Doing What It Should

Well the forward locker doors have been fitted

And work as planned

But have now been taken home for varnishing and have pulls fitted, as I don’t want to keep opening them with a screwdriver. In addition I am adding a ‘Battery Isolation Switch’ plate to indicate the switches are in there. I don’t know what the ruling is but if you need one for the main batteries it makes sense that you should have one for this end.

Camera recovered so now we have pictures of the winch wiring

As it was

As it is now

 

 

I have added 12V sockets throughout the boat including one here by the charger socket. The roll of yellow wire is a draw cord running the full length of the boat with enough at each end so it can be pulled to and fro to run any additional cabling, the is also one running down the other gunnel.

And the finished wiring to the battery compartment.

As it used to be

Went to Midland Chandlers yesterday and got the required fuses. Successful test carried out and the upshot of that is that when the down button is pressed the anchor chain goes down not up as it did before. J

Another positive result

Roof lining in the kitchen area is back up and all been measured to make new capping to cover the joins.

More of the kitchen in due course.

Having Fun

Oops! Playing catch up again. I must be having fun because the time is just whizzing by.

Since my last post I popped over to the Midland Chandlers at Mercia and got all the bits needed to split the power supply to winch and bow thruster, or so I thought, having since learnt that the winch only requires a 100 amp fuse.

The following day (Saturday) was a working holiday for John and me taking a birthday party trip for the GCS on Three Shires from Woolsthorpe to Grantham and back with a stop for a picnic en-route. Every one seemed to enjoy themselves and tried to encourage a new recruit. That reminds me, there is an open day at Woolsthorpe carpenters shop behind the Dirty Duck pub on Thursday September 6^th, walking talks, boat trips and an exhibition. Surely worth a visit.

The rest of the week has been a bit of a blur, working between home and boat, making bits and pieces and then down to T-A to offer them up for fitting. The new battery box is finished with the top sloping towards the bow locker so that any fumes vent out that way rather than up into the mattress.

The new fuse mountings are in the battery box

but the battery switches are now mounted inside the bow locker, either side of the door. The bow thruster was wired in and tested OK on Wednesday.

New doors have been made for the bow locker- as was

Now in three parts, the bottom being a drop down flap, which will probably only be used when the water tank is being serviced..

In this shot they are just held in by gaffer tape - LED lighting making it look grey. I have been fitting them today after finishing off the wiring for the winch – not tested yet as I still haven been over to get some 100A fuses and I’m not going to use the old 300A one.

The result of these modifications is that now we can access the bow locker without removing the mattress and the battery switches can be operated without dismantling the bed.

On top of all that the battening is up to take the new roof lining in the galley area and some of the shelving is up. Silly me forgot to bring the camera home so no pictures of today’s effort.

 

Still Trundling On

Tuesday was working form home I the morning and down to T-A in the afternoon for what was supposed to be just a quick visit in the afternoon but  as usual it lasted for a bit more than that. I had learned from Tom on his blog for ‘Waiouru’ that the ‘Hurricane’ heating should have an air trap in the system – ours don’t – so it seemed like a good idea to get one, the only trouble is that the orifices are 22mm and the system has 15mm pipe work. Soon plumbed in some reducers and left good long tails so that there is plenty of room to adapt when the system is reinstalled.

Out at Trudy and decided to cut down the roof lining where the old microwave shelf went as there are screw holes in it and a hole chopped out where the socket was(no junction box, just a socket).

Tried the shelf and battery box for size but both needed a bit shaving off.

Wednesday a quiet day doing the paperwork like sending off for a new navigation licence and ordering a new toy – which was waiting for me when I got home this evening.

It’s a mini circular saw made by Dremel and I reckon it will earn its keep when it comes to lifting the floorboards.

As for today I decided to re route the pipes from the black water  tank as they were in the way the other day when I was trying to work on the water tank inspection cover.

Now they are well over to the side and just clear of the bow thruster motor.

Started on rewiring the winch and thruster but stopped when I decided that a trip to the chandlers was the order of the day because I think it best that both items have their own fuse and isolation switch rather than one common to both.

Did have a smile though, there are two cables running from the battery to each side of the relay for the winch but on removing the first I see they are already strapped together.

Had intended to make a short cable strap, glad I didn’t do it before hand.

Doing Things The Hard Way

Continuing on from the last entry.

Back to T-A on the Wednesday afternoon and removed the rubble and remaining sawdust from around the bow thruster tube but still evidence of dampness so left things at that. As the wiring was finished capped off the cable troughing and called it a day.

Thursday back down to check on the water tank. All seemed dry so new connectors fitted and started to take on water. Everything was fine so added a bottle Milton and continued to fill right to the top to ensure that the tank was completely sterilised. Still watching connections for leaks but not to worry, all good; just as the tank reached capacity bubbles started appearing round the inspection cover, not good.

Scraped away the spray foam overspray from the cover and found source of leak down right hand side. The cover was held down by seven (8 holes) zinc plated roofing bolts which were already showing signs of rust. Noted that the holes were countersunk so domed head bolts seemed inappropriate. Managed to remove two bolts but the rest were solid so left them until I had better equipment. Next day went back armed with impact driver and ½” flat bit, which managed to remove three more but only chewed up the heads of the last two.

At the moment I don’t have time to start draining the system again, drilling out the old bolts and cleaning out the tank so settled for clearing the rust from the bolt holes, applying more mastic and using stainless bolts where I could. At least it is secured by eight bolts now.   

The area around the bow thruster tube had dried out and got a coating of ‘Waxoyl’ before being filled with spare ballast from under the bed.

Since then it’s been a case of catch up in the garden and woodworking at home. The new battery box is made from 18mm birch ply and has had it’s first coat of bilge paint.

Figured it was better use of space to have it on top of the bow thruster tube.

Busy making new shelves in ash for the kitchen area to take the microwave and  crockery. Started out with timber recovered from the old cupboard in the lounge, reshaped it slightly and then to get a raised edge routed out all the wood behind to lower the height of the shelf and then added some grooves to stop plates slipping. The top shelf will be for cups and the rounded ends are to take the cereal bowls

There will be a raised rail above each shelf to stop things falling off, the curves were

cut on the band saw and I’m quite pleased with the result.

If you are thinking that plates will still roll off when the boat rocks.

No problem

Square plates J

Sidetracked Again

Very busy over the last couple of days. Yesterday (Monday) it was down to Woolsthorpe depot to cut the grass and whilst down there  greased the hydraulic rams on  ‘Mudlark’ the new dredger purchased for the GCS.

In the afternoon it was down to Trudy-Ann to finish fixing the ceiling battens and plug the screw holes before trimming them off.

The plan for today was to give the new parts of the ceiling a light sand before varnishing and then remove the bow thruster battery and box in preparation for the rewire. Well the first part of that went fine, but I decided to leave the varnishing to last so the boat could be left without me throwing up a cloud of dust.

Before starting work in the bedroom I opened the forward hatch to watch the rain and spotted these poor so and so’s.( though I bet they don’t work for peanuts)

No brollies for them.

Removing the ballast around the battery box revealed such a pile of crud around the bow thruster tube I decided to clear it out.

That’s when I found it was damp – not what I wanted. The detritus consisted of partly rotted saw dust which was cleared out with a wet & dry vac. It filled the 20ltr container and that didn’t account for all the spray foam off cuts that were too big. The leak traced back to the two connectors at the tank, wrong side of the stop tap of course so taps run until system drained. It’s lucky that the rewire is finished at this end.

Not a very good picture but you can see how black the sawdust is here. I can only guess how long this has been going on. The sawdust seemed to continue under the BT tube so I cut a section of floor out between the tube and black water tank. Yep plenty more sawdust down here and a few bits of broken ballast.

That section cleared out to both sides and apart from the sawdust enough bits to make about eight con blocks, but when measured the space is large enough to take at least 48 paving blocks, so why are so many stacked around the toilet tank?

As they say ‘It’s an ill wind that blows nobody no good’ with the tank drained down I was able to fit the sender unit for the water gauge.

Hopefully the space will dry out now that the muck has been removed and I'll have a go at removing some more when it’s dry. Used some treated timber to make a new batten to fix the water pipe to as the fact that it is not fixed down may be part of the problem. Down to the plumbers for some new fittings tomorrow.

Back to plan A and lounge ceiling varnished before departure.

That black thing on the wall just past the window is the carcase for the central heating room thermostat, decided it would work better there than in the engine 'ole.
Time for a boil in the bath.

Must remember to load the dehumidifier next time.

Bits and Bobs

Nothing much to show for this weeks work. The wiring is finished in the accommodation area of the boat except for the bow thruster and winch. In the process of making a new battery box before doing the rewire. Roof lining is back up and new trim to cover the joints has been made but only partially fitted so far. Extra battening and new panelling fitted in the galley area  above the work top to take new shelf for microwave and plate rack which is under construction at the moment. Nothing to see but essential work none the less.

The rest of the time has been helping Karen in the garden and doing battle with the weeds and grass.

Hope to be able to produce more visible results shortly.