Monday 28 Oct, HHN day 17: Finally, 5 new shiny sea-cocks are installed.
Busy week ahead of us, and the priority is to make Cloudy Bay watertight again. 6 holes to fill, as in skin-fittings to install, and 3 more thru-hulls to take out. Phipps Boat Works will come to drill those out today. And we also ask their advice on how to handle the 5200 when installing the ones that are ready to mount. Sounds easy enough.
Before starting the sealing, Glen wants to make a box for storage in the bow bilge, above the bow toilet outlet thru-hull. There is a fair bit of space there which we didn’t really use before. So maybe time to do so, now that we have so many more spare parts to find a place for. With the carpenter hat on, he double-checks his measurements and drawings and starts on with the sawing (thank you, Ray, for the plywood).
Meanwhile, I am in charge with doing the laundry. Glen is running through his working clothes rather fast, so we need clean ones.
While I have been away, the marina office sent over a team of one to move the stands so that we can paint the antifoul under them too. Always a bit dodgy moving stands. Especially when the rudder is only 20mm above the ground. Glen dug a small hole around it just in case Cloudy decided to wriggle a bit as the stands were re-positioned.
Finally, after a dry run of each fitting, we start to install the thru-hulls. 5200 on the back of the sea-cock first, then 5200 on the thru-hull fitting from the outside. The first one was a bit of a guess. We wanted to ensure there was enough 5200 caulking to seal the fittings top and bottom but at the same time we didn’t want it oozing out all over the place as we tightened them down. First one was a bit too much, but as we progressed we got the quantity just right, to get a small bead appearing around the base of the sea-cock and around the outer edge for the thru-hull.
All in all we are very proud of the final product. 5 shiny bronze triangular based sea-cocks sitting neatly on epoxied backing plates all nicely painted bilge grey, with that neat bead of 5200 just visible to show they are fully bonded together. And they’d better be sealed! If there is even one drop of water coming in, from any of the new skin fittings, you will hear us screaming from here to the ends of the earth.
With the 5 new skin fittings in place we head to the hardware store to buy new screws for the bow thruster bars. Then the bars are reinstalled. There… bow thruster completed.
Next, sanding the hull patches where the previous props have been positioned. To avoid dust we wet sand. Messy business but better than that horrible antifoul dust.
Once daylight is gone and the mosquitoes start attacking, the workshop moves into the engine room. First, take off the old backing plates of the generator intake and cockpit drain. Each time Glen takes one off he comments “why would they put backing plates made of plywood?”. Some are showing signs of wetness and maybe even rotting.
He then spends a fair bit of time jammed between the engine and the generator, thinking how to install these new skin-fittings. The floor has got reinforcements and slopes all over the place and the mounting is not going to be straight forward. Eventually, he pops back out with some drawings and measurements, these backing plates will also need some adjustments. Out on the swim platform (his sawing workshop while onboard) and soon we have the backing plates reshaped. From drawing board to production in just a couple of minutes.
Only it’s not that easy. The cockpit drain one just doesn’t want to lie flush. Hmmm let’s continue that one tomorrow …. its bed time again.
