Just an update for the interested.
We've made little progress with our work on Fair Maid due to engine issues. A couple of months after the engine was installed, coolant appeared in the oil... I thought we had blown a head gasket, but in any case it seemed wiser to pull the motor out rather than take the head off in the boat, so that's what we did. Compression tests in the workshop revealed low but consistent compression across all cylinders, which was disappointing, strange, but did not point to the head gasket, so we investigated further and decided it must be another gasket, behind the front cover of the motor. We changed that, tested the motor, and decided not to address the low compression as it started and ran fine. So we re-installed it and continued to use the boat...
Another month or two later, the motor again failed and we once more pulled it out and brought it back to our workshop. This time we pulled the head off and discovered serious corrosion on the valves. The exhaust system had been siphoning back after the engine was stopped. Disastrous. The exhaust system appeared well-installed and we had not touched it. Actually, it's an insane design, and how the previous engine ever survived for longer than a few months is a mystery.
After having the head re-conditioned, all was reassembled, tested again, and it's all good. Compression is back to what it should be, and we're confident that we have a good donk. But reinstalling it won't happen until we can sort out the exhaust design. We've also blown out the old genoa, so we need a replacement. Winter has now arrived and we never got to deal with our cabin-top leaks, so that's doubly disappointing. All in all, a very frustrating summer of treading water, or worse, not making much progress despite loads of time and money invested!
Fair Maid is now scheduled to be hauled out for anti-foul and some repairs, including the exhaust system rebuild, in late June.
