There isn’t a lot to show for this week’s efforts.

 

It has taken most of the week to get the starboard side of the hull cleaned up and painted and it is now waiting for the water tank to be reinstalled which is in the process of being refurbished. Hopefully, that should be completed later this week.

 

Starboard hull freshly painted ready for the water tank:

 

 

The intermediate shaft has returned from Comer Engineering and its new smooth quiet-running bearings made me realise that at least one bearing in the prop shaft badly needs replacing as well. Seeing as Liam from Comer had done such a good job on the intermediate shaft, I asked him to come and have a look at the prop shaft and the large sprocket that thus far has refused to budge from the top of the rudder post. His verdict is that both jobs can be done so, fingers crossed, these tasks will get done this week as well.

 

Another project I have been working on this last week is modifying the bilge pump arrangement. Previously, the three bilge pumps (one electric and two manual) have evacuated over the side via hoses that come up through the port side deck adjacent the cockpit. I have never been happy with this unconventional arrangement as, while it is effective and avoids holes in the hull, it is plain ugly. While removing the bilge pumps in order to clean the bilges, I found that there was corrosion around the through-deck fittings. Consequently, this has motivated me to at long last change the set-up. I have removed through-deck fittings and welded a new piece of steel into the deck closing off the old holes. Now my plan is to have the discharges from the three bilge pumps exit through one through-hull fitting that I intend to install under the counter as high above the waterline as I can make it. However, combining three bilge pumps through one discharge, while minimising the number of holes in the hull, has its problems, namely making sure that the discharge from one bilge pump doesn’t simply circulate water back into the bilge through one or more of the other bilge pumps. My solution is to make a bilge pump manifold which is basically a box which the three hoses from each of the bilge pumps enter at the top and with one discharge hose that drains from its bottom. I will also install an in-line valve on each of the bilge pumps so that they can each be isolated one from the other as well as simple non-return valves over each of the discharges into the manifold box. Hopefully this will obviate any risks with the new set up. Thus far, as Kate has pointed out, the manifold looks more like a bird feeder than anything nautical, so I won’t be posting any photos of it for now.

 

Hopefully next week I will have more to show for all my efforts.

 

All is well.