Aft cabin again

I have spent most of my time this week in the aft cabin starting off wish removing the remainder of the flaking paint from the port side and cleaning up the inner moulding around the steering gear space, Once this was complete I moved on to the forward bulkhead between the aft cabin and the engine space there are two openings in this bulkhead the larger one for access to the after end of the engine and gearbox and the smaller one on the left of the photograph below which was originally for the engine exhaust system, as originally installed there was a cast iron water lock mounted in the aft cabin with a flexible stainless steel hose to the exhaust manifold and the circular hole above was for the raw water hose leading to the water lock.

Openings in the bulkhead

As can be seen the original openings are anything but square whoever cut them out must have been having a bad day I decided to leave the original openings rough as they are and build a frame round them to enclose a removable ply panel the smaller opening will give convenient access to the engine raw water seacock and the round opening above will be sealed off, there are a number of redundant holes of varying sizes in this bulkhead which I intend to seal up. Once this is complete the plan is to finish the bulkhead with the van lining carpet I hope that this may provide a measure of sound insulation.

Engine raw water seacock

To finish off a very cold week I cut out the covers for the two openings from some 12mm waterproof plywood which I had available after fitting them I sanded them both ready to be painted which will be a homework job when the weather gets warm enough for painting.

Cover for the small opening

The next job will be a cover for the opening in the cabin sole for the stern gland access which can be seen above

Aft cabin

Back to the aft cabin this week I completed the scraping of the loose paint ready for the lining carpet and then followed up with attention to a couple of the toe rail bolts one of them required a nut something I had missed when I put the deck fittings back one other bolt required a new nut I had originally used a brass one but I had found some more stainless UNC nuts when looking for something else once this was done I had a good clean up on the starboard side before glueing the lining carpet in place.

Lining carpet attached

That is about as far as I can go on the starboard side for the time being I need some more plywood for the shelves to go in the locker I temporarily replaced the front panel so that I can measure for the shelves.

Starboard side aft cabin

To finish up this week I spent some time on the wet locker in the heads I had made the front panel some time ago but it needs to be finished off and painted I temporarily screwed it in place so that I could complete the top of the panel, the plan is to install another concealed LED strip light in a similar fashion to that over the wash basin. I intend to paint the inside of the wet locker rather than use lining carpet in view of the wet oilskins.

Wet locker

I went up to the Boat Show yesterday It seems to get smaller by the year also it is only on for four days I was looking for some ideas for the fridge I still have not made up my mind how I am going to go about this part of the project either a self contained front opening cabinet or build a top loader with a separate compressor unit they both have their pros and cons the front opening unit is easier to access you don't have to empty it out to get at the stuff at the bottom but every time that you open it the cold air drops out building a top loader will take up much more time but price wise there won't be a lot in it which ever way I decide to go I still have a bit of time to make up my mind.

Loose ends

The first job on Monday morning was to replace the engine space bilge pump and reconnect the discharge hose. Once this was complete I spent some time investigating a route for the bilge suction hose because the engine has a 1:1 gearbox the sump is very close to the bottom of the boat which does not leave much space to get the 38mm suction hose through to the forward end of the bilge but with a bit of fiddling around I figured out a way using a horizontal Whale suction strainer.

Last week I found a wet area in the forward cabin and after taking down the head lining I found that the forward hatch was leaking round the base flange and so I finished up the day by drawing up a shopping list so that I could complete the bilge pump pipework, sort out the forward hatch and complete the wiring to the starboard aft cabin reading light.

After a quick trip to the chandlers on Thursday morning, it was still raining so the hatch would have to wait, I finished the connection to the aft cabin reading light by running the negative cable back to the connector block. After lunch I made a start on the engine space bilge pump suction hose the space was too tight to be able to run the hose in one piece so I had to resort to using short lengths of hose and elbow connections, the after end of the engine space is beginning to resemble a bit of a snake pit. Oh and yes I did fit the missing jubilee clips to the saloon bilge pump hoses, see last weeks post.

Bilge pump looking aft along the top of the engine

Bilge pump from aft

Bilge suction hose

Hose drops into bilge and runs alongside the engine sump

Bilge suction strainer

The connector block in the top left of the above will be replaced eventually it is part of the engine wiring harness connection to the engine panel a multi pin plug and socket would probably be the ideal solution I can't abide those horrible connector blocks especially in the open like this. There is already one multi pin connector in the harness but unfortunately it is at the panel end of the harness.

Today dawned wet but halfway through the morning the rain stopped and the sun came out so I set too and removed the forward hatch the original bedding was well past its sell by date it was wet all the way through.

Original bedding

Hatch frame

After removing all the old mastic I gave the frame and the mounting a good clean up with acetone and applied some 25mm x 3mm closed cell neoprene foam tape to the underside of the hatch frame before screwing it down again.

Hatch frame with closed cell foam tape applied

Once the frame had been replaced I reassembled the hatch and replaced the head lining it just needs a rainy day to put the job to the test.

To finish up the day I went back to scraping of the flaking paint in the aft cabin and started with the woodwork to secure the locker front panels on the starboard side.