Battery locker

The first job this week was to repair the tabbing at the bottom of the locker once this had been done I continued with the painting of the battery support plate and the bearers the aim was to get three coats of the grey garage floor paint on all the timber.

Over the weekend I had cut out a piece of the worktop, which I had remaining, to make a cover for the opening in the void space at the back of the cooker this was put in place and secured with self tapping screws I decided to make a fixed cover as the space is not really practical to use as a locker as once the cooker is in place access is a bit awkward. I have been considering using the solid laminate worktop material to make locker doors for the galley, heads and the steering compartment in the aft cabin so this was also a bit of an experiment to see what doors in this material would look like the jury is still out on this one but I am leaning towards going this way for the doors.

Opening to void space at rear of cooker

New cover in position

Cooker back in place

Also on this weeks work list was to complete the installation of the gas pipe the isolation cock was installed in the space under the cooker and the final section of copper pipe was fitted between the gas cock and the bulkhead piece behind the cooker once this had been done the whole length of the gas pipe from the gas locker was secured with copper saddle clamps. This was a bit of an awkward job which required forcing an ageing body into some tight corners that it was not meant to go into as unfortunately even the mere thought of using small boys for this type of work is looked upon with absolute horror in our modern ultra safe, politically correct world.

cooker isolating cock

Today I put a final coat of paint in the battery locker then fitted all the woodwork the battery can go back in next week when the paint has had time to fully harden.

Battery locker ready completed

To finish off today I secured the aft cabin companionway ladder this had been only temporarily secured for some considerable time I had recently obtained the new bolts and domed nuts so that it would match the main companionway ladder with domed nuts on the cockpit side of the bulkhead.

Gel coat

I spent quite a bit of time sanding the new gelcoat this week, eventually I got it down to a reasonable finish using various grades of wet and dry sandpaper finally finishing with cutting compound and a coat of wax polish. There are a couple of patches where I went through to the original gelcoat these are on the front of the moulding I am not sure whether it was the original moulding that was a bit uneven or I hadn't put a thick enough coat on most of these areas will be covered by a timber edge trim but I may need to go over some parts again, at the moment the jury is still out on the question of doing gelcoat again or using paint. Once the gelcoat was finished I fitted the bulkhead fitting at the back of the cooker so that the gas hose could be connected up I spent a bit of time finalising the position of the bulkhead fitting so that the hose does not chafe as the cooker swings in its gimbals.

Gas hose to cooker

Cooker back in place

Photograph below is from last week showing the gas locker installation with the bubble leak detector it just needs a gas cylinder so that I can cut the hose to length and fit the pressure regulator.

To finish off the week I spent some time working on the battery locker I made the bearers for the battery support plate and got the first coat of paint on them.

Battery support plate resting on its bearers

The battery locker requires some work to the tabbing around the base so I gave the whole locker a good scrub out with some industrial strength detergent to get rid of the grease and oil contamination, It looks as though the engine space bilge has been leaking into the battery locker at some time, it will have the weekend to thoroughly dry out so that I can get on with this job on Monday. As well as repairing the tabbing I also intend to make sure that the battery locker is sealed off from the engine space bilge.

Gas installation continued

Got back from Dartmouth last Sunday so back to work on Monday morning the bits for the gas installation arrived while I was away so the first job was to install the bulkhead fitting to take the gas supply from the gas locker once this was done I installed the bubble leak detector nothing special about this just straightforward compression fittings unfortunately I forgot the photograph.

I still seem to have a number of persistent rainwater leaks and so I spent some time sorting out a couple more of them these are mainly through the bolts which secure the wooden toe rail to the deck the repairs were given a good test on Tuesday night as it rained all night that's two more sorted.

Wednesday was spent finishing up the sanding of the galley moulding to give a good key for the gelcoat which I had on order. After having a good clean up I made a start on the fitting out of the battery locker at present the single battery that I have just sits in the bilge also it needs a means of securing to prevent movement so looking through my stock of plywood off cuts I found a piece of 3/4" waterproof ply which will fit the bill It was cut to fit the locker and openings for retaining straps for two batteries and access to the keel bolt were cut out.

New battery support

My original intention was to apply a single coat of flowcoat to the galley moulding to cover up the infilled holes and the repair work to the front opening however the day after I had placed the order I realised that I had made an error and ordered gelcoat so a quick call to East Coast Fibreglass Supplies to correct my order they added some of the wax additive to the order this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I realised that I could now easily apply two coats beginning with gelcoat and then once it had gelled I followed up with a coat of flowcoat. Flowcoat is after all only gelcoat with a wax additive as gelcoat will not fully cure in the presence of air it is usually applied to a mould before the GRP lay up is added which allows the gelcoat to fully cure, with flowcoat the wax rises to the surface to allow it to fully cure in the absence of air. After washing the moulding down with acetone I mixed up the gelcoat and applied a good coat using a paintbrush after it had started to gel I mixed up some flowcoat and put on another good coat with a brush and then left it to fully cure. Brushing the stuff on is not as easy as using paint and it does not self level as well as paint so to produce a reasonable result there will be a fair amount of sanding followed by cutting and polishing once it has all fully cured.

Galley moulding after second coat

The photograph above shows a vast improvement in this area although it doesn't show all the brush marks that will be the first job to sort next week.