So, with the weather against us on Monday, we switched focus to the winter painting in the shed. Sadly, this wasn't going too well either with condensation being a major headache and preventing painting for much of the morning plus a hole in the shed roof - right over one of the boats.
However, there was still plenty to do - rubbing down the first two coats of paint on Sweet Freedom in preparation for the next layer was a priority and continuing the preparation of the hull on the private Freeman 23 cruiser next to it in the shed - you can see a story in picture of this boat's progress in an older post.
We had two cruisers out on hire for the week so we were still on-call to handle problems (like one of the alternators on Real Freedom giving out on Monday and the 2D galley light in Pure Freedom 2 playing up). We also had Fair Freedom to get ready for Friday. Pete and Rab were seen on Wednesday refreshing the window seals on this boat to cut down the draughts - I think we'll need some more bear tape shortly.
Last week, we began stripping the engine from one of our day boats - it has been very difficult to start for some time and wasn't running terribly well with limited power. To be honest, seriously limiting the power of a day boat is a great idea, but I'd prefer to do that with a throttle stop screw than with a knackered engine.
This little Nanni was in right poor health. We'd already replaced the cylinder head on it earlier in the year but upon taking this off again, we were gobsmacked to see just how badly carboned up it was.
The Poorly Nanni Engine about to be removedA few more nuts and bolts lose and the engine was free. Manhandled to the back of the boat, it was lifted out with the help of a mini-digger borrowed from Roger at ANH. Now with it on the engine stand, Rab and Peter set about gutting it.
We soon found the problem - the piston rings on number 1 pot had broken. Quite a serious fault really and certainly explains the carbonisation, bad starting and loss of power.
A quick call to a Nanni dealer and we had to sit down - quickly and if only to catch our jaws before they hit the deck. Head gasket - around £80; Piston ring sets around £80 (per pot!) - Sump gasket - I'd stopped listening by then. The long and short of it was that the parts to repair this engine (which is tired in other ways, anyway) were running close to £600. Stuff that - I was offered an entire replacement (like for like) engine earlier in the year for £450 - I wish I'd bought it.
We started applying some lateral thinking to this problem and found another supplier of parts. A quick phone call and we'd managed to source all the bits we wanted for well under half the price previously quoted. They're all new genuine parts too, not scavenged from a dead Nanni crankcase.
We're awaiting delivery of these bits now and look forward to making sure they fit - watch this space.
Last week, we completed the rebuild of our spare BMC 1.5 engine. This used to be in Pure Freedom 1 but was replaced by a new Nanni in early 2008. Sadly, when I got it back from where it has been stored, it had been robbed of its starter motor and fuel injection pump and a few other bits and it's been sat in one of my sheds at home for about a year. About a month ago, we manhandled it into a van and trundled it into the engineering shop and the magician engineer Pete B set about bringing it to life again.
With the help of parts that we had on the shelf and an injection pump sourced from Ebay earlier in the year the BMC was about to be reborn. However, we still needed a few other bits so we trundled off to see Harry May at Maycraft who seems to have a lifetime of engine bits laying around. Harry sorted us out with the final parts we needed and later that day, Pete was sparking the old girl up. Thanks, Harry.
The rebuilt BMC 1.5 diesel engineWe've now got a nicely rebuilt BMC 1.5 that's been stripped to component parts and rebuilt with new big end and new main bearings. It runs like a dream and is destined for swapping into one of our hire craft shortly when we'll perform the same strip and rebuild on another slightly tired BMC 1.5.
Successful year
We've had a pretty successful year overall. Donna in the office has been collating our customer feedback forms and we'll soon publish details of how well our customers have rated us in terms of meeting their expectations in terms of our cruisers and our service. The results show that we've been doing pretty well but there are improvements that can be made. Watch out for the figures soon.
As we near the end of the year, remember we're still letting boats. There were two (Pure Freedom 2 and Real Freedom) out all this week (returning Saturday 21st Nov) and one (Fair Freedom) out on Friday with a bunch of fishermen.
We also had two picnic boats out yesterday - both were birthday treats. One customer had bought a ticket donated to the charity auction at this year's Horning Water Carnival but the ticket was for a day boat only. On Thursday/Friday, the weather forecasts were suggesting a wet and windy day so we decided to upgrade them to a Picnic boat which would be warmer and far more comfortable. Ironically, the weather held out nicely for all our customers and even those who were out all week during pretty rough weather had a great time - though sadly one had the ropes blown overboard and one's been wrapped around the propeller. Oh well.
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