At Last!

The Hempel blacking arrived first thing this morning so whilst Jan prepared to go shopping in Newbury to replenish our depleted stocks of fruit & veg I got into my boilersuit and prepared to apply the final coat.  Or is this going to be like the spray foam?

To my surprise the top coat of black was much thinner than the previous coats and went on rather easily.  The biggest problem was visibility.  It was a very overcast day which made painting black on black rather difficult.  Hopefully the entire area was covered.  There was only just enough blacking remaining for Darren to paint around the tunnel bands.  But it is now done!

Nick had previously run the wiring for the rear navigation light so Darren decided this would be his next task.  We discussed the proposed location of the light on the port side as this is where the wiring was situated.  The problem was the light fitting would foul the rear door unless it was positioned almost at deck level (left arrow below).  This isn’t a satisfactory position because it’s the ideal location to place your foot when boarding or alighting.

Then I realised the port door had the vertical weather strip on it (right arrow) which made it wider than the starboard door.  If we moved the light to the starboard side there would probably be more room!  The wires would need to be extended but that’s not an onerous task.

My logic was correct and the navigation light fitted much better on the starboard side.  Once it was wired Darren tested it was working.

Nick had an idea.  Waiouru has a deck light inside the cockpit.  Why not configure the Empirbus system to turn on the rear navigation light when the cockpit deck light is turned on.  It was actually rather easy to reconfigure the Empirbus system to make this happen.  So now we have a deck light on the rear deck and in the cockpit.  The next logical step is to configure the system so both lights can be turned on using the remote key fob.  We’ll be able to walk to Waiouru in the dark and press the remote to illuminate the rear deck and disable the alarm

Darren also changed over the coloured glass in the bow navigation lights so Waiouru now has the correct red and green.  He then went on to fit the side steps to the cabin walls.

Because we are having chrome rather than brass the machine screws were stainless steel.  Darren used the standard technique of drilling and then threading the holes before squirting a small amount of construction adhesive into the threaded hole to act as a seal.  The folding side steps were then fixed on either side of Waiouru.

After the side steps had been fitted he went on to fit the ‘Fairleads’ for the centrelines.

The same technique was used but this time the machine screws were 4mm instead of the 5mm used on the side steps.

Darren then took a 12ft boat pole and 8ft boat hook from the chandlery so we could experiment where to locate the pole and plank rack on Waiouru’s roof.  Nothing seemed to fit! 

(blurred photo!)

The only location which was almost suitable was immediately in front of the satellite dome on the starboard (right) side.  However I wasn’t happy with the location as we plan to have a wider than normal plank and it would foul the area planned for the solar panels.

I then had a radical rethink.  We don’t actually need the three items to be co-located.  Actually it’s possible to purchase single pole holders.  The solution is to position the 12ft ash pole towards the bow and the 8ft boat hook at the stern on separate (single holders).  The plank will actually be two sections of a folding aluminium ladder and will go on the centreline of the roof immediately in front of the mobile phone aerial.

Whilst all of this was occurring Nick had made the second bow pipe radiator and fitted it into the port wardrobe.  He also fitted a small radiator under the workstation desk in the back cabin.  Meanwhile Richard had measured and started making the cratch board from ¾” marine plywood.  Whilst I found a spare 20 minutes to glue oak plugs into the porthole lining screw holes.

Andy informed us the tent will come off Waiouru on Saturday so we need to get her weatherproof before that occurs!