Removed the old motor

Well, the controller isn't working correctly, but we did manage to motor over to the lift out berth and lift out the old Ford motor.

Tim and I spent the morning in preparation. Included in this was removing the saloon table. That had been Daniel's suggestion to give more space. After the well built Suez Canal pilot had apparently fallen against the table when the boat was under previous ownership that table had not been the same again. Tim had tried to make it firmer, but to no avail. We decided to remove it and make it more rigid in the future.

Having removed it we then decided that for our sailing a large fixed table wasn't really what we wanted so for this year we will use a fold-up table and think about what is best for the future next year. Many of our projects involve thinking and planning and rethinking and re-planning till we get the best solution possible.

In the afternoon we (Tim, Daniel, Sydney, Jacob and me) and gathered together and created a derrick with the spinnaker pole, the main halyard and the mainsheet (which is 4:1/8:1 ratio block system) and the genoa sheets as guides. This worked extremely well and we lifted the old Ford engine to the deck.

We then motored round to the lift out bay and removed the engine. What went wrong? This was easier than we expected. Within a few minutes the old engine was sitting on the hard.

We then motored back out with the intention of checking anchoring and then returning to our berth. However... on the way out two of the fenders pulled off so we decided we should launch the tender and retrieve them.

Agggg... the wind was blowing us around and the lack of engine power (the new new motor controller is not configured correctly yet) meant we decided discretion was the better part of valour and tried to return to our berth. In reverse the motor really was a pain giving almost no power. This is partly because we have a folding propeller.

We moored for'ard to and then sent a shore party off the retrieve the fenders. They failed. They walked back and forth trying to find them.

On the way back someone said to them, 'Looking for something?' 'Yes, we lost a couple of fenders' 'These yours?' 'Yes' 'Next time I'll keep them!'

Finally took my car round and lifted the engine into the back and then drove home and lifted out into my driveway.

Successful day. Need more like these.