Olga 28 Mark II

May 21, 2023

Tardis went to Maine yesterday, she looks great, the new engine installation seems to be working fine. I am exhausted.

I left for a week for my sister’s 50th wedding anniversary on May 4. I had been glassing, fairing and painting every day when the temperature was up above 50, and drilling holes and running lines every day when it wasn’t. Hank Robinson, Brown’s Boatyard owner, even lent me a jig so I could drill the holes for the engine bolts. And Don Kacenski, Brown’s super-experienced mechanic showed up to pretty much confirm that my new engine control and hydraulic locations would work. So I thought we would be easily hit my May 20 deadline to get the boat up to Maine.

Donnie, it turns out, has a terrible problem with his ankle, is scheduled for surgery and very limited in the time he can spend on his feet. And when I got back I learned that Donnie felt the engine control cables would be too short to make the kind of sweeping, friction-free turns that had led to steering problems in the past. So we got new cables overnight, and I ran them myself to save time and Donnie’s ankle. Then the engine wiring harness was looking short, but I knew there was a coil of slack hidden somewhere, so I tore through the starboard side of the boat and there it was down under the helm. I knocked a critical clip into the bilge getting the old cables out and that had to be ordered overnight.

But by Thursday night we were okay — engine started right up, steering has been bled and is very smooth, Brown’s had done the bottom paint and I had finished all the exterior painting. All the curves in the control cables are long and smooth and I’m glad we took Donnie’s advice to order smooth new U-Flex cables instead of Teleflex, even though I panicked at the time that would take.

Donnie lent me his tools and I did the hydraulic cables myself, which was totally foreign to me. Wednesday night I was driving home and I thought, “What if I got them backwards? What if they start the engine, turn the wheel left and it goes right? I will die of embarrassment. Dane (the yard boss) will make sure I die of embarrassment.” So I turned around, went back to Brown’s, turned the steering on for about 5 seconds. Left turned left and right turned right,so I could get to sleep that night.

I was so glad I did this at Brown’s. When time was tight, Hank, a super mechanic himself, assured me he would take over the project if Donnie ran into problems. A lot of the time I felt I was in the way during crunch time at the yard, but everyone was patient. The last week, Hank put Tardis inside the paint building, which took weather out of the picture and helped us stay on schedule. Hank, Dane, Donnie and crew are just great to be around.

There is a lot of finish work and deck refurbishing to be done, but that will wait until Robinhood while my poor, aching 72-year-old body recovers.

Hundreds of labor hours and thousands of dollars later, I’m still feeling good about this project. But the real test will be in Maine. I will report on that mid-June.