General Witterings -
Rosy and Falcon

I had been much looking forward to the arrival of David Long - the owner of nb Falcon, alongside which Rosy was moored last winter, and alongside which she is moored now.

The saga of Falcon's engine has been going on for a while.  In essence, David installed an new old engine last year - 'new' in that it hadn't been used before, 'old' in that it had been sitting in a military warehouse for a few years.  Such 'major equipments' in military warehouses were not, in my day, just left to fester, but were regularly unpacked and tended and titivated.  Anyway, the engine went in OK last winter, but during the summer cruises it was obviously not properly aligned.

So, last Monday morning at some unearthly hour (8 am actually) I was woken by the cheery voice of David, who, accompanied by a Ken, had arrived to fix things.

Ken did a quick check, and discovered that the engine was not sitting true on all its mountings, as one of them was wobbly.  So, the engine mounts were unbolted, and the mounts removed.  Ken described two of them as knackered.

A piece of metal connecting the exit shaft from the engine to the flexible coupling needed a bit of drilling, and I got a gold star for suggesting a nearby metal plating/electrolysis works who I thought might help out.  They did, at nil cost.

David then went up to the nearby boat hire base to see if they had a copy of the catalogue put out by Ted Johnson - a Brit who runs a boat chandlers here in France.  They had, but couldn't find it.  Anyway, David phoned Ted, who had suitable mountings in stock (at a price, and some 200 kms away from us here in Briare).  But, said Ted, why bother with mounts?  Why not a solid, non-flexible installation?

By now it was lunch time, and as I was the contract caterer, David and Ken came on Rosy for lunch, where David saw a copy of Ted Johnson's catalogue, I having borrowed it from the Laird of Strathnaver.  I must admit that I'd forgotten that I'd forgotten to hand it back to the Laird.  Yes, those two 'forgottens' ARE meant to be there - I'd forgotten to hand it back, AND I'd forgotten that I'd forgotten.

I accept that this forgetfulness deserved the loss of the well earned gold star.

Lunch was French bread, a choice of French cheeses and the cheddars that David had brought over from Blighty.

After lunch, the hunky wooden bearers that we installed last winter were removed, and replaced by some chunky hunks of metal.  Ken and David worked their magic arts to get all four engine feet securely bearing on these metal bearers, whilst at the same time ensuring that the two plates (that will connect the drive from the gear box to the propeller shaft) have their centres dead in line and are dead parallel.  When these conditions were all met, Ken welded the metal engine bearers to the frames on which they were resting.  Start engine, and no hint of vibration.

Job done in the failing, evening light.  Dinner on Rosy and bed.

Next morning, David and Ken prepared Falcon for a trial cruise.  When they left, we re-organised the moorings a bit, resulting, when they got back, in the Dutch tjalk being moored to the bank.  Rosy being moored to the tjalk, and Falcon and Trillium being moored to Rosy.

Then friends Clare and James in Castor brought Castor up from the lower basin, and moored alongside Falcon.  Regretfully, Clare and James were putting Castor up for sale - so if anyone wants a well maintained Dutch cruiser, with a ready-to-go inventory, Castor is available.

At about lunch time David and Ken departed for UK, David eventually arriving back in Wigan a mere 52 hours after leaving it.

Since all that excitement, it's done little else here but rain.  The Laird gave up on Friday, and headed back to decent weather (blizzards, I hear tell) up on the tribal lands on the northern coast of Scotland.  He'll return after ten days with (hopefully) my woof.

More later, and, for real addicts, more NOW is available on this website.

Toodle pip!!

Bill