Success

This will be a fairly short post and in terms of actual work I do not have appeared to have done an awful lot this past week however what has been achieved has been very satisfying as it would appear for now anyway that there are no obvious major problems with the engine, I had already turned it by hand so I knew that it wasn't seized and there was some compression, I won't know for sure until I try and start the beast but the signs are looking positive and it was reported as running when the previous owner bought the boat some seven years ago so fingers crossed.

I spent some time on Monday investigating the engine wiring it had to be a fairly basic wiring problem as nothing worked not even the panel lights and after trying various ideas mostly around the negative connection it came to me the engine is wired with an isolated block and I had connected the negative battery connection to the engine block. The photograph that I had showed the negative from the panel connected to the negative terminal on the starter motor which was correct  but this photograph was taken after the engine had been removed from the boat so it wouldn't show the battery negative connection. After connecting the battery negative to the starter motor I tried the key and the starter motor turned the engine over, the pre-heater got hot and the panel became alive. I should have realised that the block was isolated as all the electrical bits on the engine, oil pressure transmitter, water temperature transmitter, pre-heater etc all have a positive and negative connection.

I had another go at linking the tablet to the chart plotter with no success, second to last resort was to try Google which came up with a Youtube video which explained the whole process the tablet refers to a password to make the connection while the plotter refers to a network key once the video explained the process for finding and changing the network key we were home and dry it all works the tablet now mirrors the plotter and can control the plotter and vice versa, the instruction manual would appear to be a bit lacking in this area. The last resort would have been to get no2 daughter to have a look. The plotter display does not show up too well in the photograph as it is set a lot brighter than the tablet.

Tablet connected to plotter

After that I went back to working on the wine locker I cut out a piece of teak to finish the timber rail which runs along under the deck I don't think that there was one fitted originally but I wanted to continue the concealed lighting theme along the starboard side.

New section of timber rail

I also replaced the ply shelf along the starboard side of the saloon I have yet to decide what I am going to do with this area whatever I decide to do the shelf would need to be in place and it gets it out of the way.

Shelf back in place

Now that I have a battery installed I have decided to move forward with getting the engine up and running basically all it requires the sea water and fuel systems to be completed he says hopefully so to this end I have installed the seawater strainer and some of the pipework and ordered the tank connections for the fuel return and the tank vent from Tek Tanks.

Sea water inlet pipe

Sea water strainer

This weekends homework project will be to turn down the hose connection for the engine seawater pump to take the one inch hose and to make and silver solder a hose connection to the fuel return pipe on the engine.

 

She lives and breathes again, well almost

The first job this morning was to stick in the laminate infill pieces over the internal doors I gave the epoxy a quick sanding down and a clean with acetone before attaching the laminate with contact adhesive the joint lines will be covered with a timber trim once the hardwood frames have been fitted.

Aft door

Forward door

The laminate does need a little bit of final trimming around the arch and also some infill pieces adjacent to the mast compression post on the aft door just to level things up a bit before the trim pieces are fitted.

The new service battery arrived yesterday so the main aim for today was to get it on board and connected so that I could get an idea of what was going to work and what would need further investigation. The battery was quite a heavy lump and as there was nobody around to give me a hand I had to tie a line round it and heave it up to deck level with one of the genoa sheet winches it was not so much of a problem getting it below as it was all downhill. I was quietly confident of the new wiring which I had installed from scratch so I started working through beginning with the saloon lighting there is still some work to be completed here but it is dependant on completion of the various lockers etc.

Saloon lighting white mode

Saloon lighting in night vision mode

The VHF radio was next I used a temporary aerial as the mast has not been put up I entered the  number and everything worked a treat the temporary aerial even picked up the French channel safety broadcast.

The VHF works

I tried the original Stowe echo sounder which seems to work OK but I guess it will have to wait until the boat is afloat before finding out for sure.

The switch panel is working fine including the battery voltmeter which I had my suspicions as when I fitted it to the panel at home I tried to test it on a battery charger and it didn't show anything I can only assume that it did not like the output of the battery charger which could well have been half wave rectification.

Switch panel

I temporarily plugged in the chart plotter which works fine I have a small problem in that I have a tablet, donated by my youngest daughter, which should connect to the plotter via the plotters own WiFi network the tablet recognises the WiFi but is asking for its network password which I don't seem to be able to find I shall have to investigate further. The plotter will be installed in the forward cockpit bulkhead so that it can be seen from the wheel and the tablet will be used as a repeater at the chart table and as the plotter needs a hole cutting in the infill panel on the bulkhead I shall leave the final installation until just before launching.

Plotter up and running

After a fairly productive day and with every confidence I inserted the key into the engine panel, with the intention of trying to turn it over, turned the key and nothing but a deathly silence not even a click of the starter relay I had a brief look but could not find an obvious reason I expect that somewhere there will be a connection which I have missed or made wrongly that will be a job for next week I don't have a wiring diagram for this engine the one in the manual that I downloaded from the interweb is for an older version all I had was the photographs the previous owner took when the engine came out I will just have to go through it all from scratch.

I started the week by installing the heads washbasin I took the worktop home last weekend and cut out the hole for it and so on Monday I stuck the worktop down with some polyurethane adhesive I used Puraflex 40 from Toolstation, other adhesives are available, its less than half the price of the more well known 'marine' grade stuff.  

Worktop glued into place

Once the adhesive had cured I dropped the basin into position and put a ring of masking tape round to prevent the adhesive that would be squeezed out, when the basin was pressed down, from making a mess over the worktop. I then roughened up the underside of the basin flange to provide a key for the adhesive and then ran a generous fillet around the basin.

Basin ready to fit

The basin was then pressed into place I stood my toolbox on it to hold it down until the adhesive had cured after which I cut round the edge of the basin with a sharp Stanley knife and removed the masking tape which left very little of the adhesive to clean up just a quick wipe with some acetone and it was done.

Before cleaning up

After removing the masking tape

After cleaning up

The basin looks a bit on the small side but I guess it will be sufficient for its intended purpose and being on the small side it will be a good water saving measure just got to source the mixer taps with shower hose I expect that I will have to pay chandlery prices for these as Aldi are unlikely to have them in their special offers.

  

Internal doors 3

This weeks post is a bit on the short side the main aim has been to progress the internal doorways after fitting the ply infill pieces last week. I have been cutting out and fitting the laminate to cover the infill pieces a straightforward job to cut the laminate to size and mark the curve of the top of the doorway then cut it out with the jig saw. The forward doorway laminate required some holes to clear the bolts for the baby stay chain plate I didn't want to clamp the laminate under the chain plate bolts as the tabbing which secures the bulkhead is a little uneven and I felt that it might crack the laminate if pulled up tight I will probably finish off with a varnished hardwood cover piece over these bolts.

Aft doorway

Forward doorway

Once I had finished the laminate pieces I glassed in the ply infill pieces on both sides to both doorways they were already secured with thickened epoxy and screws so this was just a bit of belt and braces. I shall leave the epoxy to cure for about a week before sticking the laminate down with contact adhesive.

Aft doorway infill pieces glassed in

Forward doorway infill pieces glassed in

Also this week I have varnished the shelves for various lockers and put them in place the interiors of these lockers still needs to be finished off either with paint or some of the carpet that I used for the headlining also the doors need making and fitting

Wine locker

Also this week I have sourced a small round stainless steel inset sink which I intend to use as the heads wash basin this was obtained from Screwfix the aim this weekend is to get the hole in the worktop cut out for it.

Internal doors 2

After cutting out the infill pieces for the forward doorway I temporarily screwed it in place to check the fit and when satisfied I mixed up some epoxy and primed the mating surfaces a coat of straight epoxy and then applied some epoxy thickened to a peanut butter consistency with colloidal silica and screwed both pieces in place.

Forward doorway infill pieces

Forward doorway infill trial fit

Forward doorway infill screwed and glued in place

Forward infill showing screws

Once the forward doorway had been dealt with I turned my attention to the aft doorway this was carried out in the same way as the forward doorway except as the bulkhead is thicker I used some off cuts of 18mm ply.

Aft door set up for marking the infill pieces

As for the forward doorway the aft infill pieces were cut out with the jig saw and then temporarily screwed into place to check the fit when I was satisfied with the fit I applied the epoxy and screwed them into place.

Aft doorway infill pieces in place

I have allowed for an 18mm thick frame for the curved top of the doorway these will probably be laminated the side frames will be made to suit the individual doorways they are both a different width as are the doors. The side frames will be made from solid timber planed to fit. I still have to glass in the infill pieces to make them as strong as possible and once this has been done I shall cut and glue in some laminate trim pieces to tidy up the doorways hopefully I should have sufficient left. 

The rest of the week was spent progressing the wine locker and the heads locker I have made the shelf for the heads locker and the bottle retainer for the wine locker the holes for the bottles will be cut out as my homework job for this weekend.

Heads locker shelf

Bottle retainer

I have also completed the joinery for securing the locker front panels and the shelves in both of these lockers the next step will be to paint and varnish the various parts.

  

Internal doors

The main project this week has been to get to grips with the two doors to the heads I have been thinking about them for some time but that is as far as I had got thinking about them and then putting them back in the too difficult I mean pending tray. As can be seen from the photographs the doors and frames had been stripped out and the doorways opened up the original doors having semicircular tops.

Forward heads doorway

Aft heads doorway

I was considering two options the first was to reinstate the door openings to take the original semicircular top doors which came with the boat or make new door frames to suit the existing openings this option would also require completely new doors, while the first option would only require new door frames and some ply infill pieces to return the openings to their original form. After looking through my stock of plywood I found sufficient 12mm ply to make good the forward opening and 18mm ply for the aft opening so I decided to restore the openings and reuse the original doors. This will require two, one for each door, semicircular frame pieces for the top of the opening I haven't decided yet whether to form these by steaming and bending the timber or gluing and laminating them steaming will be quicker and cleaner but I will have to build a steam box and provide a source of steam possibly a wallpaper stripper either way a former will be required and as both doors are a slightly different size the job will require two former's. So far I have cut out the ply for the forward door and marked the door profile on it this weekends homework will be to cut it out with the jig saw. The plan is to screw and glue the ply in place with some thickened epoxy and put some glass mat over the join. The ply for the aft doorway will have to be in two pieces as I did not have a piece of sufficient size to do it in one piece however once it is epoxied in place and glassed over it should be strong enough. On close inspection there is a reference mark from the original doorway a slight curve can just be seen below the centre bolt for the baby stay chain plate I intend to use this as a guide to set the vertical position of the door no such mark with the aft doorway I shall just have to assume that the opening was cut out across the top of the original.

The two doors could do with some refinishing particularly on the heads side as they are still in the original light blue laminate which has been replaced on the bulkheads with the white laminate the opposite side is finished in the original wood veneer which may be OK when it has been re varnished but both these jobs can wait for the moment the main aim is to get the boat back into one piece.

Ply in place on forward door

Door temporarily in place to mark the top profile

Evidence of the original opening profile.

Whilst on the subject of the heads a picture of the front panel for the wet locker.

Last weekend I made up the front panel for the wine locker it still requires some finishing to the opening but I have fitted it into place it has taken me sometime to get to grips with the doors to the heads so these will remain the priority while I have the enthusiasm.

Front panel to wine locker

Also this week I have completed the glassing in of the repair to the front of the galley moulding the vertical piece has now been fully secured with full length glass tape and epoxy the whole moulding is now much more rigid.

Completed repair to the galley moulding