Mercruiser D 4.2 L Engine & Bravo 3 Outdrive installation

16th of December and we are right on track, The lads got so much done over the last 10 days,
1st 3 bulkheads are in and the engine room and tank enclosure are built,
Everything is glassed in and flow coated with two coats of  light grey Gel coat,
The hatches to access the back compartments are cut out and two grey 380mm x 380mm hatches arrived from CH Marine on Friday for fitting this week,
So week 5 and  we are mid ship at the moment and everything is flow coated and looking great,
The stainless mooring bollards arrived from Gary Ghio in Antrim this week also and they are so impressive
(see photos above) they certainly exceeded my expectations,
Gary you are a genius!!
The fuel tank equipment also came in this week with a Durite marine fuel sender and gauge,
The main achievement this week was fitting the Mercruiser D 4.2 litre diesel and Bravo 3 once again and this time it is in to stay,
It looks real good in the engine room sitting square on the newly manufactured engine beds,
This week we will be aligning the engine with the help of the Mercruiser tool from Squires UK,
There is plenty of room around the engine as we left the measurement at 1100mm to match up with the engine box that will be up on deck,
This will make work easy if removing the starter motor is required and when replacing belts and filters,
I had Galway Stainless fabricate a blank plate (see photo above)
to fit inside the out drive housing blanking off the out drive exhaust as I plan to go throught the hull with a custom made 4 inch exhaust, We also glassed on some light ply to the bulkheads to enable fixing of the fuel filter, water intake filter, battery cables and bilge pump hoses,
It was all hands on deck when we installed the out drive and engine on Friday evening at 6.00pm
Boris, Pavol, Sylwester and Myself with  Patricks was on video duty,
Both out drive and engine went in with ease and we checked the travel of the steering arm before bolting up the out drive,
Then we fitted the stainless blank plate and lifted in the engine, Excitement was in the air,
As you will see from the video below the engine went in nice and smoothly and sat real nice on the bearers,
Thanks to Pavol and Boris for the micro precision measurement,

This week coming the plan is 4th bulkhead to be fitted, Flow coating the 3rd and 4th bulkheads and the compartments in between and starting on the chain locker and bunks up ahead,
If we are making ground we may also cut out the aft deck around the engine to get a real impression of progress,

All in all I am pleased with the progress, 6th week into the build and we are in to the wheel house fit out,

A big Thanks to everyone for all the help,

Much appreciated