My 1968 Olsen Nimbus restoration project.

My 1968 Olsen Nimbus restoration project.

Author
Discussion

mickrick

Original Poster:

3,700 posts

173 months

Wednesday 25th July 2012
quotequote all
I looked at lots of engines before choosing the Nanni.
Yamaha, Yanmar, etc. etc. but they all use the same base engine, a Kabota.
So I picked the Nanni because as it's going under the compionway, it was handy that the oil change pump, both fuel and oil filters, and raw water pump where all at the front of the engine.
It was also cheaper than the others. The first time that has happened to me in my life, I think!
Quite a bit lighter, physically smaller, and more powerfull than the DV10 I took out.
The DV10 has a new life as a training aid for the AEC class at Mallorca Sea School smile

The glass isn't bad, but it does have a few scratches in it, but nothing that bothered me enough to get it polished out. I call it patina smile

mickrick

Original Poster:

3,700 posts

173 months

Tuesday 31st July 2012
quotequote all
Hello Bonkers Boat fans!
I managed to squeeze some time in between between being social, doing jobs around the house, cutting grass (again! Must stop watering it!), and keeping the wife happy, to get some quality time in on the Old Girl. (The boat not the wife) smile Oh, and work! Yes that thing that enables me to spend the hard earned...
The frames are on.
Everything masked up, and the Sika aktivator, and primer on the glass, and the primer for the piant/varnish applied.

The frames masked, keyed with scotchpad, and primed with the Sika metal primer.


Here they are with all the masking removed. Job Done!


I still have some deck hardware to remove, and some of it is a pig (I can say Pig becuase I'm not aboard smile ) to remove, as some of it has been "got at" in her 40 odd years, but the paint Guys are getting short of work due to the time of year, so they may as well get some paint on the topsides.
So I'll start getting that ready for them now.
That's exciting! smile

More to come!
Cheers, Mick smile

Edited by mickrick on Tuesday 31st July 18:54

Oily Nails

2,932 posts

200 months

Tuesday 31st July 2012
quotequote all
That looks stunning!

mickrick

Original Poster:

3,700 posts

173 months

Tuesday 31st July 2012
quotequote all
smile Thanks. Pity the rest of it is a shed! But give it time...

Kneetrembler

2,069 posts

202 months

Tuesday 31st July 2012
quotequote all
That really is a fantastic job that you are doing there, look forward to the next lot of photos, when you get there.
There certainly will not be another Olsen Nimbus around these days that will be in the same class..........well done m8

KT

Megaflow

9,410 posts

225 months

Tuesday 31st July 2012
quotequote all
mickrick said:
I looked at lots of engines before choosing the Nanni.
Yamaha, Yanmar, etc. etc. but they all use the same base engine, a Kabota.
So I picked the Nanni because as it's going under the compionway, it was handy that the oil change pump, both fuel and oil filters, and raw water pump where all at the front of the engine.
It was also cheaper than the others. The first time that has happened to me in my life, I think!
Quite a bit lighter, physically smaller, and more powerfull than the DV10 I took out.
The DV10 has a new life as a training aid for the AEC class at Mallorca Sea School smile

The glass isn't bad, but it does have a few scratches in it, but nothing that bothered me enough to get it polished out. I call it patina smile
Did you consider the Volvo Penta?

mickrick

Original Poster:

3,700 posts

173 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
quotequote all
Megaflow said:
mickrick said:
I looked at lots of engines before choosing the Nanni.
Yamaha, Yanmar, etc. etc. but they all use the same base engine, a Kabota.
So I picked the Nanni because as it's going under the compionway, it was handy that the oil change pump, both fuel and oil filters, and raw water pump where all at the front of the engine.
It was also cheaper than the others. The first time that has happened to me in my life, I think!
Quite a bit lighter, physically smaller, and more powerfull than the DV10 I took out.
The DV10 has a new life as a training aid for the AEC class at Mallorca Sea School smile

The glass isn't bad, but it does have a few scratches in it, but nothing that bothered me enough to get it polished out. I call it patina smile
Did you consider the Volvo Penta?
I did. And chose the Nanni for the reasons above.

Davey S2

13,096 posts

254 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
quotequote all
Great thread.

What's the planned completion date?

Megaflow

9,410 posts

225 months

Wednesday 1st August 2012
quotequote all
mickrick said:
Megaflow said:
mickrick said:
I looked at lots of engines before choosing the Nanni.
Yamaha, Yanmar, etc. etc. but they all use the same base engine, a Kabota.
So I picked the Nanni because as it's going under the compionway, it was handy that the oil change pump, both fuel and oil filters, and raw water pump where all at the front of the engine.
It was also cheaper than the others. The first time that has happened to me in my life, I think!
Quite a bit lighter, physically smaller, and more powerfull than the DV10 I took out.
The DV10 has a new life as a training aid for the AEC class at Mallorca Sea School smile

The glass isn't bad, but it does have a few scratches in it, but nothing that bothered me enough to get it polished out. I call it patina smile
Did you consider the Volvo Penta?
I did. And chose the Nanni for the reasons above.
That's interesting. I ask because I'm curious to hear you who found the Volvo comapred to the others on cost.

Also, was you aware the Volvo was based on a Perkins, not a Kubota?

mickrick

Original Poster:

3,700 posts

173 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
quotequote all
It's been a couple of years ago since I bought the engine, so I can't realy remember what the numbers where.
Apart from the fact the Nanni was about 4k all in, with loom and control panel.
Not worth buggering about with the old Bukh 10hp IMO.

As for the Vovo, I would be very surprised if the base engine is in fact a Perkins.
I know some of the 4 cylinder Vovo's are, but to be honest, I'd rather have the Kubota.
They use them in mini diggers, so they're Paddy proof! smile

We also have two 26KVA Northern Lights generators on the boat I work on.
The spare parts come in "Luger" packaging, but they are in fact also Kubota 4 cylinder engines. Not a peep of trouble out of them in 7 years.

I know when I worked for Caterpillar many years ago, we used a 4 cylinder Perkins in the early Backho loaders, in fact we had a Perkins engineer perminantly on site. Caterpillar then bought Perkins engines in Peterborough to complete thier engine range.

I think the Perkins "Prima" was the new one out at the time.

Anyway, as I said, the installation and ease of maintainance where at the top of the list.

Cheers,
Mick. smile

Megaflow

9,410 posts

225 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
quotequote all
Thanks for that, the cost of the Nanni at £4k in enough info for me.

I'm not going into detail on a public forum, but the smaller Penta's such as, D1's and D2's are built by Perkins. Lets just say I don't live that far from Peterborough.

mickrick

Original Poster:

3,700 posts

173 months

Thursday 2nd August 2012
quotequote all
Davey S2 said:
Great thread.

What's the planned completion date?
Ah, yes... your guess is as good as mine! biggrin

mickrick

Original Poster:

3,700 posts

173 months

Friday 24th August 2012
quotequote all
Not much to report recently, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy!
The biggest problem I have at the moment is the heat! We've had it up to 37 degrees recently, so I dread to think what it's been in the tent. Uncomfortable is all I know!
I've been popping up for an hour or two after work each day. That's about as much fluids as I can afford lose.
I've been removing the anti-fouling to expose the original water line. There was so much stuff on board when I bought her, the water line had been raised by about 4 inches.
So I'll be putting it back where it belongs.
I've also removed the rubbing strake, and have been cleaning off all the old sealer at the hull/deck joint.
I'll start with the orbital sander on Sunday. Basically it's prep for painting the topsides.


I also collected my lovely Anderson winches from the metal shop today.
There where some small inclusions in the material of the winch tops, so I had them welded up, and everything re-polished.
I'll be fitting new pawls and springs when the riggers whoe stock the parts for these open up again in September.


TAFN.
Regards to all you salty types,
Mick. smile

mickrick

Original Poster:

3,700 posts

173 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
quotequote all
I've now got a few coats of PP varnish on the cockpit coaming, still need at least another 8 before a couple of coats of PU.
Colour's looking nice though.

I've also managed to get all the hardware off the decks. The jib tracks where a pain.
Aluminium screws all sheered off bar two. But the two I got out tell me how deep to re-drill the holes for the new ones.
I tried the boiling water trick, but to no avail.
I'll get a stainless guide plate laser CNC cut with the hole spacings for a guide to drill the new ones.

The toe rail is nasty, I won't bother saving it, as it's been sanded so much in the past, it's lost it's profile, and is now smaller than the faileads it runs into. It's also been badly repaired with but joints, instead of scarfing.
A new one will be made, and probably varnished.
Here's the last stubborn piece to go.

Here's the deck with everything off, and lots of sanding going on ! 43 years of none skid paint needed 40 grit !

Holes in the transom filled. Old exhaust, and swim ladder.

And faired.

Also lots of holes in the cockpit.

Filled bar the big one. I'll coat a bit of peel ply with epoxy, and pop it behind, so I can glass it in from the front, then pull the peel ply off after.
I also found a nice surprise when I pulled the mast step off.
Water has been getting under and has de-laminated the glass. I was very concerned to find foam core under it !
I don't think foam core's a good idea considering the compressive forces at the base of the mast, so I'll cut the top skin off and effect a repair.
Not shure if it's the right thing to do (Hard spot in an otherwise foam cored deck) but I'm going to fill the void with chopped strand/resin mush before glassing the top back.
There is quite a substantial steel saddle which spans the oak frames below the deck, so at least a solid glass bed will give it something firm to sit on.

I also sanded back the waterline I'd scraped back to the original lower waterline.
There was a white boot stripe painted under the old anti-fouling, which I presume must have been epoxy, as after a day or so, damp patches appeared where it was ! Crikey, the boat's been out of the water for 10 years ! just goes to show how good epoxy is, it's kept the moisture in all those years.
I marked the original waterline with my Dremmel before sanding it all back.
Here's a picture of the damp patches that appeared just where the boot stripe was.

So, out with the grit blasting pot to open up those pesky wet voids!

Here's a test patch I did, and you can see the voids.

Hopefully I'll get time to do it on Tuesday, repair the de-laminated bit of the deck, and maybe, just maybe, she'll have some epoxy primer on the deck before the weekend...

TTFN,
M. smile

mickrick

Original Poster:

3,700 posts

173 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
quotequote all
Oh, and Thank You PH mod's for correting my typo spelling mistake in the thread title. smileclap

XJSJohn

15,965 posts

219 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
quotequote all
Oh and thank you mickrick for showing me that there are yacht owners that have worse OCD than me!!

Seriously, you are aspirational!!!

mickrick

Original Poster:

3,700 posts

173 months

Sunday 7th October 2012
quotequote all
Mmm..not sure how to take that ?
I wouldn't call myself OC, I just like old things, and like to see then sympathetically restored.
My Father always told me if you can't do a job properly, don't bother doing it at all.
We need aspirations, well I do, otherwise we may as well just be waiting to die !

My only worry, is that when I finally get the Old Girl back in the water, I may just keep going! Out of the Med, South untill the butter melts, turn right, and just keep on going straight through Panama and back into the Pacific !
I did it over 17 years ago, and I still dream about going back.

XJSJohn

15,965 posts

219 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
mickrick said:
Mmm..not sure how to take that ?
It was supposed to a touch of respect/ compliment

mickrick said:
My only worry, is that when I finally get the Old Girl back in the water, I may just keep going! Out of the Med, South untill the butter melts, turn right, and just keep on going straight through Panama and back into the Pacific !
I did it over 17 years ago, and I still dream about going back.
If you do, will buy you a beer at the halfway point (I am about half way around here!)

mickrick

Original Poster:

3,700 posts

173 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
XJSJohn said:
mickrick said:
Mmm..not sure how to take that ?
It was supposed to a touch of respect/ compliment

mickrick said:
My only worry, is that when I finally get the Old Girl back in the water, I may just keep going! Out of the Med, South untill the butter melts, turn right, and just keep on going straight through Panama and back into the Pacific !
I did it over 17 years ago, and I still dream about going back.
If you do, will buy you a beer at the halfway point (I am about half way around here!)
hehe I thought it may be a compliment. Thanks smile I've never been called Aspirational before !

I don't think I'll get halfway if I ever get back into the Pacific. I could just spend the rest of my days going around and around those Island groups.
I know a good hurricane hole in Tonga. smile

I remember Tiger beer though, and those fantastic open air eating out markets !
I was there in early 1995 with Jimmy Cornel's Europa Round the world Rally.
We where in Raffles marina, and we where having a big night, the crew of over 30 yachts, untill they decided to close the bar at 22:00 !
Well, we opened it again and carried on smile
An official letter was sent to World cruising, informing them we where no longer welcome in Raffles marina !
I think the bubble bath in the pool with the waterfall sinched it.
No sense of humour smile

Anyway, I digress. The paint Guys got some primer on the deck for me today.
They also left me their nice big compressor so I can get the waterline grit blasted tomorrow. Top Blokes !
Lots of stoppering up to do, more sanding, and more primer yet.




Kneetrembler

2,069 posts

202 months

Monday 8th October 2012
quotequote all
Looking even better, she is coming along nicely,well done and shed loads of work in those humid temperatures when you were working under the cover, you must have certainly lost a few kilos or did the Estrellas keep it in for you !!!!!
KT