I began today by washing and then sanding the fiberglass patches over the through hull fittings.  Then, after cleaning away the dust,  I applied a coat of fairing compound over the areas and left it to cure.

While I waited for the solvent fumes to dissipate, I turned my attention to the engine installation template.  Even though we won't be installing the engine for some time, I wanted to build the template and ensure that the engine would fit properly, and would not require any significant modifications to the engine foundations or engine room surround.

Using a measured drawing of the chosen engine, a Beta Marine BD722, I built a basic template from some 3/4" thick MDF that I had on hand.  The rectangular template represents the overall size of the engine, or its maximum dimensions in both directions, and also precisely locates the mounting centers for the engine mounts.  Of course the template does not represent the true shape of the engine.  The bottom side of my template represented the bottom side of the engine's mounting flanges, with all other measurements coming from that baseline.

With the basic rectangle made and the mounting centers measured and marked (note that the crankshaft is not quite on centerline of the engine, but is slightly offset to one side), I installed extensions fore and aft to represent the center of the propeller shaft, which extends a couple inches below the crank.  At the aft end, the face of the template--and the extension--represent the actual face of the transmission coupling, while at the forward end the placement is less critical and exists only to provide another guide for an alignment string to be used later in the process.

The engine comes with adjustable mounts, with about a 1" adjustment range.  Since I didn't have the mounts, I chose to approximate their height for rough planning purposes by cutting blocks that were about midway through the potential adjustment range of the actual mounts.

With the template complete, I test-fit it in the engine room.  Even though I had previously measured things to ensure that the engine would fit, I was pleased to see that the template fit cleanly in the space, and on the existing foundations.  My simulated mount height was clearly a bit low, and the actual mounts would need to be adjusted upwards more to raise the engine into proper alignment with the shaft, but otherwise everything looked good.  I checked the overall height clearance beneath the bridgedeck, which seemed fine also.

Total Time on This Job Today:  3.5 hours

<Previous | Next>