Life at 5 Knots

05/30/2026

You get by with a little help from your friends…

I got the engine out alone but everything else has been a group effort.

Naber lent me his trailer to move the engine, and his garage as a working space, Joey moved said trailer with his truck and helped me load the engine and trans onto it.

Richard helped with disassembly of the engine in the boat and in the garage.

Now that it’s all taken apart and the pistons are out we can see healthy wear on bearing surfaces, noting out of whack. But the engine was full of sludge and the seals were definitely gone.

Time to clean it, hone the cylinders, and start putting the block back together.

Head and transmission have both been sent out for rebuild by specialists, those should be done next week.

05/28/2026

Only 3 years late! Finally got around to editing some footage from the Bahamas...

Starting in February 2023 the dogs and I spent several months saili...

05/24/2026

Sometimes I impress myself with my solo ingenuity…. Today is one of those days.

Turns out removing your engine and transmission using nothing more than your boom, some timber and a chain fall isn’t that hard!

05/23/2026

Turns out, pigs do fly.

05/16/2026

Any guesses on the project du jour?

05/05/2026

The process of carefully removing the floor and most of the salon furniture so I can pull the engine has begun.

Every piece of this boat was hand made by the craftsmen at in Maine.

Even 50 years later as I remove pieces of the interior for refinishing I find markings left by them. 48003 is her hull number, it’s found on the backside of many original pieces.

04/16/2026

48hrs home between 3 weeks in the UK and now 3 weeks in Mexico…. So of course I snuck up to get a jump on some work getting the engine ready to come out.

First up is removing all the old plumbing, wiring, etc from the bilges and relocating it to the nearest dumpster.

Then the engine will come out piece by piece when I get back from Mexico…

Got the new injectors and the rebuild injection pump back from the machine shop, they turned out great!

I’ve got a long stretch at home coming up for May and June and I’m looking forward to making some real progress once I’m back…

Was able to sneak in a quick boat ride with Chicago Boating Mayor Kurt Lentsch too…