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Installing a new YANMAR at Gibraltar
from Alan Tyson-Carter | E-Mail alantysoncarter@hotmail.com |
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SITREP 36 / Sheppard’s Marina / Gibraltar Wednesday 30 Oct. 02 Hi! It is amazing, but I realise it is now some ten weeks since I last reported in! I have been quite busy during the whole time, though much of it was due to waiting to get my money released to pay for the new engine. I made the decision to install a YANMAR engine in the end. In many respects I landed on my feet when I got here. The first person I met was a chap called Richard from England on a boat on the other side of the jetty to mine. He had just had a new YANMAR 56 Hp engine installed and had bought it from Cellar Marine in Cornwall. There is no YANMAR agent in Gibraltar. He showed his smart new engine to me and introduced me to Ian Hurst off a boat called SHAMBLER’S RUN (UK) who installed the engine for him. Sheppard’s I understand charge £3000 for the privilege of doing so, Ian by comparison did it for less than £500! I contacted Cellar Marine and they were very helpful and offered me a similar engine 56 Hp with a different gearbox for a very reasonable price. This was much cheaper than the Volvo engine or the Perkins, but not as cheap as the Nissan engine that Ian could have got for me? As the reputation of YANMAR is quite good and other sailors I know have sung the praises of their YANMAR engine I decided on this one. Ian now proved to be a real gem as he knew what was required to fit this engine to my boat. He helped me get my old engine out, using my main boom and we dumped it on the deck. This sadly made KARMA look a bit like “Steptoe’s Yard” as I had begun to take it apart to make getting it out easier. Consequently there were bits of old engine and engine controls, wires and cables littering my deck. As I did not want to pay twice for a crane to lift it all off the boat, I left it rusting there till the new engine arrived, some six weeks later! ( For my German and American friends and all those in UK not old enough to know, “Steptoe and Son” were a firm of scrap metal merchants in London who collected their scrap with a horse and cart. It was a very funny and popular black and white TV program in the early 60’s.) Ian now measured exactly how the new engine would fit into my boat and aligns with the prop shaft. We then welded two rails down each side of the keel in the engine compartment at this angle and at the right height for the new engine mounts. Ian also was able to calculate exactly how long the new prop shaft needed to be, as of course I needed a longer one. I also needed a right handed propeller as my old one was a left handed one. I then spent much time on the empty engine compartment and prepared it to receive the new engine. I was able to repair all the things in it that had broken, such as the fuel gauge which was damaged in the fire I had. I was able to tidy up and rip out redundant wiring that runs through the compartment, I painted it all in white and then ripped out the old and fitted new sound proofing, also in white. I fitted a halogen light into the compartment so that I now can see the thing much better. I decided also to fit a new day tank and went to Spain to buy a nice plastic 55 litre one. This I installed above the engine compartment and directly below the cockpit floor. I gave up two lockers that were there to do this. This day tank now feeds the engine by gravity, thereby avoiding all the air bleeding problems I had with the old. The engine lift pump feeds the day tank, so it remains constantly full. I also fitted a new wind charger or generator as you may remember the old one fell of in the Red Sea. I must now admit to getting thoroughly depressed for about a week to ten days after I had done most of this work. During this period I was not able to function normally, but just vegetated and stewed in my own juice. Why? I hear you ask. Well nothing seemed to be going right in my life. For the first time in four years I felt really lonely, there was no one here in Gib I knew. I was worried about continuing the voyage so late in the season and felt a bit of a failure in that I had not managed to finish it and get home by my birthday. The voyage since Suez had not gone right and I was thoroughly frustrated and fed up with it all. I was also concerned about what life I would be leading when I did finally get back. It was definitely the lowest part of the whole voyage. On the basis of what does not kill me makes me strong, thanks also mainly to Hanna’s continued tremendous support and understanding, which sometimes I don’t deserve I have emerged from this period changed and with a better understanding of where I am going. In September Gibraltar celebrated its National Day which commemorated the day in 1967 when the Gibraltarians voted to remain British. Everyone dressed up in red and white and showed their solidarity with the Government to be allowed to determine their own future and they reject the British and Spanish governments idea to share sovereignty of the Rock. To this end they are holding a referendum on 7 November and the signs are that they will reject the idea of joint sovereignty with an overwhelming majority. The Rock is an interesting place and the Gibraltarians speak fluent English and Spanish. It is quite odd to hear them change from one to the other much like Hanna and I change from one language to the other. Perhaps the only thing I thoroughly dislike about the place is the fact that they allow smoking everywhere. Shop assistants smoke. People smoke in queues in the Post Office and shops. Taxi drivers smoke while driving passengers. Nowhere does there seem to be a smoke free zone. I have made two short trips round the Rock, once on a borrowed bicycle and once on foot. On each occasion I entered and trespassed into closed off tunnels to be able to complete the journey round the Rock. I have yet to go up it, but hope to do so later this week. I finally managed to get the engine delivered on Wednesday 16 October. How I found it is a tale in its self, but I’ll not bore you with that. When I did get it delivered here I had a problem with Sheppard’s who did not have a crane and wanted to charge me £140 to hire one for the job of lifting it on board. I found a small firm with a one ton lifting crane on a small truck which agreed to do the job for £30. We did this on the Thursday. In fact Ian suggested that I haul out over the lunch hour so that I could fit the new prop shaft and propeller while I was in the bay where the crane would come. This was an excellent idea. So that day I was towed to the lifting bay, hauled out, changed the shaft and prop, put back in the water lifted the new engine on to the boat and took the old one off. It was not quite as easy as the telling especially as the prop shaft had to be cut to fit. The firm instead of sending me a 1270mm shaft as asked sent me a 1700mm one. On Friday 18 October using my main boom again Ian and I placed the engine and aligned it exactly with the shaft. Now the work that Ian had done before was shown to be first class. We were able to slide the new engine down the rails until we got it as far back as possible and we aligned it quite easily. On Saturday we then connected all the hoses, fuel and water and fitted the new single lever Morse control. And on Monday 21 October at 1320hrs after connecting the electrics the engine started first time! I have had to reconstruct the forward end of the engine compartment to accommodate that end of the engine. Even that works well as now one can easily remove the step which I made to get at the front end of the engine, something I could not do with the previous one. On Monday 28 October I took KARMA out for a short sea trial to see how she handles. In fact she is a new boat now as her characteristics are totally different. In reverse she now kicks to Port and not to Starboard. I am more than satisfied with the result and can say that it has all been worth it. KARMA now has a new lease of life and motoring even in strong wind will no longer be the problem it used to be. The old engine was called “Dirty Dick” and I have decided to call the new engine “Charlie”. Every boat has a “right Charlie” on it and I am fed up with it being me! :-) I had one last bit of bad luck I am sorry to say. The other day I climbed my masts to check the rigging and found that the top of the roller furling gear which has a large plastic part to keep it from the stay has broken and the extrusion round which the Genoa gets furled was loose on the stay. If I used it in that condition there would be a danger that it would jam and I could not roll the Genoa away or get it down. In the worst case it could lead to me loosing the stay and consequently the mast altogether. I have taken the Genoa off and with Brec’s help folded it away. I can still use my working jib on the inner forestay and as I now have a working engine can motor to windward in light airs if necessary. Once past Cape Finisterre I do not expect light airs anyway. The gear did jam up in the Red Sea and this may have been where and when it happened. Brec on OTTER left yesterday for the Canaries and so it was the final parting of the ways for us. We are still keeping in touch as long as we can on the SSB radio but his parting has shown me that my life is gradually changing for ever. By the time you read this I will be ready in all respects to set off for England. My only problem now is getting the right weather window for the trip. It does not look like I will make it this week now. My last window of opportunity for leaving Gibraltar at all going west was today, as the wind will turn to the West tomorrow and make leaving difficult and impossible by Wednesday through the next weekend by the look of it. The weather that those in England and in Germany are having at the moment does not encourage me to set off at all I have to say. Consequently I have prepared KARMA for the worst. I have prepared warps to trail and also prepared and placed the parachute sea anchor ready for deployment. I hope that if I manage to judge the weather window correctly I will not have to resort to these devices to save my boat. If you want to follow the weather that I am likely to get then go to the following web site: http://www.wetterzentrale.de/topkarten/fsngpeur.html As you will gather this is a German site but the charts you see are really those of the US Navy. For my English speaking friends when the box at the top opens you will see that you can get from 12 to 144hrs of 500hpa pressure charts. Scroll down this panel until you find the 10m wind, which is also forecast for 12 to 144 hrs ahead. From this site one can also check the UK Met office site (UKMO), but they only give three pressure charts for 96 to 144hrs ahead and not the 10m wind forecasts. I had thought that I might get out of here on Thursday or Saturday, but that is no longer the case as the winds are changing quicker than forecast over the last weekend. So I will just have to sit and wait till the weather changes and then I will leave as quickly as I can. Love Alan. |
