Almost ready

For the past three days, 2 friends and I have been working like beavers to get the Sapphira ready to launch on August 1st. Dennis sanded the bottom, and turned blue in the process, while Bruce cleaned and I worked on the bilge pump and the engine bed. Since then, Bruce and Dennis painted the bottom, and the boot stripe and we all cleaned the above-water hull. Then we dropped the engine into place, and installed the dodger. (Sorry for the lack of photos, but I won't be able to upload them for a couple of days.)

Now, on Friday the 21st, Bruce and Dennis have returned to Rhode Island and Massachusetts and I have almost finished the installation of the rebuilt Atomic 4. Tomorrow morning I'll spend a couple of hours working on the electrical wiring, cleaning the interior again, and setting up some work for the yard to complete before we launch. Then I have to drive to Toronto, Ottawa and back to Halifax.

The plan remains the same; the yard will launch the Sapphira on August 1st, we will arrive August 2nd and we'll sail on August 4th.

I'll keep posting, and upload some fabulous photos of the work in progress as soon as I can.

Progess on the engine

I drove to Vermont on June 10. On the 11th I removed the engine from Sapphira. It was a straight forward process until I tried to remove the aft holding down bolts; one snapped and I had to cut the head off the other. Eventually I was able to lift the engine. I was very fortunate in that there was a yard employee working on the 11th, a Sunday. He was moving power boats with a huge fork lift truck and agreed to take a break from his work to lift the engine from the boat, down to the ground. He also helped load the engine into the back of the car. I had removed the back seat from my Chrysler Sebring and had covered the floor with cardboard and wooden planks. It was relatively easy to slide the engine onto the planks and then to tie it in place so it wouldn't fly around on the drive home.
Now the engine is in my garage, the valves and valve seats have been ground and lapped together and the cylinder compression has been restored. Now I have to re-install the accessories and make it run.