Prop polished

Polished the prop today & fitted the new flax packing rings, turns out that the box is designed for four rings of flax packing

 I also got my MMSI number today in the post so happy with that :)

Stuffing box

I opened the stuffing box to check the seal as there appears to have been little maintenance done to the boat prior to me buying her, as soon as I opened the box there was a strong burned smell. I picked out what was left of the old seal & bought a new 1m length, 3 rings of the 9.5mm waxed flax seal will be installed after a good clean of the box internally.....

Generator

Strange things happen, I had an old MIG welder for sale & a friend called to say that he had seen two generators that a company didn't know what to do with.... I headed over to the shop & did a straight swap for a brand new 5000w generator ;-) only problem is that it's a non-runner, it turns over but will not start, fuel is good so I'm wondering if it's a stuck decompressor or something equally simple...

BRAND NEW!!

* Update - it turned out after removing the rocker cover that the exhaust pushrod was disconnected,  I reconnected it and reset the valve clearances.... Purrs like a cat now.

Anodes

The anodes are a bit too depleted for this season so I replaced 6 of them, the hull will be blasted, painted & all anodes will be changed next Winter when the boat comes out of the water so this is just preventative maintenance until then, I wire brushed the anodes that still have life in them.

Swim platform pt3

Another good day, the frame is now built, I just need to deck it now & find a good way to fit my transducers....

Swim platform pt2

Still working on it, it will be covered in galvanised decking eventually (gallerdurk). One more cross piece to weld in to form an "A" in the center then fit the 45 degree bracings up to the deck handrails & see how it looks. 

Once it's back in the water I will check sizes/distance to the water& build a plate to fix a 25-30hp high-thrust/bigfoot outboard as my trolling engine & as a second engine for safety.

Swim platform

I have bought a pipe bender so will start joining pieces of pipe together to make a heavy duty swim platform. The plan is to fit a 25 - 30hp outboard to it as a back-up engine & more importantly for the hours of trolling at low speed which the Perkins main engine doesn't like.... I have an idea how to store the outboard at deck level when not in use but i'll have to test this system as I have not seen it anywhere on the internet.

Been a while since I welded but it's like riding a bike ;-)