Mast and Plumbing

Bruce has been focusing on preparing the mast, stump, and boom for painting.  We moved the pieces into a vacant shed over the Christmas holidays and Bruce got to work with his two sand blasters which proved perfect for the job. During the process he removed corrosion that could have been done only by blasting, and he uncovered a crack in one of the small braces of the mast stump.  I am not too worried about that crack because the welding had not been done on both sides of the material and Pachuca probably sailed around the world with that flaw.  However, Bruce plans to have the crack welded up properly.

Worst area of corrosion before filling and fairing

Small crack on brace join

The corrosion was worst wherever there was a stainless steel or other fitting covering the aluminium, and although one section had pits almost 3 mm deep we so little structural compromise because the mast and its accompanying sections have very thick walls by contemporary standards - more than 5mm - and Bruce would be filling all of the corroded sections with an ultra expensive ($140 for 0.5 Kg) aluminium putty called "Devcon" which would go rock hard and probably be stronger than the original. He then completed most of the sanding then handed over the remaining few hours of that work to a colleague and set off for the south coast with his wife for a well earned 5-day break. 

No welding on the inner side of the brace join

I spent an inordinate amount of time plumbing the water tanks. I ran short by about 5 meters of the good quality half-inch potable water hosing that Bruce had purchased at Henderson Hose and Fittings and the replacement that I purchased at a local chandlery was simply not adequate.  The problem was that the reinforcing was too light and the hosing crimped very easily, which is a problem when one is force to make fairly tight bends.  Another chandlery offered the same inferior hose and a third chandlery had no half inch hosing at all. I returned to Henderson Hose after they resumed business after the holidays and they were out of the hosing, so I walked away with half-inch plastic hosing that is rated "food grade" and will hopefully not produce that "hose taste" one will get from a garden hose, particularly since I will be using very little of it.

I worked on New Years Eve and New Years Day then returned on 4 Jan and by midday 5 Jan had most  of the work done, including the siting and connection of the pressure pump - in fact all of the work except that I must replace a section of hose that crimped at  the end.

The next stage will be to partially fill the tanks to test for leaks and the functioning of the tank selector valve, pressure pump, and manual pumps.  If that goes well I will completely fill the tanks and ensure that there are no leaks.  I will then siphon the water out of the tanks and flush fresh water through the system to remove any residue from the fabrication of the tanks.

Plumbing on starboard side.  Tank selector valve at left.  Tank at right.  Battery will sit above the hosing.

Plumbing on port side.  Tee piece supplies water to manual tap and pressure pump

. Tank at left.

Tomorrow, Monday the 7th, we will begin a well-planned operation to move the mast to the painter where the aluminium will be etched with acid the spray painting will begin almost immediately.