Coddy

As it was a nice sunny day and completed a few jobs for FPO I thought it was about time I started up the engine on Sammy 2
 
Found that there was a bit of rain water in the bilge so got that emptied first.
 
It has been over a year since it last started so I expected problems, however it fired up after a couple of seconds on the key! :-)
 
The fuel is now 4+ years old and it still ran ok.
 
I quickly noticed however that the water tell tail was not showing and water out of it. After checking that the hole & pipe was not blocked I started to look to wee if the intake was blocked.
This was clear so I thought I better drop the leg off and check the impellor, this was replaced a while ago but has not run for any time since. It was a struggle to come off but it did in the end, I checked that water flowed through the housing with the hose and I could hear the impellor turning in the housing so there was no need to strip that down.
I found a pipe of almost the right size to put over the pipe that runs from the pump to the engine and put the hose on this, sure enough out came water from the tell tale outlet so I knew water was getting around the engine so what to try next?
 
I put the leg back on and tried it again, still no water so I tried the hose on the nipple on the engine and reversed flow of water, started it up and low and behold it all worked as it should. :-)
Tried the engine a couple of times on and off and each time water came out as it should and no overheating. I suspect there was an air lock in the engine somewhere.
Well this covered a few hours so I know the engine is still good, just got to finish of the painting inside the cabin and we might be ready to launch!

Well my eldest son said he was down here for a weeks holiday and could I get the boat ready to use!
 
He did supply me a new fuel line and priming bulb so I installed this and tested out all the engines. All seemed good to go.
 
Due to try out the launch on Sunday but due to various things it didn't happen but at least she is ready, just need to fill the tank with fresh fuel and oil (2-stroke) and have a quiet day down at Baiter.
 
Still have to wire up the electrics on my car but both sons have 4x4 cars with tow-bars and working electrics so no problem in getting down to the water.
 
Watch this space, she might get a bum wet in 2014 and may be catch a fish to get off 0 in the boat species comp!

Well having been out fishing on Sparky's boat on Friday, inspired me to get on with Sammy 2's VHF install.
 
As I wanted to be able to remove the vhf I needed to buy a plug and socket so that it can easily connect to the GPS wiring to provide the DSC function.
 
Found a good place to mount the radio and also the GPS plug I started drilling holes and fitting the radio. It took a while to work out which wires to use to get the feed from the GPS to the radio but it all worked first time.
 
Connections were then all soldered up and a good listening test was carried out. I did think about calling the Coastguard for a radio check but they seemed busy with lifeboats and Jetski's, divers missing, boats running out of fuel breakdown just the usual sunny afternoon call outs, so I gave it a miss.
 
Just got to wire up the trailer socket on the car and we should be ready for a launch.
 
Oh went onto the Ofcom site and got my MMSI number straight away so just got to input that into the radio, whilst I was online I updated the CG66 form with the radio details.
 
Next small job is to sort out the auxillary engine to make sure it runs ok.