Yacht Restoration – Page 5 – Saving Anne Marie

Skin fittings

I have replaced all the skin fittings. A number have been sealed permanently with fibreglass and epoxy and others have been created.

These are Blakes bronze seacocks which can be shut off:

2 no. Toilet (heads) inlet and outlet

1 no. Kitchen (galley) sink drain

1 no. Shower and heads basin drainage sump outlet

1 no. Bilge pump

1 no engine cooling inlet.

Lastly the ship’s log sensor fits in a plastic through-hull.

Each fitting has a plywood backing pad bonded and sealed to the inside of the hull. Four bolts secure the fitting with lots of sealant.

Stuffy Box

No I am not being rude. The Stuffy Box is a simple seal that goes on the propeller shaft to allow water lubrication but stops leaks – or so they say.

Anne Marie had one already installed but as it was quite old I bought a replacement. This one is by Orbitrade.

Greasing the shaft proved a messy job.

Propeller is here

The new propeller arrived today supplied by T Norris Marine https://www.tnorrismarine.co.uk

New cushions and mattresses

Just got our new cushions for Anne Marie from Martin’s upholstery supplies in Mereworth, Kent. Ordered Monday and delivered at 6am this morning.

Now to buy material and get the covers made.

Name plate

Carrie has spent a lot of time refurbishing Anne Marie’s name plate. Gold paint and Colean. Beautiful job.

Counting down. 15 days to go

Wooden Rubbing strake half done.

Toe rail nearly there.

Topsides ready for blue stripes.

Propeller shaft fitted.

Rudder fitted.

Exhaust through-hull fitted.

Cushions templates prepared for cutting foam.

Stern name board refurbished and looking wonderful.

Still to do:

Paint blue stripes

Finish rubbing strake

Fix rudder stuffing box.

Fit prop shaft seal

Fit through- hulls for bilge pimp and engine intake.

Fit heads storage tank and associated two through-hulls.

Then she can go in the water.

Rudder shaft internal seal and stuffing box before final fitting.

Rudder and propeller shaft in final position

Teak rubbing strake

Toe rail capping to bow

Repair to toe rail

Fuel tank cleanse

The one part of Anne Marie that we have not really touched has been in the starboard main cabin with the fuel tank underneath.

The fuel tank gauge is hidden away beneath the lockers- under the floor! A useless place. I decided to buy new senders and gauges for both water and fuel tanks.

Problem one was getting the existing ones out as the sender is bolted down through a cover plate. You therefore have to remove the cover plate to get to the sender unit. Such a bad design although nowadays you can get screw-in ones.

We found a rotten and corroded sender unit and sludge. This was a BAD SIGN. The tank had lots of fuel but also water and sludge. Worse was evidence of diesel bug which is caused by Bacteria growing on the fuel/water interface. Diesel bug has become a serious problem with biodiesel as the vegetable oil that is added to all diesel nowadays creates the ideal medium for growth.

Garages store diesel in massive tanks and the bug can grow and be sold to motorists. Expensive to treat and a major fag to treat.

Putting this through my engine would not have done engine or filters any good in fact it would be a disaster. So only thing to do was clean tank out and get rid of it the fuel.

I bought a 45 gallon (204 litres) drum to empty everything into and got going. This was not big enough. I needed almost 300 litres of containers in the end. Do you know how much it would cost to fill the tank with 300litres of diesel at £1.35 a litre?

The tank then got scraped, wiped, rinsed and sprayed with biocides (a bit like changing a babies nappy/diaper) and is now ready for replacing the covers and sender unit.