Lackey Sailing | Skeedeen Phase 6-3

September 28, 2020

Skeedeen Phase 6-3

Monday

I continued where I left off with the port engine room vent. After a few more failed attempts to get locking pliers on the nuts of the two middle bolts (the tight space and awkward angle made it apparently impossible for me to get a good grip), I managed to eventually remove these two bolts by arranging an open-end wrench on the nut and hoping it would stay in place while I turned the screws from outside. I had to reset the wrench two different times on the second nut, but otherwise this approach was ultimately successful.

For the final, forwardmost upper nut, I knew I couldn’t reach it from inside, so I ground off the head enough from outside so I could remove the vent cover. Since these plastic covers were not to be reused (though I wanted to keep them intact for templates), I didn’t worry about grinding a bit into the plastic to get the screw head free. Once the plastic vent was removed–as with the opposite side, this one was well-bedded to the hull), I cut off the remains of the screw head and pushed the bolt through to the inside.

The various vent hoses–two per side–appeared to be original and, along with the bilge blower, were slated to be replaced at this juncture. One hose on each side ran all the way into the bilge beneath the engine (the other on each side were shorter), and I found they were secured in a few places along the way, so now I released the bounds and removed these hoses from the boat. They were filthy with dirt, debris, and belt dust.

Late in the summer, the engine had had an overheating problem, and the engine room was filled with various engine and exhaust parts that the service yard had left there after diagnosing and inspecting the engine a few weeks back. To clear the way, I removed all these loose parts, setting them aside for safekeeping.

After removal, the engine room looked better already:

Meanwhile, I continued with some of the exterior hardware removal, the first baby steps towards preparing the hull for painting. With a little time left before the end of the day, I removed the scupper flaps, and a pair of SS half oval trims from the lower rubrails on the hull.