Pre-season & crane-in 2019

There were quite a few things on our pre-season to do list this year, including replacing the V-belt on our Macwester Malin’s Lombardini diesel engine. Fitting was easy enough, it’s just a case of slacking-off a couple of bolts, slipping the new belt on and then tightening the bolts back up again. It’s do-able with two hands, but three hands would be easier.

I really struggled to find a direct replacement for the Dayco branded original V-belt [6633 2440360 05 186 057 05 186 058], so after some help from the lovely staff at Gates in Belgium, I opted for a Gates 6261MC which only cost around £5 or so from the internet.

Replacing the stern gland was more expensive at just over £250 for the parts [old and new shown above], then there was the cost of fitting over and above that. We purchased a Deep Sea Seal Manecraft set 4 high-speed configuration which is good for almost 3000rpm. Our Lombardini LDW1003M is capable of revving to 3600rpm, however the throttle is set to max-out south of 3000rpm.

Fitting the seal was straightforward enough, although the alignment of the face that you can see shining above is always time-consuming, because it moves out of alignment as the jubilee clips are tightened. Other jobs included fixing the dinghy floor, replacing the rear 12mm mooring chains with 16mm chain as part of installing the mooring tackle. Obviously we also recommissioned the heads, and anti-fouled the hull. I’m in the processing of sourcing an engine anode, as the one we have is nearly depleted.

I wasn’t particularly happy with the amount of water that our Jabsco pump was chucking-out of the exhaust when I was de-winterising the engine. It’s a Jabsco 29470 2531C 05K. Apparently the 05K is a date code, and so I imagine that the pump was manufactured late in 2005, although it was fitted after that along with the new engine.

Having consulted friends at the yacht club, I switched the plate around [see above]. While there wasn’t much improvement on the hard, the pump worked well enough after crane in. A new pump is north of £200, but that’s nothing compared to the cost of cooking our Macwester Malin’s engine, so we have ordered one and will replace it during the season if we feel that’s necessary. Otherwise, it can sit on a shelf ready to be swapped-out as and when required.

With hindsight, arriving at the club by 7am was a waste of time as the crane got stuck on the way, and then rather predictably broke down where it was stuck. More than two hours were lost waiting around in cold and damp conditions.

While we were waiting, we watched HMS Queen Elizabeth [R08] slowly make her way into Rosyth dockyard to meet up with HMS Prince of Wales [R09] which can be seen to the left of the photograph above.

Much later than planned, our Macwester Malin, Indefatigable Banks was lifted from her winter resting place and lowered on to the putty. She spent one night on the north pontoon and we popped her back on her mooring the following day. Thanks to our chums for picking us up in the club rescue boat, as our dinghy has yet to get her freshly-painted bottom wet.

We still need to get some sails on, plus complete a number of other mundane tasks, so a shakedown sail isn’t on the cards yet …soon though!