Fitting a Yanmar and Aquadrive

(Page 1) (Page 2) (Page 3) (Page 4) (Page 5) Page 6 (Page 7) (Page 8) (Page 9)

Aquadrive and stern gear access :

aquadrive2

Access to the Aquadrive and stern gland will be almost impossible from inside the cabin, and totally impossible once the engine is installed. I looked at a number of off-the-shelf hatches but they were either too expensive or not designed to be stood on. The cockpit sole also has a slight camber which would make it difficult to fit. The alternative is to make one - cut the shape out with a jigsaw fitted with a metal cutting blade. The flange can then be marked out on 12mm ply.

aquadrive3

Making the hatch:

The hatch itself is obviously make from the cut out section of cockpit floor. Because I partially cut through the strengthening stringers I had to do a bit of grinding and grp work to tidy things up. The flange is fitted to the floor with 6mm stainless csk machine screws and a good fillet of thickened epoxy resin to bond it in permanently. The hatch is secured with 8mm csk machine screws, with 'Bighead' captive nuts bonded to the underside of the flange. A rubber seal will be bonded to the lip of the flange to make it watertight. aquadrive4

(More of this to follow - work in progress Jan 1 2007)

www.corribee.org - inboard engines