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

 

[Adam F]

Good work gents... nasty repair job is that. 

 

How did it hold up?

 

[Gummage]

Well Adam, first the fishing report:

 

I got to Tucton just after 7 o’clock and met Gordon there. He had diverted to the Christchurch angling Centre to get bait Hooky was sadly ill and had to cry off. I knew  was going out of Cobbs in pool on madness. I rang him to talk about the fog we both expected it to burn off quite soon meantime, Coffee at the Captains club was good.specially as the biggest disappointment of the day was that my flask was still in the kitchen.🥲

It’s worth noting that you could get breakfast there .

 

Drifted over the ledge for bass for a few hours. 

Shad nursed a cuttlefish to the boat . Ran out squid jigs and lazy feathers for much of the time. Nothing fell to them. 

Got a u/s pollack and a ballon and a bream to worm and  a small pouting to a shad.

Finally my shad got me a just and just sized Bass. 

Anchored to a small mark just west of the ledge which showed fish on the finder. Anchored bang on them. A shoal of mini bream. Spent too long at that but it afforded a break for lunch. 

 

Didn’t leave much time for plaice fishing and blanked at that. 

 

What a beautiful afternoon. The amber light the clouds  with raindrops spangling in the sun on a glassy sea. 

You could do better as a poet than a fisherman. 

 

But what of the sea trial for our skeg and newly serviced motor?

 

Really pleased. Motor Didn’t miss a beat. I had smashed the skeg to pieces and sonin law managed to to weld it back up . Good job but not plumb perfect . I was concerned that we might steer like the Bismark did after the torpedo hit.

But she ran true . You’d never tell the fault at the helm.

 

Chris64 from Banbury was asking who services outboards. James has a garage  in Cricklade , J&J vehicle engineering and if you could get a service pack he would be able to do it.

 

anyway, happy days!

[Graham Nash]

great result Martin, and possibly a handy "son in law" to keep in with 😉

[Alcyone]

Great job !! I cannot help but think though these marine engine manufacturers could all do a better job with their construction and material choice especially for the skeg area.. they are quite delicate and considering they are the first area to take a thump .. maybe they are designed especially for the after sales spares business and not for the customer

[Graham Nash]

Oooohhhh you cynic! 

[Adam F]

The skeg are is delicate - probably on purpose, semi sacrificial - it's the bit that hits the bottom first - if it was super strong it would be the transom that took the impact.

 

I passed you on the Wessex Way heading south that morning. I was out with Alun, we were squidding off Boscombe and had a hat full - great fun and super tasty!