Up Front

Darren was busy working on the bow and foredeck for much of the day.  He also gave the rear recessed panels a 6th coat of red gloss.

He has become rather innovative and fitted a small brush the the end of the vacuum cleaner hose.  This appears to be doing as good a job as the Tac cloths in cleaning the sanded surface.  Darren had already applied a second coat of light grey gloss to the bow and cratch and was preparing the bow for a second coat of gloss black,.

As you can see, he has also painted one coat of the gloss Graphite paint onto the steel headlamp and horn post along with the hatch cover to the water tank.  The cratch grab handles have been given their first coat of graphite paint.

As the front bulkhead wall has been given two topcoats I should be able to start fitting the TV antenna  and 240v shore power sockets.

TV antenna cable top left and shore power cable top right
The cratch LED strip light could be fitted above the door, however we will wait until the doors are fitted so it can all be varnished together.
Darren painted the first coat of gloss onto the bicycle rack.  When purchased it was covered in spray enamel black but we are changing that to graphite.

One of his last jobs for the day was to give the houdini hatch surrounds a coat of primer.  Andy had the hatch surrounds made locally and he collected them after lunch.

They have been plasma cut from 4mm mild steel plate and have come with the screw holes already countersunk.

You may recall I wrote back here about the problem with the houdini hatches and how there was a gap between the houdini frames and the opening in Waiouru’s roof.  These surrounds will be sealed and machine screwed on top of the existing roof opening.  The Houdini hatches will then snuggly fit inside the surround thereby eliminating the gap.
Nick and I spent much of the day attempting to fit the rear sliding hatch cover.  It needed cutting with a jigsaw and then grinding to get the hatch to fit on top of the brass slides that Nick had already machine screwed onto the steel runners.  However our efforts came unstuck when we realised the brass barrel fittings wouldn’t fit into the gap between the roof and the hatch.  I suggested we look at Tracy’s hatch as she has a Tyler-Wilson shell.  Her boat is less than 100 metres away from the yard.  After looking at Tracy’s hatch setup Nick realised her hatch was on roller bearings rather than a ‘brass on brass’ slide.  Actually Tracy’s hatch is exactly what we specified…. A hatch on roller bearings!  Andy is now going to order some bearings so Nick can finish installing Waiouru’s hatch.  This left us looking for something else to do so I suggested the diesel stove flue. 
The original flue cap on the ceiling had to be replaced because the fixing holes had been drilled in the wrong place.  Whilst we had been waiting for the replacement part the joiners carried on working and Richard had fitted oak trim around the ceiling.  Then we discovered the new cap wouldn’t fit because it was partially obstructed by the oak trim.  The agreed solution was to grind off part of the cap edge which would enable it to butt up against the oak trim.

Nick ground back the stainless steel with the angle grinder and we then fitted the cap to the ceiling. The flue could then be fitted and the stove screwed through the slate hearth to the timber underneath.

The stove is now installed
Of course we can’t light the stove to keep warm because we are inside the paint tent!  I had also mentioned how stiff the tiller arm was to Nick.  He went off and got a 10 tonne jack which he placed under the rudder.  By applying pressure he was able to force the rudder post out of the cup in the skeg (not sure if this is the correct term). The rudder slowly came out… along with a significant amount of rust!  He then cleaned it all up with a wire brush before reinserting the rudder into the cup.  The tiller now swings very freely!
Tomorrow is “change around day” with nine hire boats booked to go out so I don’t anticipate seeing any work being done on Waiouru by Nick.  My assumption is that in Nick’s absence Darren will be keen to paint the cockpit and rear deck.  Andy has given me the switches for the modular 240 & 12v sockets so I may attempt to start fitting them.