Singer Chamois Sport Imp is back home again

Home is Scotland, the country where the Rootes Car Company Scotland, built a brand new factory at Linwood to build the Hillman Imp motor car. With the first car rolling off the assembly line in May 3rd 1963 its very near fifty years ago now.

Well, it’s back in Scotland! I picked it up at Aberdeen Harbour this morning….

Regards,

Andy Bain (owner)

Badged as a 1966 Singer Chamois Sport, its car number 610 of around 2500 made, the Scots light is back on the car.

Prepared by myself as a race or competition car, I look forward to seeing how the car stacks up against its competition.The car is now forty six (46) years old.
Can we build you a similar car?

Roy

A ship on the beach in Clifton,Cape Town.

News update, Friday 18th May 2012 and they managed to pull the vessel off into deep water. The boat will then be taken to Cape Town Harbour but who will pay for this salvage?

Roy

It  was foggy a few mornings back, so foggy it seems that one ship lost all its navigation instruments? At least one source is suggesting the grounding may have been deliberate.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Questions-over-ships-grounding-20120514

 The long liner fishing boat firmly beached at Cape Towns Clifton Beach, its named the
Eihatsu Maru.

Cliftons First beach, the countries premier beach now has a problem.

http://www.2oceansvibe.com/2012/05/14/clifton-trawler-grounded-on-purpose/

Said to have 90 tones of fuel oil and a load of Ammonia aboard.

Men can be seen on the aft decks, there were tow lines to her yesterday, I do not see those now.

Thats Lions Paw rock there, we are lucky the ship missed that on its way in, the tug may have a long wait,spring high tides were some days back.

Named Z Tug she is at anchor, check the Black Ball forward of the wheelhouse.

The NSRI did a great job of taking the crew off, they used rubber ducks off the stern of the ship, you can walk ashore today.

All pictures by Roy McBride

Comment by a regular blog viewer below.

Roy - I would LOVE TO KNOW how on earth they managed this. No bad weather – besides fog, and engines working fine . . . did the helmsman fall asleep or go for a pee? Did the GPSs and the radar and the depth-sounder and the compass fail together? Insurance scam? Were they doing a tourist exhibitionist like Costa Concordia at 5am? The mind boggles. As you say tides are no longer in their favour – they will need to unpack the boat – but I understand it already quite light . . .

How hard can this be, when we as amature sailors who take our navigation and boat preperations so seriously, how can a proffessional crew do this?

Roy

News story from Times Live, with thanks.

The Eihatsu Maru long line fishing vessel, a Japanese ship, ran aground at 5.15am on Saturday in thick fog.

In total, 90 tons of diesel and 50 tons of fish were on board the trawler, Solomons-Johannes said.

The cause of the ship's grounding had not been established. Its engines remained in working order and generators continued to work.

It had not been damaged by the stranding.

A tug boat was sent from Simonstown to tow the boat on Saturday night, but the tow rope snapped as the trawler proved too heavy.

Marine engineers would fit a metal plate to the ship to enable it to be tugged, Solomons-Johannes said.

Inflatable barriers had been deployed around the ship to prevent a possible oil spill.

The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) confirmed that the crew members of the trawler were rescued by Saturday afternoon.

"Two NSRI rescue swimmers were placed onboard the vessel and Taiwanese consulate staff and the ships agent assisted the NSRI with language interpretations between the... crew and NSRI rescuers," spokesman Craig Lambinon said.

Of the 28 Taiwanese crew members and dog on board, 19 were evacuated. The dog remained on board at the insistence of the captain, the animal's owner.

The remaining crew members and the captain were required to stay on board under international maritime law, said Solomons-Johannes.

The NSRI took part of the crew off the boat.

The local ward counciler says the boat has moved in to land by around 25 meters since going ashore?

Salvage officials look on as a tugboat attempts to refloat fishing vessel Eihatsu Maru which ran aground at Clifton, one of Cape Town's most popular tourist beaches. 
Image by: MIKE HUTCHINGS / REUTERS

Attempts to salvage a 50-metre-long fishing trawler off First Beach, Clifton, have been hampered largely by low tides.

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How to service the Zenith Stromberg CD125 carburetor

Seems to me that the ' How to ' series of blogs gets lots of interest?

Zenith Carburetors made the Stromberg carburetors fitted on to the 1966 Singer Chamois and Sunbeam Sport series of cars, they also made for many others, including the Rover V8 Sport and Triumph Stag, lots of cars use this carb, just the sizes change.

This is basically what they all look like, some details such as cable links will change from car to car and the side elbow which fits the Rootes Car Co Imp sports engined cars may not be fitted.

Once stripped and cleaned, they should end up looking like this.

Keeping  things clean is the first issue, so clean the assembly with water soluable cleaner and wash clean, you will be doing this a number of times, an air hose to blow the water off helps here.

When the main body is inverted, those black floats should be 16mm high at their highest point from the edge of the carbs body. This is one of a pair of carburetors bought new from the Hillman Imp tuning experts named  Hartwell of Bornemouth in England. They have seen service on our 1967 Singer Chamois for  about 18 years, still in fine condition but a leaking paper gasket on the lower float bowl on one carb,  had me change them for a spare pair. This way I can service them and still use the Singer.

When the floats are swung back the retaining pin can be removed and then the brass float valve can be removed. You may not find a suitable spanner in your tool kit, its an odd size in todays world, probably a BSF thread, Whitworth sockets will fit, or use an adjustable spanner?

The jet and adjustment assembly, you will need new O rings of the right size, there is also a very small one inside the washers next to the spring on the right.

As mentioned I needed to make some new gaskets, I used the correct Flexoid gasket paper from England, hand cut it with a Stanley knife and cut the holes out with the correct tool, the one I made is in the center. Note the two others are slighty different from each other, the one on the right will fit the bowl  with the gasket on the left but not the other way around!

Most float chamber boawls on the CD125 are the same shape on each side, this pair has the corner shaped different on the left hand side. Hence the special corner on this gasket.

 Note the central needle, this must be in perfect condition.

By this stage I have beadblasted the parts clean, re washed in water soluable cleaner, dried and then washed again in a two stroke petrol 10:1 mixx, you would be amazed at the amount of dirt that comes off the parts when this final clean is completed.

Check the brass jet in the center, the workshop manual says we should free off the lower brass body and tap it with a spanner to centralise the jet, I have always found the best method is to sight it by eye, you can move the jet easy enough with a small screwdriver, then re tighten the lower brass body.

The jet has to be central or the body with the needle in it will not seat correctly, when lifted with a finger, or in the case of this carb, a lift pin that is outside the body, thats it on the right hand side, will allow you to do it that way.

The center body with its needle, the spring which holds it down and the cap to the main body.

The needle should never be bent, it will not bend in use, you would have to bend it when removed from the carb, so be carefull how you handle it.

Now refitted to the water heated alloy Imp inlet manifold, we are at the end of what turned out to be a six hour job, or was it more?

Now ready to refit to the car, note the foam bubble wrap in the intake elbows to stop any solid body falling in.

Nice job for a winters day!

Roy

To be continued!

Roy

Duckling Dinghy to St Helena island and back

I have been taking interest in the fact that Basil Read Construction has been awarded the tender to build the airport on the island of St Helena. It will be on the opposite side of the island from the main town which is named Jamestown, as the longest flat area is on the east of the island at an elevation of 1000 feet.

The fact that there is no harbour on the island means they have to build one first, sort of the which came first adventure of the chicken or the egg? Then what about when the airport is open, they are talking about using Boeing 737-700  planes, they take around 26,000 litres of fuel, can they re fuel on the island? Not a bad idea but how will they get fuel from Jamestown to the air terminal?

The roads on the island are quaint, many have  side pull ins to allow a passing car to move past you, the lanes are narrow, so tanker trucks do not fit the bill, so will it be a long pipe line. Or will it be a fuel terminal off the east side of the island, or will they just fly with full tanks from the African airports and carry less passengers? then just fly back with whats left of the same fuel they started with?

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/737family/pf/pf_700tech.html

There is also the Boeing 737-700 ER series plane, said to carry more fuel and allow about 2450 extra air miles, can it land on the islands 1850 meters of new runway?

Does anyone know?

Check out the link below for some excellent news on the project.

http://www.sainthelenaaccess.com/news/

The blog title? well our Duckling dinghy knows all about St Helena Island, so much so it has carried the crew of Ocean Cloud to the island while being at anchor in Rupert Bay and then hauled out and parked on the island itself! It then traveled to Brasil, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela and all the way back again, on the decks of the Endurance 37 Ocean Cloud.

Now seen hanging on the back of a Dix 43 made from ply/epoxy construction.

How nice is that!

Roy

Note, we have had some discussion with Dudley Dix to use this style of dinghy to make a cold moulded new design. The one in the picture is in GRP but the original was a cold moulded hull. Let me know if you fancy building one of this style of boat.

TBA, dress right

Both the V&A Waterfront staff and TBA founder member Alan Craxton, were well dressed for the first morning of the Easter Regatta in Cape Town Harbour.

 Picture by R McBride and never published before.

The yacht next to them was Ocean Cloud, an Endurance 37, the yachts in the distance were part of a race fleet?

Roy

Optimist kit by CKD Boats

How to spot one of our kits?

Well we started with an order from the Knysna Yacht Club of five boats, that soon became eight boats, we did a special club deal with North Sails and a deck pack supplier. This works well when a club or group can do a bulk order, we pass on our discounts and the buyer scores. With an owner builder set up, the savings are large over a plastic made hull.

The CKD Boats hull number 14, we have done many more since then!

All of the original series of Optimist kits were marked as you can see in the photo, I note its dated 17th April 2005, so thats seven years back now. If you do not fancy the boat being marked with our logo and hull number, its easy to reverse the bulkhead and it will then be on the inside.

The wood/epoxy kit Optimist from CKD Boats cc weighs within the class requirement, its around 32kgs? weighed against some imported boats from China and using five of our boat builds, it worked out to be lighter on all of our boats.

How good is that!

Roy

Sonnet, a thirty square by Uffa Fox

A mail just in by way of Notty in the UK, he once owned Sonnet and is in touch with Gordon who used to sail on her with the original owner. Notty sold the boat to Mike Daly when the boat was on the slip at the RCYC. Yes, I was there and yes, I also have a picture! (where is it?)  Mike later had Sonnet restored by Tommy Walker, who did the job under cover, in what is refered to as Teddys Shed next to the main club house.

Roy

Picture by R McBride, the venue was the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, the event was the TBA Easter Regatta, around 1999.

Click on the picture, Sonnet is to the left and with the maroon sail cover carrying her name.

Well.  That's absolutely amazing after all those years.  I thought she had been broken up after Alan's death when she had been bought for her mooring.  You're quite right about her being built to an Uffa Fox take on the 30 square metre rule but her lines were taken from an article in a magazine or book, not from a genuine set of drawings.  She was built in someones back garden in Cape Town and Alan Duncan bought her without a keel, hatches, mast or sails when he returned to SA after the war.  He was taken prisoner while fighting with the South African army.  Alan cast the lead keel (with some help) by digging a hole in his garden and pouring the lead in.  As you probably remember it was as rough as the proverbial bear's bum but considering how it was done it was a pretty good effort.  I must have a few pictures somewhere and I'll have a root through my stuff and see what I can find.  Thanks anyway for the picture.  Sure brings back some good memories.

Gordon Smallhorn, Isle of Man, UK.

The Huco 443020 / FP2 fuel pump failure

My 1966 3.8S type Jaguar has two petrol tanks and two SU fuel pumps, after 46 years the one SU pump still works but the other one failed some years back.

I called at a well known motor factors in Paarden Eiland, told them the car and the  problem, they then sold me a Huco (german make) fuel pump, fitted it worked just fine.

Note: they supplied a Huco 443020 type FP2 pump, this was in fact the wrong pump for my application, the FP2 pump should be fitted at the engine end of the system, in my case the FP3 Huco pump should have been supplied.

File picture.

The Jaguar had just had a new cylinder head job done, at the best of times we use the car very little but over the next four years, I added about 1150 miles to the milage on the clock.

My Huco 443020 fuel pump as it looked this morning before I stripped it.

Then last November I noticed a smell of petrol from the rear of the car, I checked the old SU pump, fully expecting that to be the cause, it was not.

The new Huco pump was at fault, tested on the bench it was clear to see that petrol was coming out of the end where the red plastic cover is, the electrics are in that end.

The warranty was long gone, they offer one year only, mine was around four years old and had pumped some 575 miles of petrol, given the cars two tanks, we can split the use, so lets say all of 26 gallons, thats 123 litres only?

These pictures will open if you click on them.

Check the distortion from the LRP ( lead replacement petrol) the diaphragm has perished and allowed the petrol to go through it and out of the other end of the pump

The motor factors sent the Huco 443020 / FP2 back to the importers, after around three months it came back and with no warranty cover or offer of a new pump.

By mid May 2012 I have decided to contact Huco in Germany and I am pleased to report with excellent results.

Thursday and 24 hours later, I managed to email the CEO of Huco, Germany, he came right back and we have discussed the problem, I am told I will be contacted by his Johhannesburg office re a replacement pump? It does seem that my red capped Huco pump is old stock? more on this as and when it happens.

Friday, no contact and no offer of a new pump from the South African Huco pump agents as yet?
I think its clear to see that the pump I was sold was old stock and pre unleaded or LRP fuel, the pump was suitable for the old leaded petrol but not the new types?

Monday and the South African office for Huco have made contact with me by phone, they will re supply me with a replacement pump. My thanks to Christian in Germany and to Dirk in South Africa, for good service as it should be !

Tuesday, a new pump was delivered to me today, thanks for the great service Huco!

Roy

Hi Roy

Thanks for the link. I have clarity on the issue, and will be shipping a new replacement pump to our agent, Yunus, in Cape Town, who will deliver it to you. I have asked Yunus to contact you and make arrangements for delivery. He should have the replacement pump within two days.

Roy
From the web:

Applications for HÜCO fuel pumps Advantages of the HÜCO fuel pumps

To replace mechanical pumps in all vehicles (except for injection pumps, fitted near the engine)

To replace electrical pumps in all vehicles (except for injection pumps, fitted near the fuel tank)

In additional heater and cooling systems under certain environmental conditions a) when alcohol/ fuel compounds are utilized b) in hot regions where fuel easily evaporates c) in regions located above 1.000 m

For industrial applications whenever liquid has to be delivered

a) fuels: premium petrol, regular petrol

b) mixed-fuels: methanol, ethanol

c) Diesel fuel

The pump is self-priming and stops when no fuel is needed( energy saving)

Needs not necessarily be fitted below the tank (self-priming) ­ Extended working life since the pump is not affected by wear and tear

Perfect functioning over many years

Low operating noise ­ High performance

Low weight

The pump is corrosion- proof

The pump is resistant to methanol and ethanol

The pump is switched electronically and excludes any radio interference


( it does all that and leaks too)

How great is that.

Roy

A response from a friend in the USA who is rebuilding a Lotus.

Hi Roy,

That is a sad story, thanks for the warning.

My immediate thought was that the modern fuel with 10-15% ethanol might be the root of the problem but their text says that it is OK with ethanol. Maybe they source their diaphragms from China.

 Regards

A Bronze and Alloy sculpture by British Seagull

One famous boat designer has predicted that the outboards made by British Seagull, will probably become a cult status one day, maybe that day has arrived? Originally made in 1931,history wise they now date back some eighty one years (81) now out of production, they will become collectors items one day.

You soon realise that the product excells in its use of metals, these solid cast bronze (brass and copper) make for some good and very strong support brackets. The aluminium alloys used were termed Seagull Alloy, I wonder did they have their own patent on the alloy?

 This 4.5hp Seagull has been cleaned and serviced, it is now for sale.

The bronze brackets in use, the missing dished 316 stainless washers have since been refitted to the two stainless thumb screws.

Roy

The Traditional Boat Asscociation Easter gathering

This was one of those mornings when we had no wind in Cape Towns inner harbour, nice to wake up to and even nicer to be allowed to use what is normally a very busy dock.

With permission from the harbour master and a number of key players, the overnight stop was allowed, this happened just the once, it was far too disruptive for the charter boats who normally use the same dock space. In the following years we were given space in the inner harbour just around the corner and to the right of the picture.

Photo by R McBride, using a Canon FT film camera, about 1999.

Roy

Outboard oil, Venezuela style in 1989

Cruising in Venezuela was special at the time, unlike today,  theft was never an issue and with the countries low pricing on all goods related to oils and that covers paints as well, it was a great place to stock up.

Note: at the time places pumping out oil were quite happy to get U$14.00 per barrel for their crude oil, its now selling for around U$116.00 a barrel, thats waht I call greed and the cause of massive global inflation.

Two brands here, the orange cans are Corpoven Dos Tempos.

So much so that we still have stock! For the Maravan outboard two stroke oil this cost a massive 10 Bs, per 0.946 liter can, that is  about a doller fifty in U$ terms, it was a low (very) Bs 5.00 for the Corpoven brand. We took on 500 liters of diesel fuel and saw change from R12.00 worth of Bolivars. We used the engine often and rarely the sails in the four months we were in Venezuela.

Why a can size of 0.946 ltrs? The Corpoven grade is DT-2 de la norma Covenin 936, can anyone shed light on these grades?

Maravan Fuera de Borda outboard oil.

with the arrival of Justin Seagull, the 3.5hp marine outboard, I need some two stroke oil, this 1ltr can should do the trick. Its marked for use in a 50:1 mix with petrol, I guess it will be fine at the 10:1 mix a 1961 British Seagull requires.

The two other cans will be more suitable for a scooter?

Roy

TBA meeting at the V&A Waterfront

One of those years when the people and boats turned out in force, I normally found a boat to borrow for the Easter Weekend as my own boat was still being home built.

The boats at the back are She, Tara, Ocean Cloud, in the front is one on the left I can not name ? then the Dogger, Kestral, Brat of Dunkirk and Kalahari Sands with owner builder Don in the blue shirt and Captain Brian Greenwood in the yellow tee shirt.

Picture taken by R McBride, circa 1999? with a Canon FT film camera.

How good was this.

Note, we hope to re create some of this style and meeting of classic boats at the next Hout Bay Festival, December 2012, entries to the Hout Bay Yacht Club at http://www.hbyc.co.za/

Roy

British Seagull genuine plug cap pictures

Seen here its a really well made helmet type plug cap that really covers the plug, its branded British Seagull, so is the genuine part. New ones are still available.

Seen here on the Seagull 4.5 hp motor (for sale) note the rubber boot over the cable to cap end.

The spark comes from the flywheel, check the black plastic cap as it enters underneath, the cap is retained with a stainless plate and screw. The alloy handle with the knob is the clutch control, it works too!

Note how clean this engine is now, the alloy and bronze parts have been removed and stripped, bead blasted  clean before inspection and reassembly. New stainless large washers are being refitted to the thumb screw ends.

Roy

www.ckdboats.com 

A British Seagull on a British seagull

British Seagull on a British Seagull by Fran McCarthy, classic isn't it!! Well done Fran.

The words and picture are taken from SOS, which is short for Saving old Seagulls.

A great picture!

Roy

Hout Bay Harbour today

Really this was yesterday afternoon but today will be just the same? This is our typical winter weather in the cape when its not raining!

All picturse by R McBride using a Canon Gll digital camera on auto, this frame is a wide angle view.

Closer in with the tele lens function.

By now I had moved forwards about twenty paces but still on a tele lens setting.

The red boat is Royal Duke and  a steel built Van Der Stadt, one of two built in a factory at Woodstock, the original owner was Bill Cooper of Chicks Scrap Metal in Epping Two. The other boat was named Lilly Rose.

An interesting but true tale was told to me by Richard Peterson of Manex Marine, Dorsteshire Street, Paarden Eiland, Cape Town.

Bill, who was a larger than life Cockney, turns up to see Richard re the boats deck package gear, Bill had the drawing and indicated to Richard that on deck blocks needed to take a load around four tons, about 4000kgs.

Manex Marine were then the agents for such brands as Marlow Rope and Gibb Marine, Gibb had the right size block in a tufnol construction. Bill asked Richard could he please borrow a block to do some tests on?

Richard was ok with this and Bill took the Gibb tufnol block to his scrap yard, then asked his manager to load a drum with four tons of scrap and with the lift cable through the tufnol block, then do some lift and drop exercises with the yard crane.

The block passed the test and Royal Duke was fitted out with Gibb Marine tufnol blocks!

How hard is that.

Roy

Roy