Friday 25 February 2022

Further thoughts on the heater

 I have been looking into possibly installing the diesel heater in the steering gear space utilising CAD, that is cardboard aided design. I mocked up a bracket with the idea of glassing it to the inside of the transom. this will give a vertical surface to take the heater mounting bracket.



Mock up of heater bracket

This should allow the various connections to clear the steering gear without resorting to tight bends. Only other question is should I still go for a Russian made heater assuming of course that I can still get one.

I have also completed the woodwork in the heads by covering the gaps between the sole moulding upstand and the forward and aft bulkheads.




Gaps between sole and bulkheads

As can be seen the sole moulding is not a particularly good fit and from what I can make out was originally covered with an overlapping layer of the blue laminate, which the bulkheads were finished in, with varnished hardwood trim. Yacht brokers photographs of their boats for sale can be most useful even if you have no intention of buying the boat. As I did not have sufficient white laminate left I decided to use some more merenti dyed and varnished as the door frames. This was sizes to cover the gaps, if you get down on the sole the variable overlap does show up a bit but from a normal standing position I think it looks OK. It was finished with a fillet of white Puraflex 40 to seal the joint.


Timber trim varnished ready for fitting



All fitted

The heads are just about complete now I do need to finish fairing the gelcoat on the sole but as that will require applying more gelcoat it can wait until the warmer weather, The next task is to start getting ready for the upcoming season I hope that there will not be so many interruptions from the Wuhan flu this year.