WELCOME to the Website of Yacht 'EMERALD.H.D.' 
Website started 24th February 2000

Getting levelled and setup again. Running the engine in the back garden. June 1997 to April 1998.

28/5/97

	Yacht 'Emerald' in the Canal Marina Hardstanding.

	Looking aft over the coachroof, showing Companionway Hatch fitted. Needs Iroko plugs in the holes.

	Looking port to starboard, showing Drop Boards and Companionway Hatch fitted. Needs Iroko plugs in the holes.

First task to complete was leveling up the Hull for working on. Collected two hire toe-jacks and  bought 4 of 4"x4" pressure treated 9’ fence posts. Then set to jack up the cradle. First did the aft end, and positioned one post under. Then did forward. Positioned a post under the forward beam, then jacked up further to get the other two posts as close to underneath the inner cross members as possible. This done, we were thereabouts level and had a 3" + gap between cradle forward, and above the next post was 1"+ gap. Popped back home to collect a 3"x3"  fence post we had- plus another plank about 1" thick,. Had to put some plywood pieces under the port side of the forward two posts to level them up. The ground was sloping towards the bankside. Then we positioned the 3"x3" post forward , plus the 1" plank on the next post, then lowered the cradle down. Looking at the hull in the cradle the gap each side of the cradle top was equal, albeit she was sitting about 4" too far aft in the cradle. She was not resting on the forward xmember. We would be happier if we could have moved her forward 4" at least. Cups of tea were in order. Weather this last few days has been excellent. We could not have wished for better. Looking at the carpet around the cradle top edge we decided to go for it and get it all off. What a mess it was in. The original duck canvas with what looked like horsehair/coconut hairs etc had had it and the dust generated in removing it was disgusting. Off if all came, and bagged for the bin men. The whole area was brushed down and all nails that could be removed were. Let it air and dry out was the intention now. Then we will repaint it and re cover it at some stage. Returned the Toe-Jacks before 17:00pm that day. Working on the boat now, we are not tied down to must be in the pub by 20:30 for last meal orders at 21:00pm. This was a nuisance at times as we were clock watching. 

29/5/97

Contemplations how best to move the boat the 4" forward in the cradle. We removed the front pieces of sterling board boxing in the cradle. Tirfor winch would be the best thing, but we would need a corkscrew anchorage pole and some straps like the crane use. The hire place did not do anchorage points for winches. We then thought that it had got to be worth trying utilising both our ratchet straps in sync, plus one of the rope loops and put the Tirfor winch inside the cradle in line and fixed to the forward cradle cross member. Hired a tirfor winch. Set the straps up and winch. Nothing seemed to give initially. There was some cracking creaks. Operating the winch under the hull was no easy job either as the winch wanted to sit upright. The handle was too long to keep it upright. It needed to be slanting. There was tremendous tension on the whole setup. It took patience and time but we eventually moved the hull 5" forward. This was a great job done and made us feel much happier. Dropped the winch back to the hire place once we had done. Having shored and wedged the boat up we setup the ladders and climbed aboard. The mast step was our main concern. It was Iroko and had some cracks opening. Gave it a real good sand down and then coated it with Cuprinol 5 year exterior wood stain. Then started to sand down the covering boards forward. All will need doing, then we will roll on some epoxy. We left about 22:00pm this evening, plum tuckered out. Only just managed to cook up and eat kebabs, have a beer and then we were ready for bed. 

31/5/97

Visited the boat. Walked down first just to check accessibility, as the JCB was starting to dig out the bottom area, but we could get down no problem. Spent the rest of the day down there in the end. Painted up the cradle with undercoat, to protect it as much as possible. Put some expanding glue into as many cracks as possible on the cradle, especially the lower side members. This was scraped level. After painting, the remaining cracks and joints were filled with acrylic mastic, and also put paint on the ends of the xmembers. All we need now is some topcoat. It is a lot of time to spend on the cradle but need to make it last as long as possible.

1/6/97

Visited the Marina to hand in the signed contract and square up the first months rent. The owners were there. They had an aerial photograph on the wall, of the marina, and admitted that the entrance way was an extremely tight curvature. The owners were not on site when Emerald arrived, and we mentioned that the lorry had to demolish ¾ of the fence to get in and the remaining ¼ to get out. Thinking now of how best to protect the cockpit area from the elements. We were still having to cover up with a tarpaulin. Decided to make up patterns first, then cut out of Thames marine ply three temporary cockpit hatch covers, and screw them down, with vinyl foam tape to seal them. Marked up and cut a pattern for the aft locker. Utilised our generator for power. Power and water were still to be completed for the new pontoons. Sanded down this piece of ply for the aft locker hatch, then coated it two upper and one lower with 5 year woodstain.

Decided the access steps for the boat, which were still at home at the moment, would need work to arrange the steps to sit parallel to the hull not at 90 degrees. We would need to revamp the top step setup, to build in an extra step aswell.

6/6/97

Visited the boat quickly. After the rain last night the tarpaulin had collected rain in it, so we put the ladders up and shifted this water. Noticed though around the cradle we seemed to be in right in the middle of one big puddle. !!!

7/6/97

Down at the boat uncovered it and set to fitting the aft locker hatch. We was just fitting around it the foam vinyl tape and in the distance we could hear thunder and see lightening. The sky was suddenly turning threatening. Within 10 minutes it rained like cats and dogs. Ruth scrambled below to move the steps. Lance pulled over the tarpaulin and sat for shelter underneath. It blew a gale and the rain was sheeting down. Ruth hung onto the tarpaulin below – no time to tie knots else rain would be running down neck, legs and arms. Shifted the workmate as well, as rapidly the ground around the cradle was becoming waterlogged again. We were nearly afloat!!. Lance meanwhile onboard was getting drenched. The tarpaulin was leaking like a sieve and the rain was coming straight underneath it past the hatch. Everything came to a standstill for almost what seemed like forever. Then out came the sunshine, and dried up all the rain, just like that. Well almost. It now meant we had muddy feet. Gravel is needed around the steps area. Continued then fitting, after drying it down, the after locker hatch, and amidst cups of tea, marked up the patterns for the other two locker hatches. All set now to cover up and return home to make up these two hatches. Two further pieces of ply were cut out, and sanded down, and coated with 5 year woodstain. Further rain showers prevailed, but having made space in the workshop, we could now paint in the workshop.

8/6/97

Fitted the other two cockpit hatch temporary covers ie. screwed and sealed with vinyl tape.

17/6/97

Visited a chandlery to search out a vent for the after locker. They had no vetus ones, had to settle for a simpson lawrence one. This was fitted into the aft locker temporary hatch cover.

26/10/97

Lots of work going on down at the Marina rigging up the new pontoons. We have done a fair bit of work at home and on the van lately. Had news from the doctor last, as if we had not already been through enough with health problems, that Lance may have polycystic kidneys. He may need to go into hospital therefore need the van running reliably. Have now got around to being able to do further work on the boat access steps. Bought some pressure treated fence posts and some gravel boards to make up a base for the steps to stand on. The area is so waterlogged where the boat is !! the steps need to be stood on something which has been pressure treated etc. The timber is to make up a base to withstand ground moisture and rain.

1/11/97

Visited the marina today to pay the rent. All work seems to have been completed down where  the boat is, but there is really too many cars to get to the boat. It is the same problems where ever you go. There are too many people and vehicles in such small areas. All seems ok on the boat. It needs a good wash and scrub down. The ultra-violet has fairly tackled the epoxy etc. No big deal as it has to be sanded off anyway to enable a final finish , or repeat epoxy depending how time goes. The area of concern for water is the cockpit well. Although cockpit drains are fitted, until we complete the teaking of the cockpit well, water collects just forward of the cockpit drains and needs regular cleaning up. Some items had appeared under the boat cradle !, like a gas bottle, tarpaulin, box nails, bits of wood etc !. Do people have any respect for other peoples property ?. The water taps are now conveniently close at hand, albeit we will have to run the water hose around the perimeter of the area, likewise when electric is ready, otherwise vehicles driving over them will ruin them. You just cannot win!. Electric useage we will now have to check up about as it seems to be cards ?.  A card was for 16 units, at 16p @ unit, and you have to use the units in one shot otherwise you lost the rest. No good for us not being permanently plugged in.  

Plan of action is to now to complete the steps, and get them down to the boat, then wash and scrub her down. Once the base made from fence posts, cut the gravel boards to provide stops to prevent the steps legs from moving off the base. Then cut some gravel boards to form a bottom-most step on the base itself. Here we could put a mat for wiping mud etc off our feet to prevent mud getting up on deck. 

2/11/97

The access steps were now ready to take down to the boat.  Dismantled them and took down in sections. Down at the boat, made level base for steps with some gravel and laid down the base unit. It turned out perfectly level. Lifted over the main steps section, and fitted the steps and handrail to it. Screwed it all together plus secured each leg to the base unit. It was by now 17:00pm and the new lights on the pontoons are handy as darkness draws in fast. They face us and the boat, rather than down the pontoon. It does illuminate our boat nicely at night.

	Access Steps in place having adapted them and painted them up.

8/11/97

Visited the boat midday armed with hosepipe, cleaning fluids, buckets and sponges. It was a pleasure to use the steps. Gave everywhere a good wash and scrub. By 16:30pm temperature dropping rapid. Decided to call it a day. The gravel had worked well, though, around the steps. Eliminated the muddy footprints. There was some celco blocks lying in a pile near the boat, which the marina office gave us the ok to use and put as stepping stones around the cradle. Rain leaves us constantly in a huge puddle of water!!. Bad it was really, and noone told us in the beginning how particularly waterlogged this area got !. By 16:30pm temperature dropping rapidly, washed the steps and locked all up for now. We had made a gate for the steps, which was working well. We were able to padlock it into place, to prevent anyone just walking up the steps for whatever reason. 

15/11/97

Raining most of the day. Made excellent headway on cutting to size the after upright piece of the tabernacle. Needed a good 10mm cutting off to take it down to 115mm wide. Took many hours to do, with lots of patience and a jigsaw. Used 4 jigsaw blades, and care needed, because as the blade wore, it had a tendency to go off track. Whilst this was happening the house was hoovered throughout to give a nice, clean and fresh 'work area' to commence some grueling task of hand filing this newly sawn edge on the stainless steel. Made a start mid afternoon and filed away into the evening. Both of us took turns and slowly whittled away at it. We decided to drill 10mm holes on the forward edge of the tabernacle sides, giving additional anchorage points forward for 10mm shackles. These holes were drilled to be level with the ones aft, once the tabernacle in situation. 

Stainless Steel Tabernacle pieces taking shape.

Christmas 97 and New Year 98

11/3/98

Meanwhile pressure and unreasonable demands at work for Ruth had led us to seriously  consider moving house and boat again !!!. Whilst out and about for interviews assessed the boatyard facilities and housing. We repainted the house throughout with a view of possibly having to sell up and move. However In the end we decided not to bother. Needed to concentrate further on the boat deck etc, and put up with the niggles of work and of being in the marina here for a bit longer. 

We got the engine out of the cupboard again. It had never been started yet, still brand new. Upon investigating, was puzzled why the stop lever did not move much. After contemplation the fuel injection pump had to come off. Having got the main body out, the lever for stopping was very stiff and took a soft hammer to slide it across and back again. Further dismantling as far as we could go revealed pins in each cylinder, which the pins once knocked down seem to release the lever. Problem was the screws holding the plate on the side with slots on through which the lever protruded, could not be budged. We had snapped one screwdriver in the bargain already with the initial screws to be undone on the outer top of the injection pump. We was led to believe then at this point that maybe the pins only got released under pressure i.e. with the engine running.

Fuel Injector Pump, in center of Photo. Stop lever did not move as much as it should.

18/3/98

Lance did start up the engine, Ruth was at work. We had already dug out some appropriate sized pipes to cater for fuel inlet, and return, water intake, connector for the colorifier outlet and then an off cut of  aluminium mast section for the exhaust. The engine still in the lounge at this point, was pushed up to the backdoor. Water container in the lounge, pipes all rigged up etc and it was started. Wooooosh it rev’d and rev’d and rev’d and raced away, bellowing dense black smoke out of the exhaust section, covering the patio and the lawn completely with black soot. The water disappeared like nothing and the stop lever would not work. Initial reaction was one of panic, but Lance took a deep breath and got the right sized spanner, and some rags (Lance had been ready prepared for the worst) to undo the fuel inlet pipes one by one to stop the engine. This was done whilst containing the spurts of diesel from the inlet pipes in the rags, until the engine finally stopped. Relief, but oh my, the patio and lawn were one complete carpet of jet black soot. Quickly cleaned this mess up with cleaner fluid and lots and lots of water and scrubbing. By the time Ruth came home from work, Lance was plum tuckered out on the sofa!!. One thing was for sure, there was something not right with the injection pump. Did this mean also that there could be other problems.

Fuel Injector Pump components. The three pins and shafts, milled in sets where mixed up in manufacture. The stop lever, in the right photos showing both sides of the lever, would not move freely, because one pin inside the unit was jammed. Once taken apart and pins swapped around they all move freely now.

The injection pump was taken apart again. We came back to the two screws holding the side plate onto the main body. They could not be budged. The injection unit was no good as it was at the moment, so decided to drill out the two screws. This done it revealed intricate mechanism of which was not described or shown in the workshop manual. Lance had completed the owners engine maintenance Course run by Perkins some years ago. Careful disassembly  revealed that the three pins and shafts, which must have been milled in sets, where mixed up !!. One of the pins was totally jammed in the shaft, yet swapping and rotating the pins and shafts and all three worked perfectly. The whole mechanism was cleaned in diesel, and reassembled. However we then needed to replace the screws we had had to drill out. We had nothing in stainless steel of size apart from some 5mm screws which would need cutting down. We had a set of 5mm taps. So with the pillar drill the remaining parts of the original screws where drilled out, but in doing so it left the aperture 6mm wide and we had no 6mm taps!!.

20/3/98

Got 6mm set of taps , some 6mm bolts and some milliput.  It took the rest of today to tap the holes and cut down the bolts before reassembly. The stop lever now had much more freer movement. Starting the engine up now was the next question.

The hosepipe and a bowl was setup outside. The engine was maneuvered outside on the sack barrow. The battery and charger were setup in the wheelbarrow with power to it. Fuel was setup etc and we started the engine up. Spanners and cloth and tissues etc were all at the ready. It had been slightly awkward to day to pre prime the diesel, but it seemed to get there in the end. It spluttered and stuttered first off, but then it sprang into life. It revved away quite merrily, responding to the throttle. It would not however go above 2,000 revs approx, and it seemed to idle at 6,000 revs. This did not seem quite right, as the throttle needed packing with cardboard to prevent it stalling. The stop lever worked well now though – quite a treat. The thermostat cut in eventually and with utilising a clear pipe we saw the water then circulating. In the end we had it running for ¾ hour, it was fully warmed up and we flushed water through the heat exchanger to try clear some of the deposits. The lawn was like a lake when we had finished though. It was very pleasing to see and hear it running. About 20:30pm called it a day and drained the engine, and put it back in the lounge. We were pleased with the way it had been running, however there was air in the fuel, we could tell by using clear pipes. Also it was not running 100% true. At one point it did prove difficult to restart, and the oil light did not come on every time just before startup.

	Perkins Perama M20 running in the back garden  The engine itself is sat on its wooden mock up engine beds, sat on a sack barrow. In the background is Battery and charger in wheelbarrow. Hosepipe provides water. Fuel in black container. Ignition panel alongside Fuel Container. A cut-off section of aluminium mast became the exhaust, directed over the lawn.

There was still more to be checked over with the engine. The manuals where gone through and the next suspect area to check was the lift pump and the fuel injection nozzles. The lift pump was then  taken off and we discovered that the difficulty in priming it last night was because it only works when the crankshaft is Top Dead Centre. Otherwise it looked ok. It was cleaned over and reassembled. To get off the injection nozzles needed a 21mm socket spanner with a long shaft. Just bigger than our biggest. Had to pop up to town for one. The 21mm long shaft box spanner did the job. The whole nozzles assemblies were removed and cleaned out, and photographs taken of the parts. The nozzle ends and receptacles where black with soot. Must have been from the first time the engine was started. Cleaned all the parts in diesel, using brass brush, and found using strong solution of some cleaning stuff to soak the parts and carefully it removed all the carbon successfully. And then finally washed them in acetone before reassembly. 

Fuel Injector Nozzles were black with soot	Components of the Fuel Injection Nozzles.

The Perama workshop manual is not as extensive as the Haynes Car Manual series, and a lot of assumptions have to be made for example where torques are mentioned, the part description is not shown clearly on the relevant page. The manual is loose leaf, so with the camcorder we are going to print some photos of the parts on the computer's colour printer, and slot them into the manual. Now, exhilaration of finding problems and being able to resolve them so far, plus gaining invaluable education and also making notes in the diary and engine notebook etc, we are needing to start it up again. Ideally we could do with some proper exhaust/muffler swan neck etc and also a large bath/bucket for water to try and recycle the water.

31/3/98

Still looking over the engine though we discovered the pipe for internal coolant, behind the alternator, was actually touching the engine block. Weak area for wear and also sound traveling. On removing the alternator we noted it was as far over as it would go, and there was no lee-way for ease of fan belt removal. This would need addressing. To our horror when this length of internal coolant pipe was removed, it was only mild steel, and was badly rusted already. It fact this pipe was a water trap. There is no way even after draining the engine for winter, that any water in this pipe would drain out. Made up a copper replacement pipe for now out of household 22mm pipe plus some 90 degree bends. Marine copper pipe is of a thicker grade. Ideally need to replace this pipe with stainless steel of 22mm.

Internal Coolant pipe behind alternator. Made of mild steel!!! and actually rubbing on the engine block!!!		Internal Coolant pipe, made of mild steel and corroded already. Water in this pipe would never get drained away!!!

Removed the plastic pipe substituting the calorifier and found for now that a camp gas bottle top just fitted the hole. Used some ptf tape around the 2 tops for now until we get 2 blanking nuts. Found some left over pieces of steel and made an angle piece and welded it to the fuel filter bracket. we had already made previously. This would prevent the angle from getting altered., and also served for securing the Lucas relay to it. When we fit a syphon breaker we will need to ensure that water can be drained completely from the heat exchanger. Also two spacers made from metal to allow the front mounting brackets to come out giving more room between the sump and what will be the engine beds.

1/4/98

Further investigation into the engine and we removed the rocker cover & air filter. Photographs taken and these parts put back. Took off the governor cover and Jabsco pump. The link arm of which the engine stop lever triggers gave cause for concern. It was not at right angles and attempts to make it so resulted in a fracture. Weak point therefore need to seek replacement.

Govener casing removed - showing the link arm within.	Link arm had to be replaced. It was not at right angles. Attempts to make it so fractured it.

i) Return pipe should have been at least ¼" longer for better secure fitting of plastic return pipe to tank.  

k) no facility for hand starting the engine.

Otherwise, it is a neat little engine.

- - - - - - This is the end of Diary Section 29  - - - - - -