Practical Boat Owner – May 2018

36 Practical Boat Owner t http://www.pbo.co.uk

BOATS

“TURN IN NOW”, I did. The bow swung
round as we headed in but, as I had
predicted, the wind pushed us and we
overshot the pontoon. The instructor
jumped off with the bow line in his hand
and held the bow in, but that made the
wind push the stern around towards a
small boat in the next slip, so I thrust the
engine into reverse to pull out before we
went side-on to our neighbour. As we
pulled out, missing the other boat by
inches, we scraped the edge of the finger
creating our first battle scar. The sound of
the squeal of rubber along the hull sent
shivers down my spine. That left just me
and Jan on the boat, the bow line in the
water and a lot of anxious faces from the
boat owners all around us.
Jan was instructed to pull the rope in
quickly before it got into the prop. I was,
however, now in the position I had wanted
to be in before the instruction to turn. I’d
already done the calculations in my head,
so I eased the throttle forward and pointed
the bow in to the corner of the berth. The
wind eased the bow towards the centre of
the pontoon and the stern came around
level with the finger. Ropes were thrown
and what seemed like 20 people grabbed
them and secured us to the pontoon. All I
had to do then was face the embarrassment
as we thanked our helpful audience.
I learned two good lessons that day.
First: we had the ability to learn how to
handle a yacht. Second: changing a plan
at the last moment is rarely a good idea.

Getting her shipshape
The only way we could afford to own a
boat was to be hands-on and practical,
but where do you start on a 28-year-old
fairly neglected yacht? Safety is the first
priority, so since the hull wasn’t leaking, I
decided the next most important thing
was the engine.
I had plenty of car maintenance
experience, so I was able to service
Twenty 20’s Yanmar 3HM, but it was rusty
and leaking a lot of oil. My first thought
was to take the engine home where I
could work on it over winter, but it was far
too heavy to manage, so I reverted to
stripping it down and taking the bits home

wire brush on a drill, rust remover, paint,

new gaskets etc. The cost of spare parts

was eye-watering, so rather than just

replace bits I restored them. Stripping and

cleaning the injectors, re-brazing pipes on

to the unions for the external oil pipes,

stripping, de-rusting and painting the

ancillary equipment, painting and

repairing all the other bolt on pieces. It

turned out to be a very rewarding

exercise, transforming a heap of rust in to

what it is now. So the next season we had

a reliable and clean engine which we

didn’t have to worry about.

Next was the structure of the boat itself. It

all looked OK and a previous survey had

suggested it was epoxy coated to prevent

osmosis. We over-wintered out of the water

the second year which gave us the chance

to see what she looked like below the

waterline. The laughter from the boatyard

guys who scraped her off confirmed our

fears: she needed antifouling.

During that winter we also reupholstered

the bunk mattresses and started to plan

what we could do to improve her cabin. I

stripped out enough 240V wire and

sockets to sink a battleship and upgraded

the whole 12V system to thermal circuit

breakers and decent switches.

Thinking bigger

Our first season sailing was just around

Weymouth Bay. We would sail up and

down, tacking and gybing our way as far

as The Shambles. We passed Lulworth

Cove but the waves made it look

dangerous so we didn’t venture in. We

also found great pleasure in just going in

to Weymouth harbour and staying the

weekend in the Cove. Many other boat

owners did exactly the same, we

discovered. This was the boating life and

we enjoyed it.

I pushed Jan into agreeing to go to the

Solent during the summer. I’d bought a

navigation package for my laptop with

GPS. We also installed a wind generator

and brought along a small petrol

generator for emergency use. I’d got most

of the instruments operating although the

depth sounder only worked if it was less

than 5m deep.

Laughter from the

boatyard guys

confirmed she

needed antifouling

Instruments that could be were

refurbished, others were replaced and

sensible additions made

LEFT the rusty-

looking Yanmar 3HM

motor was stripped

and refurbished

at home in its

component parts

until it looked and

ran as good as new

Windlass was stripped down, cleaned up

and reassembled

to work on in the shed.

The heat exchanger was completely

solid with gunk. The external oil pipes were

perforated, the alternator was full of black

residue, which turned out to be engine

compartment sound insulation foam, and

the injectors were completely seized in to

the head, which was so rusty it was hard to

distinguish how it was put together.

Patience and a good workshop manual

is the starting point, but then there is the