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Now we’re ready for the final three layers of mat and roving. It’s important to soak the fiber glass until it’s fully saturated but don’t leave excess material standing in a puddle. Also it’s important to set the washers flat and square in the fiberglass. This means running the nuts down to contact just to set the washers properly. |
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Oh by the way, to do the job properly, the engine needs to be removed to get the spacer wood removed in the aft 15 inches of the bilge. Also remove the space material under the mast support. Replace this material with epoxy and filler paste. Since you have the engine out, it is a good idea to replace the motor mounts. This is the tricky part of the job that takes a little patience to get the alignment right. |
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Pulling the engine |
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Dremel the side wall at the curve of the bilge side wall, remove top layer in sections to expose the wood. |
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With the wood removed, the keel studs are fully exposed. You can see the witness marks left from the forstner bit. |
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To start with, make sure you have a set of long handle open end wrenches 3/8 through ¾ inches. Secondly you need multi-colored markers, note cards and zip ties. You will need 2 – 3ft 4x4 and 3 – 4ft 4X4’s. One of the 4 footers is for over the companion way to pull the engine and the others are for blocking the engine on the galley inner liner support. Use a $15 “come along” puller to actually lift the engine. |
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Now start color match marking all of your wires, hoses and cables. Use zip ties and cards to create detailed name tags. This will be a great help when reconnecting everything as you reinstall the engine. It will also help you understand how everything works. |
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What we found |
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Of course the purpose of pulling the engine was to get at all of the aft wood from the bilge spacer. The plan was the replace all of the motor mounts just based on the 1987 vintage of the boat. To our surprise we found one the motor mounts totally loose. It was sliding all over the place. It would tighten up, however the mounting holes were totally soaked with oil and water. Also there were several cracks in the support struts. At this writing we are planning to drill out all of the mounting holes until we have all good wood. We will then fill in with epoxy and drill new holes for threaded studs replacing the lag bolts entirely. The motor mounts themselves were totally shot. These are the original single center bolt style. For simplicity purposes I will be replacing them with the same design. They were $70 each at the local marine store. |
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All sounds like great fun, doesn’t it? |
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Jack Gray, “Lady Godiva” |
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CRCA Racing |
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Enrollment forms for the Fun Race and for Spring and Fall Series are included with this issue of Catscan. The forms can also be found on the club web site. Please fill them out and send them back to Jack Gray along with your entrance fees. |
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Bilge Repair, continued |
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CRCA Web Site, www.crcasail.org |
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Want to check something you read in a past catscan issue? Maybe you need a copy of a race application form. You can check the CRCA web site. There will be more and more content as we become familiar with what can be done and how to do it. The site also provides the opportunity to set up your own e-mail account or use ahoythere@crca.org to send a message to the whole club. Check it out! And the next time you see Erv Zimmerman, thank him for all the work he put into the site. |
