Back to work

I have been off sailing again which has meant two short working weeks so this post will be somewhat short, before going away I finished up in the battery locker I had a couple of ratchet straps handy so I shortened them down and used them to secure the battery I used one for the service battery and the other one will be for the engine battery when it is installed.

Space for the engine battery

Service battery secured

Battery locker

The crocodile clips on the battery are for the small solar panel that I use to keep the battery topped up the plan is to install a much larger panel before the boat goes in the water.

The other project this week has been to remove some of the bolts from the stemhead fitting for inspection I removed a total of four bolts which were all in good condition there being no signs of crevice corrosion I did however replace them with new bolts. This was a particularly awkward job as it meant crawling into the chain locker and reaching round the anchor well but it was worthwhile doing giving some peace of mind.

Stemhead fitting bolts replaced

The stemhead fitting still requires cleaning up once the mastic has cured I will give the whole thing a good clean up. There is a bit of making good to be carried out on the port bow some of the cracking to the gelcoat can be seen in the above photograph the bow has obviously had a bit of a clout at some time as far as I can see this is superficial damage to the gelcoat there is no evidence of damage internally.

The rest of the time has been spent clearing up some loose ends in particular the engine sea water pipework I was not happy with the first attempt with the pipe clipped to the port side of the engine space there is little enough room down the side of the engine as it is so I moved it so that it runs under the engine. I have also installed the anti siphon for the sea water system  but I still have the final connections to make to the exhaust elbow. I really must bite the bullet and get on with getting the engine running the installation is almost complete just a couple of sea water hose connections to make and put some fuel in the tank.

Finally I obtained some more Jubilee clips so that I could finish of the waste pipe for the galley sink and heads washbasin