Light bulb moment

 While I was in the shower contemplating the meaning of life I had a light bulb moment or should that have been a Homer Simpson 'doh' moment, the reason for the need to swap over the autopilot motor power leads had nothing to do with the motor having been replaced but the fact that the tiller that it operates on is mounted aft of the rudder stock so that the actuator needs to move in the opposite direction to give the correct rudder movement.

I started this week by making the shelf for the space behind the dinette and also a cover to go down at the bottom of the space which has an opening into the calorifier space, these now require varnishing which I have started and will add further coats next week. I then went on to clean up the bulkhead inside the space it had previously been lined with something possibly the same textured vinyl that was used on the remainder of the saloon bulkheads, the adhesive appeared to possibly be some form of latex which scraped off fairly easily. I gave the bulkhead a sanding and used some spray contact adhesive to secure a piece of the same grey van lining carpet that I had used for the rest of the headlining.

Cover for the opening into calorifier space

Bookshelf

The object to the right of the space is the autopilot fluxgate compass, I was thinking of moving it to the space under the shelf but to do that I think it will be necessary to pull the cable all the way back from the autopilot course computer and it has been spiral wrapped so it would be a lot of messing about, unless the cable can be disconnected at the compass but I very much doubt it. Next week I must really make the effort to finish the forward cabin sole and then the heads.

Autopilot

The aim this week was to finish tidying the wiring in the aft cabin locker the cabling to the autopilot actuator from the course computer included a chocolate block connector which i wanted to get rid of so I removed the actuator with the intention of renewing all the cables, however the cables to the motor and the clutch were connected directly to these items rather than to a terminal block and as I didn't want to go that far I removed the chocolate block connector and made a soldered connection for the extension cables these connections were wrapped in self amalgamating tape and the whole lot wrapped with spiral wrapping. The problem came when trying to replace the actuator, it is secured with a pin which is retained by a couple of 'R' clips but this is out of sight round the corner so it had to be done by feel, a bit of a struggle. I reconnected the cables and switched the autopilot on to test it and the rudder moved full travel in the opposite direction to that instructed, so after checking that all the cables were correctly connected to the course computer I consulted the manual which covered this very fault the instruction was to swap the two wires for the motor drive over which I did and it now works perfectly. The terminals in the course computer are all colour coded and they had all been correctly connected the only thing that I can think of is that the motor has been changed in the past I don't know but it works.

Autopilot actuator

Cables all wrapped

The job was finished off by wrapping the cables to the 12v/USB outlet in the aft cabin these require securing probably with some sort of self adhesive device. 

Cable to 12v/USB socket

I had hoped that I would be able to venture out into the Swale today and/or yesterday as tides are springs at the moment but unfortunately the weather had other ideas, it was much too windy so I finished up the week by measuring up for next weeks project which is to fit out the space above the locker containing the domestic water system against the saloon aft bulkhead, it requires lining and a shell fitting so that it will make a space possibly for books.

Next weeks project

Loose ends

This week I have been tying up a few more loose ends I started on Monday with replacing some sea water hose elbows on the engine, when I put the engine back together I obtained a hose connection kit from Parts 4 Engines basically a bag of short pieces of hose of the various sizes required but the engine has three hose elbows which unfortunately did not come as part of the kit so in order to get the engine running I reused the old ones. Judging from the paint remaining on them these elbows were the originals fitted to the engine when it was manufactured in 1988 and while not in tip top condition they did serve a purpose. In the meantime I had purchased some new silicone hose elbows with the intention of replacing the originals but best laid plans and all that it was not until I was looking round the engine last week that I realised that the original elbows were well past their sell by date, touch them and they left a black stain on the hands, they had perished. The new elbows just required to be cut to size and pushed on and secured with 'Jubilee' clips

Old elbows

New silicone elbows one on right cut to size

New sea water pump elbow

Gearbox cooling elbows

I spent quite a bit of time going through lockers and removing stuff that was no longer required offcuts of wood, all those short bits of cable that one tends to keep as it may be useful one day but never is and boxes that equipment arrived in that you keep in case it is necessary to return it, so things are looking a little tidier now but there is still more to do. I finished off the week by tidying the wiring in the stern locker in the aft cabin it is mostly connected to the auto pilot, it had been temporarily bundled up with cable ties for some time. I started by shortening a couple of over length cables and then bound them together with the spiral wrap.

Cables tidied and wrapped

There is still a bit to do the cables on the right which supply a 12v/usb outlet in the aft cabin need wrapping and the cables from the autopilot course computer to the actuator will probably be replaced with proper tinned cable before being wrapped the cables in the centre of the photograph are the anode bonding cables and there is not very much I can do with them

   

Housekeeping and some sailing

I have decided to leave the sanding of the forward cabin sole for a rainy day the main aim this week was to finish the internal clean and then start externally. I began by cleaning out the wet locker in the heads which was pretty grotty after sanding the sole, the interior is now looking fairly presentable. On Wednesday I went for a brief sail along the Swale as far as Milton Creek this was the first time out since I came out of hospital and so I was using parts of me that I hadn't used for some time. Basically most of my exercise regime has been walking whereas sailing involves a lot of pulling fortunately the weather was benign and the wind direction such that it was one tack out and one back usually with the predominant south westerly one way can involve a lot of tacking. Anyway all went well but I knew that I had done something a bit different. Today the plan was to clean up the exterior she was beginning to get that green colour that comes with external neglect so I set too with the hose and a scrubber, I use a 'Tough Scrub' available from Lakeland it is basically a foam pad with what I think is stainless steel wire anyway they are most effective in removing the muck and that lichen type growth that seems to have an affection for things fibreglass. My apologies for the lack of photographs but we all know what boats that require a good scrub get to look like every boatyard has a few lurking at the back of the yard. That is it for this week I hope to have something a bit more interesting to report next week.

Bored with sanding

I started out this week with every intention of finishing the first round of sanding on the forward cabin and heads soles however after a good start I started looking around for something else to do to relieve the monotony for a while. I decided to try and do something with the cockpit sole, it is covered with treadmaster which while being physically in reasonable condition it had a lot of paint, glue, sealant, varnish etc splashes all over some of which I will admit responsibility for others I shall deny all knowledge of. Also it needed a good scrub to remove the dirt and algae. Some time ago number two daughter bought me some 'Drill Brushes' and these proved to be ideal for cleaning between the diamond tread, I used the brush wet with soapy water, and although I used a red grade of brush which is upper mid in terms of stiffness there was no damage to the treadmaster.

The tools

The drill is an old Bosch 9.6v cordless I have had it for about 15 years and like most of these things the batteries gave up the ghost but the actual drill is still going strong so I put a flex on it and use it directly connected to the boat's battery and so far the extra volts have not had any detrimental effect on the drill motor.

Treadmaster after scrubbing

As can be seen the brush did not affect the paint etc as was to be expected but I found that this could be easily removed by rubbing gently with some 60 grit sandpaper.

After removing paint etc

There are some slightly lighter patches where the paint was sanded, they don't show up in the photograph but I am expecting them to darken down to match the rest with wear and exposure to the atmosphere. In an ideal world I would probably replace the treadmaster with fake teak but it is much improved and will suffice for the time being. Next week I will have to get back to the sanding.

 

Sanding

This week has been taken up with sanding the heads and forward cabin soles, it is a bit of a long slow process starting off with 320 grit wet and dry with the aim of working through to 600 grit. It would be a lot quicker to power sand at least for the initial levelling up but the dust gets everywhere and I am not too keen on wet sanding with a mains voltage machine. I have come across a few spots where there are high spots in the layup which will require the further application of flocoat once the preliminary sanding has been completed, the forward cabin being the worst affected I think that this was due to the 450g biaxial cloth being a bit too heavy and the consequent problems with forming it around the bilge access opening.

Forward cabin sole showing high spots in the layup

Heads sole still a way to go

It looks as though the first round of sanding will take most of my time next week.

Forward cabin sole

The first task this week was to gelcoat the forward cabin sole this was carried out in the same manner as the heads sole, two coats of gelcoat finished with a coat of flocoat, hopefully to give sufficient thickness to allow for sanding back and final polishing.

Sole after gelcoating

The colour match is not perfect but should be acceptable for the sole it would stick out a bit if used for a repair in the middle of a panel.

Colour match

I hope that when sanded and polished the new gelcoat will blend a little better with the old I am by no means a gelcoat expert so would not attempt a perfect colour match. It is possible tht the original has faded a bit in 45 years and originally  was a bit closer to the new. For the rest of the week I have been sanding the heads sole using various grades of wet and dry paper, this is a bit slow and laborious but makes a lot less mess than power sanding, I have already cleaned up a lot of dust from the original sanding and fairing. Also with power sanding it is all too easy to go through the gelcoat so I will stick with the hand sanding. I have found a couple of areas where the gelcoat was a bit thin and will need some over coating and sanding.