Wednesday 2 May 2012

Screwed

Today mostly involved a significant amount of screwing.  The securing of the secondary water tank hatch proved to be much harder than I had anticipated.  I’d previously cleaned the hole threads using an 8mm bolt and ratchet wrench.  However when it came to replacing the bolts with 8mm stainless steel screws about 50% of the screws refused to tighten.  My strategy to overcome this was to remove the affected screws and temporarily replace each with a bolt.  The bolt was then removed and replaced a couple of times to “ease” the threads.  Tightening the screws was still tough going and consequentially my soft office-worker hands are now red and sore.

The main water tank was vacuumed clean and tomorrow I’ll contort myself into entering the compartment with paint and brush.  By tomorrow night I should be ready to audition for the black & white minstrel show (those of you old enough to remember will know what I mean!)

The bow thruster weed hatch has now been screwed down.  I made a gasket to go between the hatch and the lid just in case any water was tempted to squirt up the hatch tunnel.  The final job was to fit the large vertical hatch to the face of the bow thruster locker.  This was again done using the 8mm stainless steel screws.  Whilst the hatch was off I took the opportunity to check the bow thruster mounting plate would fit between the weed hatch and the end of the tube.

At the end of the day Andy and I inspected Waiouru and discussed where the various holes need to be positioned for the engineering services passing through the cabin.  I also need to cut the filler holes for the two diesel tanks at the stern and the water tank in the bow.  So there is plenty to do tomorrow.

4 comments :

Dave,Beryl Bradshaw said...

There seems so much work still to do Just how much did Ben Harp actually do before deciding to vandalise your pride and joy Dave Nb Sokai

Tom and Jan said...

Hi Dave,

Percentage completion was related to the progress payments. Ben Harp was claiming 75% complete. Our surveyor and valuer assessed maximum completion at 50%.

We are currently nowhere near either of those!

Dave,Beryl Bradshaw said...

Are we allowed to say what an arsehole Dave

Tom and Jan said...

You are entitled to your opinion! I started blogging about what had occurred back in July 2011 (click here).
At the end of my final post I said the last chapter had yet to be written. The police have finished their investigation and we are now waiting on the CPS.
None of this will result in any money being recovered!