hope to have it done by the end of the week.

Sept. 23, 2005

Sept 23 and the engine is still not in. I installed the shaft and new prop last Sat. The bottom paint was touched up and I was ready to launch on Mon morning. We launched and had the new engine in place by lunch time. I started to do the alignment and found that the engine did not come close to matching the shaft coupling. When I had measured the mounts on the engine to build the new bed, I did not notice that the transmission had a down angled output shaft. Instead of the output shaft being parallel to the engine crankshaft, it is angled down 7 degrees. This is fairly common and is done so the engine can sit more level and still have the output aligned with the prop shaft. Most power boats have a 7 degree angle to their prop shafts. This meant that the front of the engine had to drop about 2 inches from where I had it sitting. The engine mounting brackets on the engine were designed for a 18.5 inch wide mounting and they were too wide to fit between the boats main frames. To make the engine fit, I would have to cut out about 4 inches of the frame and I did not want to do that. We found one bracket that was designed for a 16.5 mounting but could not find the other. The local Yanmar distributor ordered the other side for me, along with new control cables and an extension cable for the op panel, but it did not come in until this afternoon. I went to Annapolis to get it and it was not the 16.5 width but it was for the down angle transmission. I think it can be modified to fit and will start tomorrow.

Sept. 30, 2005

A friend from Lexington, Steve Applegate, was coming on Monday to do some sailing so I wanted to have the engine working. I spent Sat and Sun aligning the engine and connecting the fuel, water, electrical and exhaust and had only a couple of items still to do on Mon morning. Steve and I installed the Op Panel wiring and it was time to start the new engine. I hit the starter and the engine started immediately. We spent the rest of the day cleaning up odds and ends and ran into Annapolis for a celebration dinner of crab cakes. The next morning we left the boat yard for a shakedown cruise after getting the boat ready, including installing the new graphics for the name. It was an absolutely beautiful day and we sailed south under the Bay Bridge to Bloody Point Bar where we anchored for the night. The next day was calm so we motored all the way back to Gibson Island but that gave us a chance to get some hours on the new engine. A couple of problems were found and we worked on them Thur. Probably a good thing we didn't sail since there were thunderstorms and 40 mph winds, a little high for a shakedown sail. Steve left Fri morning and I went back to my normal routine of working on the boat.