Wind instruments

Among the fairly ancient electronics that came with New Morning was a set of Walker wind instruments one of the anemometer cups was damaged there was evidence of it having been repaired and then broken again. It was made of a flexible plastic somewhat akin to polythene which does not generally take very well to glue also the ball race anemometer bearings were worn out. The dials looked OK and the wind vane moved freely without any slack in the bearings and it was obviously a good solid piece of kit, but up to now that is as far as I had got with the system until this last week. The first job was to try and source some new anemometer cups the company that deals with Walker wind instruments could not help but they did offer me a replacement system for about £1500 or a budget system for £1060. Now I have never owned a boat with a set of wind instruments I have found a simple windex quite sufficient however as I had the system I thought I might as well add it to the challenge of rebuilding New Morning.

The first job was to strip and examine the anemometer head this was quite straightforward and it came apart quite easily.

Anemometer stripped

The bearings have a shoulder on the outer race and I thought that they may might have been a problem but I found some on a site called Simply Bearings ordered on Monday afternoon delivered by post Tuesday. The cups were going to be a bit more of a problem. Being an engineer my first thought was to make some new ones, not a difficult task, I decided that they would in all probability be too heavy to give a reasonably accurate indication of wind speed especially, in light airs as I would have probably used a combination of brass and copper, aluminium would possibly have been OK but the difficulty would have been in joining it together. I considered 3D printing however on consulting a higher authority, namely number two daughter who knows about these things, we decided that the shape and the available material would not be compatible there are some very thin sections. Finally I looked at other manufacturers equipment the problem was that they don't give a drawing showing the dimensions  however I came across spares for a VDO anemometer on the Furneaux Riddall website that did give the size of the cups and by a bit of scaling of the photograph it turned out that the PCD of the cups was a bit less than that of the Walker unit but the cups were a bit larger and the boss would need to be adapted to fit so I ordered one I figured that it was worth a try at £8.

The VDO and Walker cups

The VDO cups fit on a fairly thin spindle while the Walker spindle is of a much larger diameter with a hexagonal section to give a positive drive although this is probably a bit of overkill. I opened out the bore of the boss of the VDO cups and then machined the boss of the original cups down so that the new cups were a good fit.

Opening out the bore of the VDO cups

Machining the boss of the Walker cups

Machining completed

Parts assembled

The new bearings were assembled into the housing with loctite as they were sliding fit and then the spindle was replaced and secured with a 'C' clip the second part with the hexagonal section is secured by means of a small roll pin.

Bearings in place

Spindle in place

The anemometer operates on a pulse system or at least I assume that is how it works there is a rotor with 4 lobes that passes through what I take to be a magnetic field.

Rotor showing 4 lobes

Lobes pass through the gap

The body of the anemometer was then fitted back onto the masthead unit with the six countersunk machine screws the anemometer cups were then fitted and secured with the original nut to complete the job.

Complete masthead unit

At the moment I am not sure about the possible accuracy of the wind speed indicator the anemometer cups are larger than the original but the PCD is smaller whether or not they will cancel each other out I won't know until the mast is up  and the system wired up as the masthead unit fits into a multi pin socket on the mast I have no way of rigging a temporary connection. The other deviation from the original is that the new cups revolve in the opposite direction to the old ones I had to turn them over to fit them but as this is a pulse system it should make no difference.

I have connected a 12 volt supply to the dials and the two wind direction indicators do move and the back lighting works so there is every possibility that the system will work once the mast is up I shall be able to check the operation before deciding where to install the dials.

Dials

Skeg and heads seacock

At the top of the skeg there was suspect piece of repair work which had not bonded properly to the hull I had poked and prodded it a few times, enough to assume that most of the repair had been laid up directly onto the antifoul, and then left it for another day.

The suspect repair 

As time was moving on and while the weather is still suitable for GRP work I decided to bite the bullet and get on with sorting it out and so after a little bit of effort with a screwdriver and a chisel resulted in the whole lump dropping off.

As can be seen most of the patch was stuck to antifoul with only a small area which had been cleaned back to gel coat. It would appear that the original problem had been cracks in the gel coat which seems to be on top of what looks like some sort of filler which appears to be quite thick. These cracks do not look to be very extensive.

Cracks on starboard side

On the port side I used a chisel to remove some of the gel coat and filler to get an idea of the depth of the cracks.

After digging out the cracks on port side

The plan is grind back until the cracks have been removed and then do a proper lay up repair with epoxy and glass mat. There are a number of cracks in the gel coat further down the skeg which I intend to grind out and make good at the same time I am not sure whether the cracks are due to flexing of the skeg or impact damage there doesn't seem to be any cracks in the subsequent repair poor as it is so I am assuming that it was probably some sort of impact damage.

The other job which I had been putting off was the installation of the heads discharge sea cock after much thought I decided that I would use a Marelon plastic one after all as for the rest of the sea cocks which I had already replaced. I had been seriously considering using, at horrendous cost, a Blake's bronze taper plug cock. After obtaining the Marelon cock it became obvious, as I had thought it would, that it was not going to fit in the original position without cutting away the internal moulding in the heads and also the hose installation would have been something of a dogs breakfast as it would have been above the level of the moulding.

New sea cock in original position

The above photograph indicates the amount of the internal moulding that would have to have been cut out as the cock is not even centred over the hole in the hull. I don't know what was there originally as I don't think that an 11/2" Blake's cock would have fitted in the available space and allowed a tidy hose installation also the original only had three bolts to secure it whereas a 11/2" Blake's has a four bolt flange. I suppose there is always some reluctance to cut more holes in a perfectly good boat but I could see no other way so out with the 2" hole saw. I cut out and fitted a new ply backing pad with some thickened up epoxy it needed a bit as the hull is curved at this point and the pad is flat.

Hole cut out and backing pad epoxied on

Once the epoxy had cured I cut the skin fitting to length and test fitted the sea cock the new position will be at the bottom of the wet locker on the outboard side of the heads.

Trial fitting of the sea cock

After proving the fit of the cock I removed it and gave the backing pad and the opening a coat of thickened epoxy just to seal everything up.

I also took out the skin fitting for the old paddle wheel log I prefer to work on speed over the ground from the GPS also as the boat will be in a mud berth the paddle wheel tends to get choked up with best Swale mud also I don't seem to have the head end instrument. All that is left to do now is make good the redundant holes

More on cabin sole

Most of the work carried out since the last posting has been on the cabin sole it has now had six coats of varnish on the topside and a couple of coats of grey floor paint on the underside which just leaves the lift out section to fit once the sole is fitted.

First two sections varnished

The two sheets of ply that I bought did not have a matching grain pattern it does not show up very well in the above photograph and so it looks as though I shall be putting the Flotex down this can wait until the rest of the internal fit out is a bit closer to completion.

With the sole ready to be fitted I got on with fitting the wooden bearers to the floors these are required as the levels of the floors leaves a bit to be desired in places. Once the bearers were fitted I cleaned out the bilge area and removed all the rust from the keel bolts and painted on some rust treatment once this had dried I gave the whole bilge area two coats of the grey floor paint which makes a vast improvement.

Timber bearers fitted and bilge painted

I dug the saloon table out of the garage and gave it a good clean up yesterday it has a few scars but I think if I try and strip it and refinish it it may look far worse it will have to settle for a clean and polish for the time being. I managed to get it up onto the boat today it really is built like the proverbial brick outhouse.

As the  bilge paint had dried I got the sole down and bolted the table pedestal into place.over the weekend I had made some new stainless plates to go under the nuts and while working with stainless I bent up a small piece to take the bolt on the cooker which locks up the gimbals.

Table pedestal bolted to sole

I then lifted the table top onto the pedestal and bolted it up once it was on I realised that this is probably not the original item supplied when the boat was built it is too big to fit in the dinette to form a double berth as specified in the original brochure I have looked at various boats on the interweb and they all seem to have tables of a much lighter construction I now know why there is no cushion for this purpose either, this won't be a problem as I usually sail single handed anyway. This table also has a hinged lift up top with shallow storage space under.

Cabin sole and fuel tank

Last week I bought two sheets of 12mm waterproof ply for the cabin sole and the mounting for the fuel tank which is to be installed in the starboard cockpit locker. Unfortunately the cabin sole is about 2 inches wider than a standard sheet of ply Mr Primrose must have had shares in a timber supplier. Over the weekend I got the first two cabin sole sections cut out and the undersides painted also cut out and painted the fuel tank mounting.

First section of cabin sole in place

The hole in the sole is for the saloon table pillar which according to the original Moody brochure can be lowered to make a double berth although I don't seem to have the required cushion.

Also last week I made up and varnished the teak trim for the panel over the chart table and got three coats of varnish onto it also sanded and varnished the teak rail which runs under the window on both sides.

Teak trim varnished and fitted to panel

The fuel tank is secured by means of two webbing straps which are attached to plastic brackets which sit under the tank it didn't seem to be all that secure so I decided to fit some timber blocks around the the tank on the mounting to further restrain the fuel tank these are simply held with screws up from underneath. Having said that this was the official Tek Tanks mounting kit so I suppose it must be OK. The other reason for the blocks is that on this tank the connections are all at the end of the tank which requires the straps to be in the centre and at one end so hopefully the tank shouldn't move.

Fuel tank mount in place

I dropped the fuel tank into the locker and tightened up the straps so it is now all secure just needs the various connections making and the contents gauge fitting this gauge is a simple float type from Tek Tanks.

Fuel tank in place

I got the first coat of varnish on the two cabin sole sections today I am thinking of using some Flotex, which is a waterproof kitchen carpet, on the sole I am not generally a great believer in carpets on boats but as the ply I am using is a bit splintery along the edges it may be beneficial to cover it I will see what it looks like when it has been varnished I got the first coat on today I am using Flag floor varnish again from Tool Station it is a bit thin almost like water so I think that it will require a good number of coats but it won't have been wasted as even if I use the Flotex the ply will still need to be sealed first.

First coat of varnish

Finally to finish off today I fitted all the hose clips to the engine exhaust system which I have been meaning to do for some time I had a bit of a shopping spree in the chandlers yesterday and finally I spent an hour running the cable to the electrical panels from the battery selector switch via a busbar behind the electrical panel and a 40amp midi fuse in the battery locker.

Positive busbar is the lower one

More woodwork and cooker gimbals

During the last week I have connected the cockpit sole drain gutter to the cockpit drain pipework its just a simple piece of hose and a couple of Jubilee clips. Homework for last week was to make two cut outs in the panel which fits over the chart table one for the NASA GPS repeater and one for a three way switch panel which I intend to use for the power supply to the navigational instruments the idea being to leave some spare ways on the main switch panel for future use. The backs of the panels were then painted and left on one side to dry over the weekend. With the paint dry today I assembled the panel and fitted the GPS repeater and switch panel.

Panel in place

The plan is to cover the screws with some more recycled teak trim the same as around the electrical panel and I will leave cutting the opening for the VHF until I have the radio to hand.

I found one of the cooker gimbals and I had some concerns that there are no restraints to prevent the cooker sliding out of the gimbals in the event of a knock down so for my own peace of mind I decided to fabricate a new pair this was to be this weekends homework project.

One of the original cooker gimbals

The new gimbals were to be fabricated from some stainless steel sheet that I happened to have to hand, which is about 14 swg, so they were cut out and bent to shape in the vice a proper press would have produced sharper bends but I don't have easy access to one. Before bending the holes were drilled to allow the slots to be cut to take the cooker trunions.

Bending the stainless sheet

Ready for the slot to be cut out

After levelling up the cooker on two pieces of timber and setting it in the centre between the bulkheads I marked off and drilled the holes in the new gimbals. There are a number of holes in the bulkheads from previous cooker installations as can be seen from the photograph below so in order to not have to drill even more holes in the boat structure the cooker  has been placed to make use of some of the existing holes those remaining will be filled and faired. This photograph also shows the restraining device bolted across the slot, the black finish is a protective polythene layer stuck to the stainless sheet to protect the finish which is removed before dropping the cooker into place.

First of the gimbals fitted.

Cooker in place.

To complete the job I need to fabricate a locking device for the cooker there is a sliding bolt fitted to the lower left hand side of the front of the cooker I just need to fabricate a stainless steel socket to receive the bolt. All it needs now is a gas supply and as they say we will be cooking on gas it will be nice to be able to boil a kettle to make tea etc instead of having to rely on the thermos flask.

Internal woodwork

Arrived back in Dover on Saturday 13th after a good run back from the Yealm the wind was W or SW all the way back a bit easier than the trip down a little bit lumpy round Portland Bill and the auto pilot threw in the towel on the second day so it was hand steering most of the way back fortunately there was three of us and we didn't do any night sailing.

So back to work on the project most of last week was spent on internal woodwork I finished the bottom piece for the switch panel mounting once that was in place I started on making the teak trim pieces for the panel I recycled some of the old cockpit bench gratings from Shuda these were most uncomfortable to sit on for any length of time so they were replaced with Dek King synthetic teak. Varnishing the trim will be a homework job.

Old grating

Trim after first coat of varnish

 I then put the chart table back temporarily so that I could fill in the space above it the plan is to install a new DSC VHF flush in this panel together with a NASA GPS repeater which came with the boat, the chart plotter will be in the cockpit so the repeater will give a position etc read out at the chart table, this panel will also be used to house any other bits and pieces of navigational equipment e.g. AIS etc.

Chart table in place

As can be seen from the photograph the chart table has some staining evident I am not sure what it is probably water from the leaking saloon window I will completely strip it and re-varnish.

Infill panel

Incidentally I now know one reason for the engine panel being in the cockpit bulkhead and not in the original position as shown on the original Moody brochure photographs and where I have put it, the key is very close to the chart table see photograph below.

It is a bit awkward to use but I am not about to pull it all out again so I will have to live with it, the thought had crossed my mind when I first looked at the brochure when I was deciding on the position for the engine panel.

I stripped off the glued on wood grain finish to the aft side of the galley bulkhead some was already peeling off. I had originally thought that it was a form of synthetic veneer but it appears to be a thin wooden veneer with a foil backing and some sort of clear coating why it was used in the first place I don't know the ply underneath looks to be of good quality with a dark hardwood veneer finish. The plan was to apply the same laminate as already used but I don't think I have a large enough piece left I was toying with varnish but there are a number of redundant bolt/screw holes so I will fill them and probably paint it white perhaps try and match the laminate colour which is an off white otherwise there will be too many different finishes and textures.

Afr side of galley bulkhead

Over the weekend I finished varnishing the teak trim for the switch panel mounting and also made some new stainless steel brackets for the drain gutter which runs under the hinged join in the cockpit floor I did not bother with photographs as they are only bits of bent stainless steel plate.

I had a fairly productive day today got the teak trim round the switch panel fitted first on reflection I think that perhaps the switch panel would have looked better if it had been mounted more centrally but that would have put it behind the companionway ladder a case of function before aesthetics.

Switch panel with trim fitted

I finished off the parts for the infill panel above the chart table then cut out and glued on the white laminate the cut outs in the panel will be a homework job with the jig-saw power is available in the yard but for the odd times that I need it at the moment its easier to do the job at home the rest is down to the trusty Aldi battery drill all £29.99 worth. Up to know it has proved more than up to the job even using a 50mm hole saw to cut through a bulkhead for the exhaust hose the keyless chuck slipped a bit but I think this says more about the cheap hole saw as all the drive is taken on the shank of the pilot drill I have also a better quality one that has a hexagonal shank which is no problem I tend to use cheap ones where there is GRP involved as it soon takes the edge off the saw even on more expensive ones.

To end up today I fitted the drain gutter for the cockpit floor it still needs a length of hose to connect it into the starboard side cockpit drain plumbing I guess it will work fine on port tack but starboard tack we shall have to wait and see I guess.

Cockpit floor drain gutter

Electrics

Most of this week has been spent finishing off and painting the internal surfaces of the woodwork for the switch panel mounting for the time being I have decided to reuse the switch panel that came with the boat its not the original and is obviously home built but the switches seam OK. It needs some tidying up and some of the soldered joints need attention and in addition I will modify the connection arrangement as I have a thing about chocolate block connectors on boats or anywhere else come to that some new labels for the switches will also be required.

The engine panel plugs and sockets are now connected and in theory if the battery were to be connected and the key turned things should happen starting the engine is still a little way off as I still need to install the fuel tank.

Before assembling the woodwork I installed the bus bars and connector blocks for the new wiring.

Busbars and connectors fitted

The long busbar at the top is to take the negative cables from all circuits, the four way bar at the bottom is the positive distribution bar to the switch panels etc which will be fed by a fused supply from the selector switch and the connector blocks will replace the chocolate block connectors on the switch panel.

Once the hardware was fitted I put the woodwork together its now almost complete just needs the bottom infill piece and the hardwood trim but next week will be a short working week as I am off to Plymouth on Tuesday, weather permitting, to bring back the boat that we sailed to Dartmouth previously.

Front and end panel fitted

Switch panel in place