And now the end is near. But I did it my way.
Launch day was April 7th, a nice sunny but breezy day. The boat was as ready as I could get her when the crane arrived. We had only been able to run the engine for short bursts so this seemed to be a good opportunity to charge the batteries while getting the engine to working temps. We had had to put the raw water intake hose into a large tub on the deck which was fed by another hose from a tap on the ground. Unfortunately the demand of the engine outstripped the supply no matter how far the tap was opened. A few minutes was all we had before the tub emptied.
The strops were positioned and up she went into the air, swung out over the water and gently lowered. I jumped on board as the crane was hurrying to get another boat ready for lift behind us. As there was only room for one boat we had to move sharpish.
Engine fired up but after a few seconds it stopped. Started again, same thing. Started a third time with the throttle a bit further open. Then she ran OK but didn’t like idle. Hmmm!!! Into gear and out into the harbour as slowly as possible. Engine stopped again. But as the wind was blowing in exactly the direction I wanted I let her drift slowly on while getting the engine running again. The tide was fully in and there is a fixed road bridge that we had to go under, but not until the tide dropped enough for that, so by dint of some strong language and a bit of pushing and shoving we man aged to tie up to wait.
Eventually there was enough head room so off we went again with the engine running like a bag of nuts until we again tied up in the lower harbour which is open to the sea but tidal. We were by now too late to do the short journey to Port St Mary as my mooring there would have been high and dry by the time we got there, also I needed to sort out the spluttering engine.
That seemed to indicate some air in the system.
Next day I bled the system manually a couple of times as the tide came in, then fired it up and did the bleed again.. this time with quite a lot of air bubbling out. Tightened it all down and into idle….. sweet.
Checked all the nuts and bolts and then off we went. Nothing desperate just a nice fast idle until we were out of the harbour then about half revs. All well so a bit more throttle. She responded well but started bouncing around. Trim miles out I thought. But that can be corrected later. The trip was almost head into a rather choppy sea, so it was a case of up and over then bang into the next wave with spray all over the place. She didn’t like it at all. So took it very easy until we were tied up safe and sound in Port St Mary. The engine ran perfectly, no vibration and well within pressures and temps.
As we left the boat I rowed round her and could see that she was very bow high. We had taken all the ballast out over the winter and put it back roughly in position. Next day we went and spent a lot of time shifting it around until the bow was much lower. A small list to starboard. Cured easily enough after moving large lumps of pig iron around.
Of course the weather will never cooperate when you want it so we had to wait a few day before we could go out again. The next time was a flat day so off we went.
During the interim I had spoken to Kawasaki who could not believe that I had not tried her flat out….both of us be old time bikers…. He with the trials and cross country,,, me on the Isle of Man TT mountain circuit. But I thought about the old saying of Discretion being the better part of valour.
Anyway, of we went. This time she rev’d straight up to 4000. but alas, not the 14 kts I was hoping for. Up to 3000 fine… plenty of push but above that the prop started slipping badly. OK.. we had done all the prop calcs but it was a lot of guesswork.
We got up to 10 kts at 3200 rpm, which is about double the old set up. So that’s a great plus. It means that we now can punch through the tides and currents which run pretty fast around here, and 5 kts will get you nowhere slowly. Two seasons of that showed how not to do it.
The bow was still too high, and there was no way trim tabs were going to fix that. They don’t work until you are well over the hump.
So back to ballast shifting until the bow was lower still, more like the old set up in pics I had.
Checked the engine several times .. nuts and bolts. All in order. Nothing coming loose.
Then we got a lumpy sea with quite a strong wind over it. Perfect to try it out again.
This time she was much better behaved, punching through it and keeping far more level. The speed kept up as well, though a lot of spray was flying by and over us. Enclosed wheel house is fine for that sort of thing.
I had been using about a gallon an hour with the old 50 hp Perkins.. and had thought we might be using about 3 or more with this engine. This would have been true had we been able to do the 14 kts, but as we are now limited to 10 at 3200. the result is using 2 galls per hour near enough, which will do very nicely thank you.
The reason for the lack of kts is simple. The gearbox has a 2.13 reduction. so this means the shaft is turning too fast and causing cavitation at the prop. The cure is simple but expensive. Change the gear ration to about 3:1 and another co****r pitch prop. But that means weeks without the boat, and another £1000 at a rough guess. Neither of which I can afford for now. That’s a winter job anyway. But I will get there one day.
So has it been worth it? The answer is a definite YES. The whole undertaking has been interesting, and I think all those years in the engine recon business have not been wasted. Whether I was more lucky than able when lining up the engine to the prop shaft is a moot point, though I like to think it was skill. Ar least now I have a boat that will do what I want, and the rough trips that we have encountered have increased my respect for this type of hull.
The only drawback I can see is that the cockpit though great for fishing and deck chair lounging given a hot sunny day is perfect, it is NOT self draining. Therefore we must never take any water over the transom. I have stood watching a following sea and so far we have never had less than a foot of freeboard. The transom is wide and has a lot of natural buoyancy. It would not be possible to make it so, as scuppers would have to be built through the sides, and the floor sealed, also the floor level is practically at the water line. Cost again, so if I really needed that I would have to get another boat.
Various trips and the logs for them will follow.
| 
