Initially, I wanted to haul her out, slap a diesel into her, and shove her back in the water. But if I was going to pull her up, it was evident some other repairs had to be made. Water was coming in at the chines (where the hull changes shape at an angle, longitudinally) and while I expect an old wooden boat to be a bit wet, this was more water than I liked to have in my bilge. A solar panel was keeping the battery alive for the bilge pump, but winter has less sun for battery charging...
What I really wanted was a period-correct marine diesel...something like a Lister or Petter type "hit and miss" engine with a massive flywheel. Unfortunately, these are huge and heavy, and totally wrong for this application. I looked around and found one Lycoming diesel for sale. I thought that was really weird, since Lycoming is an aircraft engine manufacturer. Turns out a French company, Bernard, manufactured diesels, and they were marketed in the USA under the Lycoming name. Parts were all but impossible to come by, though the engine looked clean and the transmission was excellent. But it was only 6 hp, which is less than I hoped for. I found one engine coming out of a Cal 29 that looked ok. It was a Farymann A10, which is a single cylinder German engine, raw water cooled.
It was noisy with an exhaust leak upon start, but quieted down after warming up. I agreed to buy it, not knowing what hell it would cause me.At the time, I was still driving the excavator, so I yanked the Komatsu down to the boatyard, where the fellow Chris was working on his boat, pulling out the diesel, and making a well for an outboard. Leaving the Komatsu on the trailer, I was able to lift the engine entire onto a pallet. Chris gave me the controls, fuel tank, electrical stuff, gauges, muffler, alternator, and spares.
I sat on the engine for a few months before getting into it to have a look. The major issue was the raw water cylinder sleeve, which was leaking both water and exhaust. I pulled it off to find it pretty much unrepairable. A new cylinder would be $560. I decided to sit on it while I tried to find an overbore piston so I could try to hot-tank and then hone the old cylinder. I didn't examine the lower end, silly me. That would bite me later. I paid $1000 for the Farymann, and to be fair, the prop, shaft, tank, and alternator alone was probably worth that much.
The idea was to pull the boat out with the masts still up, do some work, and put her back in before she dried up too much. This is my first classic wooden boat, so I sought advice on pulling her out. Everyone told me to use a travel-lift (a big four-wheeled crane that pulls the boat up on straps) to be gentle on the hull. All the travel lifts were in Sidney, and the outboard I used to get to the Marina was no longer available. My not-quite-working one was...well, long story...let's just call it gone. I thought about having the boat kept at the marina on the hard, but I would have to pay. We asked Layton, our landlord here in Sooke, if we could put it here. He reluctantly agreed.
Ok! Now, the travel-lift fee was to be $22 a foot, that's $660 (round-trip), outboard rental would be $120, trucking $130/hr from Sidney to East Sooke, plus crane rental for taking up the masts...this was starting to look like a $1000 dollar plus job!! Stace and I decided to put it off till we could afford it.
September rolled by, and we successfully managed to eradicate the fleas that came with our new home.
October flew by with our public Samhain ritual, not to mention a blessedly uneventful Hallowe'en.
November was cold, and we started to look at moving Larkie. Moorage was paid until Dec. 12, so in early November I started phoning. First good news, Don's Boat Hauling could get it from Goldstream Marina. Would it be ok without a travel-lift? In fact, after some more research, it turned out that the compression put on the hull by a travel-lift could do MORE damage than it could potentially save. Great for an old power boat, not so great on a full-keel wooden sailboat...
This would eliminate the outboard rental, and a significant portion of the trucking. Masts. I hemmed and hawed and finally decided to try it myself. Well, not quite. My family (mom, stepdad, sister) came out to help me and Stacey and our friend Steve Hodder unstep the masts. I had already come out and pulled the booms, gaffs, and running rigging off...all that was left was the shrouds and stays. With one person each on a line to the top of the main mast, we slacked off the shrouds and Steve and I lifted the solid spruce mast straight up. We walked it forward to the bitt (strong place to tie stuff to on the foredeck) and the family lowered it down nice as you please. I did the mizzen alone. No sweat. No crane rental!
Oke, next I had to make a place for the boat, so I phoned up Bosun's Locker and asked about buying some boat stands. These are tubular metal tripods with adjustable tops. I was stunned to find they cost $200-$250 each, and I needed to have five or six!! All of a sudden it looked dire. Figure $1300 at least after taxes. I simply didn't have the money. I stared at the stands online for a long time, and fantasized about stealing some from a boatyard or finding them on Craigslist for $20 a piece...and then realized that they were pretty easy to make.
Using the Motorcycle Shop's account, I bought 1" black iron pipe from Andrew Sheret's. And a sawzall from Rona. I had a grinder. The shop had a MIG welder. And over the xmas holidays (shop was closed for a week) I fabbed up 5 boat stands, just like the ones online. Superior in some ways. Total cost? $128 for pipe. $12 for u-bolts. $44 for threaded rod. $16 for nuts, washers, and paint. Oh, and $11.98 for a new pair of welding gloves and some tips for the welder. That's $212 or thereabouts. Plus $190.80 for an extra month of moorage. $402.80 is still a damn sight less than $1300. Win. Me.
Now we were into January with 5 beautiful (untested) boat stands, a reluctant landlord, and a boat sad and wet in the snow. Haulage was imminent.
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