What a job this is turning out to be

So in my last blog post I was telling you of how Benno has been planning to get the motor removed out of our boat and the steps to make that happen.

 

Now here is a recap of what happened so far. Our friend Paul had been busy, so after a week long delay he and Benno went to purchase the material at a metal supplier in Tilbury, Ont. to build the gantry to lift the motor out of the hole. The steel to manufacture this framework came to 250 pounds and the dollars for it were more then we expected to pay. The gantry consists of two stands with a crossbar. Paul used his plasma cutter to cut the correct lengths and then welded the pieces to the specifications he and Benno had figured out. When the pieces were finished Benno picked them up in our truck. Lifting the pieces up to the boat while climbing the stepladder seemed not feasible so Benno backed up the truck to the boat so Paul could stand on the truck bed and hand the pieces over to the boat where Benno could grab them. That went fine, but this was not the end of the story.

 

The three pieces of the gantry

The gantry erected inside the wheelhouse

Benno gave the engine a test pull before he removed the engine mounts

It turned out we now had another problem. You see we had a couple of days with heavy rain and the ground was totally soaked with standing water around the boat. Our truck would not move. It got stuck and I mean it was really stuck in the mud. No matter how many pieces of cardboard or wood we shoved under the tires, they just spun and threw muck all over the place. After a couple of hours of trying, even winching our truck as close to the boat to get a better angle, we had to give up. 

 

Thankfully our neighbor Will, who owns a car repair shop in town came to the rescue. He happened to be working on his house across the road that day and he used one of his pickup trucks, which used to be a tow truck in its former capacity, to pull our truck out of its mud hole. 

 

The aftermath!

We had purchased a sheet of ¾” plywood that was cut into various sizes, two pieces went on the floor under the gantry, and a long piece onto the floor in the main cabin to stiffen up the floor and some left over pieces were used for support brackets.  In addition we got five 4x4 posts in various lengths and a 2x4 for the support brackets for the track. The supports Benno made in various heights as they are placed throughout the cabin and outside on the deck to support the track where the motor, sitting on a platform, will slide through the boat. This all took some sweet time for Benno to construct. The track itself is made out of two 12 ft. lengths of 4x4 posts. The upper side on each post Benno planed with an electric hand planer to smoothen the surface for the platform to slide easier.

 

This is one of the support brackets

The track where the engine will slide on to the outside of the boat

Two pieces of plywood glued together will be the engine platform

Now hang on, the big moment will be imminent and we are watching the weather as well to get the big frontend loader with backhoe next to the boat to lift the engine down from the deck. Hopefully the lawn will survive. 

 

Thanks for dropping by and make sure to check in again to find out if everything went as planned.