Fiumicino
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Fiumicino
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PART-1: FIUMICINO Our initial program was quite simple: take advantage of the fact that the boat was already on the hard in Fiumicino, work 7-10 days to clean the hull, apply a new layer of anti-fouling and install the new Raymarine log/depth transducer which will replace the museum-grade stuff which is on board, then throw the boat back in the water, complete the installation of a basic instrument-set, repair the oven which is hanging on its side, and we're ready to go! At first, it was the weather which was not cooperating, with endless days of rain, but soon the biggest problem turned out to be the fact that new problems needing a fix were continuously turning out!
Baby is cleaning the topsides, with very little success, as the dirt is old and tough! STANCHIONS: we had soon noticed the signs of a collision on the left side of the boat which had bent the toerail but also bent two stanchions and ripped the lifeline from the pulpit: after having found 2 identical stanchions, we had the "usual" problems to take out the old ones: they wouldn't budge! Baby had to spend some time heating the bases with a huge heat-gun, before we could manage to wrench the old stanchions away.
STERN GLAND: while baby kept trying to clean the hull, I turned my attention to the stern gland, a rusty bloc of metal which was clearly letting water in and, what's worse, does not open whatever I may try, so no point in wondering when the pack was last changed... After many attempts, I had to give up and resort to the angle-grinder and CUT INTO PIECES both the stern-gland and the joint between prop-shaft and the engine, spending several days to clean up the mess and then find a suitable modern "packless stern gland" and put it in place, which required shortening the prop-shaft in order to add a rubber joint between shaft and engine.
Stern gland, before and after! With the stern-gland fixed, Raymarine transducer installed, 2 coats of Stoppani anti-fouling paint and the boat may go back in the water!...
SWITCHBOARD: a nightmare, spaghetti-wiring to its extreme, and only a couple of very old and not entirely functional instruments. No wind instruments, the log is not working, the antique radio-direction-finder neither, there is no VHF radio (although is should be mandatory...) and the few instruments are powered through two thin, grossly under-dimensioned wires!
All instruments are museum-grade, and the cabling is nightmarish! We do a temporary fix, just cleaning up the mess and replacing the feed wires with properly-sized cables, and the rest will have to wait until we'll be in Jesolo!
A temporary repair, cleaning up the wiring mess and adding a new switchboard, plus a chartplotter and a VHF. CABIN LIGHTS: things have changed fast in the last few years, and the LED technology has greatly improved and is now possible to light the cabin interior with very bright LED lamps: very expensive, but long-lasting and they take up one tenth of the consumption of a regular lamp! WC: the existing WC, although admittedly it was working, sort of, was an ancient depression type, and the piping was lacking some elegance, to say the least!...
We wanted to replace the ancient depression-type toilet with a more modern type, and we also rerouted the piping... Buying a new toilet was not a problem, but it required a new basement (another temporary work...), and then we spent two days fighting with the pipes, because the required diameter is not the same as at the other end... Another job to be redone later, but then again we will have to revise the piping anyhow, in order to add the black-waters tank which is beginning to be required in many countries, including Greece and Turkey. OVEN: the old oven was a bit run down, with missing parts and hanging on its side, with one of its gimbals no longer in place. Even worse, some idiot used the fire like that, and burned the woodwork!!!
The old oven, falling to pieces, and the new one...which does not work!
Probably we would have been able to repair the old oven, but in
the end we decided to replace it with a new one; we also replaced the huge
french gas bottles, impossible to recharge in Italy, and put in their place two Camping Gaz
bottles. Also the rubber pipes needed a replacement (they were
stamped "à remplacer entre le 1989"...),
guess our disappointment when we made a test and.... nothing works!
It seems that gas is not flowing through the pipes!!... SPRAYHOOD, BIMINI and LAZY BAG: while we work on other things, we keep also the sailmaker busy, fabricating these accessories that definitely go beyond our capabilities.
Unfortunately the shape of the sprayhood is heavily conditioned by the deck-house's shape and by the mainsail sheet's position, so the looks leave a lot to be desired, but at least we can enjoy a bit of shadow in the growing heat! WINCHES and STOPPERS: museum-grade once more, the two winches and the stoppers handling the cockpit-led lines are obsolete and rusty. We would have happily avoided the expenditure, but this is for our own safety and we have not many options.
We had to completely destroy the old stoppers in order to remove them!
New self-tailing winches and new stoppers on the roof-top LIFERAFT: the liferaft, a very heavy and smooth-sided block, was parked inside the cockpit locker, taking up a lot of precious space but mainly being very difficult to take out in an emergency. We therefore decided to move it to a dedicated support on the stern platform. We also made a (temporary!...) support for the outboard, just returned from an (expensive!) repair ashore.
ENGINE: our plan was to have the engine professionally checked
once in Jesolo, but before departure we had to service oil and filters.
We soon find out that the raw-water pump is leaking like the proverbial sieve:
it could be serviced, but not in a hurry, so we order and install a new one.
All systems and wirings in the engine bay will need replacement, and the engine itself will need servicing by a professional VICTUALLING: days are running by, most essential jobs have been done, and we begin spending time to replenish the on-board stores with all sorts of food, as we plan to stop as little as possible during the trip, and we know that some of the stopovers will not be good for victualling. As per family tradition, our son Enrico joins us for a few days and then brings our car back home: we can leave, at last! In the "Voyages" section, read the story of the transfer trip from Fiumicino to Jesolo In this page instead, you can continue reading about the works done on the boat.
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