What a Gas

The gas line was run through the cabin today.  First Andy threaded it through plastic hose and then it was clipped under the gunwale and across the rear bulkhead at floor level.

Galley end for the oven and hob

Secured under the gunwale

The gas line is routed from under the port gunwale to the floor and across the rear bulkhead before rising up the starboard side.

Andy and I discussed, and then rejected, the idea of routing the gas line through the engine compartment. Instead, it will go through the rear bulkhead in the vicinity of the left arrow.  This will take it directly into the gas locker.

Richard, the engineer, was manufacturing two steel mountings for the Hurricane heater.  Whilst he went to get the heater I used a wire brush on the angle grinder to clean off all the surface rust.  He then welded the mounts onto the swim before giving them a coat of primer.

Yesterday Andy and I had a brief discussion regarding the positioning of the Hurricane header tank.  The tank has to be higher than the heater and there’s no room inside the engine compartment.  Andy thought it would have to go in the back cabin.  Both Jan and I were reluctant to have it there as we’d previously had a bad experience with a header tank on a hire boat that had been located inside the cabin.  It had overflowed and we didn’t realise there was a problem until we noticed wet carpet in the back cabin (the bilge was full of water).

This morning I came up with an alternative.  The port locker in the cockpit has a scalloped shape at the front to allow the rear cabin exterior door to fully open.  The area isn’t much use but would be ideal for the header tank.  So that is where I’ve mounted it.

The filler cap on the top of the tank is accessible and I’ve cut a hole through the base of the locker for the outlet connection.

The outlet is almost directly above the Hurricane heater so that worked out rather well.  Wilson-Tyler had also made the sides of the semi-trad area with a double skin of steel plate.  This enabled me to drill and tap the wall of the locker before securing the header tank with 4mm stainless steel machine screws.

Meanwhile the joiners (Richard & James) made a start on manufacturing the surrounds for the Lockgate diesel stove and display cabinet.

The stove has to be mounted off the floor on a plinth to clear the sanitation hose and other plumbing running down the side of the hull at floor level.

Rather than waste the space underneath the stove, they are going to manufacture a pull-out storage drawer.  They have also installed the left wall of the display cabinet. We have decided the cabinet will have an 8” hinged door at the top.  This will conceal all the power sockets and cables. The bottom 16” of the cabinet will also have an oak hinged door.  The remained of the cabinet will have a glass hinged door and adjustable glass shelves.

Oh, and this is the hospital silencer.

Part of me still thinks it’s large.  But another portion of my brain tells me it has compressed the full length of a car exhaust system into 30 inches.

Richard the engineer now needs to start manufacturing mountings for the silencer, batteries and calorifier.  We also need some lengths of flat steel welded into the engine compartment to support the cables.