Sailing Gina #3 - Lifting a 350kg Engine out of a 1970s Sailboat

Lessons learnt, ask for help, always wear gloves and make sure everything is labelled!

Jul 20, 2024

Hello, I’m Helen - follow along as I write about two novice sailors refitting their 1970s sailboat, Gina. We have ZERO sailing experience but have given everything up for a life on the water. Read our adventures as we prepare her and ourselves for the big launch.

During our initial inspection of Gina, it was crucial to assess the engine's condition, gauge the required level of work, and decide whether investing in a new engine would be more beneficial. Lifting the engine cover off we were greeted with this:

Given that I know almost nothing mechanical, I couldn’t tell you what we were looking at but in Ryan’s words it was “a bit of a rat’s nest”.

For those who know nothing about boats, this is the same as looking under the bonnet of your car. Unfortunately, as we could not talk to her previous owner, we couldn’t ask any questions about the engines running, which parts were due for replacement, what needed work, and what was good; all we had to go on was that the engine had worked the last time it was ran. On our presurvey, we were advised to replace the engine completely and install something new and built for marine motoring - a Beta Marine. However, being the gluttons for punishment, we saw two options: replace the engine or rebuild the old engine and reinstall it in a remanufactured state.

When planning and executing any project there are three elements to consider: time, skills and money. It all depends on what you think is the most valuable thing.

As we knew we had the time and the skills (Ryan, not me, are you kidding?) to rebuild the engine, we opted to save the money. We knew there would be times when we wouldn’t have the luxury of time or the skills or ability to do a job ourselves.

Deconstructing the engine and lifting it out of the boat would take a few days, and Ryan would need as much time as possible to work on it therefore we decided that our next trip to Gina would be a weeklong visit. In October 2023, we arrived on the Isle of Wight to bring the engine home.

We arrived early evening, after the usual 6-hour journey but given that it was October, the dark evenings were already drawing in. Straight away Ryan investigated the engine, mentally noting the next steps and how we would tackle this monstrous task. The next morning Ryan started to dismantle any accessory parts, we meticulously labelled each bag, even cross-referencing them with a time stamp for any photos we took. It was laborious, everything was covered in oil and dirt but as I stood there sandwich bag and Sharpie in hand we managed to keep track of everything.

a glimpse of what Ryan’s camera roll looked like from those first two days

The engine and all accessory parts were removed, so it was just the block and the gearbox remaining

Two days later, we were ready to start lifting the engine out of the boat. In what can only be described as a moment of pure naivety and enthusiastic ignorance, we attempted to lift a 350kg engine with just a chain hoist and the boom.

It’s safe to say we did not get far. The next day, we booked the boat yard crane to lift out of the engine, and boy did we wish we’d done that in the beginning.

Once the engine was out, we got a good look at the bilge. For my non-nautical friends, the bilge is the lowest part of a ship or boat's hull, where water collects. It is typically found at the bottom of the inside of the vessel, forming a sort of basin. The bilge is critical in maintaining the vessel's stability and safety by collecting excess water that may enter due to leaks, rough seas, or other means.

Our bilge was filthy; covered in oil, grime, grit, diesel, and soot but why were bothered? you wouldn’t bother cleaning the engine bay of your car? Well, we couldn’t gauge its condition, whether there was any unseen damage, what condition were our fuel tanks, keel bolts and bulkheads in, we needed to ensure nothing was blocking our bilge pump, make it a better and easier place to work should we need any engine work in the future and overall, taking advantage of the engine not being in there to do some serious TLC.

It wasn’t a complicated task, scrapping away the grit and grime, squirt of fairy liquid, a bit of elbow grease and a pump sprayer and we were starting to see the grey paint underneath; I think I ‘cleaned’ the bilge around 3 times on this visit but there was still more work to be done. We also removed all the old rock wall sound deadening as it was beginning to disintegrate.

Below is a video as I’m about to start round 3 of cleaning, here you get a sense of the space we were working with in the bilge once the engine is out. Like many of the projects we’ve undertaken on Gina, we have not taken enough ‘before’ pictures; often we get stuck into the work but before we know it we are halfway through and haven’t documented a thing.

The engine had been craned onto a pallet, and from here we faced getting it into the car so we could bring it home. Ryan built a wooden frame for the block to sit in and we disassembled the gearbox from the engine block. Using an engine lift, we hoisted the block into the car. Given the weight limits of our car, we decided to leave the gearbox with Gina to accommodate the engine lift, all the accessory parts we’d bagged up, and all the tools and parts from Gina that we’d need to come home with us.

The following day, after another 6-hour journey and about 300kg of weight in the back of the car, we were home. Ryan and his brother manoeuvred the engine onto a trolley, that and everything else was brought into our kitchen, and then we took stock of what we (Ryan) would be working with.

This is pretty much how our kitchen remained until March 2024.

Song of the week

This week’s recommendation is Beowulf - today is a gift

The song opens with a clip from the film Kung Fu Panda. I bet that’s not exactly where you thought this was going. In this scene, Po talks about his struggles, feeling like he doesn't measure up to the rest of the group, and questions how he can ever reach their level. He lists everything he lacks, getting lost in comparison, and wonders if he should just give up. As the melodic music continues, we hear this sage advice:

Maybe I should just quit and go back to making noodles
Quit? Don't quit
Noodles, don't noodles
You are too concerned with what was
And what will be
There's a saying, "Yesterday is history
Tomorrow is a mystery
But today is a gift
That is why it is called the 'present'"

We cannot compare ourselves to anyone else. It is easy to look on YouTube, Instagram and other social media platforms, and see other young cruisers living the dream on crystal clear blue waters, easy cruises, their boats completely set up, and ready to go. We must remember we are at the beginning of our sailing journey and we have already come SO far in the one year we have worked on Gina. Our time will come, but since the future is a mystery, we must in the live present and not wish away our time.

The song is also poignant as we had it on repeat during long days in the saddle while on our cycle tour. It brings back the feelings of freedom and joy we experienced then.

I’ll leave the engine rebuild and pictures for a separate newsletter as I believe it deserves and needs its own post. This will probably be a bonus post outside of the weekly newsletter and I’ll get Ryan to write this in his ‘free time’ 😂 maybe in the hour after tea and before bed? This poor man does not stop.

For our next edition, we’re back on the boat for a weekend in February 2024; we complete more bilge cleaning, fuel tank emptying and removal, look at the rudder shoe, cockpit and control panel electrics and do more preparations for the engine to go back in!

I’d love to feature your questions in future newsletters! You can send them via email to helen.hume@hotmail.co.uk, through Instagram DMs, or by adding a comment below. For real-time, daily updates, follow me on Instagram @helen.hume or click the icon below.

Vagabond Helen

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