Galley again

Work on the galley has been held up by the cold spell last week I have made the front panels for the lockers behind the cooker but it has not been possible to paint the inside of the locker or the the reverse side of the front panels which I need to do before I can attach the sliding doors. In the meantime I have started on the locker at the forward end of the galley this will have tee shaped openings for the crockery stowage I have made the lower front panel, which now needs the openings cutting out, and started on the upper front panel.

Lower locker

Lower crockery stowage

Whilst waiting for the weather to warm up I began installing the wiring for the concealed LED strip lights each of these luminaires has two negative connections one for white light and one for red night vision lighting control will be by means of an on/off/on three position switch and as there will be six of these luminaires in total I required a means of connecting all the negatives in a tidy fashion with only two negative cables arriving at the control switch . After much searching I found a 3 x 6 spade connection bus bar on the Fearneaux Riddall website which will meet the requirements without breaking the bank. The plan is to put one on each side of the saloon so that the lighting on each side can be switched on and off independently these will in turn be connected to a third unit so that only two negative cables  are connected to the night vision/white lighting mode control the supplies to the lighting in the heads will also be taken from this system as they will have the same white/night vision lighting arrangement. The starboard bus bar will be installed when I have decided on the locker arrangements on that side of the saloon. A 2 x 6 spade connection bus bar is also available which I will probably use for distribution to the over bunk reading lights in the fore and aft cabins. Whilst working on the wiring I also connected the supplies for the VHF and the chart plotter, I am beginning to think about batteries so that I can test some of this kit.

Port side bus bar

Main lighting bus bar

I had a delivery from B&Q last Thursday of some of the solid laminate worktop material but unfortunately the piece for the galley was out of stock no prior warning I only found out after calling them to complain that half the order was missing I have bought all sorts of stuff for this project from the internet with very little trouble mostly from smaller firms who have all told me at the time of order if stuff was unavailable but it seems the big companies are a different story it will be another two weeks before the rest of the material turns up they did try for three weeks but after some discussion it was two weeks.

Over the weekend I cut out the worktop for the heads washbasin and there was sufficient material left for the small area in the aft cabin which I cut out I have just laid these pieces in place for the time being, as I have not yet got the washbasin, at least it covers the hole in the heads moulding.

Heads washbasin position

Worktop in place

Aft cabin

Finally today with a rise in temperature I managed to get a coat of paint in the locker behind the cooker and on the backs of the locker front panels no photograph I am afraid as by the time I had finished it was time to pack up and go home. 

More galley

I went to the boat show last week and bought a new chart plotter and DSC radio the. show was not as big as it used to be only utilising one hall and nothing afloat in the adjacent dock but as I had a free ticket and the deal from Cactus for the electronics covered the train fair and I saw pretty much everything that I wanted to see I have no complaints.

So back to work on the galley this week with further work on the locker behind the cooker, this will be on two levels I had already made the plywood panel for the front of the upper level this has now been covered with laminate and the opening cut out. I have decided to use some of the white laminate to make the sliding doors  as I have a lot of off cuts left this stuff is 4mm thick so should be OK and it will save a few quid on the price of the acrylic sheet. The upper doors are now made and I have sourced some twin channel plastic for the tracks. I need to paint the back of the locker front and the interior of the locker before I can go any further in this area but the current cold spell has put a stop to that for the time being.

Upper locker front and doors

In the meantime I have made the locker front for the lower level just needs the opening cut out and the doors making which will be a homework job for this weekend.

Locker lower level front panel

I have finally sourced some solid laminate 12.5mm thick for the work tops without having to buy huge amounts that I really don't need found it at B&Q still a bit pricey though but there will be enough to do the heads basin worktop and the little bit in the aft cabin I am just waiting for it to arrive.

Today I decided to rearrange the panel above the chart table originally I was going to install the NASA GPS repeater and connect it to the chart plotter in the cockpit which would give a position read out at the chart table however I had bought a Brooks and Gatehouse Vulcan 7 plotter which only supports NMEA 2000 as opposed to the repeater which operates on NMEA 0183 I know there are converters available but as the VHF has a built in GPS this will give a position read out at the chart table and also provide a back up to the chart plotter. I had to take the panel apart to install the concealed strip light and after I had put it all back together again assuming that I would be able to access the rear of the panel to install the VHF I found that it was extremely awkward to attach the VHF securing brackets so I had to take the whole lot out again but as can be seen its all done now.

VHF radio installed

LED strip light

The three way switch panel will be used for the  power supplies to the navigational instruments.

For the time being the navigational instruments will operate on a stand alone basis  the auto pilot uses Raymarine Seatalk data and even this comes in two formats my autopilot uses the older format and I don't know whether or not this can be adapted to operate with the B&G plotter further investigation is required. The existing wind instruments are not capable of any data output at all and I won't even know if they are going to work until the mast goes up but not having them all linked is not going to stop the world from spinning round.

Galley

Starting back after the Christmas break I decided to make a start on the galley as I intend the saloon lighting to be concealed led strips behind the timber rail which runs under the windows on both sides also it will be nice to get the cooker up and running. The photographs below show the galley area as it was when I purchased New Morning with the exception of the new shelf in the centre photograph. The plan is to continue the same theme as the panel above the chart table for the locker fronts they will be covered in the same off white laminate with the varnished teak trim the doors will in all probability be acrylic sheet sliding. I have been giving the worktop some careful consideration, previously I believe it had been finished with ceramic tiles which I am not too keen on, the top of the galley moulding is a bit on the flexible side at the moment so the new worktop will need to be reasonably rigid my first choice would be to go for 'Corian' but it is expensive and small quantities seem to be difficult to obtain the second choice is 'Compact' laminate which can be obtained in 10mm thick sheets but again this seems to be available in three or four metre long sheets only which even if I use the same pattern for the heads worktop is far too much for what I want to do and although this stuff is probably cheaper than 'Corian' it will still make a relatively expensive job and I will be left with a substantial off cut which I unlikely to have a use for. I came across this video on Youtube of a guy in Denmark who seems to be able to get hold of small amounts https://youtu.be/tKPAVfjqVNE however I shall continue the search.

Today I trial fitted the first of the locker fronts over the weekend I shall glue on the laminate and cut out the opening for the doors.

Locker front trial fitting

Found this in Aldi yesterday ceramic disc mixer tap for £29.99 made in China of course but should be OK for the galley sink.

I also have in hand now the led strip lights these can either be white or red to help preserve night vision at sea there are two negative leads one for white and one for red light they just require a three position, on/off/on, changeover switch in the negative wires I have sufficient to install two in the heads as well as the saloon. These luminaires are at 520mm long are too long to fit over the forward locker and the only shorter fittings that I can find do not have the red light facility but the four should be OK at night.

The longer screws for the headlining timber trim arrived today so that can be wrapped up in the near future. I shall be off to the London International Boat Show next week, time to start thinking about a chart plotter and DSC VHF radio, so for that and several other reasons it will be a bit of a short working week.