Restoration... and repair

One of the long term jobs we have been doing is rewiring the electrics. Simple enough... except we had to make the panels, and completely redo the woodwork around the chart table.

Today was the start of the end of this process... varnishing the woodwork. I managed to get two coats on and tomorrow hopefully the third and possibly last coat. Then start installing the panels and wiring!

A repair job we completed today was the mounting brackets for the outboard motor.

When we removed the outboard for servicing we found that the right angle aluminium mounting brackets had fractured and were on their way to failing and dropping our outboard in the sea. So... repair was critical... but somehow we managed to measure incorrectly and so the CAD drawings, when transferred to 4mm stainless steel, were wrong and had to have Louis, our friendly engineer, redrill them.

New propellor

This week I have been doing electronics - building the Test and Config system for the electric drive, pending going to Italy next week. Also some woodwork for the chart table. 

Meanwhile... Tim was braving the icy wastes of the UK to pick up some parts for King Malu. The biggest single part was a new propellor from Axiom. We took it down to King Malu to see how it looks. The diameter is smaller than the old 2 blade folding prop, but it looks impressive. We just can't wait to try it out.

Electrical panel, outboards and hull repair

Lifting the generator back into the boot of my car, Tim remarked that he thought I was getting fitter. The truth is that Friday was the first day I had begun to feel well after bronchitis and noro virus over the Christmas holiday!

Anyway the weekend has been efficient in what we have achieved for King Malu: One of the tasks is to repair/replace the electrical panel and controls around the chart table. So we have been building new wood panels which are now glued in place and will be filled and then varnished hopefully this week.

We also put in the order to Andreou Laser for the laser cut panel, which hopefully should be ready Monday or Tuesday.

The electrical panel itself was made about a year ago and we have been waiting to fit it. This was not laser cut but CNC machined so it's better text than the laser panel, but takes a long while to do in the UK. We need to find a CNC machining place in Cyprus!

Saturday afternoon we went over to Mike's place to watch Mike and Paul servicing the two outboards. The Honda 20HP was easy, but the Yamaha 2HP we use for the dinghy took longer and we found we needed some extra parts for repair.

Final task of the weekend was to fill the rudder and hull holes we had ground out looking for osmosis with Epidermix Epoxy.

All in all a productive weekend.

Mark One of our own designed throttle control. Some things worked very well... some we will work on over the next few weeks.

Also working on the test and configuration system for the electric drive.

Measuring up for new propellor

Today was a big step towards our new Axiom propellor - we measured everything and sent the details to Axiom!

The old folding prop was 24 inches wide!

I also did a CAD drawing of the prop shaft so they could get the taper right.

Rudder support

How to get the rudder off? At the top on the quadrant it's easy to see, but at the bottom it's supported on a brass bush and there is not obvious way to remove it.

Eventually we call Steph, the previous owner of King Malu, and find there are two bolts embedded in the brass bush that are totally hidded, being covered with some sort of putty. So we remove the putty, remove the bolts and hey presto... the rudder comes off!

Of course, nothing is ever that simple and we discover that one of the bolts has sheered off inside the rudder support, so we will have to dig it out, refill and re-tap the hole before refitting. Also found the plastic bush in which the rudder moves has worn totally so will need replacing. Oh well, this is what maintenance is all about!

Lift Out

Today is lift out day. The next major step in the restoration of King Malu! We have a long list of things for this lift out - the most major of them is a new prop and cutlass bearing.

Home for the next 2-3 months!