I summoned up my courage and re-entered the engine room today. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic… I did have the sense to take in a few cushions to make my life in there a bit more comfortable, and yay, no cramps!
If you have a boat, you have to get a Fein Tool, they are just brilliant at cutting and shaping in difficult to get at spots.
The Fein Tool made short work of getting the horrible plywood out:
The good news is that the hull is fine underneath. No rotting wood in the hull timber. Whew! That spotted gum is good stuff.
The exhaust hose looked a bit perished, so I didn’t hesitate to cut it off with tinsnips. Cut, snip, grunt, sweat… 15 minutes later I had got just one end off… Damn that reinforced hose is tough stuff. Out is the sunlight, this is what it looked like:
… So I was glad I took it out. That is, until I wandered up to Enzed to get a replacement. $142.00 a meter! Sigh.
Lis is doing well on the outside, the seams are puttied and primed on the topsides now too:
Tomorrow she undercoats the primer while I get back in engine room, refit the exhaust outlet bolts on new plastic washers and fit the new hosing.