Vessel Down

There's a lot of activity taking place on Brio just now. She's being made ready for launch in about 3 weeks, around mid-May. This is important, because in early June she'll start the second half of the Downeast Loop. This time, we will go clockwise. But more on our route in another post! Let's look "under Brio's hood" and see what's been happening!

Below, you'll see a lot of new parts being installed in the engine room. Some of these parts had to be ordered only after everything had been taken apart. Suddenly it was obvious that parts had to be replaced. This was unexpected. The orders get coded "Vessel Down" in order to convey the need to speed delivery so the boat can be put back together again and put into operating condition. Vessel Down describes Brio's late winter state.

Here are pictures of where the port (left) and starboard (right) pods used to be attached to the bottom of the boat. Recall that the port pod now sits on the bottom of the St. Lawrence River because it was knocked away by a submerged log. The starboard pod was removed to repair the propellers that were damaged by the log. The interior of the pod was also rebuilt this winter because there was evidence of moisture inside the pod. Good to take care of that!

Here's where the starboard pod will attach.

And here's where the port pod will attach.

Notice that the port pod's bolts are missing or bent. That's due to the damage done by the submerged log as it struck the pod and knocked it off.

Let's fast forward to the end of March, 2023.

Here's the repaired starboard pod with a new pair of propellers attached. And, on the port side ...

Here's a brand new pod for the port side. Look at that beautiful, shiny brass and steel!! Whew! The brass will be painted black and the new propellers will be attached to the steel propeller shaft that's now covered by the foam block.

Just above where these pods are being positioned, a lot of scrapping and painting has taken place to make the area under the swim platform clean of barnacles and growth. This is just good ol' elbow grease and an awareness of how important it is to keep things orderly.

There's more!! Every three years or so, the engine manufacturer now recommends that the back end of the engines be serviced by removing the coolers and aftercoolers. Brio's coolers and aftercoolers hadn't received this attention for years, so it was high time. Looking into the engine compartment, it really just looks like spaghetti.

These openings are where the coolers and aftercoolers will go on the starboard engine. Glad someone is keeping track of how it all goes back together!!

Here's the new cooler now painted white. It is all brass and cast aluminum. It fills in this hole (shown below) that was there a week earlier!

Now let's go forward and take a look at the bow. This has received a new coat of paint. But if you look closely you can see where the old paint had chipped off in spots. That's where the log hit the hull. Thank goodness the hull is strong!!

Here are the topsides of Brio on her port side. The log didn't affect her here, but she had a lot of road dirt from the trip down from Canada. Prior to that, there was evidence of a few unfriendly docks that had scrapped her sides. Burrs' buffing leaves her pristine.

Up on the deck, the toerail, which is the wooden varnished ridge at the edge of the deck, had also received a lot of abuse during the trip. Here's how toerails get varnished at Burrs:

Everything is taped to protect the deck. There is an immense amount of sanding and scrapping to remove old varnish and damaged areas. Water likes to seep in at the joint between the toerail and the deck and that further damages the wood. All that has to get cleaned out and varnished. And its not just one coat! There are three to five coats applied to build the varnish back up to give it strength and its beautiful luster.

The decorative teak also receives attention.

When the tape is removed, the beauty is obvious.

This is a good place to stop. There will be another entry to describe the work going on inside the boat. That is mostly electronics, as you will soon see. You can see, though, that Brio will turn heads once again when she's in the water. Can't wait!!

Until then, we wish you fair tides.

Brio