i’d like to say i made great leaps and bounds on the boat today. Wouldn’t that be nice? Ended up having a pretty mellow day aboard. i rebuilt the Optimus kerosene stove, and boy, does it cook! A little exciting with all the pressurized jet-fuel leaking here and there… whenever i had a leak or flare-up, i just stopped, cooled, and took that part down to it’s bits, substituting new ones from the well-stocked spares box.
Also continued oiling woodwork. i think that the teak panels have been all pinted white at some point; there’s traces of white around the seams, etc. i had debated painting a few more surfaces, but the woody look appeals to me. The danger is, of course, that the interior gets to looking too dark, but the white deckhead (ceiling), cabinsides, and bilges seem to brighten things up enough.
The 5 small non-opening ports admit more than enough light, even if they are crazed and hazy. The main cabin has one small opening hatch fwd, plus the companionway hatch. The v-berth foredeck hatch is plenty large, and draws a great quantity of air into the boat even without the windscoop in place. The only real gloomy space inside is the head… there is a 4″ hole in the deck above the head, capped with a plastic lid; maybe it’s for a cowling of some sort. A dorade vent above the head would be ideal, but i’d almost prefer more light; even leaxan-topped dorades don’t admit enough light. However, James has a beautiful “juicer” deck prism somewhere… hmmm…

Lots of errands to run this morning, collecting stored bits and redistributing them; appliances/electronics too large for the boat are now in new homes.
Worked on a couple client’s boats for the middle part of the day. Otherwise, i was back at Centaurea. i Sawzalled off the rear engine mounts. With a sturdy plank across the cockpit coamings, some chain, and a come-along, i winched the motor up off the pads, and wriggled out that last shaft coupling bolt. The front motor mounts needed to be removed in two pieces to let the front of the huge motor ease down low enough slide forward a little into the cabin, which in turn gave me room enough to get that shaft coupling apart.
i’m very curious how they got the engine in (and likewise, how i’ll get it out!) in one piece. i may yet need to take the head off the engine block! Ideally, i’d like to remove the transmission seperately, but with the poor access and large parts, i can’t imagine how the engine and transmission can be seperated while still in the boat.
One neat feature i found is a remote greasing point for the stuffing-box. Since a new engine/transmission will reguire a new coupling, and since the cutlass bearing is shot, i might as well go ahead and put in a new stuffing box as well (losing the tricky remote greasing). i have a couple friends who have installed those new packless drip-free shaft seals in lieu of a stuffing box, and i’ll be checking with them to keep up with their experiences. If that proves to work well, i’ll go that route myself.
This afternoon, i took a break from the mechanicals, and rubbed out a coat of teak oil on a few sections of the tired interior woodwork. i think most of the interior woodwork was originally oiled. Some pieces of wood look to have been given a coat of rubbed varnish or urethane at some point; everything appears either completely dry or with a thin, worn coating (no chipping/cracking/peeling varnish nonsense.
i’m using Amazon GTO right now (because i have a bottle), but i’d like to try SeaFin oil if i can find some locally. The GTO goes on pretty nice as it is, soaking right into the dry wood, and really revitalizing the scuffed-finished bits. For the moment, i have no plans to really get into sanding, scraping, or otherwise stripping any of the wood, just rubbing on some oil to preserve and shine a bit. Frankly, i like the “experienced” look of the wood; it’s more friendly and welcoming compared to the usual varnished gleam and blinding white gelcoat. The little dings and stains speak to me of many miles at sea, and many hours spent aboard by happy, moving, working folks… no yachty yacht here!

Well, wowee… really getting into ol’ Centey this week. Yesterday i gave the cabin the first of what i guess will be many cleanings/sortings. i emptied out each of the salon/gally/nav station lockers in turn, eventually filling a large black garbage back with junk. Everything that looked vaguely useful got sorted back into lockers; one for sandpaper, one for epoxy, misc. handtools, important papers, linens, cleaning supplies, dishes, etc.
i also used up two good Scotchbrite sponge pads giving the salon cabin a burly cleaning with Pine-Sol. With 90% of the mildew and random watermarks now gone, the interior really looks great! i even got into scrubbing the turn of the bilge and cabin sole; this will need more work, but at least i’ve gotten rid of the slimey remnants of the “moldy pond scum mat” i first saw floating above the floorboards when i first saw the boat last year. No fun to walk on!
Yesterday afternoon, Simba Paul and i tossed out all the bags of sails and spread them out on a nearby grassy field for an inspection. Lots of sails! There are two mains: a roachy, battened, slab-reefing main; and a slightly-hollowed-leech roller-reefing main. The latter looks like the original (and is dated as such). There are four jibs: a mitre-cut storm jib of about >100SqF; a just-lapping working jib; a fair-condition 120-130 jib; and lastly, a mammoth lightwweight 150. Rounding out the collection is a wire-luff hankless tallboy, and a whacking spinnaker. The last is a neat piece; mitre-cut head and cross-cut body and foot, done in alternating horizontal stripes of red and butter-yellow.
The hanks on all the sails are pretty much shot. The large main needs new leech tabling and a new clew ring. Three of the jibs should really have new fibre leechcords put in to replace the (rusting in places) wire ones. The larger jibs could also all go for ne corner rings. The spinnaker is pristine, except for one small tear in a clew reinforcing patch. Shape-wise, the stormjib and small main are the best-looking sails (probably the least used/abused). Otherwise, the sails are pretty baggy.
What do do with the sails depends much on whether i go with a furler or not. There’s plenty of decent-shape used furling sails around here, in at least good enough hsape to be saved by a re-cut. In the meantime, i have enough hank-on canvas to at least get out there!
Today i tore into the engine bay. i got all the front-mounted accesories off the engine, as well as all the external plumbing, wiring, fuel-lines, etc. i got the front engine-mounts apart… weird hard-mount contraptions, likely put in to get the gargantuan engine to sit low enough to fit. The proper rubber-mount rear mounts where too rusted to wrench on, but tyhen again, i think they’ll just break off once i start winching the engine around.
The silly electro-hydraulic transmission had some queer hardware attaching it to the shaft; of the two large bolts, i got one out and broke the head off the other. At any rate, it’s now loose enough to come apart.
i also cleaned out the aft stb. cockpit locker and the lazarette. These contain the three (dead) batteries; i’m debating whether to try to salvage any/all of the existing mains wiring, or just start over. i’ve already given up on the engine harness, gleefully clipping and cutting wirs and hoses wherever they baulk me. Most of the cabin wiring is in decent shape; i’ll trace it out and double-check it all, but in that dept. i’m not going to “fix what ain’t broke”.
Onward!