elbows!

Ouch.... the elbows are £230.... an OEM part is £130...I'll take a better look to see if the water injection part is the only bit damaged, and whether I can get away with just that..... hope so... its only £20!!!!Down again this coming weekend to finish the speaker installation...I need to add a 90 degree elbow to the pipes for the fridge drain, but forgot to measure what thread it was... strongly suspect it'll be BSP, but don't know whether its 3/8ths or 1/2 inch..... so that'll need checkingAlso, need to measure the prop anode to get that ordered.... looks like its a 30mm, as thats the shaft sizeFinally.... I updated my VHF license today so that I could get an MMSI number and get the dual station VHF ordered..... which worked a treat, but the totally and utterly rubbish Ofcom website (which genuinely deserves the award for the worlds worst website) managed to remove my call sign at the same time.... so had to e-mail them..... very annoying!Best get the VHF ordered... its a dual station... the Standard Horizon GX3000E, with a remote command mic....

exhaust elbow

While I was on the boat at the weekend, I noticed a little pile of salt under the engine..... there'd previously been a leak from the impellor face plate, which the previous owner claimed to have fixed.... so I was groaning.... however, upon exploration, I had to take back my curses, as the leak was in fact from the exhaust elbow, or more accurately from the water injector pipe to the exhaust elbow, which is a small and seperate casting, and appears to be pretty badly corroded....So, i'll replace this section.... lots and lots of dried (ish) salt around the area..... maybe a replacement elbow will let a bit more water through the exhaust and stop the slight case of steam that we have....I just need to get some measurements so that I can order the right bits....

Davits in!

A really productive day today courtesy of help from Jim....I stopped down Saturday night... i'd agreed to meet Jim at 08h30 on Sunday, and didn't fancy the really early start.... as it happens it worked out well, as Jim was early, and arrived at 08h00.... just as I opened the hatch!So... we did the sensible thing, and had a fried breakfast!The previous night, i'd managed to complete one other minor task... I swapped the pipes over for the sink sea water inlet, and the fridge drain..... the fridge never drained properly as the pipe looped above the bottom of the fridge, so that shoudl help... its not quite completely finished as I need a 90 degree elbow to fit the water inlet pipe in a way that doesn't foul the dustbin when the door closes..... but that's the work of a few mins....The breakfast didn't take long though, and soon enough, we were marking up for the Davits.... it took us until Lunch time to fit the first one.... we had to cut out the backing plates, and what with taking our time to ensure that we didn't make any stupid mistakes... it wasn't the fastest of jobs.... it was however, lovely and neat!We started the other side, and then lunch got in the way... Ham, Egg and Chips in the Shipwreck, wasjed down with a quick pint, and we were ready to finish the second davit.... which took significantly less time... we by now knew what we were doing, and it was in and sorted by 14h00....

Excuse the quality of the picture, its a mobile phone piccy... but I am pleased to bits with the davits.... they look very substantial, fit perfectly, and are very much in keeping with the boat.....So, with the davits behind us, we decided to take on another challenge... the cockpit speakers..... the first challenge was to remove the old VHF speaker.... which was more than adequately attached with sikaflex..... this eventually decided to let us remove it, after combinations of razor blades, screwdrivers and brute force.... it won't be re-useable i'm afraid!We hoped to use the wiring to this speaker to pull through the new speaker cables (we need extra cable for stereo speakers), and indeed it was looking good until just near the end, the join parted.... we ended up having to thread the cable by hand.... this was laborious..... but eventually fruitfull, and the cable was in... it was starting to rain, and by now 15h30, so a sensible decision was made to quit for the day... which we duly did......Really good progress, much to do... but a good start... many thanks for your help Jim.... it is very much appreciated.

sails

Genoa and cockpit tent taken to the sailmaker as well....Sailmaker doesn't think we need a new UV strip on the Genny, which is good, and will instead just tidy up in a couple of places...Cockpit tent is great, except one of the internal fixings to hold the frame in place has come unstitched.... that'll get sorted at the same time....Only money after all!

A new year

Sat doing nothing much on Sunday afternoon when I suddenly realised that Morgana goes back in the water in 6 or 7 weeks....Yikes... better get on and do a few of the winter jobs....So, will be down to her on Sunday... Jim is coming over to help, and between us, we'll fit the davits... or at least trial fit them. I need to get some plates made up to spread the load, but can't do that until I know how big I can make them... so i'll trial fit them without, measure up, and then get the plates made up... a good thick piece of stainless should do the trick... about 5mm thick!If I get time, we'll also try to fit a set of cockpit speakers.... one either side of the steering pedestal.. hopefully, one will use the existing hole left by the current VHF cockpit speaker, which I intend removing, as we are going to fit a dual station VHF, which has the speaker built into the cockpit mike... Jim and Lynn have rather generously bought these speakers for me as a birthday present! (must remember to get a load of speaker wire)Final job for the weekend is to try and remove the anode that sits on the end of the prop... it was replaced by the previous owner just before we bought her, so not had to fit one yet... and when she was lifted, I noticed that the anode was held in with a hex headed bolt, which looked a bit chewed up.... so not sure how easy that will be to remove... we'll see!Best take a long look at the rest of my list, and get some of the other jobs underway!