Testing the Houdini surrounds

Yesterday’s post included a description of fitting the plasma cut Houdini hatch surrounds to the roof.  Today there was an opportunity to test the steel surround in the forward hole. 

The plan is to seal and screw down the surround onto the existing hatch.  Then fill and sand off the screw heads before fitting the Houdini hatch.  Today’s test confirmed the Houdini is a snug fit in the new surround.

Meanwhile Darren continued painting.  But first he removed the masking tape from around the recessed rear panels.  This afternoon Andy informed me he would be contacting the sign writer to arrange a mutually suitable time to discuss the graphics.

After he had sanded the bow and stern Darren gave the cockpit its second coat of gloss.

There will probably be an opportunity to fit the majority of the controls into the column tomorrow.

Then he painted the second coat of black gloss onto the bow along with the final coat of graphite onto the bow hatch and post.

It will be dry tomorrow so I should be able to fit the cameras.  The light grey requires another coat and the ‘T’ mooring post has yet to be painted red.

Back at the stern Darren painted a final coat of black and then graphite onto the tiller arm.

I needed to keep myself occupied so I fitted the shore line connector in the bow.

Then the TV antenna connector was fitted. 

The same style of connector was on nb Kelly-Louise and I rather liked it.  So Peter & Margaret, we’ve stolen the idea from you!

We also tried out the flue roof extension for the Lockgate diesel stove.

During today’s weekly meeting with Andy he advised that there was probably 10 days of engineering left and the painting should be finished in a few days.  Richard has also been through Waiouru and made a list of all the outstanding joinery.

The latter half of the afternoon was spent preparing the 240v cables for the new modular socket system.  That will be another task we start tomorrow.