Refurbishment

Today, being a work day, means that I carried out small tasks that could be done during a teak break or before breakfast. First up was the galley stove locker lid which is basically a copy of the board upon which that stove is mounted but without the stove.

Very easy to make there’s no glueing or awkward bits and the result here has a coat of stain on both sides. I’m using some trapezoidal standoffs to keep of off the work surface.

Whereas the stove base board, which has holes, is hanging from a string in the rafters and now has two coats of stain. Once both have two coats of stain and are dry they will be varnished with a few coats before being ticked off the to do list.

Time for a cup of tea.

The next task on the list was to make a saw jig for the aft case bock so that the rotten/soft section could be sawn off by hand with as smooth and flat a cut as possible. The problem is that the space was sufficiently restricted so as to prevent the use of either a circular saw or a jigsaw, or at least the ones I own, and also all my hand saws with the exception of the pull saw. This blade is very flexible and to get an accurate, flat cut in such a tight space required a jig.

Essentially, I clamped two identical battens either side of the block and fitted two spacer blocks at either end. These held the two battens apart the same width as the width of the block. I made sure that the battens were parallel, straight and screwed them to the blocks such that they formed a rigid structure. This jig was placed over the block such that the upper edges of the battens was at the correct place for the cut and the jig clamped securely in place.

Now the pull saw had two guides, one on either side of the block and I could carefully cut off the top.

I had to use the saw from the inside as the cockpit was too narrow for the saw.

But here you can see the saw in action and also the function of the saw jig which, I have to say, worked better than I expected.

A slightly different angle on the cut.

This shows just how well the jig worked, the cut is clean and flat.

Of course, it took longer to carry out than it did to describe it !

Back in the workshop I could take a look at the offcut. Like this it is not that informative.

This shows more clearly the problem.

I had to cut the piece in half lengthways because I need the shape to make a new piece and with rounded edges on the outside, this would have been difficult. However, cutting it in half did give me some more insight into the issue.

The soft, and possibly rotten, part doesn’t really extend into the body of the offcut except in one place. There are two holes that have been filled with some kind of filler, one a screw hole and the other a larger void for something.

Here’s the interesting thing. Poking around the soft area I found that the really obvious soft wood was joined to the larger of the filled in sections. I’ve marked that soft section in white. The inner surfaces of the centerplate case were coated with a waterproof glue, including the fore and aft blocks, so unless the glue layer was damaged then the softness was unlikely to start from the inside, especially since that part of the block is above the waterline most of the time.

If I rotate the piece so that it is shown as it would be in the boat, you can see that the large filled void slopes downwards and the soft wood goes to the bottom part. You can see where I picked out some of the soft wood with my fingernails. So, one possibility is that this void was left open for some time and both fresh and salt water was allowed to pool in the bottom eventually causing the wood to become soft.

In the above photo you can also see a lighter area from the pointy end of the screw hole diagonally down to the edge of the block. This is also a bit soft and the same thing may have happened here.

I have highlighted the bit I’m referring to in green.

Nevertheless, my cut was nearly perfect, just below the extent of the soft wood. Making a new piece to replace this should be fairly easy and the next tasks in the never ending saga of the centerplate repair !

Well, it seems like it.

Time for a cup of tea.

The next task is to make the new aft block section and for this I’ll need a template.

Firstly, I drew the outline on a piece of paper. Not easy to see the faint pencil lines, but they are there. The template is about 1 mm taller than the cut piece to allow for the saw cut.

The paper template was cut out and I used it to see if I had any pieces of Sapele that would be big enough. Sadly not and two pieces were cut out and glued together.

The thickness of the Sapele is 44 mm (ish) and the aft block is 37.7 mm, probably 1 1/2″ that has been sanded down. I will run this block through the planer once the glue has dried to get it to 38 mm and smooth on both sides instead of the rough sawn finish that you can see here.

It is quite useful to note that three of the sides of the offcut are straight lines and only the aft edge is curved. This is going to make cutting the new piece out fairly straightforward, at least I hope it will.

But that’s a task for tomorrow.

Time for a cup of tea.

Finally for today, the two galley stove boards received their first coat of varnish.

The tops of the boards will receive four coat with the undersides getting two, possibly only one.

That’s the lot for the day.

Time for a cup of tea.

I put the diesel heater on when I went out to feed the outdoor cat this morning, meaning to give it half an hour and then to turn it off. Well, I forgot and it was nearly two hours. Still the inside of the cabin was very warm and toasty.

The next part of the galley stove task is to see if the laminates worked and then to make a cardboard template followed by a gash plywood template followed by the real thing.

All the cramps were loose, one had even fallen off, I presume due to them expanding in the warmth. Still, the laminates were still in position.

There is a pretty even gap under the curve but that is acceptable since there is a step at the inboard end that you can see in the top left of the above photo. It seems that the curve worked.

The glue up for the board and lid also worked, or so it seems.

Firstly the cardboard template. The procedure is cut to the curve then cut the inboard upright to fit and then hot glue pieces to the template to make it fit elsewhere.

This is the real thing. I’ve not extended it all the way up to the outboard edge of the cup shelf, that is unnecessary.

I used cedar battens to hold the piece in place screwed but not glued so that I can remove it if required in the future.

A short length of cedar was used to secure the piece to the underside of the cup shelf. Screwed into the shelf and glued and screwed on to the work piece.

This is the “inside” face of the workpiece. Not a perfect fit, but it does not need to be. Where there is a gap under the side will be the part where the stove is stowed. Outboard of this, where there will be a small storage area, there the side is a tight fit. So, good enough.

Time for a cup of tea (and lunch).

Having done one side it is time to do the other.

I clamped two battens to the front and back of the locker so that the new side is exactly parallel to the first.

I used the gash plywood template to see how different it is going to be and as you can see, that’s not a lot of difference between the two.

I cut the bottom of the cardboard template off and hot glued that to the plywood template in the correct place.

A near perfect fit and this is the real side.

As with the first side, cedar battens were used to fix the side to the inside of the locker.

After much measuring, cutting toing and froing the galley stove has somewhere to be stowed.

There are two vertical channels currently super-glued to the sides.

I’ll screw these in as well now that the fit has been sorted out.

At the back a lip under the galley stove goes under that back piece.

Like so and this prevents the back of the stove from lifting up should there be a sudden jerk from outside such as a passing fishing vessel.

The front of the stove is far enough out such that the heat from the flame will not be near anything it shouldn’t be !

And under the front I have put in a spring latch which prevents the front from lifting up accidentally.

With the gas cylinder installed and the stove in place you can see that there is a small amount of space outboard of the cylinder. If there is ever a problem with the cylinder working loose under way that I’ll put some foam on the cup holder that will press against the cylinder, hopefully preventing it from working loose again. Not needed now and hopefully never.

So, everything works and all that is left to do for this task from a construction perspective is to make a lid to cover the stowed stove.

But not today, that’s enough.

Time for a cup of tea.

Despite the air temperature being 9º C this morning, when I went out to the workshop my fingers were too cold to work within 15 minutes. The wind is bitter, it is raining and it is pretty miserable.

So I went back inside and had a cup of tea whilst I decided what I could do today that did not require the accurate use of sharp tools and which would allow blood to stay on the inside and not leak out.

Having warmed up I went out again and put the hatch on and screwed in the retaining screws. Task No.1 completed.

The work on the compass cable went so well yesterday with the centerplate case out of the way that I looked around for anything else that would benefit from being done before the case is reassembled. There is only one thing on my list and that it the galley stove. While this might not be considered by some to be essential sailing equipment, I’m a mug of tea sailor in that it my mug of tea gets spilt, I have too much sail up or it is too windy. Can’t do that without tea and can’t do tea without a stove.

Ergo, essential sailing equipment !

Besides, it has to be done at some point.

In the stowed position the stove will be like the above in the locker where the old stove used to be.

The board upon which it rests will slide into channels in the locker and for this reason the board is wider than the stove by about 15 mm either side. This board is gash plywood and I’m using it to get the sizes and holes positioned correctly.

The stove is bolted to the board with three bolts. Two through the existing feet and one extra to hold it steady.

The normally removable pot stand is also bolted down but this time just to the stove.

The long bolts will hold it in position so that it doesn’t fall out when the stove is in the stowed position and will not be very tight.

I had to stop at this point as I don’t have plywood that is thick enough and good enough quality of the right size to make the real board and the locker lid, so I glued some smaller pieces together and I’ll cut the board and lid from the resulting single piece. This plywood is Baltic Birch and too thick, so I’ll plane it down and varnish the lid once it is all done.

I didn’t think about the size of the glue up before clamping it, but it just fits over the Rayburn.

I’m a little doubtful about this glue up. The squares were glued and clamped in a length of five and a half squares using domino tenons to locate and strengthen the joints a bit. This glue up is two of those short boards joined length ways but I forgot that I had a domino jointer (it is a recent acquisition) and just glued them together, so this might fail. We shall see. If the joint does not hold then I’ll just cut off the glued edges by about 2 mm and then glue it back together again but this time using the tenons.

I decided that I would also check that the compass wiring works and put the compass into position in the cockpit.

The lighting wires were connected to the power cable and for now, that is it since it is quite light and I’ll need to try this out when dusk falls. You can also see the problem with the connector. If I leave it like this it is going to get hooked on something and ripped out. Once the compass is bolted in place, I’ll try sticking it to the underside of the bridge deck with some butyl tape. That stuff is very sticky and might to the job,

Time for a cup of tea.

Even with the centerplate case removed, making a template for the curve of the hull inside the lockers would be a trial, so I decided to try an alternative method. I took one of the thin strips of wood that I’ve had in the workshop rafters for the last seven years or so, left over from the Naiad rebuild and too good to throw away but never needed before, and cut it into lengths that will fit around the curve.

I applied glue to one side of the strips and put them into place, pressing them down with battens. The idea is that once the glue is dry I will have a short laminated piece of wood that has the same shape as the inside of the hull. We will see, because there may be some spring-back. Even so, it should be close enough to get the first template cut and I can use the belt sander to whittle away any sections that need adjustment.

The batten arrangement is a bit haphazard, but it works. To improve the glue setting time I put the diesel heater warm air hose into the cabin and into the locker and turned it on at its lowest setting. An hour or two should have warmed the locker space and the laminates up somewhat.

Again, we shall see.

Time for a cup of coffee (fooled you!).

I let the heater run for thirty minutes and then checked it.

It seemed to be working well, so I left it running.

I also checked the compass light which,as you can see, is also working.

It’s been a good day, despite the initial cold, but I think it is time to call an end to the Shoal Waters tasks until tomorrow.

Time for a cup of tea.

The brass machine screws arrived this afternoon so once work was done I went down to the workshop to fit them. Although the required length is just 12mm I bought ones that were 20mm in length and cut them down to fit. The reason being that I’m more likely to use 20mm lengths and they come in packs of 20.

It didn’t take long to cut the machine screws to length, grind the ends so that a nut fits and then to fit them to the outer housing.

I still do not have a simple way to mount the LED in the bottom of the outer housing, so I just made up something that will do for now and if it proves to be deficient in any way then I can find a better way then.

I did take the time while the light was still in the sky to sand and put the fourth, and last, coat of varnish on the hatch runners. Once this is hard I shall put the hatch on, probably in a week or so since the temperature is still in the single digits and will be for at least the next week according to the forecast.

The mounting of the LED is not that difficult, it is the wires that are the problem.

So this is the way I’m going right now. This is the underside of the LED mount with the LED and the wires held to the wood with hot glue.

I have reassembled the compass, now to try out the lighting.

I have a variable power supply in my office which I set to 12V and connected the LED. This is the result with the office light on.

And with the office light off. Not at all bad.

Except that the inner housing has been put in backwards and the lubber line, which should at the front of the compass is at the back. So I will have to change that.

While I had the compass open again I took a photo of the LED mount. As you can see, it is very simple. Hopefully the huge blob of glue I put on the wires and wood will hold and stop them from being torn off.

Here is the compass the correct was around. You can see the word AFT on the outer ring at the bottom and the lubber line now opposite, where it should be.

So, the compass is done and now needs to be installed into the cockpit. But, since I get into and out of the boat on the starboard side, putting the compass in now would be right in the way, so I’ll put it aside somewhere safe and install it closer to the launch day.

Time for a cup of tea.

Shoal Waters was fitted with a ‘ fine brass binnacle compass’ (Sailing Just for Fun p113) and whilst it originally had a detachable domed top, complete with viewing window and side illumination, this has gone missing somewhere back in the mists of time. Still the compass survives but needs a little work.

Here is the compass disassembled. Originally, before being installed in Shoal Waters the compass gimballed in all axes, but Charles removed the fore and aft gimbal so that it just gimbals side to side.

I drilled out the 1/4″ holes in which the lugs of the compass inner housing located and press for four roller bearings, two in each side.

The lugs are quite sturdy and fit securely into the bearings.

The Bakelite bearing supports rest on two flat Bakelite pieces screwed to the outer housing and held in place by screws from the outside. These, being brass, had started to soften so I’ve ordered some more, but M5 bolts this time.

The holes in the Bakelite bearing supports were drilled out to 4.2mm and them tapped with a 5mm tap.

The bolts secure the supports inside the outer housing.

I used the M5 stainless bolts that I had available but these will be replaced with brass once they arrive.

The next task is to mount the red LED inside the housing which is not as easy as it sounds since the LED must not be too high or it will foul the inner housing as it gimbals.

This is where the compass is mount in the cockpit and you can see the small hole for the LED as it was originally mounted in the bridge deck rather than in the compass. I aim to change that and just have the wires go through the hole, probably through some sort of grommet that will also serve to stop water from going down the hole.

So. it is time to put the thinking cap on and devise a way to mount the LED.

Time for a cup of tea.

I will soon be reaching the stage of the centreplate case replacement where I need to make a cardboard template for the sides. However, before that can happen I need to chisel away some of the old case side that is between the fore and aft blocks and the keel.This is tedious as it requires me to kneel or squat in an awkward and cramped position working with a sharp 6mm chisel being careful not to go too far and cut away too much.

Not something I enjoy much so I decided to do something else first.

First task is to remove the top strengthening piece from the removed case side. I wedged the old and slightly less old pieces of plywood apart with a screwdriver and was able to pull the two pieces apart by hand. This is the result. The lower piece has the batten I want to retain with some of the original plywood attached and you can clearly see just how badly deteriorated it is. This did make it quite tiring to remove the plywood since it had no mechanical strength and only came away in small pieces. Still, after some time I had most of it removed.

This is the batten showing the outer face and the removed plywood flakes.

And this is the other side with some of the damaged plywood still attached. I decided that trying to get this off with a chisel was far to difficult and thus I was doing it the wrong way.

So, I removed the remains of the brass screws…

…and planed the rest off, the work of just a few minutes. I really should have just removed the screws and then used the planer instead of messing around with a chisel.

The result is very good.

I still need to remove the diagonal brace, seen here, it’s the longer piece in the middle and this might be a little more difficult than the first piece as it has a rounded edge making the planing of the side opposite to the rounded side a little more problematic. Still, it will be easier than trying to get the plywood off by hand.

Following this successful task I turned my attention to the centreplate case. The bit highlighted in red is the forward block and the bit highlighted in green is the bit I have chiseled out! There’s not a lot of room in there.

I turned my attention to the portlights after that. One side of each light was cleaned with Isopropyl Alcohol and a strip of Butyl tape applied making sure to cover the holes.

The light was then placed on the cabin side and six 5mm flanged bolts pushed through the holes in the perspex, the tape and the holes in the cabin side, but left protruding.

Some more Butyl tape was wound around each bolt just below the flange and the bolt then pushed in as far as I could by hand..

On the inside a washer and a self-locking nut were put onto the bolt and tightened up by holding a hex key on the outside and using a nut driver on the inside. That metal bar you can see outside is a hex key in the bolt on the outside being stopped from moving by a lead block so that I could tighten the nut up in the inside. Both forward lights were done with this lead block method but the two aft ones were close enough to the hatch for me to reach inside and outside at the same time, making the job a lot easier.

The tightening is done in stages so as not to crack the perspex. The bolts were tightened in opposite pairs so as to prevent bending to much. The nuts were not tightened up as far as possible as it is cold outside at the moment and the Butyl tape is not very flexible as a result. The nuts were done up about 60% of the way and then left. This will allow the tape to be compressed slowly an in a couple of days I’ll tighten then up to about 75% and then to 90% a couple of days after that. That will be tight enough to make a very good seal but to tight enough to squeeze all the tape out of the seal. This tape never goes hard, so leaving a bit unsquashed means that if there is ever a leak then I can tighten up the nuts a little to make a better seal. Any tape the squeezes out of the joint will be removed by scoring it around with a sharp knife and pulling the excess away

Here are the two starboard port lights. It would have been better if the Butyl tape were brown, but it isn’t so the portlights will stand out a lot more than they did before. It won’t affect the sailing performance, just the aesthetics and, being male, that doesn’t bother me much.

Time for a cup of tea.

The first task of the day was to finish the navigation lights refurbishment and to that end I made a start after breakfast and my first cup of tea. The new bulb holder needed to be put in place and connected, a second mirror reflector cut out and installed, the gasket put in place and the housing screwed back on to the boat.

The new bulb holder fitted well and you can see in the photo that the connections have been made. The negative cable screwed to the fitting using crimped eye connectors and the positive cable connected using a lever connector. The new holder is sufficiently shorter at the back compared to the original to allow the lever connector to be placed between the holder and the cable coming in through the back of the nav light. I won’t detail the mirror reflector work since this have been done in a previous post.

Some lanolin was smeared on the housing which allowed the gasket to be “stuck” to the metal and kept it in place whilst the unit was reassembled. You can see the black gasket in the photo above. This assembly was repeated for the starboard side.

When all was done the lights were tested. Here the port light.

Here the starboard.

It’s not so easy to see from these photos but you can quite clearly see the reflection of the bulb in the mirror reflector when viewed from the side showing the the reflector is working as intended.

And to complete the test, here is the stern light which was already converted to an LED bulb and needed no work.

So the navigation lights are now done and that task may be crossed off the list.

By this point I had to stop and retreat inside. Firstly to wash the lanolin off my fingers, even when cold that stuff is sticky, and secondly to warm my fingers up. It’s 9 Celsius outside today according to my weather station but the wind is bitter. I think I was probably only outside for an hour before I started dropping things due to cold fingers.

So…

Time for a cup of tea.

The 1mm thick neoprene sheet arrived a few days ago and now that the main cabin light has been installed, it was time to make the navigation light gaskets.

Having done the major part of the work earlier with thin plywood to get the fit correct, the only thing I needed to do before cutting the gaskets was to find out what settings were required. I made a simple cut about 20mm long close to one edge of the rubber sheet at various powers and speeds until I got a consistent cut and then cut out two copies of the gasket.

As you can see they came out really well. The only downside is the black mess you get on your hands once the cutting has been done. Washes off easy enough but you need to do that before touching anything else !

After that I cut out the bulb holder shims on the laser cutter. This took four or five attempts to get correct as the fit had to be tight but not too tight. Here I have dry fitted the, to the bulb holder to check that they work the way I envisioned. They do, so that is a plus.

There are three parts to the shim, two outer pieces that are the same and an inner piece. The inner piece fits around the holder but into the hole in the brass support. The two outer pieces go around the holder and are as wide as the support. These will be glued together in the brass fitting and the bulb holder will then be pressed into the hole in the middle, so to speak.

Well, that’s the idea. This is the result. I used super glue to glue everything together and it looks to be pretty good. I probably need to put something on the metal to stop it corroding, some thick grease or similar. Lanolin is probably a good idea, I keep some of that on the boat for greasing shackles.

I’m not sure how the positive wire will be connected to the cable from inside the boat. The negative wire isn’t a problem, it will be clipped under one of the mounting screws as the negative from inside is at the moment. There may be enough room behind the bulb for a lever connector, I’ll have to check that out tomorrow.

There’s more work to be done on the nav lights, I have to cut out another reflector, mount both reflectors and the screw the things together with the new gaskets in place. I should be able to do all that tomorrow around making a cheesecake and wrapping presents for the family Christmas Lunch on Saturday.

We’ll see.

Time for a cup of tea.

I took a slightly extended lunch break today to work on Shoal Waters. I had been working on a data migration for a client and had started making mistakes, a sure sign that I needed to take a break. I wasn’t working on live client data, just a local copy so nothing was harmed by the errors, but certainly time for a break.

The first task today was to run the cable for the cabin light. I had to widen the hole through one of the coachroof beams which would have been a problem if I had not bought a bendy extension for the drill some years ago. I crimped two suitable eye connectors to one end of the cable and wired that into the switch box, directly to the bus bars. The cable was run pretty much along the same path as the one I removed yesterday.

With the exception of this bit here. Firstly there are two connectors in the line so that I can run another cable into the front part of the cabin later on. Looks a bit messy right now, but I’ll tidy it up once the other cable is done. Secondly, the cable runs inboard along a different beam.

The light, on its base, screwed to the coachroof and the wires connected.

And let there be light !!

It works, and that is a great relief. It’s been a lot of work to get to this point, but it does mean that working in the cabin after work is now possible although I’ll need to use a mobile light for some things where this light doesn’t reach.

Such as the main fuse.

Today’s parts delivery included these items excluding the brass holder. Two are replacement bulb holders one of which is too big to fit in the hole in the holder and the other is too small. The too big one will be put into the parts bin, just in case I find a use for it somewhere else, the one that is too small will be made to fit by making some sort of collar. But that’s a task for another time.

Right now, I am talking about the main fuse and that is what that large chunk of plastic, labelled GLOSSO, is, a 10A circuit breaker. This will be placed in the battery box in the positive wire. If anything shorts out somewhere in the rest of the wiring, this will protect the boat from damage, such as catching fire due to a short causing excess heat.

Still, the battery box is small and cramped and the light from the new cabin light doesn’t reach inside, so a torch will be necessary to screw this fuse into the box.

That’s next.

And there we are, main circuit breaker wired in and fixed to the side of the battery box.

I think that completes the first stage of the rewiring. The second stage will be the light in the fore-cabin and the third stage will be the fixing of the solar panel once the coachroof has been sanded, epoxied and painted.

Time for a cup of tea.