A few steps closer :)

[c_witch]

Well we are getting closer all the time. We tried to fire up the outboard 2 days ago and no go discovered the quick connect fitting to the engine was leaking big time. So today went into Halifax and got a new fittings as well as gear oil,engine oil, new plugs and ordered a filter for the fuel pump. Got home installed the new fitting and still no go :cussing: so Sas will the pulling the carb off tomorrow and having a look at it. It did sit for quite some time before we bought it and its been sitting here for nearly 2 years now.

Finally dropped the mast and stepped it to the second hole and re-raised it to measure the baby and main shrouds. So I stopped into the Binnicle while in HFX today and they managed to shorten them by using swagged fittings. Picked up new sheets for the jig and a topping lift line. Also got a micro block to route the keel cable onto the new keel winch. I think I will get another one and mount of the bottom side so that the cable does not ride on the edge of the tube.

The water tank is now finished along with 99 percent of the cabin painting. While the mast is down I'll pop the mast head and fish the wires for the anchor light and vhf and get that stuff finally off the books. I've sanded the cockpit and repainted all of it except for the actual pit lol. I installed a new traveler setup as the old one was like the bow sprit very crappily done. I can't install the traveler until the new keel winch is install as the winch has to be installed at about a 45 degree angle relative to the bottom side of the traveler in order to have enough room for the handle to swing without (hopefully) smashed knuckles. I've decided to mount the transducer for the fishfinder inside the hull so will silicone that down some time on the weekend and run the wiring for that when we finish up the radio connections.

Saturday I have to run over to the club and pay our membership and moorage fee's. I had hoped to have the outboard working ahead of time, but it does fire using starting fluid so the problem is its not getting fuel :cussing:. Hopefully the weekend after this coming we will finally get her in the water for the first time in who knows how long. Outside of a new keel pivot bolt and finishing off the bow hook all will be done structurally at least. There is some minor cosmetic stuff to do but it would wait fill fall if need be.

I must say that I am really looking forward to finally seeing her in the water and may even stay aboard her for the weekend when we finally .

c_witch

 

[Sail123]

! Congratulations !

 

[Charisma]

Sounds like quite the project. How about some photos?

 

[Merlin Clark]

If you'll check "other posts by c_witch" you'll see Brina has posted a good number of pics.

 

[c_witch]

Well Sasha cleaned the carb and re-installed and still won't run. This time we had some fuel squirting out of the carb thru some type of outlets. So back down to Halifax. I took it into a bike shop, also a Honda dealer, and according to the mechanic some internal passages are clogged and it was leaking thru breather holes. Long story short they quoted 2 hours labor to clean @ 80.00 an hour. Can't get a new one as its been discontinued. On a off chance I took it to another Honda dealer, this time a rental outfit. The service guy took it outback to their mechanic and he poped it open had a look and same diagnosis only this time 32.00 bucks to clean it. I guess bike shops are like marina's, they figure theres one borne every second lol. Anyhow we get it back next week and I hope that finally it will run for us. The engine looks to have never been used to speak of ie very very low hours.

Got the wires in the mast and the new anchor light on and later today will get the vhf antenna attached as well as the shrouds. I guess we'll restep the mast to make sure everything is right after I also install a block and line for the topping lift.

I'm thinking of pushing the launch date back to the 9th June so we don't feel pressured.

c_witch

 

[caguy]

C-witch, what kind of motor do you have? If you go to Honda you can pull down old manuals and get part numners. If you do an Ebay search for your carb with that number one will almost certainly come up. You can buy Honda carbs anywhere from $40 to $80. Here is an example http://www.ebay.com/itm/HONDA-4-STR..._Accessories_Gear&hash=item2570f1a5d9&vxp=mtr
Sometimes they are even new. It sounds like the plugs were blown out or removed when they cleaned it. The are passages that are drille to make interal passages and idle jets. They plug them with lead plugs after the jet is made. If an air compressor is used to blow out the passages these plugs can go shooting accross the garage like a bb gun. They shouldn't have charged you for fixing their mistake.

 

[c_witch]

No the carb had not been taken into anyone for any cleaning. Sasha took it apart to make sure the float etc was working. We can see the passages used during assembly and they have what looks like s/s steel balls in them to plug etc. As she nor I knew what these other holes were I decided to take it into a Honda shop to have one of their carb techs have a look and tell me what they were for. They are some sort of breather in the carb but due to very tiny passages being clogged inside gas was being forced out of them rather than into the combustion chambers.
The motor is a 1985 Honda BF75 (7.5 hp). The carborator is NO longer available for it from Honda ie discontinued. While the leg and cover are a bit weathered when you pop the cover off the engine itself is like brand new so its seen very little use

On the positive side of things I was over to the yacht club today and paid our membership so our new home for the boat will be the PYC here on the eastern shore of Nova Scotia. Its a very small club and I think the atmosphere suits me perfectly. We have a mooring available to us, but I was also informed that a slip will be available if we want it. As a matter of fact when we launch we will go into a slip for about a week as the moorings have to be dived upon to check them before being let out.

Our friend down the road will not be able to haul us over there till the 10th of June so that is to be our launch date.

The slips are normally 350 a season plus an additional 150 for the first year, but I was informed today that they'll waive the additional 150 for us if we choose to take the slip this season.

Sas has the new bolts ready for the bow hook so tomorrow we will get them in and the backing plate etc done. We'll be popping the pivot bolt for the keel and when I go down to Halifax next week I'll pick up a new s/s one to replace it. With that in and a new sole (the old one I made last year 1/2'' was to springy feeling) 3/4'' and the keel winch is installed then all the structural work will be done and she'll be sailable.

Now to settle on a name for her

c_witch

 

[chp]

Wow $350 for a slip. Here in Hamilton they want $2200 for my 26'. I keep it dry moored for $650. I've run into problems with my Merc off and on. Problem was the fuel. With a sailboat I'm lucky if I use 4 or 5 gallons all year. The fuel with the ethanol is crap. I use a stabilizer now in the fuel and only keep a half tank on board.
Nice job on the boat. Hope you get a good year and good winds to sail her.

 

[finding41]

$10/ year at Fanshawe Yacht Club for a dock. You provide the dock. $65 for a mooring. Membership and conservation area pass for boat and car just under $450/ year. Best deal around here! I chose to use a dock. Its just so much easier. No rowing. Saves lots of time.
I used Shell super because it doesn't have Ethanol. $30 to fill the tank.

 

[c_witch]

I guess some us have some pretty good deals for our boats.

Well the wires are run in the mast and it is re-stepped and the shrouds look to be the right length now. I think I may have to replace one of the barrels on the strbrd main should as it had a long barrel whereas the one we took the measurement from had a shorter barrel. The anchor light is working now kinda as I dropped one of the set screws so will probably replace the whole plug rather then mickey mousing it. It seems plenty bright enough though. I was worried as I replaced the filement bulb with an LED. I cut the blocks for the keel winch today and will plane them down tomorrow and run glass tape and resin around the lamination. They may be ready to go on on Tuesday. I will have to post some photo's of that as its hard to explain what we've had to to to make the winch work lol. Hope to pop the pivot pin for the keel tomorrow so when I head into HFX later in the week I will know what to get to replace it with. Once the winch is done and the keel pin is in plus the new sole and bow hook she'll be ready to sail and we should easily be done by the coming weekend. Our tower will not be available till June 10th so that will be our splash date which will afford a little extra time to take care of some of the other more cosmetic stuff.

c_witch

 

[Dougo]

Once you get your motor going well, do yourself (and your motor) a favor and buy some ethanol free fuel. You will have far less problems that you're having! Here's a link, just pick your location to find the gas! My ethanol added fuel lasted one month last year. No more!

http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp

 

[caguy]

If you can find a small private air strip near you, you can buy 100 octane plane fuel. It has not ethanol. Its called 100LL Avfuel. It's about a buck more a gallon but well worth it. The pilot who bought some for me pointed out some additional advantages. It does not smell like regular gas, its a little sweeter and doesn't leave a gas smell on your hands if you clean your hands with it. I also has a lower freezing point so your safe to take your boat to 20K feet. He says the blue color also shows leaks better.
I bought 12 gallons last year and it is still good. Without the ethanol it will not absorb water.

 

[chp]

$10/ year at Fanshawe Yacht Club for a dock. You provide the dock. $65 for a mooring. Membership and conservation area pass for boat and car just under $450/ year. Best deal around here! I chose to use a dock. Its just so much easier. No rowing. Saves lots of time.
I used Shell super because it doesn't have Ethanol. $30 to fill the tank.

I wish I some better options in the GTA. What bugs me is there are a lot of empty sllips. Its all government run here and they just don't get it to lower the price and get all the slips rented out.
Good to know about the fuel. I'll switch over right away. Even with the Stabilizer I still find some water globs in the filter.

 

[Manureva]

c-witch, the fuel pump could be the culprit on your motor, it is about 12$ and easy to replace, just put every diagframe and gasket in the same order, and if you suspect one of the ball bearing or cap that are closing a passage to be leaking you can reseal them with your wife nail polish, the choice of color is up to you, the nail polish trick is a secret for the small engine tech, gasoline wont dissolve it and it will seal about anything needing sealing.

 

[c_witch]

We had gas squirting out of the breather holes on the carb when pulling on the rope so the fuel pump is working. A Honda carb tech guy said it was the passages in the carb (very very small ones) that are causing the problem. I expect to get a call in a day or so to go pick it up after they cleaned it.

The bow hook is finally installed. Our problem was that the stem is quite thick and the bolts did not reach thru to the inside of the hull. So I had to cut out a piece of the stem about an 1 1/2 deep. Then we had to get some 5/8'' s/s bolts drill holes thru the ends and tap them then cut the head off. Then these were screwed onto the ends of the U-bolt and I made up a backing plate from 3/16 x 1 1/2 bar stock about 5 inches long. Slid that over the bolts and added the lock washers and nuts.

The keel winch block is made now and thru bolts for the winch are installed. Tomorrow I have to get a longer bit to drill the thru bolts that will bolt it to the traveler and then I think use lag screws on the front half. At any rate it should be done tomorrow if it doesn't pour rain.

I took the old sole and put it back in today and marked it to allow for a slightly looser fit. Tomorrow I will trim it then use it as the template for the new sole which is 3/4''.

The battery floor is back in and the lock down rods for the batteries are installed along with 1 battery for now.

This weekend we'll be putting it back onto the trailer and then I can finish off that little section of bottom that I couldn't get at last year.

I'm not sure what we'll do about the boot stripe as we don't really know where the water line is. Basically we just went with where the original bottom paint was.

c_witch

 

[caguy]

We had gas squirting out of the breather holes on the carb when pulling on the rope so the fuel pump is working. A Honda carb tech guy said it was the passages in the carb (very very small ones) that are causing the problem. I expect to get a call in a day or so to go pick it up after they cleaned it.

If you have gas coming out of your carb vent hole when you pull the cord then you have a problem with your float, float valve or valve seat. Most likely the float adjustment. That may cure all of your ailments.

 

[flynfol]

Carry some extra plugs and fuel line(high aromatics attack rubber) if you use Avgas. Even though it is called LL ( low lead) , it will foul plugs on motors that don't operate at high power settings. It does smell good raw and burned ;-)

 

[c_witch]

Ok I got the call this morning that the carburator was ready to be picked up. I made a list of things needed yet and headed down to get it. Tomorrow sometime we will put it back on the kicker and plop it into the tank yet again and see what happens. Hopefully this time it will start and run ok. I picked up a new pivot bolt for the swing keel and it is in but in the morning I have to get another turn on the nut so that I can get the cotter pin into it. The keel winch will be going on tomorrow as well and the new cable and micro block under the hull to carry the cable into the cable tube. Friday she'll be coming down off the cradle and back onto the trailer so I can finish off the last bit of epoxy and bottom paint that couldn't be gotten to last year due to the cradle being in the way. Not much left now just to install a new boom bail and re-install the traveler track and the new sole once its been glassed.
Some minor electrical connections to make and she'll be ready to sail at last.

c_witch

 

[c_witch]

New Traveler and Keel Winch mounting

A couple of pictures of the original traveler set up and NO keel winch to how I have now set it up with the keel winch.

You can also see part of the new cockpit sole that I installed and as yet unpainted.
I'll be painting that after posting this.

c_witch

Update: We dumped the outboard into the tank at home and finally got it fired up and running. The idle is pretty rough so I guess we'll take it into a local shop for a tune up oil and gear oil change. I was concerned as we had never seen it run so didn't know what the story was with it. Big load off my mind now anyhow.