A bit of a conundrum

 When I first bought New Morning she came as a complete project with boxes of stuff, among them I found the guard wires and their stanchions. When I fitted them the forward most stanchion on the port side had been repaired at some time in the past, the top guard wire passed through the plastic plugs fitted to the top of the the stanchions however on the forward stanchion the plastic plug had been sheared off and had been replaced with a piece of stainless steel bent round to retain the guard wire and pop riveted to the stanchion.

Repair to stanchion

The above photograph is a bit of a reconstruction of the repair as I was well into the project and I realised that I had not taken any photographs.

I had refitted the stanchions fully intending to getting around to making and fitting a proper plug in the near future however that was where the conundrum arose, the guard wires were terminated with eyes with thimbles formed with taulerite splices which were too big to go through the holes in the stanchions, the wires had been threaded through the stanchions and then the terminations added so the job was put on the back burner as I was quite satisfied that the top wire was quite secure. Recently I started looking at the job again when I realised that the pop rivets that held the stainless steel repair were almost non existent. I very much doubted that I would be able to obtain a replacement cap and in any case a new one would be a simple turning job I already had a piece of 32mm nylon bar to hand. The problem was going to be the eye on the end of the wire, I could cut the eye off, remove the original wire, fit a new plug and then thread a new wire through the stanchions and have new terminations put on but that would mean destroying a perfectly good guard wire together with the cost of a new wire and two terminations, time to think of a plan 'B'. After thinking for a while I came up with the idea of turning up a new plug drilling through for the wire and then cutting a slot from the bottom of the plug up into the hole so that I could spring it over the existing wire. In reality it was a little more complicated than that I started by roughing out the new plug about 1/8" over size on the two diameters before cutting the slot, I also left a larger diameter at the junction of the two diameters so that when set up in the four jaw chuck the slot was closed right up. The smaller diameter was then turned a close fit in the bore of the stanchion before the plug was reversed in the chuck and the top of the plug turned to the outside diameter of the stanchion and shaped to match the others. The plug was then sprung over the wire and secured with a 1/8" stainless steel pin through the stanchion and the plug, the plug was drilled through 3mm so that the pin would be a driven fit.

New plug fitted

The above photograph illustrates the problem with the size of the termination.

The slot was nicely closed up

I hope that I have made the method clear a couple of photographs would have made it all crystal clear but as I said the job was pretty well done before I realised that I had not taken any. The original plugs were white plastic while the nylon bar was 'natural' but the stanchions are far enough apart that the colour difference does not show.

  

Shore supply

 I have recently started a new project which is to install a shore power supply this will be useful for a number of reasons, the main one is to keep the batteries fully charged in the winter especially when using the heater which I have not got round to yet. I started by installing the connection for the incoming supply in the forward cockpit bulkhead, I used a previous opening which housed the defunct Stowe echo sounder, wherever possible I try to to reuse openings I have an aversion to cutting unnecessary holes in the boat.

Shore power connection

The shore power connection is linked directly to a two way consumer unit with a 30mA RCD, the earth is connected via a galvanic isolator to protect the boats metalwork from any stray currents. It is recommended that the earth for the 240v shore power system is connected to the boats earthing system so that operation of the boats RCD is not reliant on the marina earthing system. However if there are stray earth currents from other boats or the marina pontoons a circuit can be set up which can lead to rapid degradation of the boats anodes and/or under water metalwork. The galvanic isolator is basically a capacitor connected between the marina earth and the boats earth.

Galvanic isolator and consumer unit

The galvanic isolator and the consumer unit are installed in the quarter berth on the aft side of the bulkhead, the galvanic isolator was Sterling Power Products Pro Save A 16 amp unit. I have installed three single unswitched socket outlets one in the forward cabin, one in the aft cabin and one in the saloon, Again these were positioned to cover up redundant holes in the internal moulding although they are in a practical usable position. The sockets are by a company called Berker available from Fearneaux Riddall.

Aft cabin socket

Saloon socket

Forward cabin socket

The large hole in the internal moulding in the aft cabin was the original route for the engine exhaust and will be utilised for the heater outlet in the aft cabin eventually. I have also installed a Sterling Power Products battery charger. I have run out of places to install an object this size so I made a recessed panel, basically a wooden box, and screwed it to tha back of an opening in the longitudinal bulkhead that runs the length of the quarter berth underneath the chart table.

Battery charger 

The shore supply system is largely complete and up and running the final part of the job is to connect the calorifier immersion heater to the system which is next weeks task. I have managed a couple of sailing trips so far as well as the odd day sail, the main aim was to reach Lowestoft but was defeated by the weather on the first attempt but still managed an enjoyable week away in the river Blackwater, the second trip away to the Walton Backwaters was also defeated by the weather after reaching Pyefleet but a plan 'B' back t to Stangate creek and the Medway ensured that all was not lost  

 

New mainsail

The existing mainsail suffered some damage during storm Eunice this year, my fault as I had not taken the sails off for the winter as I normally do, I had removed the spray hood. The damage was not serious some stitching had come undone on the leech but as the sail was old possibly as old as the boat I decided to replace it, two years ago the local sailmaker said it was on its last legs something like if you get another season out of it you will be lucky. I did a temporary repair to the old sail with some sail repair tape and ordered a new sail from Crusader Sails also a stack pack. The aim was to convert to slab reefing from the old roller reefing so I also ordered a new Barton 32mm slab reefing kit

Barton slab reefing kit

The new sail arrived a week ago so the first job was to temporarily bend it on to make sure that the major dimensions were OK, it fitted without any problems.

Trial fit

Once I had established that the sail would fit I went ahead and drilled and tapped the boom for 6mm countersunk machine screws, the track and screws were anointed with Duralac paste to prevent corrosion from the dissimilar metals, namely the stainless steel screws and the aluminium track and boom, in contact with each other.

Barton reefing kit attached to the boom

I put a couple of cleats at the forward end of the boom to make off the reefing lines I had originally intended to machine a radius on the bolting face of the cleats to match the boom which is circular in cross section however there was not sufficient material on the cleats so I had to machine a couple of pads to fit under the cleats.

Cleats with backing pads

The boom was again drilled and tapped for 6mm countersunk machine screws and the cleats secured again using Duralac paste.

Cleats fitted to the boom

The sail has in fact got three reefing points but as I was only expecting two for some reason I only purchased two cleats I will therefore obtain and fit a third cleat, the other outstanding detail is to fit some means of supporting the reefing lines along the boom to reduce the sagging. Lazy jacks were already rigged on the mast so I reused them to support the new stack pack, they could possibly do with being a bit higher up the mast I think that the recommended height is 70% of the mast height, at present they are just under the spreaders I shall see how they work before changing them.

Stack pack and lazy jacks

Several weeks ago I spotted another Moody 33 mk1 project on E-bay she was in a similar dismantled condition to New Morning when I bought her, I immediately thought do I want to do it all over again, there was a resounding do not even think about it from several friends and so common sense prevailed. However I had a Baldrick* moment. The boat had been professionally fitted with a new 37hp Beta engine eight years ago which had never been run and with a starting bid of £3000 and no reserve I thought if nobody else bids I could come in at the end and obtain a new engine for £3000, I would then swap it for the Perkins currently in New Morning and put the other boat back on E-bay 99p starting bid with no reserve and any money made would have been an added bonus. There were some possible problems the main one was that the other boat was in Emsworth so the storage fees were fairly high and any delay in selling would have reduced any financial advantage. However the whole project was scrubbed when the boat was taken off the auction site maybe it was no bad thing in the end.

* For those that do not reside in the UK Baldrick was a rather scruffy manservant played by Tony Robinson in a TV comedy series called Blackadder also staring Rowan Atkinson as Sir Edmund Blackadder. It was set in various periods of history. When the chips were down and they were about to lose their heads Baldrick always came up with the immortal words 'I have a cunning plan' and would then go on to outline s stupid plan to save themselves.

 

Further thoughts on the heater

 I have been looking into possibly installing the diesel heater in the steering gear space utilising CAD, that is cardboard aided design. I mocked up a bracket with the idea of glassing it to the inside of the transom. this will give a vertical surface to take the heater mounting bracket.

Mock up of heater bracket

This should allow the various connections to clear the steering gear without resorting to tight bends. Only other question is should I still go for a Russian made heater assuming of course that I can still get one.

I have also completed the woodwork in the heads by covering the gaps between the sole moulding upstand and the forward and aft bulkheads.

Gaps between sole and bulkheads

As can be seen the sole moulding is not a particularly good fit and from what I can make out was originally covered with an overlapping layer of the blue laminate, which the bulkheads were finished in, with varnished hardwood trim. Yacht brokers photographs of their boats for sale can be most useful even if you have no intention of buying the boat. As I did not have sufficient white laminate left I decided to use some more merenti dyed and varnished as the door frames. This was sizes to cover the gaps, if you get down on the sole the variable overlap does show up a bit but from a normal standing position I think it looks OK. It was finished with a fillet of white Puraflex 40 to seal the joint.

Timber trim varnished ready for fitting

All fitted

The heads are just about complete now I do need to finish fairing the gelcoat on the sole but as that will require applying more gelcoat it can wait until the warmer weather, The next task is to start getting ready for the upcoming season I hope that there will not be so many interruptions from the Wuhan flu this year.

Door frames finished this week

I finally wrapped up the door frames this week by completing the aft door. After completing the forward door frame I made up the final piece of the liner for the opening I had to glue two pieces together to get the right size it was then glued and screwed into place and then I cut two pieces of laminate for the infill on each side of the door. I already had the rest of the parts of the door frame made up so it was just a matter of securing them and plugging the screw holes, sanding all over and then applying two coats of Colron deep mahogany wood dye. Once the dye had fully dried it was just a matter of applying three coats of varnish and the job is done.

Aft door from forward

Aft door from aft

Aft door from aft

For the next project I will be looking at the diesel heater installation again I had originally planned on installing it in the void space at the aft end of the quarter berth, however this will entail fitting a square tee in the hot air duct almost immediately after the heater outlet which is not good duct work practise also the heater exhaust would need to be in the side of the boat again not recommended as when the boat is heeled water may enter the exhaust also I have heard of fenders being melted by being accidentally placed in way of the hot exhaust so it will be back to the drawing board next week.

Door frames

New Morning has not been totally neglected since my last post I have been pottering about doing odd maintenance jobs but recently I became motivated to finish off the heads door frames. Since this involved making up four arch section pieces of architrave to suit the original doors I had been putting off starting the job, however I decided that it was time to get on and get them finished. I started by making the four arch sections these are made from six pieces dowelled and glued together before being cut to shape with a jig saw and sanding.

After glueing

Sections cut and dowelled

The straight sections were then cut and secured to the bulkhead with wood screws then once the arch sections had been fitted the screw holes were plugged and the whole lot sanded.

Forward side of forward door

Unfortunately I could not get far enough back in the forward cabin to get the whole door in frame, the architrave is wider on this side of the door so as to form the stops. Above the door can be seen the cover strips, I cut from the laminate used to cover the bulkhead, these are to cover the joins in the laminate infill piece after I had reinstated the original arch top doors. I was going to continue the architrave up to the head lining but I thought that this might look somewhat heavy by the time the wood had been dyed and varnished in any case I had lots of suitable laminate offcuts. I then gave the timber two coats of Colron deep mahogany wood dye followed by three coats of varnish to complete the forward door frame. It has turned out a bit darker than I was hoping for but there is a bit of a mixture of colours in the original timber trim anyway.

Aft side forward door

Forward side of forward door

I have now moved on to the aft door most of the parts have been made and temporarily fitted but I still have the liner in the bulkhead opening to fit at the base of the door and also some laminate to cut and fit to complete the bulkhead, I have just enough of the laminate that came with the boat to complete the job.

Aft face of the forward door

As can be seen from the above photograph there is still a gap under the door to be filled and the laminate to fit to the bulkhead.

 

About time I wrote something

 Over the past few months I have not done an awful lot on New Morning mostly cleaning and maintenance work the usual general stuff not really a lot to write about. However I have done a couple of bits and pieces which I will include in one post. 

I managed some sailing this year with a couple of trips across the Thames estuary, the first in July to the Colne and the Blackwater and in September to the Roach and then up the Crouch to Fambridge otherwise it has been a case of pottering in the Swale. The first job I carried out was as a result of the trip to the Colne, and after spending the night at anchor and then raising and stowing the said anchor I decided that the 35lb CQR anchor was going, I had already thought seriously about it on previous trips it was extremely awkward too  deploy and recover especially through the gap between the forestay and the pulpit so after this trip I decided that it had definitely got to go, After some research looking at selection charts I decided that a 22lb Delta would be adequate which was duly obtained from Cactus Marine who had a special offer on them.

New Delta anchor

The anchor was duly shackled on and duly tested on the trip to the Roach where I spent a couple of nights at anchor, including one night with a friends boat rafted up alongside, without any problems. I also found that it was much easier to handle as well as being 13lbs lighter the shank is much shorter. When I bought New Morning she came with two anchors, a 35lb and a 25lb CQR, the 25lb would probably have been OK for most of my anchoring but the pivot was too heavily worn to be of any further use which left me with the 35lb anchor 

The next job was a couple of pieces of woodwork, the first being a fiddle rail around the shelf over the steering gear compartment in the aft cabin. I used some 'L' section pieces of teak from the old cockpit gratings on my last boat I had to plug some old screw holes and butt three pieces together for the long side but I think that it all adds to the history as well as doing my bit for the environment

New fiddle rail

The butt joints can be seen especially as the grain doesn't match so I cut them at 45 degrees to make a feature of them. This has also covered an unsightly join between the laminate top and the moulding which had a rounded top edge.

The other piece was to make up a covering strip to hide the join between two pieces of laminate on the forward saloon bulkhead.

Join between laminate panels

I had run out of suitable pieces of the original trim that came with the boat but I came across an offcut of merenti which I had used for the heads door frames, it is not quite the right section but when coloured with Colron wood dye it matches the original trim quite well.

New covering strip

Reasonable match too adjacent vertical trim

The final job is to install an electric bilge pump in the engine space I have used a Whale Supersub Smart 650 auto. The pump is in position and has been wired to a control panel but is waiting for the installation of a skin fitting for the discharge.

Control panel installed adjacent to electrical switch panel

Pump in the engine space

This photograph is a reminder that I still have to do something with that horrible chocolate block connector for the engine wiring loom perhaps one of those multi pin plug and socket units.