Travels and boat care
The weekend 22-23 May featured some reasonably strong winds. In the end we chose Saturday for an afternoon shakedown sail to check that the reefing points work.
I can report that they both worked fine – and we needed them!
That is what Tim calls spicy! But Molia is so good natured – we made good speed in comfort with the reefs in.
So only 2 things not working at all today. The skipper’s pre-departure checklist, and the anemometer at the masthead.
The first problem became evident a few metres from our berth when the engine stopped. Tim earned a second Molia mug by leaping for one of the new pontoons to hold us, only to be almost immediately informed by the skipper that the engine works just fine if you remember to turn the fuel on!
There was never enough wind to turn the anemometer cups – we hope they are just stuck and will come loose in the next gale.
Our new chartplotter works really well. The autopilot is working to steer the boat, but when it is put on standby it really doesn’t want to let go of the wheel! I think I need to adjust the belt tension. For some reason the crew did not want to try out the revamped deck shower.
The rest of the trip was very enjoyable, included coffee and Garibaldi biscuits – and it did not even rain on us!
Many thanks to today’s crew.
Our deck shower head sprang a leak from its handle – I guess it had been dropped once too often.
This shower head is not identical, but is a perfect fit.
TREM shower head with press-button valve and 1/2 inch BSP thread.
See also: New Deck Shower Covers
The power supply is threaded through the starboard side of the wheel guard rail and then inside the wheel pedestal. There is a pipe inside the pedestal high enough to prevent water accidentally getting inside the cabin. The pipe acts as a cable duct into the space below the wheel pedestal. Luckily this accessible from a panel on the ceiling of the aft cabin.
From here the power supply is routed with many other cables around the aft hatch in the aft locker, forward in another pipe duct to Molia’s main electrical distribution board.
The chartplotter is wired into the ‘centrale navigation’ switch on the panel (third from the bottom of the right-hand bank).
The completed chartplotter in its pod.
This post is a continuation of:
Supplier: Brit Boat Parts (at Bourne End on the river Thames).
The shower head cover was easy to replace. I removed the old cover, cleaned off the sealant and resealed the new unit in place. The tap had to be detached so that it could be threaded into the new unit.
The completed covers, looking much better.
Remember the old ones?
We also replaced the shower head.
Molia was lifted back into the water today. Many thanks to the Portishead Marina crew and Steve for your help today.
As Molia was built in France, her shore power sockets are all continental round-pin. We have decided to replace at least some of these with UK square-pin sockets to reduce the number of adapters that we need to carry onboard.
As a trial I ordered one set: socket, cover and wall box made by Berker, from Furneaux Riddal.
In the end, removing the old continental socket was not possible without breaking it! The plastic had gone brittle since Molia was built.
Fitting the new socket was straight-forward. The screw holes don’t quite line up; but there is enough space to get the new screws in, and the old holes do not show. Overall this looks good.
Molia has 4 shore power sockets in total.
I think we might replace some of the others as well!
Preparing to cut the hole in the Scanpod front panel for the chartplotter. The plywood will keep the panel flat in the drill stand.
Cutting the corner radius – I still managed to miss the mark with this hole! (I was able to correct the centre later as this was the smallest drill bit for this hole.)
Stepping up the drill bit size to get close to centre bit of the hole saw.
You have to go really slowly with the hole saw – or the plastic just melts!
Cutting done and cleaned up a bit. I took the trouble to smooth off the cut surface with 180-600-1200 grits wet and dry. It is all ready to bolt in the chartplotter.
Step complete! The corner bolts have little rubber covers to fit next, to hide the screws.
I took the entire wheel guard rail off Molia (including the compass) so I could cut this crucial hole in the stainless steel in the workshop. Elongated the hole slightly (left) so we can get a connector plug in.
Previous work: New Chartplotter
Continued as: Chartplotter Fitted
We are planning a new chartplotter on Molia to be positioned at the helm station.
We are looking at the Raymarine Element Series (not too expensive) which has physical buttons. In my opinion a touch screen at the helm station in UK weather and sea conditions could be problematic!
The S7 is small enough to fit into a rail-mounted pod. We have limited space at the helm station on Molia, so we checked out the Scanstruct Rail Mount SPR-8-RM which can sit on top of our existing wheel guard rail.
To try this out, I made a cardboard mock-up of the rail pod. We wanted to check that the unit will be comfortably visible sitting at the helm. Here is Jo holding the mock-up in place; looks OK!
The work continues in:
We are replacing the entire holding tank discharge seacock assembly with new DZR fittings.
I ground off the old skin fitting from the outside using a cordless angle grinder – there was no way any of the old seacock was going to come apart!
Once the old brass was all ground away, the old seacock lifted out easily. I cleaned all the old sealant from around the hole with multi solve.
Next – and this is important, I dry assembled the new brassware. It was at this point that I discovered I had missed an elbow joint when I made my original order! The assembly has to wiggle past Molia’s fuel tank. ASAP Supplies to the rescue again! – I had a second elbow in 24 hours – top job.
Attached the new skin fitting today – leaving it to dry before doing anything else.
Once I had all the parts, I put them together one at a time with the Loctite 572 in the shape that I had practised during the dry assembly.
I did also take the opportunity, while the locker woodwork was removed, to give it all a new coat of varnish back at the workshop.
With the new seacock assembled, the next step was to fit the new hoses to the top and bottom of the holding tank. This is not an easy job! The 2 inch hose is very stiff and fits tightly between the deck, tank and the new seacock.
I replaced the old webbing strap (which had rust stains) and its plastic buckles and bridges with stainless steel.
The new fittings are from GS Products, and are really smart – although in the end you cannot see the bridges as they end up behind the tank and also behind the plywood front panel.
Lastly, a shout out to Chris of the ‘Sailing Britaly’ blog on YouTube for his excellent recommendations and guidance on this task. This video teaches you everything I have mentioned above, and includes lots more good advice as well.
Molia