Modernizing a Prout Elite 37ft

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Buzzman

Your wife, right...????

i use the term in it's broadest definition.............

as i'm never quite sure who's partner is living on which boat with whom.... as the co-habitation is fairly fluid ......so the wives would probably refer to it as "boat swapping!"

there are however 2 or 3 single female boat owners whom one see's
occasionally with new partners......then not ;so one must assume either the relationship did not work or they are Black Widows and have eaten their mate

[atoll]

Originally Posted by weavis

Hola A.

I will be interested to hear your experience with the drive and engines when you use in seriousness. The idea of the leg is a good one and yet I seem to have heard only of the costs involved to fix and keep running... but then a lot of things are said about catamarans that are not true...

Love the work you have done. A credit to your skills and tenacity...

g

the sillete drive,mk1 with the built in fwd/rev gearbox is pretty robust/agricultural so i'm confident in its ability to transfere engine torque to the propellor.
the weak points are the yoke and external gear cables for which i will have a spare yoke taken from the current short leg drive when i replace it with the nearly new longer drive leg.
control cables are cheap and easily replaced and light so will carry some spares,that and anodes , spare seals,propellors etc.
plenty of waterproof grease and regular use won't hurt either,and being able to lift it out the water when not in use or on the mooring.

an example of how robust the unit is ,was the current drive after sitting mostly submerged for 3 years...with the salt water covering the gear leavers;ie way deeper than a normal instalation!
once the barnacles were cleaned off worked perfectly!

[hurricanehole]

Dang, great idea with the emergency steering. I've been wondering how
to accomplish that. So, it looks like they could sit on top of the nut thats holding
down the ball joints at the top of the rudders, at least on my Snowgoose.
The threaded rod coming out of the top of the rudder, what the heck is that type
of thread? The nuts that came with the boat don't fit, only screw down a couple of threads. I see there are Whitworth and BSF and SAE, BA and BSC.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by hurricanehole

Dang, great idea with the emergency steering. I've been wondering how
to accomplish that. So, it looks like they could sit on top of the nut thats holding
down the ball joints at the top of the rudders, at least on my Snowgoose.
The threaded rod coming out of the top of the rudder, what the heck is that type
of thread? The nuts that came with the boat don't fit, only screw down a couple of threads. I see there are Whitworth and BSF and SAE, BA and BSC.

the rudder posts on my elite are machined to 1 inch square so it was fairly easy to fabricate slightly bigger sockets out of 30mm right angle stainless.

on the older snowgoose with the covered rudder i'm not sure what the setup is,but my tie bar rod ends are std car steering pinions and i belive the thread is unf,but could be whitworth,definitly not metric,perhaps try on the prout owners forum

[atoll]

i got side-tracked due to the nice sunny weather

a little 2 day project to improve engine access from the cockpit

the hatch door was fabricated using gelcoat, 2 layers of 300gsm csm,20mm nidacore honeycombe then a layer of 300gsm csm over the top with a bit of extra csm around the edges.

very pleased with the result,as about 2/3 the weight of the ~8mm cutout
box on left is for the engine instrument panel
teak trim

[Tayana42]

Nice. You make it look easy.

[atoll]

life on the beach is good!
slowly getting the toerail sanded and tung oil applied,will look good once finished.

meanwhile inside, all the skin fittings and sea cocks fitted and connected up to the respective galley sinks , head sink and holding tank.
i also plumbed in a deck wash pump.

the pressurised water system is now connected up and tested...no leaks!
instant gas boiler water heater system also connected up and tested.
i still have to order and fit gas solenoid valves,but the hard work is done.

i also fitted lights,a/c power,gas bottles ,fresh water shower and deckwash hoses in the anchor locker.

fitted the trim in the galley,nav station and around the saloon seating area and in the process of getting it all varnished.

last photo is of the diesel heater heat ducting in the portside aft cabin which is also finished with all fans installed and connected throughout,total draw is 1.5 amps with all 6 fans running,which can be reduced to a single fan drawing 0.25A to heat the head (and or) 0.5A per aft cabin if needed .

[KiminAK]

You are no slacker! This project is humming right along.

[weavis]

Funny..

I was thinking what a slacker Atoll is....

[44'cruisingcat]

'Eated 'ead?!? LUXURY!!

[UpOnStands]

I remember the old days when providing a bucket with a handle was luxury

But, joking aside, well done Atoll.

[weavis]

Its gonna be a good 'un when finished.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by weavis

Its gonna be a good 'un when finished.

hopefully this week i will start on the steering cable system once all the outstanding interiour jobs are finished

i even bought a lazer pointer to get the pulley alignment correct,watch this space

[atoll]

it's been a while now since last postingmainly due to a lot of work done,but not much "photographically"worth posting

however progress has been steady,with the steering system installed and working using pulleys and 6mm dymeema steering cables linked to the tie bar.

i also have installed a hydraulic ram and pump with clutch to the tie bar to run an autopilot off of.

i built a nice saloon table,using some salvaged honeycomb teak faced lightweight panel from a superyacht and a bit of mahogany trim

i fitted the doors and perspex trim for the inboard side of the galley.

i also fitted the doors for the inboard side of the nav station,complete with a flip out seat of my own design

currently dismantling the "new" sonic drive to free up the steering and lifting pins that were quite tight,and need to be free for the steering and lifting functions to work properly.

i also have to swap over the 2 drive gear cogs in the lower leg from the old sonic drive as these are 2:1 ratio,as the new one has 1:1.6 ratio which is not suitable for the props i have,and would probably be more likely to cavitate.

so far so good with minor corrosion issues getting bolts and pins out.

once the gear gogs are reassembled i intend to give the "new" drive leg ,collar and yoke a new paint job as there has been a bit of surface corrosion.

here are a few photos

[Buzzman]

As always, atoll, your quality workmanship looks first class. Like that fold out seat!