paying up

The marina fees came due on 15th December, which isn't the best date really to find just over 4 grand.... so we took the option of paying a large deposit, and then paying the balance monthly between Feb and August....it costs a bit more, but beggars can't be choosers..... we now however have a bit of money to pay it off, so have asked, and are waiting to see what Shotley will offer in terms of reduction for early settlment...Also, agreed the exact relaunch date.... 25th Feb....

final details

The launch is confirmed as 25th Feb, so i'll be watching the forecast like crazy for the 1st/2nd March... we may well go down and just stop onboard anyway!i've given up on trying to find somone who sells 32mm water pipe locally.... they only seem to sell 'boy racer' bright blue silcon pipe at £ouch per metre... so i've taken the old bit of pipe, cleaned it up, and I reckon it'll be OK.... just need to but two jubilee clips....Only a one day visit this coming weekend.... polish the final side, clean and polish the transom, and get her ready for a lift back in....I've sold the Icom VHF I removed to a fellow ybw forumite.... so thats going to a good home, and adds a few quid back into my heavily depleted boat pot....Not down the following weekend.... minor event gets in the way.... my 40th birthday party!... good news is that my family have finally sussed me out..... pressy list has been checked in advance to ensure suitability, and includes dress flag set, and liberal quantity of chandlery vouchers.... bless 'em!What do I want to spend this on?.... well I still have a huge list of things I need/want to add.... top of list for 'reasonably' priced goodies is a Navtex, and I also want to add a long length of warp to my existing anchor chain..... got to decide how to attach it.... ideally i'd splice it on... but quite like the idea of having a heavy long warp available for other uses, so may go down the shackle route.... I could cope with the little bit of windlass hassle....

nearly ready to get wet

A full weekend of work (well until mid afternoon Sunday) has seen me complete a good few jobs...The VHF is in, connected to the GPS and the remote mike is all in and working.....The elbow for the fridge drain is fitted (it was 1/2"), and the shower fitting was 3/8ths for the transom shower... but both fittings are female (pipe end and shower head), so i've bought a 3/8ths male-male fitting on the way home... that'll take just a few mins next weekend...Both sides of the boat are well cleaned.... one side of the boat is thoroughly polished.... the whole thing is antifouled....The prop anode is fitted...Just got to nip down next weekend, and polish the second side, and the transom (which also needs a bit of a clean), and we're away... all thats left before she's dropped back in is to clean up the prop.I've still got a list of things to do as long as your arm, but they can mostly be done when she's back in the water.... a matter of prioritising..

delivery

OK... so most of the bits I need have turned up... a few issues to deal with....The engine bits have arrived... perfect... but the hose they've sent is exhaust hose rather than water hose.... so its about twice the diameter I need.... I've decided to hange onto it though.... a spare 1/2m of exhaust hose, plus two big jubillee clips isn't a bad idea to have on board.... i'll source the right size from a chandler/motor factor over the weekend... the thing I really needed (and have) is the small casting and gasket.....Everything else is here... the extension cable for the VHR remote mike, the BSP 90 degree pipe fitting to allow the fridge drain to be completed (I wasn't sure if it was 1/2" or 3/8ths... so as they were just £1.30 I ordered both!).... The only thing that hasn't arrived is the antifoul and cleaner..... as it happens, I have a full tin of antifoul from last year, and also 2 or 3 tins of partially used.... so I poured them into one tin, and now have nearly 5 ltrs!.... maybe I was hasty in ordering!I also had one other thought..... i've taken the loop out of the fridge drain that was stopping it from draining properly (the top of the loop was higher than the bottom of the fridge) and it now runs downhill all the way.... only, the seacock is below the water line.... and if the bottom of the fridge is too, then it could get messy!.... maybe that's why the loop was there....?And one other thing to think through.... where on earth do I put the mike on the steering pedestal... only place where there is really room is on the side.... maybe its a bit vulnerable to being knocked?, but its pretty protected by the wheel.... will think it tthrough a bit more before drilling....So.... car is loaded.... lots of stuff to take down.... I've got three quarters of the cushions in the car... figured that its close enough to relaunch to start taking them back down... plus various other stuff... scrapers, rollers, polishing machine, the Plotter (its the GPS source for the DSC VHF).. etc etc etcOwning a boat is a good exercise in project management!

fitting out

The speakers are in!.... I couldn't test them though, as the radio has a removeable fascia, and muggins here left it at home!It was a tad cold working in the cockpit, so was pleased when the job was done....Next task was to fit the new VHF... the hole needed enlarging, which I did with the jigsaw... easy enough, and then spent an hour emulating a gynaecologist, trying to tighten the flush mounting bolts through a small hole alongside the new radio..... it was wired up easily enough, and connected to the aerial, and voila... it fired up quickly and easily....I then spent the next two hours routing the extension cable for the cockpit mike.... eventually it was in place.... and as per the law of sod, was 4 feet too short.... FInally, I removed the offending component from the exhaust elbow..... fortunately, it appeared that the problem was with the smaller part, and so this was removed.... and broke in two in the process... confirmed as the problem!.... the pipe to which it attaches (not the exhaust, but the water feed) wasn't in great nick at the end either... but I'm pretty sure that the flexible pipe will sort that out...By now, I was fed up and cold.... so went home!A full weekend next weekend.... I'm hoping that the weather will ease up a little so that I can get the polishing and antifouling started.... only two weekends left.... the other jobs might have to wait until she's back in the water...Addendum.... new exhaust bits, VHF extension cable, antifoul, anodes, cleaner and polish

elbows!

Ouch.... the elbows are £230.... an OEM part is £130...I'll take a better look to see if the water injection part is the only bit damaged, and whether I can get away with just that..... hope so... its only £20!!!!Down again this coming weekend to finish the speaker installation...I need to add a 90 degree elbow to the pipes for the fridge drain, but forgot to measure what thread it was... strongly suspect it'll be BSP, but don't know whether its 3/8ths or 1/2 inch..... so that'll need checkingAlso, need to measure the prop anode to get that ordered.... looks like its a 30mm, as thats the shaft sizeFinally.... I updated my VHF license today so that I could get an MMSI number and get the dual station VHF ordered..... which worked a treat, but the totally and utterly rubbish Ofcom website (which genuinely deserves the award for the worlds worst website) managed to remove my call sign at the same time.... so had to e-mail them..... very annoying!Best get the VHF ordered... its a dual station... the Standard Horizon GX3000E, with a remote command mic....

exhaust elbow

While I was on the boat at the weekend, I noticed a little pile of salt under the engine..... there'd previously been a leak from the impellor face plate, which the previous owner claimed to have fixed.... so I was groaning.... however, upon exploration, I had to take back my curses, as the leak was in fact from the exhaust elbow, or more accurately from the water injector pipe to the exhaust elbow, which is a small and seperate casting, and appears to be pretty badly corroded....So, i'll replace this section.... lots and lots of dried (ish) salt around the area..... maybe a replacement elbow will let a bit more water through the exhaust and stop the slight case of steam that we have....I just need to get some measurements so that I can order the right bits....