Thursday

Before leaving the shop for a meeting in mid-morning, I spent an hour or so trying out the pre-fabricated engine foundation and drip pan that the owner had purchased from the original Contessa 26 builders in England.  It was a nice-looking, clean fabrication that would streamline engine installation if it worked properly on this Canadian JJ Taylor version of the Contessa, which had some key differences in engine placement that I worried might make the pan a non-starter.

As it happened, the molded pan fit the hull well enough, but despite its clean fit to the hull shape itself, I could tell immediately that the pan was sitting far too high, and while modifying the pan was a possibility, the height difference at first glance appeared significant, given my knowledge of about where the engine needed to be, plus the way the shaft tube and foundation pan visually aligned (or not) in their respective locations.

I retrieved from storage my plywood template for the Beta 14, which I built previously for another job a couple years before, and double-checked that the dimensions of the new engine hadn’t changed at all by reviewing the latest version of the Beta measured drawing, which still corresponded with the one I used to build the template in 2016.  I set the flexible engine mounts to a mid-range 3″ height (as measured beneath the template base, which is representative of the base of the steel engine mounts themselves), as this would allow adjustment in either direction within the recommended adjustment limits of the mounting studs.  I used a thick flat washer to simulate the height of the split locker washer that I’d use during the final engine installation so as to keep the adjustment height of the mounts as close to the real thing as possible. Then, I bolted the mounts to the template, using holes I’d bored for the 14-1/2″ mounting centers on this engine.

To start to get a rough sense of where things were, and a reality check for the engine pan, I set up an alignment string through the stern tube, holding it centered in the tube at each end with a wooden plug and securing the string tightly inside the boat after aligning it by eye through the center of the stern tube and plugs.  The string represents, of course, the centerline and plane of the propeller shaft, the one critical reference point from which all engine placement follows.  It was clear once more that the fiberglass pan was much too high, though the closeness of the string to the upturned aft end of the drip platform was the least of my concerns–though it did highlight just how misaligned the molding was in this boat.

I set the engine template atop the engine foundation and checked its placement vis-a-vis the alignment string.  At the forward end, as currently placed and adjusted, the string was 1-3/4″ below where it should have been (i.e. the engine was 1-3/4″ too high), while at the aft end it was even worse, as the string was nearly 3″ below its proper location (i.e. the engine was 3″ too high at the aft end).  This was a pity, since otherwise the template fit so nicely on the prefab bed.

I could adjust the engine mounts down by 1/2″ or so, but of course that wouldn’t even begin to make up the large discrepancy.  And while I’d not discounted it completely yet, I was skeptical that I’d be able to modify the existing pan enough to make up the large difference in height and basic placement.

At issue, I believed, was a fundamental difference in the longitudinal placement of the engine in a Canadian boat versus the original English version.  Though I’d never been aboard an English boat, various photos and other information, some of which went back to early project discussions with the owner in April, suggested that the engine in the English boats was substantially further forward, perhaps a foot further, which extended the engine room into the cabin beneath the companionway steps.  Given the shape of the hull, if I could have slid the foundation a foot forward, it would have ended up also substantially lower, making for a good fit–as indeed it seems to be in the English boats.

This series of images shows how the engine room is arranged in an English Contessa 26.  In the Canadian version, the entire engine is well aft of the companionway bulkhead, and this key difference is why the molded pan ended up not being a feasible installation in this boat.

This photo, which the owner sent me some time back, shows the actual engine pan in an English Contessa, complete with Beta 14 atop.  A nice fit…but this also clearly shows how far forward the engine is by comparison.

In arriving at these various conclusions, I also spent some time reviewing two other Canadian Contessa 26s that I repowered with Beta Marine engines, one, Equinox, in 2007, and the other, Salty,  in 2016.  Even these two ostensibly identical boats had key differences in their engine placements, and even with intensive review I still couldn’t put my finger on exactly what was different, other than Salty’s engine beds and engine were quite a bit higher for some reason; since the shafts both seemed to exit the deadwood in the same place in the aperture, the only thing that could be different and lead to a couple-inch difference in engine height might be the angle of the stern tube itself.  In any event, these differences led to individual challenges in each case, and frankly this was all neither here nor there other than to help solidify my next notions.

My next notions, as it were, were to check how the engine fit in the bare compartment, to identify or confirm my thoughts on how the after set of mounts would work in the space.  So I removed the fiberglass pan, and set up the template in the engine room, holding it as necessary for the moment with some rough strings.  My immediate goal was to determine how the after mounts would fit, or not fit, as the case would be, at their current 14-1/2″ width.  I suspected based on the general appearance of things that they’d be too wide, and indeed the flex mounts contacted the hull much too high up, and didn’t allow the template to move down to where it needed to be with the shaft alignment string.

To deal with this (actually completely expected) issue, I removed the template and after set of flex mounts, then laid out, marked, and drilled new holes for the after mounts at 11-1/2″ centers, or the so-called Atomic 4 mount.  Since the steel engine mounts were bolted on, and could be swapped at will, I planned to order a set of the narrow mounts for the aft end, which would reduce the width in the engine room to a workable point.

Before continuing, I double-checked the boat’s level from side to side, since now I was starting to approach more critical measurements and alignment procedures.  Even though I’d adjusted the boat earlier, I wanted to be sure none of the machinations of engine removal and other work had shaken things out of alignment, but things still looked good, so I could proceed.

Once more I hung the engine template in the engine room with strings from above–a not-so-ideal means, but good enough for now, and simple and quick.  With a few height adjustments, I eventually got the engine string through the two centers fore and aft as needed, and within a reasonable tolerance for the purpose at the moment.  Even with the narrow aft mounting centers, there was just barely enough room there for the dangling flex mounts, given the indelible contours of the hull shape.  I had room to move the engine a bit fore and aft as needed, and the way the support strings were it tended to pull the template aft a bit, so I felt like I had a workable (just) solution at hand.  This is a small boat with a sensual, but confining, shape.

At this point I completely abandoned any pretense at considering the use of the prefab engine foundation, since if nothing else this exercise had shown that full-width mounting centers simply couldn’t work with this engine position, and perhaps this kept open the door for the owner to resell the molding to someone with an English boat.  When considering modifying the template in the early stages, my concern was doing irreversible damage to the foundation that would render it completely useless to anyone, especially when I had grave doubts of any modifications’ effectiveness to begin with, so I was grateful to move on in a new direction and set aside the prefab–though I certainly would have liked it to work here, as it would have been a nice and convenient means of installing the foundations rather than starting from scratch.

I ordered materials from which I’d build the new foundations, and left things for the day.

Total time billed on this job today:  6.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  36°, cloudy.  Forecast for the day:  Mainly cloudy, windy, snow showers, around 40°

Wednesday

Still in removal mode, I turned to the head system.  In addition to the soon-to-come job of opening up the old waste tank in the bilge area, the owner also planned to remove all the existing hoses and equipment related to the system, with simpler waste management plans for the future.  We had a brief discussion mid-morning to consider last-minute alternatives for the system, but ultimately stayed true to the original plan.

As in most older boats, the head system was pretzeled with multiple hoses, vents, a Y-valve, and just a complexity of old, cracked hoses.  The hose to the direct overboard discharge through hull had been removed and that fitting plugged at some point in the past.

First, I removed a bifold door that closed off the head compartment, which would help open up the space for the various work ahead throughout the project.  This was straightforward except that one of the brass screws (the last one…always the last one) sheared half its head off at the slot on the first turn of the screwdriver, but once I reinstalled another screw to to the work of holding the hinge in place, I found there was enough of the head left to allow me to carefully remove the screw.

With the space opened up as much as possible, I started removing the old hoses.  Not unexpectedly, but still to my dismay, I got one gush of (ahem) water out of the hose when I removed it from the fitting at the base of the marine toilet, but fortunately this was just a leftover in one of the low points of the hose and therefore a containable amount.  The rest of the hoses, once this initial gush spewed forth, proved to be acceptably dry, and I had no issues removing the remaining hoses.

The toilet was secured to the molded fiberglass interior liner with four (please?) lag screws  stainless steel bolts installed through the molded fiberglass interior liner conveniently at some comfy work station at the factory in 1984 before the boat was assembled, but the builders thoughtlessly provided no access to the nuts for the (surely) unthinkable possibility that the head might someday require removal.  Fortunately for me, the base of the toilet was plastic, so it was an easy task to cut through the plastic just beneath the bolt heads, and then sever the bolt heads with the saw while remaining clear of the fiberglass platform itself.  I actually only needed to cut through the most accessible two, after which I manhandled the toilet away from the remaining two bolts, tearing through the plastic like so much toilet tissue.  (Later I cut off the remaining bolt heads easily).

Gurgling forth a ghastly final gush, (which photo I’ll spare you, dear reader), the toilet surrendered with a whimper and I happily deposited the old toilet down on the shop floor, reunited with its long-suffering hoses.

If one can’t keep a sense of humor while working with old toilet systems, all hope is lost.

Moving on, I removed the two through hulls associated with the toilet–intake and discharge–so I could patch their now-unneeded holes.  Here, I found that I could partially unwind the through hull nuts beneath the threaded-on ball valves, which exposed enough of the through hull shanks so I could easily cut through with a saw to remove the fittings.

Where one of the hoses had entered the waste tank, centerline beneath the v-berth sole, I removed an interestingly-installed fitting there, the exact likes of which I’d not seen previously.  Here, a normal plastic/Marelon-type mushroom through hull fitting had been installed upside down on top of the tank, splooshed into a pile of sealant and screwed to the tank through the mushroom head, then covered with the through hull’s normal nut.  The removal was otherwise unremarkable.

Later in the day, I ground clean the inside of the hull in way of the two through hulls, removing remnants of sealant, gelcoat, and wooden backing block to prepare these areas for patching.

With a basic incompatibility born from a differently-shaped new engine and vastly different engine mounts, the existing engine foundations required removal, a job best gotten over with.  I studied the existing foundations for a time, trying to figure out cutting angles, which tools I needed, and how, indeed, best to approach the removal, since the process would remove the very means I might have otherwise used to support myself in the space for the task.

The basic problem, other than access itself, was that the very wide foundations spread so far up the curvature of the hull, and against the nearby longitudinal bulkheads, as to make cutting access to the tabbing challenging.  So I essentially started by cutting what I could, and what was generally easy–the forward and after portions that curved down towards the drip pan–and also removed some of the inner width of the flat top surface to allow better (or any) access to the tabbing within the tight curvature beneath.  I left the drip pan intact at first since it provided at least a semi-foothold for access.  I used a reciprocating saw with a carbide blade for much of the initial demolition.

Continuing, I cut what I could with the saw, stopping as the blade got too close to the bulkheads and their respective tabbing, and cleaning up some of the earlier cuts, but then I had to switch to a small grinder equipped with a cutting wheel, which worked fine but was tough to control since the access was not ideal no matter where I tried to set myself up.  And even still, the forwardmost corners of the old foundations were so tight against the bulkheads that I just couldn’t really get in there from any angle to cut the old tabbing.  Still, through these various means I managed to remove the bulk of the existing foundations, which, it must be said, were quite durable.  This process left little narrow pieces of plywood still stuck between the remnants of tabbing, but later I pried out the wood since it made further cutting and grinding next to impossible.

With some effort, mainly with hammer and chisel, I finally freed the last little corners of the old foundations at the forward end enough that I could turn to the grinder with an angle flap disc to remove the remains of all the tabbing, as well as to remove most of the gelcoat from the engine room (and scupper through hull locations).  I might sand some more once I determined where the new engine foundations would lie (the owner had purchased and provided a prefab engine foundation from the Contessa builder in England), but for now the bulk of the prepwork in the engine room was done, other than a continuing cleanup of the deep, deep (and still directly inaccessible) bilge beneath, which contained some water and various debris from now and in the past.

Total time billed on this job today:  5.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:   32°, cloudy, drizzle and show showers.  Forecast for the day:  Mainly cloudy, high 30s

Tuesday

With the engine out, my next goal was to clean out the rest of the engine room, inasmuch as required for the scope of work.  In this case, since I’d be replacing all engine-related components (exhaust, battery wiring, raw water, and so forth), basically everything in the compartment could go, along with the scupper hoses and through hulls, as these were also on the list to replace with new.

To begin, I removed the four flexible engine mounts, which were secured with bolts through the fiberglass engine foundation.  Fortunately, these were stainless steel bolts in good condition, and other than the usual access issues the bolts came out with ease thanks to the clean, well-maintained, freshwater engine room.

The existing raw water hoses and related components, at 1/2″ and 3/8″ hoses and pipe fittings, were sized too small for the new engine, which would require a 3/4″ water intake, so I removed all the old materials for now, reserving them for some later use if possible.  The existing through hull would accept the proper pipe nipple at the top, so I removed the existing one so I could adapt the system to the 3/4″ hose required.

Next, I removed extraneous wiring from the engine room, where it ran through the forward portions above and below the little opening from the cabin.  In order to clear the way for new wiring, as well as for the new work in the engine room, which would involve removing the old engine foundations and installing new ones, I removed all the old batter cables, setting them aside for later assessment, as well as the cabin-mounted battery switch, from which I removed the other ends of the various cables. As needed, I labeled existing wiring for ease of re-connection, since most of the boat’s wiring was outside the scope of my work now.

In the way that so many things are connected in any boat project, now I turned to the old waste system, since  I wanted to get rid of the old pumpout hose, which ran beneath the engine pan, through the battery compartment under the cabin sole, and to the keel-mounted, built-in waste tank.  Removing this tank, repurposing the space, and removing all the related waste lines and components was part of my job scope.

The waste pumpout hose ran from a deck fitting outboard of the cockpit on the starboard side, through the fuel tank locker, into the engine room, and then beneath the engine and cabin sole to the tank.  The hose was supported at the forward end of the engine foundation with a metal strap, which was bolted to the foundation.  Of course the access to the screw slot on the forward site was so tight as to nearly prohibit all possible access, so unscrewing one tiny bolt required multiple trips up and down to the toolbox for various tight-access screwdrivers and the like, and then a frustrating many minutes manipulating in the tight space before I finally released the bolt and the strap, freeing the hose.

Access to the hose connection beneath the deck fitting was tight and non-visual, outboard and above the fuel tank, but after releasing the hose clamp (blindly with a small socket and ratchet), I found to my immense pleasure that the hose was secured to a plastic threaded fitting, and the threaded fitting was actually loose so I could easily unthread it, making removal of the hose in that tight space far easier than anticipated.  I just had to cut the hose a bit out from where it exited into the engine room, which freed the hose for rotation, and then I pulled that 3′ length out of the opening in the bulkhead.

While I was in there, I cut off the excess lengths of fuel supply and return hose, which I planned to replace (and possibly the tank, though we’ll see).  Access to the clamps was fussy and I didn’t want to waste the time right now, but I’d return later to remove the cut ends and prepare for the new installation.

Now, with the remaining length of hose for leverage, I could twist the hose free from the plastic fitting located at the tank itself, and then remove the hose and throw it away.

Removing the waste hose from the fuel tank area opened up enough access beyond so that I could see how and where the wiring harness for the engine panel was pinched, and thus I was able to remove that as well.

The aft end of the engine room was a tangle of scupper hoses and valves, exhaust hose and muffler, and ventilation hoses.  I made some space by pulling out a second length of ventilation hose into the lazarette, and then while I was in there decided to remove the exhaust hose from the metal gooseneck fitting secured to the transom outlet.  Again, this connection was located in a blind area, visible only by camera, and with tight access (and previous experiences) I feared the worst.  Fortunately, I released the hose clamps without issue, and then managed to pull free the exhaust hose with nary a whimper, perhaps the only time in my experience where the hose wasn’t completely stuck to the nipple.  This freed the whole length of hose and the plastic muffler assembly, and I could remove the whole assembly at once.

With the muffler and hoses out of the way in the engine room, I could access and remove the old stuffing box and hose.  This was an unusual greased packing gland, which type I knew of but hadn’t seen in practice for many, many years.

The scupper hoses didn’t put up too much of a fight when I removed them, and afterwards with a bit of elbow grease I removed the threaded elbows and old valves from the through hulls.  I didn’t have such easy luck with the through hull nuts themselves, which proved too tight for me to easily remove given the weird angles and, in the main, the tight access that simply didn’t allow the shoulder room for me to get in there properly.  The large cockpit hatch might look in the pictures to make for a convenient and roomy access to the space, but in reality it’s too tight to allow easy access for head and shoulders for tasks like unwrenching large nuts.  In the end, I simply cut through the nuts on one side with a metal cutting wheel on my grinder, and removed the old fittings easily from there.  After a long only semi-productive day with myriad unrelated distractions, from snow outside to deal with to some inner workings of this website, and other things that need no mention here, this seemed a good time to call it a day, so I did.

Total time billed on this job today:  5.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:   32°, snow, an inch or two down so far.  Forecast for the day:  Snow, maybe changing to or mixing with rain (we’ll see).

Monday

Dharma Rose’s owner brought her to me to accomplish several larger jobs that he deemed crucial to his future sailing plans, including replacing the original engine with a new Beta 14, installing a new Monitor self-steering windvane, and some semi-structural work in the cabin to repurpose a built-in keel-mounted waste tank, along with sundry maintenance and upgrade items along the way.  The boat was in good original condition that generally belied her age.

The engine replacement was the #1 job on the list, so after removing a small amount of gear from the boat to clean out the cabin and storage areas, I removed the cockpit sole to gain access to the original Bukh 8HP diesel beneath.  I was impressed by the appearance of the engine and engine room, both of which were cleaner than usual, and the engine itself (and related components) were so free from corrosion that I guessed the boat must have had the luxury of a mainly fresh-water life.  Clearing the way for the work ahead, I immediately pulled out of the way a length of ventilation hose that ran through the space, pulling it aft into the lazarette for now.

I began outside to remove the propeller, which I like to do immediately since using a prop puller requires that the shaft be secured and there’s no better time to do it than at the onset of the engine removal.  There was a prop zinc secured over the prop nuts, a two-piece design that clamped together between the two nuts, and while I suspected there were little screws holding it together, their heads were filled with corrosion or debris, so I simply knocked off the zinc after chiseling a groove through it, exposing the nuts for removal.  I tied the rudder to one site to improve access, Neither nut was particularly tight, so they came off easily once the zinc was out of the way.

I used a small two-blade prop puller to remove the propeller next, which also went more easily than I’d anticipated:  just setting the body of the puller behind (forward of) the prop hub was enough to loosen its grip on the shaft, and I pulled it off easily.  The original propeller was two-bladed, size 12RH13. Afterwards, I made some measurements of the shaft clearance and aperture size for future reference in spec’ing new equipment later.

Now up in the boat, I began to disconnect the engine for removal.  I tried to work systematically from aft to forward and top to bottom, removing anything that connected the engine to the boat.  I started with the shaft coupling, which once more was pleasingly free from corrosion, and the four bolts released without a fight.

Next, I removed the exhaust hose from the elbow; since I planned to replace the hose, I cut it just below the nipple.  I also removed the small vent line, which ran up into the port cockpit locker where there was a vented loop (I hoped to reuse these components).  Meanwhile, still near the aft end of the engine, I removed the throttle and gear control cables and moved them out of the way. I disconnected the wiring harness leading to the engine panel down in the cabin, but found that the wires were pinched somewhere along their run, somewhere out of my immediate reach, so for now I left the panel and its wiring for later.

In this way, I moved my way along the engine, removing the four nuts securing the engine to the flexible engine mounts, fuel lines, electrical connections, and raw water hoses as needed till the engine was free all around.  Knowing I needed to reduce the width of the engine in order to fit it through the opening directly above, I removed the air filter and exhaust elbow, and while I knew I’d probably have to take something else off later, I held off more disassembly for now since I wanted to minimize how much I did before knowing it was necessary.

With the engine free, I hooked up my hoist and prepared to lift it out.  I soon found that anything that could get caught somewhere and hang up the engine definitely would get caught somewhere and hang up the engine, so it was with significant continued effort and various additional parts removals (including three of the four wide engine mounting flanges, the secondary fuel filter assembly, and more) that I finally somehow wedged the engine up through the tight opening and into clear air.  It was obvious that this engine had been installed in the hull before the deck was installed above since the physical dimensions simply didn’t work any other way.

I lowered the engine to the shop floor and a little rolling dolly so I could move it around easily.  Since the owner already had someone interested in buying the engine, I’d tried to be careful during its removal, and now I reassembled the various parts I’d removed in order to make it whole again.

Meanwhile, back in the engine room I bailed out the engine drip pan, which was full of water, and cleaned up the space a bit further, removing the fuel filter and pulling the fuel lines back into the fuel tank locker for the moment before calling it a day.  I’d continue work in the space next time.

Total time billed on this job today:  8 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  34°, cloudy. Forecast for the day:  Cloudy, showers to rain/snow/mix overnight