Fiona News Network

I am afraid the Christmas story is a little sad; the new engine refuses to start, although it ran OK in Nobby's shop in summer.   John and I struggled last weekend, going as far as buying a new starting battery, replacing the starter motor and ducting heat from the...

 John and I sweated in the engine room last weekend and got the engine ready to run.   The freezer compressor, alternator are belts up.   The oil pressure gauge is wired and the block holds water without leaking.   There is no running water available at the yard at...

John came to the boat Sunday and we managed to complete the installation of the exhaust system.  Nobby made  a new gasket for the exhaust manifold which is all that was needed to put the whole lot together.   I rebuilt and reinstalled the cockpit  instrument panel...

Happy Holidays!  John came to help out and we finished installing the fresh water cooling loop The sea-water circuit is still to be finished, Next job is installation of the instrumentation transducers. Pic of engine attached, the spacer block will be painted in due...

Fiona refurbishment is moving along, John came down to the yard on Sunday and we finished the installation of the engine start and stop systems.   Nobby installed the heat exchanger and exhaust manifold on Monday, so that  will permit completion of the engine...

Maintenance on Fiona is one step forward and two steps back.   When Nobby came to align the new engine he had to disconnect the refurbished cutlass bearing installed last week.  The Rhodes 19 was hauled and I am planning to replace the double sheave at the base of the...

Amazingly enough I got the Autopilot to work today.   It suffered a catastrophic failure at the end of the 2020 cruise, which caused a circuit board to burn, but I had it rebuilt got some new Sea Talk cables and it operated the wheel.    Pic shows the boat heading...

Rebuilding Fiona is proceeding.   The steering system is functional, next I will install the Raymarine autopilot. The refurbished prop and cutlass bearing  have  been installed. Next step is engine alignment.

The cutlass dearing and propeller have been removed and are now being refurbished by Bosler Sezey. John and I rebuilt the steering system now the cockpit sole is back.  The boat is going back together, little by little...

A giant step  forward; today Nobby and Weeks Yard placed the engine on it's mounts in the engine room.  There is still a good deal to  accomplish before Fiona is ready for sea again.  See pics.