Another long-overdue job

A nice calm morning yesterday, so we dropped the jib and packed it up to deliver to the sailmaker for some TLC. Then I decided to finally do something about the knackered bearings in the lower furler unit - we were really having to resort to using winches to furl the jib this last season, so really overdue to fix it.

Removing the lower unit without dropping the forestay was going to be either reasonably simple, or a nightmare. Fortunately, it was the former. I lashed the jib halyard off on the foil, removed the retaining screws that attach the foil to the drum unit, and then cranked the halyard to withdraw the foil from the drum and hold it in place. A good reason to always leave sufficient clear space at the top of the forestay.

Foil extracted from furler unit.

We then unbolted the support bars for the drum unit, tied a restraining line onto the forestay and unwound the forestay turnbuckle. I could then slide the drum unit off the bottom of the forestay, no problems. Quite remarkable really, usually you expect these things to turn into a total s**tfight.

Drum unit removed.

Bearing seal on the upper end looks well stuffed. Water and dirt will have got in and trashed the bearing.

Inner seal looks OK, but will do both ends in any case.

I'll take it part this week. I really hope it goes well - while bearings and seals are standard off the shelf items (in theory), all other parts are largely no longer available. Don't break anything, James.

Thank God I'm Back

I'm back. Europe was a really tough gig - 30 degrees, sailing at Largo de Garda (words fail me), and generally having to cope with far too much sunshine, wine and great food.

Thank the gods I'm back in NZ. A balmy 12 degrees, wet and dark. Oh New Zealand, how I have missed you...

So, having not really done any work on the boat for nearly two months the anxiety was starting to gnaw at me. So yesterday I installed the refurbished (effectively new) main water lift pump for the watermakers. Simon and I also tried to drop the jib so I could pull the furler drum off for servicing, but the gorgeous NZ weather intervened with a refreshing 25 knots up the stern and light showers of joy, so we had to abort that one.

This morning I decided to go large. The intermittent injector leak on the main engine has been the cause of much irritation, and at the end of last summer irritation exceeded motivation so I had to commit. This morning I pulled the injectors off the port bank of the engine. No visible sign of damage to any of the injectors, but the injector on cylinder 5 had a very badly rolled lower o-ring, which could well be the source of our woes.

Pulling the injectors is in itself no big deal, but it's all the work required to set everything back up again when I reinstall them that has had me hesitant. EFI has a lot going for it.

Out they come.

I'm going to get these four checked, and if nothing bad found will do the other bank. But that o-ring really did look like it might be the problem.

Well, I think that's quite enough hard work for one day. Where did I put the rum...?