Well, almost . . .
Last weekend we were able to get the last coat of epoxy barrier paint on both hulls, the first coat of anti-foul paint on both hulls - even working with head lamps while we painted (had a lot of touch-up to do the next morning LOL plus we got tons of bugs flying into the bright light shining on the paint so we had to scrape them off the next morning), and the second/last coat of anti-foul paint on one hull. Then Monday, John finished up the final coat of anti-foul on the second hull. Monday night and Tuesday morning we put on an extra roller-width layer of paint along the water line and on leading edges - something recommended to us by many more experienced boaters. And Tuesday night, we pulled off the masking tape edge! Check it out!
Then on Wednesday, the big big news we have been working towards for over a year. WE GOT THE ELECTRIC MOTORS AND SERVO PROP SAIL DRIVES MOUNTED!! Sorry for the shouting, it's just so so wonderful and exciting to us!
This is our boatyard friend Thor who took a "break" from working on his own boat, Maunu Kai, to help John get the OceanVolt motors lifted into the engine compartments, along with John coming out of the starboard compartment after checking the motor placement. Sorry I didn't get any more photos of that process, but I was up on the boat top working the winch for the halyard they used. Here's the view from above, showing the motor placement.
Note that these motors each weigh 60ish lbs and they replaced diesel motors that each weighed more than 300 lbs.
Next up was the mounting of the servo prop saildrives. For the first one, John lifted it up while I placed a couple of hanging bolts to temporarily hang it from the motors. Then we fished the control cable for the servo drive up through the motor. Then I went back down and John lifted the motor higher while I tried to blindly place and secure the first two two stainless steel bolts. Next was to remove the hanging bolts and place the last two finish bolts. HaHa - If only it all happened as smoothly as I just said! It took several trips up and down the ladders (one up onto the boat and another down into the engine compartment and back) before we got everything lined up, out of the way, and close enough to be secured. It all fit so amazingly well because John spent so much time making sure that the motor mount fabrication was so precise and fit within tolerances. This mounting is slightly temporary as we would still need to take out each bolt, use 4200 adhesive on it along with lock-tite and some locking washers, then torque them to specs. That was done the next day. For the port saildrive, John called some other boatyard friends who had offered to help, Brian and Beau. That went a lot faster having one person dedicated in the engine compartment with two on the ground. Here's what it looked like.
One breathtaking moment for us, especially John, was when we checked to make sure everything lined up properly. It did!!!
And here's the final view of it all!
One final step after torquing all the bolts appropriately, is to put the oil in the saildrive gear box. The instructions sayto put it in and then make sure it isn't leaking anywhere. So John did that on Thursday and we kept going back and checking them, but glorious day, NO LEAKS!
If you want to know more about our electric propulsion system, you can check it out here ==> OceanVolt for Multihulls
One final note, we are super happy to have our forward starboard cabin already set up as a work room with a work bench and lots of storage space! I grabbed this pic during one of the runs I made to get additional tools
So, what did I mean by saying 'almost' at the beginning of the post? There is one last bit of painting that John is finishing up today. He is painting inside the dagger board pockets with some epoxy barrier paint. More about that later.
Last weekend we were able to get the last coat of epoxy barrier paint on both hulls, the first coat of anti-foul paint on both hulls - even working with head lamps while we painted (had a lot of touch-up to do the next morning LOL plus we got tons of bugs flying into the bright light shining on the paint so we had to scrape them off the next morning), and the second/last coat of anti-foul paint on one hull. Then Monday, John finished up the final coat of anti-foul on the second hull. Monday night and Tuesday morning we put on an extra roller-width layer of paint along the water line and on leading edges - something recommended to us by many more experienced boaters. And Tuesday night, we pulled off the masking tape edge! Check it out!
Then on Wednesday, the big big news we have been working towards for over a year. WE GOT THE ELECTRIC MOTORS AND SERVO PROP SAIL DRIVES MOUNTED!! Sorry for the shouting, it's just so so wonderful and exciting to us!
This is our boatyard friend Thor who took a "break" from working on his own boat, Maunu Kai, to help John get the OceanVolt motors lifted into the engine compartments, along with John coming out of the starboard compartment after checking the motor placement. Sorry I didn't get any more photos of that process, but I was up on the boat top working the winch for the halyard they used. Here's the view from above, showing the motor placement.
Note that these motors each weigh 60ish lbs and they replaced diesel motors that each weighed more than 300 lbs.
Next up was the mounting of the servo prop saildrives. For the first one, John lifted it up while I placed a couple of hanging bolts to temporarily hang it from the motors. Then we fished the control cable for the servo drive up through the motor. Then I went back down and John lifted the motor higher while I tried to blindly place and secure the first two two stainless steel bolts. Next was to remove the hanging bolts and place the last two finish bolts. HaHa - If only it all happened as smoothly as I just said! It took several trips up and down the ladders (one up onto the boat and another down into the engine compartment and back) before we got everything lined up, out of the way, and close enough to be secured. It all fit so amazingly well because John spent so much time making sure that the motor mount fabrication was so precise and fit within tolerances. This mounting is slightly temporary as we would still need to take out each bolt, use 4200 adhesive on it along with lock-tite and some locking washers, then torque them to specs. That was done the next day. For the port saildrive, John called some other boatyard friends who had offered to help, Brian and Beau. That went a lot faster having one person dedicated in the engine compartment with two on the ground. Here's what it looked like.
One breathtaking moment for us, especially John, was when we checked to make sure everything lined up properly. It did!!!
And here's the final view of it all!
One final step after torquing all the bolts appropriately, is to put the oil in the saildrive gear box. The instructions sayto put it in and then make sure it isn't leaking anywhere. So John did that on Thursday and we kept going back and checking them, but glorious day, NO LEAKS!
If you want to know more about our electric propulsion system, you can check it out here ==> OceanVolt for Multihulls
One final note, we are super happy to have our forward starboard cabin already set up as a work room with a work bench and lots of storage space! I grabbed this pic during one of the runs I made to get additional tools
So, what did I mean by saying 'almost' at the beginning of the post? There is one last bit of painting that John is finishing up today. He is painting inside the dagger board pockets with some epoxy barrier paint. More about that later.
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