Diesel, LPG, Lettering, Cockpit Drains

I arrived Monday morning to find gentle winds from the NE, ideal putting the new lettering on the hull.  I left a message for Nathan at Go Graphics and one of his people arrived an hour later and did a splendid job in remarkably short time.

New lettering

Dominic of Full on Gas visited and finished the task  of replacing the boat's LPG gas lines. He mounted the selector switch, reduction valve and solenoid assembly on top of the cylinder case (built of 18 mm marine ply and very strong) where the holes and bolts were already in position, then connected the new lines then checked the entire system for leaks using an LPG tank borrowed from Bruce.  (There were no leaks.)   He finished off by making sure that the stove and gas detector were working OK then officially certified the system on line.  Although the gas system had never failed me, we reckoned that the lines were originals from 1983 and it was time to change them.

One of the requirements from Dominic was that the ancient and badly scratched acrylic companionway sliding door be replaced with one that had ventilation holes.  Bruce took the old door to a business that made a beautiful replacement from polycarbonate rather than acrylic, with holes drilled at an angle so that rain would not pass through.   The view from inside of the boat through that new door was amazing and Bruce put the idea into my head of replacing all of Pachuca's windows with polycarbonate.  Looking through the existing windows is like looking through severe cataracts must be.  Yes, they are great for privacy, but wouldn't it be nice to look at the ocean going by from inside the cabin.

New polycarbonate doorway

Great view to the outside

By then Bruce had noticed something disturbing: the thru-hull fittings for the  cockpit drains were both loose: we could rotate them very easily by hand.  Bruce noted that the fittings were hard against the fiberglass hull on the inside rather than  on backing plats, and he reckoned that the fittings no longer had adequate caulking.  This was serious and had to be rectified, and I thanked  Bruce for pointing out the problem.

We enlisted the help of the mechanic from M and J engineering who had arrived to align the boat's propeller shaft and Bruce telephoned Zelko to fabricate the wooden backing plates.  The clamps and hoses were removed with little trouble, as were the elbows and ball valves.  However, removing the thru-hull fittings was very difficult, primarily the port one which had a hopelessly frozen nut and had to be removed from the outside.

Zelko doing a spell at the flange

Backing plates prepared by Zelko on short notice

Beautiful 316 stainless steel

Thru hull fittings in place

That required patient work with an angle grinder to make small cuts in the outer flange to yield small wedges which could then be lifted with a hammer and screwdriver, all without damaging the GRP hull.

By the end of the day the thru hull fittings were in position, with the use of Sikaflex 291 as a bedding compound and on the threads.  A small amount 2-part "Mapoxy" was used on the port side as bedding to repair minor scratches left on the gel coat as a result of removing the old fitting.  Bruce was unexpectedly tied up with another problem on the next day, Friday, and we expect to attach the elbows, ball valves, and hoses on Monday.

While doing this work Bruce noticed that the inlet to the muffler ("pong box") had a crack that had been repaired sort of by someone probably in the USA and he sent it out for repair. 

I occupied my time on Friday painting two bulkheads with Northane 2-part linear polyurethane paint, with 5% Northane brushing thinner.

Now that I have the  "feel" of 2-part painting again I hope to paint the galley shelves and other areas whenever I get spare time.