QuietDolphin

Most people celebrate midsummer in Sweden by raising the maypole, we did it by raising the mast. We sold the old and worn Furlex Type B MK2 during the winter and was planning to install a new Furlex 204S during this season. Unfortunately we didn't take exact measurements of the old forestay length before selling it, so this project became an adventure too. For our excuse we did measure the old forestay, but the wire was inside the luff tubes in the storage along the mast and later we considered that was not exact enough. We were not hundred procent sure that the old Furlex was the correct length either. New luff extension tubes and forestay  Taking measurements  Assembling the terminal So we raised the mast with a temporary dyneema forestay which we can measure easily. We tried to set the mast straight with little tension with the temporary forestay. We took measurements twice with a 20m measuring tape and after hours of fiddling around took the courage to cut

A long overdue project was to pull in the NMEA2000 data and the power cable into the steering pedestal for the Garmin chartplotter we purchased last year. We had to disassemble the whole upper part of the pedestal and unscrew the bottom cover in the engine room to be able to do this. There was already a hole on the side of the pedestal we were planning to reuse. It was a tight fit, but we managed to pull in two cables in the same hole and seal them off with self-vulcanizing tape. We also replaced the worn out compass light wire and while everything got a good clean and new grease for the inner parts and sealant for the outer parts. Now we just need to connect the cables in the engine room.

Read Part 1 The alternator had to be taken off during the heat exchanger cleaning project, so while at it we upgraded it to a brand new 70A alternator, changed the belt and installed new sound insulation. The old alternator used an external charging regulator made in the 80s which we also got rid of. That freed up some space on the bulkhead in the engine room, so we could re-arrange the cabling. Old generator  New 70A generator installed New sound insulation is on The positive busbar was moved from above the engine to the other side of the bulkhead, where we already had the negative busbar installed. We mounted the new BlueSea main switch there too. The old 6mm2 wires to the DC panel also got replaced with 16mm2 marine grade cables and got a 50A fuse. Working on the new cables  The new layout  The old main switch was on the floor where someone made a large opening for it and installed the switch on a piece of wood. We were thinking a lot about what to do

The new laser cut keel nut washers are finally in place. After we reinforced the bottom/floor of the bilge with 4 layers of 600g biaxial fiberglass, we were able to install the new washers and tighten the nuts. The new washers are A4 (316/316L) stainless steel, 65x65x6mm with a 21mm hole and fit perfectly. We tightened the nuts with a regular cheap 210Nm torque wrench we bought in the local hardware store only for this purpose. Theoretically M20 A2-A4 fasteners in their new condition should be able to clear 273Nm when dry or 246 when lubricated, but we didn't want to get too close to the maximum new factory values and risk damaging the threads or breaking the rods and also we used a small amount of Loctite on the threads to prevent them from loosening due to vibration or movement, so we tightened them to 210Nm. Tightening them even to 210Nm was not an easy task due to the poor access. I had to use my whole weight and if it was possible push the wrench with legs with my back s

When the engine was hanging on straps during the saildrive diaphragm change we also replaced the old engine mounts and probably that was the most difficult task. Removing the locking screws from the old mounts took hours and lots of force, heat, penetrating oil, etc. The mounts on these engines are prone to crack where the thread is welded to the base due to many years of vibration. We'll clean and refurbish the old mounts and probably keep them as spares. I decided to clean the freshwater cooling system while we're at it. The coolant was drained from the engine using the plug behind the alternator, then we dismounted all the freshwater pipes, the thermostat and the heat exchanger. There was some debris in the heat exchanger, but nothing really serious. We gave all the components a good clean and some vinegar nonetheless. The heat exchanger got a new gasket and all the pipes got new seals when we put the system together. I'm glad that we did this job now when t