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.