repairs…

I’ve been very busy recently, and consequently have neglected my blogging duties. Suzerain was lifted out of the water on 17 April. This is the first time I’ve had her lifted out, and it was a pretty nerve-wracking experience, although it all went to plan. Here are some photos:

You can see the newly-installed and fully functioning Duogen in the second of those photos. She got a good pressure-washing before being shored up on the hard:

Before coming out of the water I was advised to speak to a particular one of the several engineers / mechanics in the boatyard, David. Luckily, he’s turned out to be really good, as the problems with my prop shaft and engine turned out to be worse than anticipated. The shaft tube had effectively collapsed, so David custom-built a giant drill bit to remove it by welding a hole saw blade onto a steel bar:

The engine and engine-compartment were described by my surveyor as ‘grubby and unloved’ last year, and I’m afraid things hadn’t improved much since then. So we decided to do the job properly and lift the engine out. Here it is shortly after:

The engine mounts were very rusty and no longer viable. It also turned out that the starter motor cable had half chafed through, and had to be replaced:

The local chandlery had two mounts the right size, and David kindly supplied two more from his workshop. His colleague Brandon spent a Saturday washing the engine down and removing all the rust, and he then painted it beautifully, leaving it looking good as new.

I spent a couple of days properly cleaning out the engine compartment, including the very dirty bilge, and replacing some of the lining. David made a new shaft tube, which he epoxied into place after the engine had been lifted back in and the shaft properly aligned. He also made steel plates to strengthen the attachment of the mounts to the hull:

In between this and other repair jobs, I spent a day helping my friend Adrian delivering a yacht to a cargo ship in St Johns, for onward delivery back to Europe:

Naturally I’ve also been attending happy hour in the marina bars religiously, making friends with the local characters including the owner of the Crow’s Nest’s four month old puppy:

I’m probably doing more delivery work early next week, and then I’m scheduled to go back into the water on Thursday 31 May, and am planning to leave on 2 June, probably for Bermuda; around a month later than planned, but still avoiding hurricanes hopefully! One advantage of being here at this time of year is that people who are leaving their boats for the summer give away loads of food, so I’ve been doing well out of that, and shouldn’t need to buy too much more before leaving! I’m planning to spend a couple of nights in Bermuda at least, before making the long trip to the Azores, probably Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel. I’m planning to stay there for a week at least before making the final trip to the UK, probably Falmouth. All weather permitting of course!