Finally extricating the engine

The previous weekend Ken and Tim had done amazing work getting almost anything that could be removed detached from the engine and removed. Today we all arrived down and set to work on extricating the engine itself. No small task!

Ken brought some planks and we wedged one underneath and with a winch attached to a rope we put round the main mast and down through the saloon hatch we slowly winched the engine out of the engine room.

Jacob, our midshipman, was with us for the day and he reported that there were cries of 'Quick, Jacob, bring this...' and 'Jacob, quick, push that in there... at times while I was in the engine room holding something (like the engine from slipping off the plank), Ken was in the saloon holding something (like the engine from slipping off the plank) and Tim as holding something (like the winch) and balancing something (like the engine from falling off the plank with his foot).

The photo shows the relief on Ken's face with the engine safely on the floorboards of the saloon. My head can be seen poking through the engine room hatch and shows the size of the gap we got it through.

Having remove the engine block, we then proceeded to remove the clutch and gearbox. This was nearly as heavy as the engine block. By mid afternoon we covered the extracted remains with plastic sheet to stop getting more oil everywhere and left for the day.