Friday 15 June 2012

Thursday 14 June 2012

Piping

All the pipes now reconnected to seacocks.

Heads hoses replaced in aft heads... The old one were in terrifyingly poor condition and weren't connected... the new ones still aren't connected until I mount the toilet, but at least aren't going to fall apart on me!

The sinks are also now teed into existing through hulls rather than draining into the bilges!

I'm now starting to mount the bilge pumps... Plinth glassed in and waiting to cure... Cant mount the aft one... needs a little water pumping out and as its below the engine its very slightly oily, so need to be afloat...

Other than that... ready to launch tommorrow... Weather permitting.... Looks like a decent weather window in the morning... we'll see!

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Antifouled

Started at 08:00 this morning, and by just keeping going without a break, have finished the antifouling by 14:00. Just the prop to polish and she's done. I've asked the yard if they can drop her back in Friday instead, which they're OK to do, with just the weather to keep an eye on... Looks like it could be breezy!

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Expensive Bronze valve!

All seacocked up

Another day of great progress...

After this morning's 'hold your breath and drill' moment, i've managed to fit 3 more outlets above the waterline... 2 for bilge pumps and one for fridge...

Was interesting on the starboard side where i've fitted one outlet... hull is nearly 2" thick!!!!!

I've also disassembled all the bronze seacocks and lapped them in, then reassambled... only worry is that i won't be around when she relaunches, so nervous about whether they remain watertight... If i get far enough, I may see if they can relaunch Friday instead while I am still about.

The seacocks didn't seem too worn though, but not being familiar with them not 100% sure if they are OK.

Pics to follow

If all goes well tomorrow reinstating the pipework to the seacocks, I might even be able to start antifouling.

Holed below the waterline!

A water cooled fridge needs water... So I knew I had to fit a seacock below the waterline, with a strainer... I decided where to put it, and then spent 20 mins procrastinating... putting off drilling a hole through the bottom of the boat. Eventually, I picked my drill up and did it... The bits are fitted... Lots of sealant, lots of PTFE... Just got to hope its watertight now!!!!

Monday 11 June 2012

Holes where there shouldn't be holes! But better with the sender holder fitted in And finally, the 'improvised' sounder fitting

Fitting transducers

Was first on my list to give the sealant plenty of time to cure.

The log proved very easy... The old one came out with a bit of brute force and some digging with a screwdriver... initially it looked like the hole was 3 or 4mm too small... a bit of a pain as thats not enough to be able to drill out, but after some cleaning I discovered a sleeve... 4 screws buried in the antifoul on the hull, which remarkably undid quite easily and the sleeve for the nee sender very nearly fitted... a few mins with some sandpaper and in it slid... soon Sikaflexed in and tightened up... perfect!

The sounder was another story.

The only practical place for the sounder was where the previous one was fitted, or very close by. However, the deadrise was knocking on for 60 degrees, and it soon became obvious that i'd need a transducer a foot long to be able to fit it upright through such an angle... I decided that this needed a bit of thinking, and so set off to Foxes chandlery for inspiration and maybe an in-hull transducer.

They didn't have one. Or at least not one at the right frequency... but all was not lost... The guy at Foxes suggested that I try the through hull set in a bed of sealant in-hull instead.

I figured that I had nothing to lose by trying.

However, with so much deadrise, there would be a huge dollop of sealant that would hard to retain, so in a burst of inspiration, I nipped to a DIY store and bought a short length of soil hose... duly chopped and filed, I glassed it to the hull... and once set, filled it with sealant and plonked the sender on top...

Bonuses are no extra hole in hull, leaving the old sender in place for now meaning no hole to fibreglass up, and all done in a couple of hours.

Will it work?... Maybe... But lost nothing... If it doesn't then i'll have to try alternatives.

But, seeing holes in the bottom of the hull was 'wrong'!

Pics to follow.

Fitting transducers

Was first on my list to give the sealant plenty of time to cure.

The log proved very easy... The old one came out with a bit of brute force and some digging with a screwdriver... initially it looked like the hole was 3 or 4mm too small... a bit of a pain as thats not enough to be able to drill out, but after some cleaning I discovered a sleeve... 4 screws buried in the antifoul on the hull, which remarkably undid quite easily and the sleeve for the nee sender very nearly fitted... a few mins with some sandpaper and in it slid... soon Sikaflexed in and tightened up... perfect!

The sounder was another story.

The only practical place for the sounder was where the previous one was fitted, or very close by. However, the deadrise was knocking on for 60 degrees, and it soon became obvious that i'd need a transducer a foot long to be able to fit it upright through such an angle... I decided that this needed a bit of thinking, and so set off to Foxes chandlery for inspiration and maybe an in-hull transducer.

They didn't have one. Or at least not one at the right frequency... but all was not lost... The guy at Foxes suggested that I try the through hull set in a bed of sealant in-hull instead.

I figured that I had nothing to lose by trying.

However, with so much deadrise, there would be a huge dollop of sealant that would hard to retain, so in a burst of inspiration, I nipped to a DIY store and bought a short length of soil hose... duly chopped and filed, I glassed it to the hull... and once set, filled it with sealant and plonked the sender on top...

Bonuses are no extra hole in hull, leaving the old sender in place for now meaning no hole to fibreglass up, and all done in a couple of hours.

Will it work?... Maybe... But lost nothing... If it doesn't then i'll have to try alternatives.

But, seeing holes in the bottom of the hull was 'wrong'!

Pics to follow.

And out she comes...

Lifting

Just watching the guys on the workboat move Phoenix to the lift....

Do you think I should tell the guy that they've put onboatd that the frantic turning of the wheel won't help as it isn't connected to the rudder!?

Sunday 10 June 2012

The dog house

Exterior at last

Productive day

A good day of progress....

I started by getting on with some work on deck.... The state of the varnished woodwork has been a sort spot, so, with the sun out, I decided to start on the dog house... It quickly became obvious that it was a major task, and so with rain forecast for tommorrow, reduced my ambition to doing just one side... And then a single coat of heavily thinned varnish... Pics to follow, but very pleased with results!

I then plugged on with the saloon... well, i say plugged on, but first I needed to remove the saloon table.... just a quick job.... that took me 4hrs... It was a pig of a job entailing drilling out screws and half dismantalling it to get at other fixings... but out it came.

I then sanded and sanded and sanded....

I reckon 2hrs more work and the saloon will be back to bare wood all the way to the chart table and galley...

Lift out tommorrow and the focus must shift to the senders and seacocks...

Saturday 9 June 2012

Another dull post about sanding

A good day sanding means that the entire bulkheaded is now back to bare wood and halfway down the second side of the main saloon as well.

However I do need to move the table out and one of the retaining screws seems to have been corroded into small lump of something or other and looks like it's going to need drilling out....

That's a job for tomorrow.... I don't want to be drilling stainless steel this time of night!

Also removed the 6 remaining locker doors in the saloon.... Tiny little brass screws on the hinges that just destroy themselves when a screwdriver is applied... So that's been fun!

Heads

Second coat on the heads, and bar a few bits of finishing, its done! Back to the sanding now!!!

Still wet

Phoenix wasn't lifted yesterday.... It was blowing 50kts in the gusts, so she'll come out monday instead.

Now got a week onboard to get lots of jobs done.

Wednesday 6 June 2012

antifoul up

Top marks to Compass24, who, upon being contacted regarding previously mentioned antifoul delivery disaster, immediately apologised, and arranged for replacement tins to be dispatched. I've used them a fair bit, and always found them to be exceptionally pleasant and helpful to deal with, and this just confirmed that view.

Monday 4 June 2012

Antifoul

Had 5ltrs antifoul delivered.... 4.5ltrs relocated itself from tins into the cardboard box.... :(