Skeg and heads seacock

At the top of the skeg there was suspect piece of repair work which had not bonded properly to the hull I had poked and prodded it a few times, enough to assume that most of the repair had been laid up directly onto the antifoul, and then left it for another day.

The suspect repair 

As time was moving on and while the weather is still suitable for GRP work I decided to bite the bullet and get on with sorting it out and so after a little bit of effort with a screwdriver and a chisel resulted in the whole lump dropping off.

As can be seen most of the patch was stuck to antifoul with only a small area which had been cleaned back to gel coat. It would appear that the original problem had been cracks in the gel coat which seems to be on top of what looks like some sort of filler which appears to be quite thick. These cracks do not look to be very extensive.

Cracks on starboard side

On the port side I used a chisel to remove some of the gel coat and filler to get an idea of the depth of the cracks.

After digging out the cracks on port side

The plan is grind back until the cracks have been removed and then do a proper lay up repair with epoxy and glass mat. There are a number of cracks in the gel coat further down the skeg which I intend to grind out and make good at the same time I am not sure whether the cracks are due to flexing of the skeg or impact damage there doesn't seem to be any cracks in the subsequent repair poor as it is so I am assuming that it was probably some sort of impact damage.

The other job which I had been putting off was the installation of the heads discharge sea cock after much thought I decided that I would use a Marelon plastic one after all as for the rest of the sea cocks which I had already replaced. I had been seriously considering using, at horrendous cost, a Blake's bronze taper plug cock. After obtaining the Marelon cock it became obvious, as I had thought it would, that it was not going to fit in the original position without cutting away the internal moulding in the heads and also the hose installation would have been something of a dogs breakfast as it would have been above the level of the moulding.

New sea cock in original position

The above photograph indicates the amount of the internal moulding that would have to have been cut out as the cock is not even centred over the hole in the hull. I don't know what was there originally as I don't think that an 11/2" Blake's cock would have fitted in the available space and allowed a tidy hose installation also the original only had three bolts to secure it whereas a 11/2" Blake's has a four bolt flange. I suppose there is always some reluctance to cut more holes in a perfectly good boat but I could see no other way so out with the 2" hole saw. I cut out and fitted a new ply backing pad with some thickened up epoxy it needed a bit as the hull is curved at this point and the pad is flat.

Hole cut out and backing pad epoxied on

Once the epoxy had cured I cut the skin fitting to length and test fitted the sea cock the new position will be at the bottom of the wet locker on the outboard side of the heads.

Trial fitting of the sea cock

After proving the fit of the cock I removed it and gave the backing pad and the opening a coat of thickened epoxy just to seal everything up.

I also took out the skin fitting for the old paddle wheel log I prefer to work on speed over the ground from the GPS also as the boat will be in a mud berth the paddle wheel tends to get choked up with best Swale mud also I don't seem to have the head end instrument. All that is left to do now is make good the redundant holes

More on cabin sole

Most of the work carried out since the last posting has been on the cabin sole it has now had six coats of varnish on the topside and a couple of coats of grey floor paint on the underside which just leaves the lift out section to fit once the sole is fitted.

First two sections varnished

The two sheets of ply that I bought did not have a matching grain pattern it does not show up very well in the above photograph and so it looks as though I shall be putting the Flotex down this can wait until the rest of the internal fit out is a bit closer to completion.

With the sole ready to be fitted I got on with fitting the wooden bearers to the floors these are required as the levels of the floors leaves a bit to be desired in places. Once the bearers were fitted I cleaned out the bilge area and removed all the rust from the keel bolts and painted on some rust treatment once this had dried I gave the whole bilge area two coats of the grey floor paint which makes a vast improvement.

Timber bearers fitted and bilge painted

I dug the saloon table out of the garage and gave it a good clean up yesterday it has a few scars but I think if I try and strip it and refinish it it may look far worse it will have to settle for a clean and polish for the time being. I managed to get it up onto the boat today it really is built like the proverbial brick outhouse.

As the  bilge paint had dried I got the sole down and bolted the table pedestal into place.over the weekend I had made some new stainless plates to go under the nuts and while working with stainless I bent up a small piece to take the bolt on the cooker which locks up the gimbals.

Table pedestal bolted to sole

I then lifted the table top onto the pedestal and bolted it up once it was on I realised that this is probably not the original item supplied when the boat was built it is too big to fit in the dinette to form a double berth as specified in the original brochure I have looked at various boats on the interweb and they all seem to have tables of a much lighter construction I now know why there is no cushion for this purpose either, this won't be a problem as I usually sail single handed anyway. This table also has a hinged lift up top with shallow storage space under.

Cabin sole and fuel tank

Last week I bought two sheets of 12mm waterproof ply for the cabin sole and the mounting for the fuel tank which is to be installed in the starboard cockpit locker. Unfortunately the cabin sole is about 2 inches wider than a standard sheet of ply Mr Primrose must have had shares in a timber supplier. Over the weekend I got the first two cabin sole sections cut out and the undersides painted also cut out and painted the fuel tank mounting.

First section of cabin sole in place

The hole in the sole is for the saloon table pillar which according to the original Moody brochure can be lowered to make a double berth although I don't seem to have the required cushion.

Also last week I made up and varnished the teak trim for the panel over the chart table and got three coats of varnish onto it also sanded and varnished the teak rail which runs under the window on both sides.

Teak trim varnished and fitted to panel

The fuel tank is secured by means of two webbing straps which are attached to plastic brackets which sit under the tank it didn't seem to be all that secure so I decided to fit some timber blocks around the the tank on the mounting to further restrain the fuel tank these are simply held with screws up from underneath. Having said that this was the official Tek Tanks mounting kit so I suppose it must be OK. The other reason for the blocks is that on this tank the connections are all at the end of the tank which requires the straps to be in the centre and at one end so hopefully the tank shouldn't move.

Fuel tank mount in place

I dropped the fuel tank into the locker and tightened up the straps so it is now all secure just needs the various connections making and the contents gauge fitting this gauge is a simple float type from Tek Tanks.

Fuel tank in place

I got the first coat of varnish on the two cabin sole sections today I am thinking of using some Flotex, which is a waterproof kitchen carpet, on the sole I am not generally a great believer in carpets on boats but as the ply I am using is a bit splintery along the edges it may be beneficial to cover it I will see what it looks like when it has been varnished I got the first coat on today I am using Flag floor varnish again from Tool Station it is a bit thin almost like water so I think that it will require a good number of coats but it won't have been wasted as even if I use the Flotex the ply will still need to be sealed first.

First coat of varnish

Finally to finish off today I fitted all the hose clips to the engine exhaust system which I have been meaning to do for some time I had a bit of a shopping spree in the chandlers yesterday and finally I spent an hour running the cable to the electrical panels from the battery selector switch via a busbar behind the electrical panel and a 40amp midi fuse in the battery locker.

Positive busbar is the lower one