Canvas pockets

An addition to the furniture of the boat. The last winter produced a lot of mold as a result of the poor quality tarpaulin I had over the boat. Mould cover the whole of the deck and in particular the inside of the boat. The previous canvas pockets were black with mold and not really suitable for further use.

My wife and I decided to make a custom made version which would fit on the back of the cabin wall to the left of the hatchway. The inset at the top of the pockets will fit around the back of my Garmin 451 chartplotter. The previous version over and therefore did not hang very well. There is sufficient length for them to finish above the locker entrance under the bridge deck.

These pockets are very useful to keep small things to hand whilst you are in the cockpit or in the cabin.

The canvas is uncoated acrylic canvas from PointNorth Fabrics in Anglesy. . http://www.profabrics.co.uk/ The canvas was sewn on an ordinary domestic sewing machine. My wife will take orders if you want a simialer thing made.

Wood restoration

The time had come to restore the woodwork to it's former glory. The previous owner had painted all of the woodwork with an external wood stain which I suspected was something like "Sandolin". This wood stain did provide with a robust finish and was quite resistant to knocks and abrasions. I have known some owners  to have used this finish with the argument that Drascombes are working boats and that the finish is not a huge importance.

I had decided against this finish because in places such as the lower gun wall it was pealing off and looking rather unattractive. The problem is that whatever paint finish you use it has difficulty in sticking to the oily surface of the wood. I suspect that the wood parts on my boat are made from Iroko. Teak has long since become too expensive and rare to be used on Drascombes. Speaking to Bob Brown of Honnour Marine even Iroko is becoming difficult to obtain in terms of cost and in sufficient lengths to complete the gunwale in 2 lengths. He was looking for an alternative. My previous boat a 1972 Lugger was finished in teak  which did look rather nice.

I decided to use Burges woodstain as  alternative as it does have a good performance of actually sticking to the oily wood. It may not have such a resistance to abrasion but it is used by the present day manufactures of Drascombes. The first problem is how to remove the old varnish. I decided to use paint and varnish stripper as previous use of a hot air gun resulted in damage to the timber through abrasion and burning. I used a cheap product and not the strong brands as I did not wish to damage the GRP if there were any splashes. I used masking tape to protest as much of the surrounding area as possible.  The stripper worked well but still required a lot of elbow grease in scraping off the coating. I used a furniture scraper. I found that 2 applications of stripper were needed to remove the wood stain. Finally washing off with fresh water. I sanded to remove the last traces of the old varnish and then painted with three coats of Burgess.

Forestay Rigging Repair

At the end of last season I found that the top of the roller reefing spar was in need of repair. The plastic collar in the top of the aluminium spar had become detached and the spar was rattling on the wire forestay. I tried to repair it myself with glue and only succeeded in gluing the fore stay to the plastic collar which had been fixed to the alloy spar. In other words I had made a real mess of the forestay. I managed to drill the plastic collar out of the alloy spar but as result needed to replace the collar.



I came to the opinion that I could not repair this myself as I did not have the tools to swage the terminals. The cheapest swaging tool I could find was £75. So I decided to employ the skills of a professional rigger. I made enquiries in local Chandlers and found that a lot of local riggers had gone out of business. The South Coast where there are a greater number of yachts is well endowed riggers.

A suggestion was made to seek out a rigger who works in the Underfall Yard in the Bristol Docks. I found Dennis Platten and his apprentice Jay running an enterprise called "Traditional Rigging"

http://www.underfallboatyard.co.uk/skills.htm

Underfall Yard  is a traditional boatyard which dates back to the time when the River Avon was made into a floating harbour with a system of locks and sluices. Brunel later improved the docks with an underfall sluice system to prevent the docks from silting up. The above website gives a lot more information about the history of the docks. The Underfall Yard is a hive of activity building and restoring traditional boats.

Jay repaired my fore stay and replaced the plastic coller at the top of the spar. I have now installed back on the boat and all works well.

Honda BF5 service

This is not a definitive guide to servicing an outboard but only an account of my experiences. If you have any doubts or queries please consult a qualified Honda service engineer. No liability will be accepted for anything contained in this account.

I decided this year to extend my skills and service the outboard myself. I purchased on E-Bay a Honda Service kit without oil at a cost of £28.75 plus postage of £2.70 from a company called Marine Tech based in Norwich. Delivery was prompt and a small brown cardboard box arrived in the Royal Mail post. Marine Tech in their E-Bay ad offered to send an E-Mail with a copy of the workshop manual. This proved to be very useful as it gave simple explanations as to how to carry out the service. No special tools were required and the only spanner I used was a 10mm socket. A large flat tipped screwdriver was also useful to undo the gearbox filler and drainage screws.

I first of all drained the engine oil so that I would not have the problem of engine oil getting into parts of engine whilst tipping the motor about.

The biggest job was the renewal of the water pump which required the dismantling of the gearbox from the outboard leg.The first task was to undo the gear connecting rod which was accessed through a rubber plug in the side of the leg. The gearbox was secured by two bolts which came undone easily and the gearbox dropped easily off the outboard leg. I think I was lucky in that the motor had previously been well maintained and the bolts were lubricated and not seized. The next task was to dismantle the water pump housing and pull off the gearbox drive shaft. The shaft was loose and slightly spring loaded so that it would connect with the drive shaft in the leg. I removed the rubber pump vane which appeared to be in good condition after two seasons although the rubber vanes had adopted the shape of the pump housing and some of the arms were permanently bent.. I have been told that lack of use can also be a disadvantage to the life of pump impellers. The received thinking is that they should be replaced at the annual service. I then reassembled the impeller and the housing ensuring that the impeller vanes are pointing away from the direction of rotation. I replaced the gaskets with ones from the service kit. The manual gives torque settings for all the bolts and I took care to make sure they were tightened correctly.

Whilst I had the gearbox off the motor I took the opportunity to remove the propeller and take off some the worst burrs with a file. Grease the shaft and replace the prop and renew with the supplied split pin. I then drained the gearbox oil and refilled.

I apolgise for the lack of photographs but the next task was the most difficult. I laid the motor on it's side on the work bench with the aim of refitting the gearbox onto leg. There are three items which you need to connect all at once and they are the water feed pipe to the engine, the drive shaft and the gearbox connecting rod. The first thing to do is to ensure that the square drive shaft is aligned with the square socket of the drive shaft. I became concerned when the drive shaft dropped out of the leg. The upper end is a splined shaft which mates with motor at the top end of the shaft. I managed to reconnect the shaft with the motor unseen by carefully pushing the shaft up and locating the splined shaft of the motor. After about 15minutes of fiddling the gearbox and the 3 components slid together. Turning the prop rotated the flywheel and so they were properly connected. The sealing ring of the water feed pipe was properly in place. I tightened the gearbox linkage and ensured that the correct amount of travel was in place using a micrometer.

The next task was to move to the top of the engine and check the valve gap settings. Removed the spark plug. In line with the manual the valve gaps were in tolerance. I had removed the cover taking care not to break the gasket as no replacement was in the kit.

Replaced the spark plug wit a new one from the kit.

A gasket for the thermostat housing was included in the kit but no thermostat. There was little explanation as to why it needed to be checked other that how to check that it was operating properly. I removed the cover and got a bit of a shock. The exterior of the engine was in good condition as you can see. The removal of the cover revealed a corroded thermostat with accumulation of sale, corrosion and weed. The thermostat itself was in the open position and so was defective. I had not noticed that the engine was slow to warm up. This exercise did emphasize the value of flushing the motor at every opportunity with fresh water. A new thermostat cost £23.40 from a local chandlery.

I then greased the points as described in the manual.

Tested the motor today. good healthy flow from the tell tale, forward and reverse work. All in order. I have gained a greater understanding of the workings of the motor.

Update on the jib sheet track

After much head scratching and an attempt to fill the holes with epoxy filler with a view to re drilling and then screwing the fixings back in with a hope that a new thread would be cut. The problem with that solution was that you would never be able to fill the void with epoxy. The screw fixings were only fixed to the thickness of GRP and not for the full length of the machine screws. I then explored a suggestion made by Stewart Brown of Churchouse Boats to use a plug fixing. A search of the racks at B&Q failed to find a suitable plastic plug. I then made a search of my own stock and found a rawplug type fixing made by Fischer.

I found that these would accept the 5mm machine screw and that they would need a 6mm hole. So the existing 5mm hole needed to be drilled out by 1mm. This I felt was not too a drastic alteration. When the plugs were fitted they were a nice tight fit as I did not want the plug to rotate in the hole.

I used epoxy with filler to glue the track down and the machine screws tightened up well. The track now feels quite firm and I hope is now secure. I will let you know if there are any problems.

Jib Sheets

Took the cover off the boat as the weather was fine and warm.

The jamb cleat for the jib sheets was in efficient and had the annoying habit of un jambing at the most inconvenient time. So I have adopted the same solution as for the mizzen sheet and installed a Barton Cam Cleat. I have reduced the number of holes I had to drill by utilizing one of the existing ones and turning the cam cleat to the right angle. The one remaining hole I plan to fill with a bolt.

The other problem which was identified on the last trip out was that the starboard jib sheet track was loose at the forward end. When I removed the bolt I found that it was screwed directly into the GRP and that the thread had been ripped out. I also found that the second and third screw were loose. I have removed the screws and looking for a solution. I have not as yet removed the track completely as the remaining screws and bolts are fixed tight and they screw into a portion of the deck over a buoyancy chamber. The loose screws are over a locker in the bridge deck which is accessible from the cabin. I am looking for a solution, considering a plug of some kind or to drill right through into the locker and secure with a bolt with penny washers. I will keep you posted.

  

Laid up for Winter 20th October 2011

I recently uncovered the boat and found that the single sheet of plastic tarpaulin had not been keeping the damp from underneath the cover. The green tarpaulin although large is not of the best quality. I have now put in addition a better quality plastic sheet which is made up of several layers. It is not as large but it does cover the cockpit and the cabin. The damp had some damage although it may not be permanent. The damp had allwed mold to grow on a canvas hanging pockets in the cabin which is now going have to be replaced. Mold has also accumulated on the inflatable dinghy cover which was stored outside in the cockpit.

I have now a number of projects for the next season.

Replace and make set of canvas hanging pockets.
Replace the cleat for the jib sheets.
Complete the fittings for a foresail pole out.
Service outboard.