Friday 8 June 2018

Back in Conyer

After the rather hectic recent weeks this week has been intentionally rather quiet I started off by connecting the remaining mast wiring namely the wind instruments and the steaming/deck light using Scanstrut watertight cable seals as with the VHF aerial cable which incidentally worked fine when arranging for the Kingsferry Bridge to be lifted on the way to Conyer last weekend. The internal cables will be concealed above the headlining.


Inside view of cables


Cable seals

The steaming/deck light are now in working order but the wind instruments are a different matter all three are totally dead the anemometer cups are spinning and the wind vane moves with the wind but the dials are not giving any readings, this is not a particularly high priority at the moment I may investigate further in the fullness of time although I suspect that the problem is in the masthead unit. On the trip to Conyer I tried the echo sounder and although the readout seems to operate it would not give a depth reading I tried some grease on the transducer but this made no difference just get a flashing 0.0, I tried the transducer in a bucket of water and it seems to work and placing a screwdriver against the transducer and the other end in my ear I can hear the clicking sound which would indicate that it is working. The echo sounder is a Stowe Navsounder and on consulting the manual it is possible that the GRP on the bottom of the boat is too thick, the transducer is a through hull type but apparently it will work if mounted internally with GRP up to 1/2" thick I have tried the transducer in other positions on the bottom but to no avail. The Stowe unit came with the boat and I had assumed that it must have worked at some time but who knows, it looks as though a replacement from NASA is on the cards. 

Today I started by sanding back the base of the starboard rudder stop ready for the GRP repairs once I have some CSM to hand probably next week. I finished up today by trying to free the end fitting on the boom which was seized probably through lack of use, I tried to remove the screws retaining the end cap but they are suffering from the usual problem of stainless steel screws into aluminium, I did manage to get the end fitting moving but it probably needs an application of some WD40.


Boom end fitting

Just a note to end on I took the following pictures this afternoon just one of the reasons I like to keep my boat at Conyer.














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