More on the exhaust

I have made some progress since the last post but some time has been taken up with selling the Bowman 26 what with showing the purchaser round, taking him for a test sail and moving her round for lifting out for survey but she is now sold, the new owner took her away from Conyer on Saturday I am now back to owning just the one boat which is a much more sensible state of affairs.

I have managed to get some work done to the floors for the fuel tank these are now finished and painted ready for the ply to go down, once the ply is down and I have something to stand on I will paint the rest of the locker. The hoses in the photograph are for the engine space bilge pump discharge and the smaller one is the starboard cockpit drain the red cable is the steering cable.

Floors for fuel tank support

I ordered the water lock for the engine exhaust on Thursday from ASAP supplies and it arrived on Friday and that wasn't even supposed to be their next day delivery I have gone for a GRP Centek Vernalift as the space at the after end of the engine is a bit cramped and its lower than the Vetus with equivalent water capacity and being GRP it can withstand a higher temperature should the cooling water flow fail for any reason the Centek was about a fiver cheaper than the Vetus so not much in it price wise. I had already cut out a ply mounting plate for the water lock which I screwed directly to the engine bearers after giving the under side three coats of paint just need to put a couple more coats of paint on the top face before bolting the water lock down.

Water lock

Mounting plate for water lock

Water lock in position

Once I had the water lock in position I could finalise the route of the exhaust hose I decided to route it through the forward bulkhead in the aft cabin so I used a hole saw to cut a hole through the bulkhead the original opening can be seen below that will need making good not quite sure what I will do with it yet.

Exhaust hose re-routed

I have done a couple of small jobs in the engine space fitted the primary fuel filter and fitted a valve to the calorifier connection on the engine I found a couple of half inch Crane ball valves that came with the boat and was looking for a use for them, once the fuel tank has been installed the engine will be ready for a test run so I will be able to fill the cooling system without having to connect the calorifier which can be done later I still have one to fit on top of the engine.

Primary fuel filter in place

Calorifier isolation valve

I have also started work on the internal woodwork for the engine panel mount the panel was I believe mounted in the big hole in forward cockpit bulkhead but I would rather have it inside and now that I have made good that hole it won't fit anyway. The original Moody brochure shows it alongside the companionway which is where I have decided to put it I will have to find somewhere else for the electrical panel which was there, I have some thoughts on that. Most of the internal ply panels are covered with some form of imitation wood laminate which is not in particularly good condition the previous owner had already been using some white laminate on the bulkheads so I decided to do the same with the engine panel mount. This imitation wood is probably not one of the best features of the boat so the idea is to replace it with white laminate panels and reuse the original varnished hardwood trim. I have seen a few examples of this and it looks OK.

Trial fitting for the engine panel mount

That will be about all for this week as I am off on a sailing trip to Dartmouth weather permitting hoping to be back on Sunday.