She's back in the water.

Posted by Andrew on 20 April 2009 | 0 Comments

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Eala Bhan is a Mirage28, and around 30 years old.  She was built by my dad as a kit and supplied us with many enjoyable family summer holidays, but hasn't seen much action over the last few years. Since we've taken her on, we've been doing bits and pieces to her to sort wear and tear from 30 years of use as well as 4 years of non-use.

First major job was to replace the propeller shaft, a 1" stainless steel bar affair which had shown a little wear/corrosion around the bearing where it enters the hull. To replace the shaft, it meant moving the engine into the saloon by about a meter, so as to extract the shaft from the inside. The engine is a Petter AC2WM "mini-twin", and in moving the engine, the water injection exhaust mainfold fractured and disintigrated ; 30 years of seawater coolant, hot exhaust gasses and cast iron are not a good mix.

Seems that this part is no longer available, but fortunately, I have access to a good workshop at my parent's home (wish I had access to something like that at MY home) and we managed to fabricate a new part.

It fitted perfectly and we went for a spin up the Kyles of Bute after a bit of engine testing, without any problems. But to the point.. Does anyone know a good resource for getting parts for these engines? I suspect that being so old parts are starting to get scarce, so I'd like to start building a stockpile.