Closing in on a 6 month haul-out. The list keeps getting longer, but are all jobs that the SPARROW desperately needed. She is a fine lass and deserves the attention she is getting....
It gave us new enthusiasm to finally move to put her namesake on the stern, I had been working on a hand-carved transom board, but felt compelled to go ahead with vinyl for now. She is still in the process of getting a complete new coat of paint, from the bottom to top.
After the prop was replaced with a dripless shaft and a new automated bilge pump re-installed with accessible lifting rig in case that computer chip goes out again.....the day we dropped her back in....her engine wouldn't start.
So back out again she went, what was it this time? She had lost her ability to turn over, so after replacing the batteries, freeing up the fly-wheel by soaking in oil, trying fresh fuel, even a little ether and testing her injector, we had to call in a professional diesel mechanic for a re-build. He believed she was not able to reach enough compression....so here we are, more time in the boat yard.
Funny, but the other fellas working on their boats were joking about my being the first to go back in the water and weren't there some other things I needed to do so I wouldn't be leaving them behind~
Looks like we'll be there for at least another couple of weeks...ah well, there are LOTS of other smaller jobs to do, thankful I have the time to focus on it!