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Weekend Onboard

We had not planned to go anywhere at the bank holiday weekend. So we were very pleased to welcome David and Sheila onboard, at our berth in Portishead Marina, for drinks on Sunday evening.

The fish and chip shop had a long queue – so we ate some of the ship’s supplies with veg from the co-op. On Monday morning our neighbouring boat went sailing, so I was able to take the photo of Molia from the side.

You can just see our cleaned wind instrument behind the coffee – I need to go up the mast again soon to put it back!

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Checking the Reefs

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.

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First Sail 2021 Season

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.

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Chartplotter Fitted

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:

Fitting the New Chartplotter

New Chart Plotter

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New Deck Shower Covers

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.

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UK Shore Power Sockets

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!

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Preparing the New Chartplotter

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

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New Chartplotter

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:

Fitting the New Chartplotter

Chartplotter Fitted