Waiting to get a working engine into Isosceles was at times akin to a comedy of errors, but without the comedy!
There had been a years delay while I sorted family issues out. It was great to have Isosceles as somewhere to go and recharge my batteries when times were difficult. I made some great friends in that time, but I was so looking forward to being able to a finally use her as a boat, not a caravan.
Choice of engine
Eventually life became settled, as it always does. The gods aligned when a nice reconditioned, and nearly new 40hp Volvo Penta engine became available at a reasonable price. I have to give a shout out to Sean at Marine Enterprises near Dorchester in Dorset. While Sean undoubtedly has the gift of the gab, and could most likely sell snow to Eskimos, he also takes time to listen to what you need and then look for the best solution you can afford. And of course that he can offer you.
Now some people swear by the Volvo engines, and some people swear at the price of the spares. I chose the Volvo because of practicality. All the main service parts for this engine are on the right hand side of the engine block, and that is where the engine access is on a Moody 37, as opposed to the front on most boats.
Marine Enterprises, Dorset
I did consider going electric. There are certainly some good, efficient electric motors for boats out there. If you are based in a marina to provide a steady source of power to recharge the batteries they can certainly be effective. Also if you already live on the boat there are possibilities with electric, with large solar arrays and battery banks. But for me, for now, cost and practicality kept me to diesel engines. On a sail boat then you shouldn’t use an engine too much anyway.
Getting someone to fit the engine
As you would expect, I got a series of quotes for engineers to fit the engine, they were all around the same cost. The on-site engineer was willing to reduce the price depending on how much work I was able / willing to undertake myself. He also appeared to understand the time constraints of my job and be sympathetic to my recent change in circumstances.
Then the world went bonkers and Covid-19 struck. It’s well documented, but no one was able to get anywhere until the middle of the year. This put everyone behind with any work they were trying to do. I had difficulty getting hold of Sean at Marine Enterprises, and he in turn had difficulty getting hold of the new control panel and wiring for the engine. Eventually everything fell into place and the engine was delivered to the engineer at Lakeyard. The boat was still out of the water so everything was ready to go ahead.
Trying again to fit the engine
Everything was set to start getting the engine fitted. I had booked the week off work to help get things done. By now I was paying for two moorings, so costs were an issue. I had found a mooring two hours closer to home. This would also work out cheaper over the year. I was doubly keen to get things sorted out.
I got a text message from the engineer a week before the engine was due to be fitted. He wouldn’t be able to do the job as another of his jobs was running over. This guy is well known around the boat owners as an arrogant so and so. When I complained about the extra costs his delays were imposing on me, he responded with a tirade of insults and told me it was my fault and I was being too demanding.
After I’d calmed down I decided to give up on him and an alternative engineers were contacted. They were understandably busy, everyone wanted thing done after all the months of Covid-19 lockdown, but they gave a heartfelt promise that they would start the job in 2 weeks time. Their reputation was good so I went with them and re-booked time off work.
Trying to get the engine fitted take three
A few days before the engine was again due to be fitted I got a message from the boatyard, not the engineers, saying that the engine would not be fitted when planned. It turned out one of the engineers had had to go into isolation due to contracting Covid 19. I understand these things were difficult, but it would have been nice for them to tell me directly.
The boss promised to go and have a look at the job on the Wednesday of that week. The week they were supposed to have started working on my boat. He would then ring me to discuss the job. They hadn’t even been to have a look at the job, so they obviously had no intention of sticking to their initial promises!
When he finally turned up to have a look at the boat, a day later than promised, he obviously hadn’t read my emails because he didn’t know the boat was in the water. It took me a further week to get a date for them to start the work. As every delay was now costing me over £400 extra per month in fees I was not a happy bunny by this point!
Finally, after moaning quite strongly at the other partner running the business I managed to get a firm date for them to start the work. In September, nearly at the end of another sailing season. I booked another week off work and kept everything crossed that we wouldn’t go back into another Covid-19 lockdown, or some other catastrophe get in the way.
