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