OK, so the diesel tanks are progressing well - the plywood arrived on Tuesday and the fibreglass stuff on Wednesday. I cut out the panels for both tanks on Tuesday afternoon, and fitted them together on Wednesday morning. In the afternoon I put thickened resin fillets in all the inside corners.This is to prevent the formation of voids in the fibreglass cladding. I had other things to see to on Thursday, but today got most of the insides of both tanks clad with chopped strand matting; there's one panel on each still to do and hopefully I shall get that done tomorrow, and make a start on the outside.
With the strengthening provided by the interior clading (the panels are only nailed together) I intend to radius all the corners and then clad the outside in woven rovings so that the plywood will be completely protected. I only bought cheap stuff with that in mind. I'm using 10mm.
As of this morning the weather forecast for next week looked a lot better so I've made provisional arrangements for craning out that afternoon, but the updated forecast this evening didn't look so good so we'll have to wait and see.

Well, things have moved on a bit since my last piece.

Firstly, I have got an estimate for the new tanks and it’s a bit more than I had hoped to pay,  particularly as I now have to find the money for an exhaust manifold as well. About £150 per tank plus about £300 for the materials. A new manifold would cost about £400.

 However, a web search and a couple of emails today have located a good second hand manifold for £100 + vat and carriage so that’s a big step forward.

 Also, since I’m happy making things out of plywood I’ve been investigating the possibility of using that for the tanks. I think 10mm ply will do, it will be lined with fibreglass with a finish of  isophthalic topcoat. I’ve taken advice from a reliable supplier (CFS Fibreglass Supplies) and they’ve said that that will be OK and that I should put on a couple of layers of 450g/m2 cloth using ordinary general purpose polyester resin and the topcoat to seal it. That way I can make all four tanks (two diesel and two water) for less than the cost of one in stainless steel. Some time ago I chatted about this possibility with a friend of mine who built his own boat a few years ago and made his tanks that way and they have not given any trouble so that is what I shall do.

An added advantage of making the tanks myself is that I can fiddle around and make them just the right size and shape for optimum use of the space. This will take more time, but it's my time, and wont really affect the amount of material very much. I'll probably make the fuel tanks first as I can then use them to store what's in the existing tanks while I take them out, and then when I've got good access to the space I can measure up for the water tanks.

I’ve already said that I will have the manifold so it just remains to place an order for the resins and get four sheets of exterior quality plywood delivered to the island. (And then wait for some quiet weather to get ‘Petra’ craned out!)

No trip out to 'Petra' today. Some of the worst weather we've had so far this winter. The wind reached F10 for a time around midday in Shuna Sound and  was ripping the surface off the sea. What with the lack of light and the spray you could hardly see the half mile across to Shuna. The boat was out of the worst of it but she still took quite a pounding.

She’s more comfortable here than in Ballachulish though. There she was in a very sheltered spot and in between the gusts it would go completely calm and she’d swing to the current. Then the next bad gust would hit her on the beam, and on at least one occasion she was up on her beam ends with her masts nearly in the water. It was blowing around 100kts then though.

Here she faces the weather and just pitches comfortably and as long as the mooring’s long enough there’s not too much strain on things.

I believe that the riser/painter should be not more than 45degs to the ground when it’s pulled out straight, which implies that the total length should be at least 1.4 times the depth.

 The maximum that I have available is about twice the depth and in summer when the moorings are crowded I take in on the painter.

The Outboard Motor.


Thoughts of using the outboard to get into a rocky harbour, possibly with a good wind blowing, remind me that the gear shift was a bit stiff the last time I ran it, so I brought it ashore for a health check.
Well, it’s suffering from a serious lack of exercise! But the main problem is that in about four weeks a ‘stiff’ gear lever has become a totally seized gear lever. It turns out that an oil seal in the gearbox behind the prop has gone. So has all the oil. To be replaced by sea water. The box, which consists of a pinion and two crown wheels, is scrap.
Fortunately I have got a spare in the form of another nearly identical engine, with a good gearbox, so I can swap them over. I’ve cannibalised that other engine before so it’s not quite complete. They’re both old Yamaha 4’s, a long shaft and a standard one. I use the long shaft on ‘Petra’.
Changing the bottom end of the shaft casing over was very easy. Two bolt behind the prop to remove the horizontal prop shaft, a circlip keeping the pinion on the vertical shaft, and two bolts to remove the gearbox casing. I wanted to check the water pump impeller while I was in there so I had to uncouple the gear selector rod and remove two bolts retaining the pump. All straight forward, and it went back together easily too!
The gear selector lever was now free and the engine turned over easily but I wanted to clean out the carburettor before starting it up as I knew I hadn’t run the fuel out last time it ran. (residual fuel in the carb partly dries and the oil content makes it very sticky.)
That done and the fuel lines connected up I discovered that the priming bulb in the fuel line wasn’t right. The valves are sticking. However, it seemed to be getting some petrol into the engine so I pulled the string and it started! Literally, first pull! Too good to be true I thought, and it was. The engine very soon stopped again. And started again. And stopped…… It looks like fuel starvation, possibly because there’s still air in the pipe due to the priming bulb problem. I’ll get a new one when next in town and take it from there.

Well, it worked pretty well. The's a bit of a leak at the manifold end but liveable with, and the pipe seems secure. The header tank end is definitely a bit wobbly, but it's the adhesion to the new copper pipe that's not good (that should have been the easy bit!) so I'll probably have another go at that.
However, it is serviceable and good enough for a 'get out of trouble' fix. And I can run the engine here on the mooring so the normal routines can carry on.

At best it’s going to be a couple of weeks before I can get a new manifold fitted, and probably quite a bit longer so I’m going to do the best repair I can just to get the engine running to charge the battery. Then I can put the heater (an eberspacher) on for an hour each day to keep her dry.

 

The other reason that I need a temporary repair is that I’m negotiating with a local boatyard to make and fit new stainless steel diesel tanks, and getting her to the yard will be much easier with an engine. I can sail most of the way but it’s a slightly awkward entrance to Cullipool and a tight turn onto the pier where she’ll be lifted out. I could just use the outboard (there’s a bracket on the transom for emergencies) but it would be tricky.

 

 So, today I took the bull by the horns and hacksawed off the old union and poked a screwdriver through the opening into the manifold to clear it and drove in a short length of copper pipe. A similar piece of pipe went into the union on the heat exchanger and both were secured with P40. (a mush of polyester resin and fibreglass. Well, I say secured. That’s the 64,000 dollar question. It was difficult to clean the area concerned. I emmoried and wire brushed but whether it was good enough or not we will see tomorrow. If it’s OK I’ll join the two stubs of pipe with a length of plastic pipe. Provided that the resin has adhered to the metal it will be quite a good repair. If not then it’ll be the outboard option.

Air cooled engines can be a bit of a problem in the enclosed space of a boat and they’re noisy but water cooling can cause so much heartache that just maybe they’re better.

 

About five years ago I found that my engine had a tendency to overheat when it was working hard. This was something new. Looking at the exhaust outlet there seemed to be plenty of water coming out at tickover but it didn’t seem to increase much at higher revs.

 I took the strainer out and cleaned it. I took the whole skin fiting/seacock off and cleaned it. I took all the pipework off and renewed it.I stripped the exhaust muffler/water lock assembly down and cleaned it. Finally I took the top cover off the manifold cooler and cleaned out in there. Oh, there was plenty of muck in all of it but none of this made any difference at all. Not a jot. Waste of time. There is a short rubber hose between the heat exchanger and the manifold cooler , like car radiator hose. Sometimes this stuff can delaminate inside and cause a blockage. But no, it wasn’t that. I’m struggling a bit now.

 

Then – then I saw a half moon shaped piece of metal was missing from the hose connector on the manifold. Just broken off. Corrosion I suppose.

The piece was lodged in the elbow of the hose connector on the manifold. It just lay harmlessly on it’s side. I tried to hook it out with a screwdriver, and as I touched it it tipped up on it’s edge and partially blocked the pipe. Then fell back again. That was it. At higher revs the water had enough ‘push’ to tip it up and reduce the flow.

Sometimes the world can get quite vindictive.

 

Back to the present and a week or two ago I saw that the water flow was reduced again. Well I knew there’d be weed growth in the intake, so I beached her and it was pretty bad. However, cleaned out and back on the water things were no different. But this time I know where to look. Sure enough, there’s more metal gone from the hose connector. And I can’t get anything through. It’s blocked solid now. The union is fitted to the cooler with 2 bolts but they don’t want to move. Even with the cover off the manifold cooler I can’t get a ‘prodder’ into the connector. This has now become serious – that is I might have to spend money. Yes, that serious. The union’s broken and now that I’ve taken the hose off it wont go back even if I could clear the blockage. So the union will HAVE to come off. Getting some heat on it will be the next thing to try – those bolts will have to come out or I’ll have to replace the whole manifold. That’s the ‘money’ bit.

 

However it’s Christmas and there’s other things to see to. A bottle of whisky with a hole in it is one of them. Most of the whisky will have come out through that hole before I do anything else.

 Anyway all the shops which sell manifolds are shut for a week.

Chafe – that’s the enemy. The rope wont break, the chain wont break. The shackles wont break.

I once watched a storm front coming across Oban bay towards me. I was anchored on a lee shore.  From the dinghy I managed to get a rope round the ring in the top of a very large mooring buoy, with the anchor still down. I got the anchor up and pulled the boat up to the buoy. It was blowing F9. 10mm climbing rope didn’t break even as it was snubbing with the buoy going away as the boat lifted. I uncoupled the anchor and used the rope to pull the chain through the ring. In desperation I dropped the 6mm shackle on the end of the chain over the tee piece of the foredeck bollard, just to hold it for a few moments while I worked out something better. It didn’t even bend the pin.

The gear wont break – it’s chafe’s the problem.

 

Back to moorings.

 Feed a plastic tube over the pickup rope (painter). Have it long enough to go right down to the shackle. If it’s just over the stemhead it’ll do the job OK but it will work down, and it’s the very devil to stop it.

 

 The gear at the top of the riser can be a problem too. I like to have the swivel at the surface so that I can check it, but do you fit the buoy above or below it? Well I say on top otherwise  the  weight of the ironmongery will let it hang down beside the riser in calm conditions and possibly cause chafe. (I usually use rope for the riser)

 A word of warning about the buoy though.. It is possible for it to rub against the rope to the boat. This will become dangerous when barnacles grow on it as they will very soon damage the rope.

 

I like to use the big black fish farm buoys, oval with lugs at both ends. This is because you can tie on to the top lugs temporarily if you need to, which may be necessary if the pick–up has got tangled and you can’t get it aboard. (A way to avoid this is to put a long piece of tube on it as mentioned above which apart from preventing chafe, will stop it from getting wound around the riser.)

 However, unless you’re in deep water and using chain for the riser there may not be enough weight on it to keep it upright in which case the barnacles will chafe the rope.

 

I mentioned that I use rope for the riser. This is partly because there can be a lot of ware on the bottom link of a chain and the shackle. The size of the shackle is obviously limited by the chain size which in turn is limited by weight. If you use rope, say 30mm, then the hard eye is pretty big and you can use a big shackle.

 To my mind the advantage of rope is that there is no rust problem. The roots of the musseles will get into the rope but if you have two risers and swap them over each year when the mooring is inspected then the mussels will die off on the one that’s ashore. Just keep it out of the sun..

  If the riser is just the right length to reach the surface at high tide then it will drag on the bottom at low tide. To avoid this tie, using a rolling hitch, a trawl float about half way up the riser. If  the mooring is in shallow water try and ensure that this float is low enough not to get barnacles on it.

 

You really can’t avoid using shackles on the sea  bed. I wish you could. You have to rely on your diver to do them up –which is not to say that divers are unreliable, far from it, still – they have to work in difficult conditions. And the shackles MUST ALL BE MOUSED. What happens is that the rust attacks the threads so loosening them. There have been cases where the thread has disappeared altogether and it’s only the mousing that’s holding the pin in!

 

As long as your mooring gear is in good nick and you’ve prevented all the chafe then the boat will be OK.

How do you, or more to the point, your boat, survive the winter?

Well the best way is to take it out of the water, take off all the rigging, fill the cooling system with antifreeze, put new oil in the engine and gearbox, wrap the entire vessel in clingfilm and put it in a shed somewhere. Preferably in the middle of the Sahara, or Arizona. And don’t under any circumstances let it get anywhere near any water.
Even then there will be something wrong with it when you get her out. The button on the Morse control will have stuck. The battery will be flat (of course). You’ll have lost the key. A valve in the bilge pump will have stuck (due to lack of use no doubt). Oh, there’s all sorts of things that may have gone wrong.
NOT using a boat causes a lot of problems.
The answer is to keep her in commission. Mine lives on her mooring. She did when I lived on her so why not now? I can go out and run the engine every couple of days, pump the bilges, run the cabin heater, check for any loose ropes, and even go for little trip if there’s still time!

But there are some things I do do.

Take the sails off.

At best they are responsible for a lot of windage and at worst they can escape from their covers and get blown to bits.
There is a down side to this. If you’ve taken her out for a little spin and the engine stops you’re a bit stuck without sails, so I bend on an old mizzen, and lash it down tight, and have a hank-on jib handy. I also keep a small, no.3, jib to hand and that can be set flying on the storm jib halyard which only goes up to the spreaders. At least now I can heave to while the engine gets sorted out. Or even sail home with a bit of luck.

The running rigging.

I tie all the halyards together, attach a piece of line to the knot and run it up the mast. The fall ends are still there but you can twist them together and wrap them round a stay. Of course if they’re inside the mast then that’s even better. Which ever, it stops all the chafe and reduces the windage.

Sea Cocks.

Close them – all of them. Especially the toilet. I know a boat which sank because of a siphoning loo. (Yes, I really do. It happened).

And that’s it really. Secure every thing of course, but then you do that anyway don’t you. Don’t you?

It’s certainly best to have a full fuel tank and I use ‘Dri-Fuel’ as well. There’s never any water in the separator now.
Off the subject but relevant to fuel additives, put a cupful of engine oil in the tanks when you fill up. I got this tip from a gentleman who repairs injector pumps and he said he’s been getting more problems with them since low sulphur diesel was introduced. It used to lubricate the pump. Oil in the fuel solves it.

The Mooring.

Ah, that’s another article.

Hi,
Please let me introduce myself. I'm Ben Dallimore, once known as 'Ben the Boat' from when I lived on my boat and was based in Ballachulish.
I now live on the Isle of Luing, still have my boat, a Macwester 32 ketch, and also a 14ft. dinghy and a sea kayak.
My main occupation is making laminated wooden tillers and dinghies and canoes up to about 15 feet. These are mostly winter pursuits as I try to spend as much of the summer as I can sailing the West Coast of Scotland.
The main purpose for starting this blog is to talk about boats and sailing, maintenance and moorings, and of course to promote my business of making tillers!
The maintenance season is in full swing now, in another three months we’ll be thinking of getting back out on the water and going sailing, so please look at my website at www.boatsntillers.co.uk and lets get talking!
Thanks for reading,
Regards,

Ben

To contact me please click on my name at the top of any of the articles and you’ll get links to my email and website.