[ILikeRust]

Inching closer to getting the engine back in the boat...

Went back up to the boat again today - another crazy hot day. This time, though, I brought along the cheap box fan I bought at WalMart yesterday and laid it down on the open forward hatch. It helped a lot - both to keep the heat inside the boat down and to move the paint fumes out. I was still sweating like a race horse, but not quite as profusely as last time.

I fit the new battery box that I fabbed up last week, and epoxied in a support for it. I also laid down two more coats of Bilgekote bilge paint, so that should pretty much be done, except for one or two small spots that need just a little more work.

I need to fix the attachment point for part of my centerboard pennant system. There is a spool hanging on the bulkhead above the engine, and the line goes down a copper tube next to the engine, then into an enclosed pulley that turns it about 70 degrees, then forward, under the cabin sole to another enclosed pulley that turns it down outside the hull, where it then attaches to the centerboard.

The first enclosed pulley is attached to a hunk of wood that *was* epoxied into the hull next to the engine beds. Looks like it let go some time ago, and someone (probably the prior owner, I'm guessing) stuck a couple screws through the fiberglass tab into the wood to try to hold it in place.

So next weekend, I'll go back up to the boat and install the prop shaft and stuffing box, and hopefully re-epoxy that wooden block for the centerboard pennant. Then I'll do the final bits of bilge painting that need to be done, and then she should be ready to receive the engine!

So the week after next, if all goes according to plan, I'll take a day off work (oh, I'm heartbroken about that) and head up there early. I'll have the yard fire up the crane and drop the engine back in, and then do some hooking back up of various connections. I'll probably have to finish the job the following weekend, but once the engine is in, I'll re-launch, despite the fact that there's no cabin sole and lots more interior woodworking, painting and varnishing to do. I figure I can do that in the slip at the marina - I want to stop paying this monthly yard fee and get her back in the water!

Even if the cabin is still a wreck, at least I can still day-sail her...