Saturday 21 March 2009

Men At Work



The covers are off... and the work has begun. There's still snow on the ground - but it turned out to be a mild day and we got done pretty much everything we planned. Sorting through last year's paint, polish and brushes to see what's usable - rubbing down the hull below the waterline (Thanks Pål!) - and cleaning out the lockers.

In doing the latter it looked at first like we'd got a leak - in spite of having the covers on. It turned out to be a bottle of 'lättöl' - low alcohol beer (!) - which had burst open in the cold weather. That and a locker full of empties says we didn't do such a great job preparing for the winter.

On the other hand the hull is still looking great - just what we wanted to see. It's going to need a wash off and a repolish but the rubbing stays in the cupboard this year. Finally!

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Ancient or Modern

Well, right now the outboard is in the wokshop. Typically, it's not a case of "It's shot you need a new one" - but nor is it a case of "We can fix that no problems...". The impeller looks OK but the pump housing is worn. ...or it might be crud in the cooling channels in the block.
So maybe it's fixable... And maybe we will be shopping for a new engine.
Shiny and new would be nice- reliable and clean, for a price. But the old heap has character and a fair amount of TLC invested. I'm hoping we get it back in working order!

Monday 2 March 2009

What goes round comes around...

With a flourish of pre-season enthusiasm Pål has shipped off the outboard to the workshop at the marina to see if they can fix last seasons problems with cooling water.  Their prognosis matches mine.. most probably the impeller...  and if they can get it apart they will fix it.  But if after 25 years it's not going to give in to a little TLC we'll be faced with buying a new one.

So today we have been at the boatshow checking out the alternatives (I didn't know Johnson had disappeared!).  The going rate for a 5hp 4-stroke seems to be about 12 000 kronor...  somewhat more for a 6hp like we have today... so I have my fingers crossed that the old faithful will see reason and submit to treatment.