The Waiting Game....

Nervous excitement, apprehension, that feeling of 'Lets just get it started NOW!!'


Last week I accompanied Paul and Anne to Saxon Wharf in Southampton for the relaunch of Tin Tin after a summer rest on land following our Tin Tin around Britain excitement in May and June.

She was already in the slings when we arrived to inspect the new bimini and cover plate for the retractable bow thuster (which dropped off somewhere in the Western Isles!).



The new bow thruster cover plate... BOLTED on!
The new cover plate looks really well made and as if it certainly won't come off in a hurry. We searched for signs of where the original had been attached but found not a sign.. so we suspect that it was probably held on with ties and and hope...

Views of the cockpit bimini 
This was intended to be the 10 day the run up to the start of Tin Tin around the World . Little did we know what would transpire over the next few hours....

After checking all seacocks were open etc we started up the engine and immediately commented on the quantity of blue smoke... always a bad sign... we continued on  our way back to Portsmouth while Paul made contact and arrangements for the NAVTEX to be fixed and various other things that needed attending to. Our NAVTEX man happened to be in Portsmouth on another job so we upped the engine revs from 2000 to 3500... which got us up to Tin Tin's 8 knt cruising speed. After about 20 mins the revs dropped to 1200 and would not respond to the throttle, quantities of black smoke belched from the exhaust and I rushed to open the engine compartment to find smoke rising from the turbo insulation and a blast of heat...

We continued on under sail and eventually started the engine again as we needed to have power for the entrance to Portsmouth and to get alongside the marina.

The decision was made to remove the engine from the boat and this proved an interesting challenge. The plate in the cockpit floor is held in place by about 24 screws and it had been sealed with liberal application of 'Sikaflex' or something similar. Once the screws were removed it proved extremely difficult to break the seal as there was no way to get a blade in to cut through the sealant. John and his crew attempted to push it up using a ram placed on the engine rail but it wouldn't budge and there was the possibility that the bottom of the hull would be deformed!  It was decided to try and lift it off so a hole was drilled in the plate, a large nut and bolt attached through the plate. The bolt extended up through a 75x75mm post placed across the cockpit floor and was attached to the hydraulic pump and required the application of more than 10 tonnes of pressure to break the seal...

Marine TECH Engineering crew working on getting a 75hp diesel out of a very small hole...
Then it was clear that the splash back? behind the fridge would need to be removed as it extends into the engine bay by about 20cm reducing the space to get the engine out considerably.

After getting the engine out and the cylinder head removed it was clear that some work to remove a rust build up had been undertaken at some point before she was purchased.... the rough surface left in the cylinder bore had been wearing away the rings which gave us an explanation for the increasingly frequent engine oil top ups we had been needing to do... Perhaps the trouble we had with the geni earlier in the year was also a result of rusting while she was out of the water for a prolonged period in France.

Two options were available; 
  1. bore out the cylinders then use a sleeve or liner... or
  2. install a new replacement
Paul has decided on the second, ordering a new 2.2l Volvo Penta D2-75
This has the benefit of;
  • being slightly smaller, 
  • running at lower revs, so hopefully quieter and with less vibration
  • being equipped with EVC connection allowing data output through an NMEA interface and presenting engine data on chart plotters

D27-5 Power, Torque and Fuel consumption charts

D27-5 dimensions




  

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