Gas

I spent some time cleaning out the gas locker in the cockpit it seams to have collected a lot of dust and dirt as well as the rust staining from the gas bottle, after washing it out and sanding the interior it now looks much better.

There were a number of holes in the locker from the original gas installation I had decided to fill them all in and then start again and so after the interior of the locker had dried out I gave all the areas to be filled a wash with acetone before filling with thickened epoxy, the larger hole was backed up with three layers of glass fibre and epoxy on the outside.

Gas bottle locker

Currently the drain fitting that can be seen in the above photograph is blanked off I am not sure where it went originally, I can see no evidence of it going overboard, the drain arrangement at the moment is from the bottom of the locker through to the cockpit and as the cockpit drains discharge below the waterline this is not a satisfactory arrangement. The plan is to reinstate the drain on the outboard side of the locker and lead it to a skin fitting such that it will drain overboard above the waterline.

Earlier this week I had obtained the 8mm copper tube for the gas supply to the cooker and so the first job today was to run it from the gas locker to the galley it runs at high level through the locker on the outboard side of the quarter berth and then down to a point in the locker underneath the cooker where I will fit an isolating cock this is not strictly required by the rules as there will only be one gas appliance on the system but I will fit one anyway.

That is as far as I can go for the moment I am waiting for the rest of the fittings to arrive regulator, bubble leak detector etc.

Before the cooker can be permanently installed the recess needs some work again there are a number of holes and some gelcoat damage that requires attention so this is probably as good a time as any to address  these issues and so the whole area was cleaned up and given a light sanding to remove paint and glue splashes etc and then the holes and damaged areas were made good with some thickened epoxy and glass cloth where necessary. The plan here is to eventually finish the area with a couple of coats of flocoat.

Cooker recess

Holes filled in

Next week will be a short week I am off on a sailing trip down to Dartmouth, I think it helps to have a break from these long term projects from time to time I have never actually lost interest in the job but there are days when you wonder why you ever started the thing in the first place these are usually followed by several satisfying days when everything goes to plan and the project moves forward and I suppose as long as the satisfying days outnumber the bad days then there is a good chance that the project will reach completion.

A bit more heads

I bought the 38mm sani hose last weekend so the main aim this week was to get the toilet plumbed in after leaving the hose in the boot of the car for a couple of hours it was soft enough to be fitted to the various hose tails without resorting to dipping it into boiling water.

Heads plumbing

The Lavac toilet came with a free adaptor to allow it to be used as a replacement for a Jabsco toilet I have used this item to raise the toilet slightly and also to spread the loading to the edges of the internal moulding which are more rigid. The skin fitting to the right of the above photograph is for the saloon bilge pump discharge. Before connecting the sea inlet hose to the sea cock I put the end of the hose into a bucket of water so that I could test the operation of the pump it all worked in a satisfactory manner.

The next item was to finish off the wine locker by fitting the trim pieces and the long fiddle rail which runs the length of the starboard side of the saloon.

Completed wine locker

I spent some time investigating a route for the gas pipe from the cockpit gas locker to the galley I just need to source the various bits and pieces required to complete the gas installation. Also this week I made a start on the enclosure for the forward side of the port cockpit bulkhead, this will be to conceal the wiring and the back of the cockpit instruments I forgot the camera this morning so unfortunately no photographs but as a recap see the photograph below. 

I had originally fitted the various internal and external companionway handrails with round headed machine screws and domed nuts on the inside however one of the domed nuts would foul the new enclosure so I spent some time this morning reversing all the screws, so that the domed nuts are now on the outside, and then fitting a countersunk screw in way of the enclosure. 

I don't seem to have achieved an awful lot this week but sometimes with these projects it happens like that but I do now have a plan for the gas installation so once I have the materials I can crack on with the installation It will be nice to be able to boil a kettle for tea etc instead of having to bring a hot water supply in a couple of thermos flasks.

Heads

The first priority this week was to get the various bits of teak cut out ready for varnishing so that I could finish the infill for the rail below the window this was cut from a piece of Shuda's cockpit bench grating which was fortunately just the right size it has now been screwed into place and the screw holes plugged ready for varnishing I also made the trim which fits down each side of the locker these are now at home being varnished. I made the teak plugs from odd off cuts from the old cockpit bench gratings using a plug cutter in the bench drill I secured them in place with a drop of varnish, as they are indoors, and then trimmed them off with a sharp chisel.

I have also installed and wired up the LED strip light  behind the rail over the locker eventually I intend to install a couple of reading lights at either end of the saloon on the starboard side.

Wine locker 

Teak plugs

Screw holes plugged

The new Lavac sea toilet arrived on Wednesday and so the rest of the week has been spent scraping the flaking paint from the wet locker ready for repainting and then securing the toilet and the pump in position so that I could measure up for the waste and water supply hoses. 

Toilet in position

Pump in position

New Morning was originally equipped with a Lavac toilet and all the photographs that I could find of the installations in Moody 33 mk1 indicate a pedestal was fitted under the toilet to raise it by, at a rough guess, about 50mm this seems to be missing but judging by the holes around the base of the toilet it was there originally I am not sure if this was a Moody part or a Lavac part it does not appear in the Lavac parts list hopefully I will be able to connect the waste hose and lead it through an existing opening in the internal moulding to the pump without it.

Varnishing

Over the weekend I gave various bits of timber trim three coats of varnish which was duly fitted on Monday morning. The handrail in the photograph is fitted at the back of the galley below the saloon window.

Results of weekends varnishing

Engine panel trim complete

Galley lower locker trim complete

Heads locker trim complete

Next on the list was to fit the led strip lights along the starboard side of the saloon behind the timber rail which runs underneath the window again these are white/red night vision type and are controlled from the switch on the panel and the two gang light switch above the engine panel the third luminaire will be above the wine locker and as with the port side is white only this will be fitted once the locker is completed. I am not quite sure how well the concealed lighting will work on this side as this will, unlike the port side which has the white locker front panels which give good reflectance levels, initially be an open storage area lined with grey carpet not the best material for good reflectance.

Wiring still to be tidied

Some time has been spent this week giving some serious thought to the remainder of the fit out in the heads I have decided to use foam backed vinyl for the head lining in this area particularly as I intend to install a shower as part of the fit out. I took the old ply head lining panels over to the boat today to check the fit and as expected they required some trimming as the forward and aft bulkheads had been lined with white laminate this is 4mm thick so 8mm was removed. The old panels are in poor condition so I have decided to replace them with some new ones cut from 4mm waterproof ply.

The boat was I believe originally equipped with a Lavac marine toilet which was long gone when I bought her I have decided to replace it with another Lavac toilet which will save cutting additional holes in the internal moulding for the hoses and mounting bolts etc. The pump is mounted in the wet locker outboard of the toilet and as the original pump was still on board I have used it to check the position of the hole in the wet locker bulkhead for the operating handle.

Wet locker

The above photograph shows the wet locker bulkhead with the toilet pump operating handle in place the two holes will be joined together to form a slot for the handle. The four large holes are the corners of the opening in the bulkhead the rest needs to be cut out with the jigsaw. I was hoping to have enough of the white laminate left to cover this bulkhead but unfortunately I have run out and I have not been able to track down any more at the moment so it may just be covered in foam backed vinyl. The plan next week is to finish the wine locker and saloon lighting then hopefully if the new toilet arrives I can get on with fitting it.

More electrical work

This post will cover the last two weeks work as I did not have time to write up last weeks achievements as I had planned to be away on a trip to Calais over the weekend however that was aborted due to a problem with the main halyard so after sorting the halyard we spent a very relaxed Saturday swinging round a buoy off Harty, in the East Swale, followed by a circumnavigation of the Isle of Sheppey on Sunday then back to Conyer. The halyard problem may have been somewhat fortuitous as Saturday turned out to be blustery and a channel crossing would probably have been somewhat uncomfortable.

Last week I wrapped up a couple more electrical Items first of which was to install an LED strip light over the heads washbasin this is another of the white or red night vision lights controlled from a switch on the switch panel and an on/off switch within the heads. The light fitting is simply concealed by a white laminate pelmet the gaps above it will be covered by the head lining panel once I have made and fitted it.

Night vision mode

White light

Whilst working in the heads area I fitted the switch for the shower drain pump I used an existing hole in the moulding which was a bit bigger than the width of cut out required for the switch this was addressed by making a stainless steel frame with the correct size cut out and fitting it over the hole you can just make it out in the photograph below.

Shower drain pump switch

I am still left with one hole in the moulding I haven't thought of a use for that one yet wherever possible I try to utilise existing holes its a lot easier than trying to fill and fair them.

Now that the galley crockery stowage is complete I installed an LED strip light above as I mentioned previously this one does not have the red capability and the space is too short to fit one that has so I settled for a short white only strip light It is still controlled by the switch on the switch panel but will only be lit when the lighting is in white mode. I had intended to get two more strip lights with the night vision facility and have a go at cutting them down but Fearneaux Riddall do not seem to have them listed at the moment if I can track down two more I will have a go later. The other problem is that the short strip light has a slightly different colour temperature than the others it does show slightly in the photograph below but it is worse in real life.

The next job was to run the various cables to the auto pilot originally the course computer was just laying in an under bunk locker on the starboard side of the aft cabin I decided to secure it to a bulkhead in the steering gear space and after checking that the original cables from the remote fluxgate compass, control panel and rudder angle transmitter would reach the new position I screwed it in position. It is now easy to access and the various connections can be made easily.

Whilst running cables through to this area I connected the 12v/USB socket outlet in the aft cabin.

Course computer in position

After connecting the power supply it came to life and going through the preliminary checks as laid out in the manual everything that was supposed to happen did I still had the connection to the drive motor to make and the rudder angle transmitter to fit but I had run out of time, moving the rudder transmitter by hand did give a read out so I was confident that it would work.

It works.

This week was a short working week as I did not get back home until Monday usually a working day but on Wednesday I fitted the rudder angle transmitter and connected the drive motor to the course computer and once I had swapped over the positive and negative cables to the correct terminals everything that was supposed to happen did.

Auto pilot all connected

The wiring still needs to be tidied up but I will leave that until the unit has been properly tested at sea in case anything needs relocating this would in all probability be confined to the fluxgate compass.

Once the electrical work was complete I cut some more timber trim for the heads locker, the engine panel and the lower galley locker this will be varnished over the weekend for fitting next week.

Trim for engine panel

Sanded ready for varnish

I had recently obtained the 16mm and 38mm fuel hose for the tank vent and the filling line all was needed was a 38mm hose tail with a 11/4" BSP male thread to fit the deck filling connection I managed to find one with a female thread together with a 11/4" BSP nipple at the local chandlers yesterday and so to finish off the day I completed the installation of the fuel tank.

Filling line and vent connected to the tank

Deck filling connection and vent outlet