Oh Skegness!

[Gummage]

Gummage towers marina is a dynamic sort of place come harvest time . With winter rations coming in and cattle in every shed(except when they go feral; see photo) It’s harder for E3 to find a safe berth away from all the action

 

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After my august trip I parked it in a general store shed and pushed it back “out of harms way” in a corner.

No such place ever existed in a busy store shed.

Too many of these thing shunting about

 

Apparently , according to my colleagues, it was a good thing that I was driving it when it clipped the drawbar and sent the boat back into the wall.

All that trouble that Chris goes to to dismantle an engine…. I found the quick way!

 

 

Hardly 200 hrs old

 

Did I feel gutted

 

 
You bet I did😢😢😢

 

Now it just so happens that not all the things that happen in this barn are bad.

 

 Ok so the fire  in February  wasn’t so good, but at least the boat wasn’t in there then and there was no blood. 
 

We had it all fixed  by July in time for the happy event of my daughters wedding to James.

We had a memorable Hoe down that night.

 

Now why is this relevant ?

Because I hadn’t so much “lost a daughter as gained a hairy mechanic”!

Not just any mechanic but one who can aluminium weld!

 

My motor is just out of guarantee. Holes bay marine supplied it and have serviced it. I’m pleased with their service; pricey but comparable with agricultural dealers. But it is a pain that I have to do a 100 mile round trip to use them, and I waste a day. And the straw that breaks the camels back; having to pay for parking as I leave Cobbs even though my boat has been looked  after on a premises which already pays cobbs a rent!

Good sorts that they are , they sent me a service package(impeller and all) so that James and I could do it at home. 
 

Pig sick pigs can be pig sick for a very long time and I was one pig sick pig.

James is a good  sport and gave up his Sunday to get me out of the malaise.

 

James set about the service. Here he’s accessing the plugs. Oil and fuel filters were changed and the thermostat.

 

Then the lower gear was dropped for the impeller change.

 

We pressed onto strip out the seals of the bevel box before welding

I hadn’t realised until this point that aluminium is extremely heat conductive and James was concerned that we could burn the seals or distort the gearbox housing . Our Shetland marine engineer friend Callum advised that wet towels can be used as a heat sink. We went with that, only after stripping out the gearbox using an improvised slide hammer.

 

James cleaned everything and got welding . First time lucky? No, it cracked. Then a sound result.

 

Every time we heated it there was a chance of damaging the gearbox but we knew this wasn’t good enough. So once again james fettled.

 

“

Neither of us would claim that it was perfect but  let’s see if the sea notices . 
 

mercury spray paint

 

blinky good stuff. We cleaned it with brake cleaning fluid first .

It’s a new propellor . We will mend the old one for a spare.

 

Will it be OK? Sea trial was last Tuesday ……….TBC