I decided to go ahead and pay the boatyard to use their crane and experienced guys to hoist my engine out, rather than figure out a DIY solution. I figured this way, if something bad happened, it would be theirs and not mine, and since my time is pretty limited anyhow, it would be much quicker - and safer - than trying to rig up something using the boom or a home-built scaffold or whatever.

Today was the only day they could fit me in other than two or more weeks away, and I didn't want to lose the next couple weekends to get to work on the engine. So I had to play hooky from work and hang out in the cold and rain. It is a pretty miserable day today.

Anyhow, on with the pics -

Last time I went up and worked on the boat on the hard (which was my first time working on her on the hard), I brought a 6' stepladder, which turned out to be insufficient, so this time I brought a 12' folding ladder, which worked perfectly (although it was cold and rainy).



I took measurements off the engine and very quickly cobbled together this little cradle out of scrap lumber:



I had to wait around for a while, but the guys finally came over with the crane and they moved so fast, I hardly had time to snap any photos.








And here is the engine compartment, looking very much like a bloody, empty tooth socket:



What a mess. Water, oil, mud, gunk.... blecccch.

Looks like I've got my work cut out for me cleaning up all that mess.

But -

I have a line on a practically brand-new Volvo diesel engine for chump change. I need to do some investigating, but it might be worth the switch, particularly in terms of potential future resale value. Most knowledgeable sailboat shoppers prefer a diesel engine to gas, and a 20 year-old Volvo diesel with low hours would be a better selling point than a 40 year-old rebuilt Atomic 4 with unknown hours.

Much research to be done...