Per request...

I was asked to post some images of the interior and general layout. While digging through my archives I realised I have not taken much of those, so I will re-use the ones the previous owners sent to me (sorry Niklas & Caroline). But first I cant resist the tempation to post one more pic from the launch.

Captain's quarters

The captains seat and passenger seats can be folded away or they can be taken feom their hinges and used as movable seating. 

Entry to the saloon, toilet is on the right. 

Kitchen, sink and stove are hidden under hinged panels. The thing on top of it all is a fan that makes cooking smoke free..

Forward bunks, or cabin... It has huge hanging lockers and generous amount of space under the beds. 

Aft cabin with its own sink. The kids love it, they can brush their teeth and the sink is at the right height for them. It also has two bunks and a walk- closet in the middle. I have no photo of the nice view that you get because windows are on each side. 

Here you can see the general layout, its pretty functional and for me it is a nice boat since I can stand straight everywhere but in the aft cabin (I'm 192 cm tall). 

Finally, one more picture. She has passed the inspections at my boatclub and can now proudly use the dedicated flag. 

I need to take some more pics 

She floats..

Roughly 300 hours of solid, backbraking work behind, the bottom job is ready, done and dealt with... If I only culd have redone the varnishing this year, but hey sometimes you just need to prioritize. 

Really no need for further words, just look at the pictures. 

Due date set...

The date has been set, Carpe Diem will be hoisted up and put to it's natural element on friday the 24th
@ 18:00. This gives me some time to get things finished. Engines ran fine when tested and it seems that i got the fuel system bled properly and the injectors are also in working order.

The keel iron has been bolted on and generous amounts of Sikaflex was used in order to be sure that no water will enter the boat. The waterline stripes have now been painted and most importantly the boat was lifted backwards about 30 centimeters so I can finally get rest of the bottom done. It is going to be a busy week since there's a boatload of stuff to haul into the boat before next friday.

Sorry for the typos

I will fix the typos in last few posts when I'm up for it. It's kind of difficult to post updates with an ipad while watching my daughters figureskating practises...

The mistakes made my wife laugh outloud, so it can' t all be that bad..

Engine overhaul

After much of the painting has been done it was time to focus on the mechanics. In reality this means that I needed to change pre and primary fuel filters, install new impellers, bleed the fuelsystem, install injectors to both engines etc... 

Yes, it is a oilfilter but a tricky one. There is not much room to get a hold of this succer on the stb engine, in fact it is a real squeeze. As you can see from below. 

This is the view I have to the filter. I can just barely see it or to be more accurate the tip of it. There is no way I can reach from behind or from the front of the engine so my only option was to cut a pice of the fuel tank insulation away and get my hand in there. After I managed to get it loose I neede to drop it to the bilge and push it towards the aft with a long screwdriver. It could be a mess but luckily I remembered those palve oil absorbing pads everywhere. Time taken for filter change roughly three hours. 

Luckily the waterpumps are easily accesible but it takes a lot of force to get new impellers in place, less if you use some glycerin based grease, I snatched some from my wife. I also usezip ties to hold the blades bent while pushing the impeller in, I could get done without them but found out that lifemis easier if you use them. 

Thats allt the stuff you need to change the impeller, the filter tool was not used but somehow ended up laying there with all the other ones. 

Dismantling the house

It took me 18 hours to build the skeleton and get the covers on the boat. I had to buy all the timber and cut them to measure so it was time consuming. When I reversed the project and took it down it took me 2 hours and 36 minutes to get it all off. 

Of course it took some additional time to sort out the pieces and get all screws out. I just could not leave the mess around the boat so I needed to make it all pretty again. 

That is the structure I decided that woul last the winter snow andk winds and so it did. In fact I' more than satisfied with it. It is sturdy and did not cost too much. 

It's a nice view isn't it? 

I also like this view of the boat. The yellow tape in teh bow is there ro protect the paintwork while I'll be attaching the keelguard and cleaning the surface. 

Progress, thi time with paint.

This was the starting point, bare hull with lots of filler. The blue laine is actually tapeteh old waterline was sanded away. I decided to lift the waterline by 2,54 cm, for you who or on the other side of teh pond thats exactly one inch. The way I did it (actually my wife did it) was simple and straightforward. Just run a tape directly over the old line followed by another tape which would then become the upper barrier for the primer. 

Then it began, the dreaded light primer phase. I have heard ao many stroies of how this can go wrong so I was naturally slightly worried of how it will go. The dirst task was to run a pressure washer twice over the hull, followed by two applications of Hempels pre clean cleaner taht was brushed on and rinsed off with the pressure washer. The result was bone dry and a squeky clean surface. After it had dried I followed the instructions and used 20% of 845 thinner with the first layer of light primer. 

It took me many hours to get the first coat on and believe me it was hard work. The bottom was prepped with 80 grit paper and the primer stuck in there like nothing I have seen before. Below you can see what it started to look like. The sides where the masking tape were done in "wet on wet" style since I realle did not want to do the masking for each layer and wanted to make sure that I will get enough thickness for the sides. 

Each layer is of different color so it was easy to see where more paint was needed. All in all we now have four layers of light primer. Some say that five would be better but after talkong to the reps, I decided that if each voating gives me five years four is enough. If I still have this boat after twenty years something has gone horibly wrong... 

Here's a picture of what the second coat looked like. The tricky part came with the fourth layer, you really need to paint the antofouling on it while it's stil tacky. Even in our 18 degrees temperatures this did not take long. Luckily help came in and we manages to get the paint on smoothly, two persons working on one side, two on the other. First the last coat of primer followed by a layer of Hempel's hard racing extra in an awfully ugly blue color. 

Why this color? Simply because the final layer will be Hempel's Mille extra which is a kind of polishing antifouling that will slowly dissolve. When I see blue shining through black I know that the antifouling needs to painted again. 

In case you are wondering about why I chose to leave white and grey showing, the reason is quite simple, time. I did not have enough time to do the additional white stripe under the black waterline stripe before the final epoxy + hard raving was applied. That needs to be done separately, maybe this weekend. The white stripe in the bow is actually left bare because I need to install the keel guard and since it was still in the metal shop I wanted to leave it bare for better adhesion, it will be through bolted and put to its place with liberal amounts of sikaflex and yes I have remembered to do the prep work in the bilge area as well. I will put a new coat of white paint in the forward bilge before using sikaflex with the trough bolts. 

It is difficult to se in the picture but the bottom is been painted to black. The trouble is of course how do you get those hard to reach places where the bottom is touching the stands? I'm taking the easy way and getting the crane truck to swing by and hoist the boat ups for a few seconds while I'll readjust the stands.