Day 400 Stanchions Stanchions
The continuation of the pushpit down from the poop-deck to the deck required that I bend the ends of the rails. Standard 30º connecters work on the bottom end ( vertically ) but not on the top as they become the remaining 60º when oriented that way. It's hard to believe they don't come with a 90º on one end and a 30º on the other!
 
To achieve a nice looking bend I modified the pipe bender to be a more gentle creature. Before yesterday, I thought the tool rental place in town would have a 1" bender. Seems that's not a usual size. Go figure.

While running through the stores with a "what to do now??" panic on, I spotted some clothes line pulleys. I estimated that, with the bearings pulled out, they should fit the shafts on the bender. By the grace of God I was right!

Rollers
 Plastic clothes line pulleys work...mostly

 They are pretty weak, but should hold up long enough to get this weekends job done. I hope the store is going to get more in as I took the last two they had.

The ends are open for gates and I still need to modify the top rail connecter for that. The welded on mounts make it all very strong, no worries there!
 

 While I was outside getting a nice tan in the sun, poor Gena was slogging around in the engine room. Seems some tar from the frame forward has gotten into the bottom of the pan and leaked through the yet-to-be installed fuel sender hole into the tank. Luckily it had a few gallons of water in there (probably from before the windows were installed...I hope!) so it just floated around in large blobs.

That's probably a good lesson. Close all openings going into the keel. You never know when water will find it's way in.

After an initial cleanup, she set out making the engine hoist that will fit across the teleposts we installed previously. I always thought it would be just a length of 4x4, but I guess this is safer. Ah, yet another item we'll be carrying aboard.

The pipes on the ends slip over the top of the teleposts, and a large come-along ( given to us by Gena's dad ) will do the hoisting.

It's nice to know that if there is a breakdown, we have the tools to hoist the engine out and fix it on the spot.

The engine was supposedly rebuilt, but we're both old enough to know that "rebuilt" can mean anything from a scrub brush to a complete overhaul and must proceed cautiously.

The oil leak, as it turns out, wasn't a seal or the oil pan gasket. It is just coming from the tappet cover. Easy enough to fix!

The water pump is still in question as it was run for a few minutes ( as the guy showed us that it does in fact run ) without water going through it. If he was a good mechanic, he would have greased the pump, if not, he would have burned off the impellor in the first few seconds.

We can only try it and see.

Gena in engine
Once again I must mention my hatred of "fuel" engines on a sailboat. Gena is starting to agree. It requires so much prep, hookups, pipes, etc., as you will see in upcoming days.

 

Day 400:
10 hours: Stanchions, engine hoist. 400 days!! Never thought it would get to here!


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