Sabre 28 - Cruiser - Project

[MBA Marine]

Quick update...

 

Its still sanding sanding sanding... I'm almost there. We are  hoping to call it quits on sanding tomorrow.. As mentioned I'm a perfectionist and struggle to stop.. But I think we are there..

 

The engine cables are here and dave's spent the week and today getting the on the engine..  We've had a bit of fun with the engine electrics.. Vetus no longer supply the plug from our new engine panel to the engine wiring loom and I didn't want to cut off the plug on the panel.. So vetus suggested that we replace the wiring loom on the engine which will allow us to make use of their new waterproof plugs.. So we did .. £200 later! But these are all in and means that the engine wiring is all new and the connections are waterproof.. Bit overkill but I want to be able to trust the engine.   All other engine systems are installed.. Oils new and impeller looks good etc.

 

We just need to put diesel in the tank and temporary connect up the engine panel and fire the engine up! Which we will do tomorrow! Can't wait..

 

So Sanding sanding sanding and engine test start tomorrow.. its all coming together.

I would rather have put in my own loom from the panel down, with a couple of spare wires, the connector maybe water proof now but what about in a few years as that rubber perishes and both side of the connector start to 'green' up a bit with corrosion then things stop working, one day the starter does not come in then you give that connector a wiggle and away it goes, for me the connector will always be the weak link. 

[JawsOrca]

Good point Mark.. Dave wanted to do this but I couldn't cut the new panel about.. We will fix it when it breaks in a few years time

[JawsOrca]

Ok so good and bad news..

 

Good news.. the boat is sanded 99% (I'm not quite happy with one tiny bit on the deck so I need to go back and sand during the week). We had worn out the backing pad on both sanders.. whoops and may have killed the gearbox on the little (PMF) sander... whoops.. but its all sanded.. and wait for it...................

........

........

... Daves started to prime .. starting with the hardtop.. but it will take days and days to get a full coat on...

 

(I find it hard to say; "That's good enough.. paint" so its a big step for me! but I can't paint it because I'll be like.. "stop, thats not good enough" so I have to walk away and leave dave or others to paint (then I can't moan) .. It's good enough though.. I'm happy...)

 

There's no point in taking pictures because it just looks like a white bathtub!

 

 

But it was hard work this weekend.. 2 days working us that heat.. with face masks on...  Need a holiday..

 

Ok so bad news. We didn't get the engine fired up but there's no rush at least we got the boat sanded.. 

[JawsOrca]

What annoying weather... After 27dc here last night we woke up the sound of rain on the roof .. and I wanted to get the last bits sanded and a coat of paint on

 

However Sod the rain I defiantly stood in the rain and sanding.. take that weather  

 

After that Dave finished off all the engine bits and we tried firing the engine up... First click.. the high pitched beep satisfying sounded so that bit works!  Onto start and click from the starter then nothing.. Dave put a 7.5amp fuse in and it blew that.. although could he find a replacement.. nope course not.. so he ran up to the little expensive motor factors in the village (for a little village it has everything!).. Back again.. Click of the starter same again.. I would have been stumped then but he said it needs a relay (god knows how he knows that).. He did something whilst I went to talk to some of the other club members who had gathered to watch! When I heard the starter motor followed by him shouting.. "Can you come up I can't do it all myself".. So up the ladder.. After turning over and him opening and closing the injectors.. battery number 1 ran out of juice!  

 

Hearing this the other club members handed us a replacement battery (good chaps!).. after 5 seconds with this new battery... it fired up :)  It's so hard to explain the feeling of hearing the engine running on a project.. each time we've had it its the same feeling.. the "boat" is now a boat and no longer a "project"... alive with the vibration..

 

That satistifying buzzer wasn't switching off though and the panel showed battery so Dave panicked (thinking we were about to kill the thingy/something (Alternator?!) .. the off position did nothing.. so he manually triggered the stop solenoid.. We gave the battery back and dug out the battery charger as it was lunch time! Dave plugged it in only for the bloody charger thing to go bang... The plug cables had wore through (Cheap crap!).. But we managed to trip the power for the whole boat yard (hehehe).. thankfully I've got keys so quickly reset it! (Don't tell anyone!).

 

But Dave used his car battery and after lunch we restarted her and after some revs the annoying warning buzzer and alarm went off and the gauge read normal.. we left it running to warm up and it was idling well.. So considering the engine has only every been started (three times now!) and sitting for a bit the only problem appears to be a stop solenoid! (considering I expected starter, alternator and even diesel pump to be dead - we are well happy with that!).

 

The sun the finally came out after that (I had a quick trip on the river here to take someone out on the trot boat to their boat) and we finished the day by painting the whole thing with primer! 

 

Good day ey.. we need to drive up north tomorrow morning as I brought a spare outdrive from ebay for £100! But aim to leave early and get back for lunchtime!

[JawsOrca]

Well today was spent on the road.. Up and out at 7am (No didnt watch the footie - but surprise surprise england lost), Drove to Leicester to collect a sonic outdrive..Arrived at 9:45am (not bad)..

 

Looked good, paid the nice chap £100 drove home.. closer inspected and we even started to doubt if it was a sonic drive! end cap was a painted bottom plastic container... Took the top off and someone has had a party in there! No oil and gears battered.. happy days! Started stripping it down and lots of bits lose so looks like it had been taken apart (and new bearings installed - Like the chap said).. but looks like they got confused and couldn't work out how to put back together.. Bit of a shame as I wanted to use this one as our main and use the other as a spare. But our one is better but thankfully this one can be saved so over the winter Dave will rebuild this one..

 

Just managed to find the time to play again with the engine solenoid (I can spell that now) and its dead..

 

Back to work tomorrow... boring... 

[Gracie]

Hi Alan

Sorry to read that your sonic drive thingy (whatever that is) was faulty, hope you get it sorted, I did stay up and watch the match, had a bet with my son's that England would lose and won a fiver, didn't have the heart to take it from them though lol

Grace

[JawsOrca]

Lol thanks Grace.. its the bit that hangs out the back and gets damaged

 

I was hoping it would save some time but it hasn't worked out but it will be a good spare part one day

 

Good bet there though! I did think of betting that they wouldn't lose but the odds are probably too low its probably not worth it!!

[BroadScot]

Alan, your doing brill with your project, I am remaing neutral for the WC am supporting the Ref!  I also tell fibs lol

 

Iain

[JawsOrca]

Lol Iain.. I'm hoping its over and done with soon as I'm no footie fan but at least the roads are quieter so I can get home quicker!

 

Quick update. Dave had a thought at lunchtime about the solenoid (I can't spell it right again) he realised that the unit needs a negative supply (he was thinking that the unit itself is an negative).. he supplied an negative and it works perfectly.. all experience!  Luckily I didn't order a replacement.. so that means the engine is all sorted!

[Gracie]

"so that means the engine is all sorted" I am so chuffed for you I really am, well done

 

Grace

[JawsOrca]

Thanks Grace... can't believe that there's nothing wrong with it.. considering it was sitting for a few years apparently! Back to painting now!

[BroadScot]

Aye Alan another job ticked aff yer list laddie. Guid news!  I am just glad I dealt with a proper Negative Supply as a Spark  Although it was good fun at times with Three Phase Supplies!

 

Iain.

[Guest]

.......he realised that the unit needs a negative supply (he was thinking that the unit itself is an negative).. he supplied an negative and it works perfectly.......

 

Quite a few marine engine ancillaries are wired like that, with the internal coils fully isolated from the metalwork.

 

When I bought one of my boats, the previous owner had spent a lot of money trying to cure poor charging from the alternator.  He'd assumed that it just needed a heavy positive connecting cable and that the negative was through the metal body.

 

All it needed was a short heavy gauge negative strap as well, and then it was at last giving out the full amperage.

 

I didn't offer it as a suggestion because I'd assumed you had connected the neg and pos.

[JawsOrca]

i think coming from automotive its too easy to assume. But at least it was a quick cheap fix

 

That sounds like how you get a cheap boat too there strowager!  And next time though please offer the obvious as a suggestion! It's far too easy to overlook the obvious!   

[JawsOrca]

Shortest update ever but considering I can't explain how much work this has taken.. if anyone has painted a boat before you will know what I mean..

 

So...over the last week and this weekend.. the superstructure has had 2 coats of undercoat and 2 coats of gloss (sanding in between).. so superstructure is finished...! The hull again has two 2 coats of undercoat and 1 gloss.. 

 

We need to gloss the decks as these only have undercoat but are ready to gloss and the hull needs another gloss..

 

Painting the hardtop was bloody hard! if you look at the side grab rail we had to stand on that to paint the roof.. health and safety goes out the window!

 

No pictures really as it wont come out. But she looks good

[JawsOrca]

Just went for a short walk and took some pics.. shes looks better than these give credit.

[quo vadis]

Its good to see all your hard work paying off

[JawsOrca]

it's certainly good to be able to see something in return for the work put in! It's been very very tough doing this in this warm weather. But can't complain as we need it dry and it's almost all painted. 

[Gracie]

Wow, looking good, well bloody done

 

Grace 

[BroadScot]

Wow, looking good, well bloody done

 

Grace 

My sentiments also Grace!

 

Iain.

[JawsOrca]

Another picture and a rare one because I'm in it ... credit to my mum... (Where's she gone?)

[DaylightGate]

Alan

 

I have really enjoyed reading about this project, and being a newbie I have picked up a few tips.

 

Well done she is looking extremely good now, keep it up.  

[JawsOrca]

Gary.. Wishing it was finished though as we was up on the broads chilling!

[JawsOrca]

Last coat of gloss applied to the hull this evening.. It's a tad stripey (although it may level off as it sets) but I'm not overly bothered (grrrr) but it will covered in fendoffs and we are thinking of painting Brooms grey at some point in its life (Probably after I learn how it behaves and wreck this paint job!).

 

It just leaves the decks to paint which dave will do one coat tomorrow (it doesn't need both of us as theres not much space and it don't need to be neat.

[JawsOrca]

Quick update as its been a few days... We still haven't managed to paint the decks as its been raining (or forecast too). 

 

We spent a couple of hours on the boat over the weekend and only managed to do little jobs like; cut the ply floor panels in the wheelhouse, they are shaped and angled so it wasn't a quick job, I got dave to repair the the dashboard where the throttle goes as it has a angle but strangely the (original) throttle was too big and didnt fit flush to the fibreglass dash (If you look back at the first pictures you will see someone had made a wooden wedge) I didn't like the wooden wedge so dave spent a few hours cutting it about and making it a bit straighter so it sits nicely in the fibreglass (I'm having a bit of an allergic reaction to fibreglass at the moment so dave's having to do the cutting work). I'll get a picture when its painted up (again!). 

 

We also tidied up as the boat was full of stuff so we had a run to the storage garage so its nice empty, I went round and did some sanding on the fibreglass inside too and generally sweeping up. It's nice an tidy inside now. We are off to portsmouth in the week (Couple of days off work) to collect the side lining from the supplier (I want to have a good look round too as they do everything) so that can go in when it stops raining as we need to undo the windows trims and reseal again (joy - I'm dreading it!) but once its done the bulkheads can go up and kitchen can go in etc.

 

We have been thinking about what we want to do next year and the plan is to test the boat on the upper medway for easter and then bring her straight to norfolk either by road or round via water.. I'll have to look for a mooring soon though