New shiny blue stripes and 4 more thru-hulls off

Friday 18 Oct, HHN day 7: Beautification day, Cloudy’s getting shiny deep blue stripes and we can’t stop grinning. And some new holes in the bottom.

Early alarm for an exciting day! Advanced Branding Solutions team shows dead on 8am to install the vinyl blue stripes around the hull. No more of that chalked and faded blue! A team of three plus the manager, and they get straight to it. True professionals. After the cleaning and degreasing preps we soon see how the first vinyl blue stripe goes on. They are very fast at applying it, and by mid-day the hull of our boat appears transformed. Shining bright deep blue stripes along with new “Cloudy Bay” insignias and HR decals. Wonderful! We just can’t stop looking at it. They will continue tomorrow, with the blue stripe around the cockpit.

Then for the serious fun and games, Phipps Boat Works comes to grind out the four through-hull fitting buried deep in the hull under the galley sink. Three isotherm thru-hull condensers and the cockpit drain. Good call on changing these, as the cockpit drain hose was completely perished and starting to leak. We did hear stories from other HR owners on how these blue pipes don’t hold up over time. We were lucky to catch it on time.

For this job we have bought new bronze thru-hull fittings here in US and having HR ship us new valves from Sweden (to match current ones). But Phipps warns Glen that European 2” threads may not be the same as USA 2” threads. Hhmmm. So it’s off to Ray’s workshop to dismantle some of the extracted skin-fittings and check the threads against the new US thru-hull fittings. With a blow torch, a giant vice, huge spanner and a lot of grunting, Glen and Ray finally get one (yes, just one!) fitting apart. Clearly HR don’t plan on anyone ever dismantling their yachts!
Then, moment of truth: Damn! The threads are indeed slightly different. So, do we go full USA parts or full European parts? American more expensive (all bronze) but quicker delivery. Swedish cheaper (available in brass only), but tricky to get ordered quickly. Decisions, decisions!

In the evening Glen decides to actually relax for once and sits down with a big parts catalog pondering on various skin fittings. The saloon is cluttered with stuff, as usual during maintenance, but it’s very cozy with the heating on.