Sail Lockers Finished

I have finished repainting the sail lockers, except for a second coat of varnish onto the woodwork this afternoon.

The job took at least twice longer than expected because I underestimated the amount of scraping and sanding that would be required.  Largely as a result of this problem I wound up laying 3 coats of paint on most of the surfaces.

Case Ready for New Battery in Australia

One of the pleasant surprises was the sturdiness of the shelf supporting the anchor windlass battery: fiberglass over plywood well fiberglassed to the sides of the locker.  I wish that my other batteries were this well supported.  I replaced the four screws holding down the battery case with thru bolts and fitted saddles on each side of the case as anchors for the strapping to hold down the lid and thus contain the battery in the event of a rollover.  The battery case will remain empty until after my return to Australia.  The leads between the battery and the windlass have a wire cross section of 35 mm sq, which corresponds to AWG 2.  According to one table,  this will support 200 amps at 12 V over the distance of 25 ft, the round trip distance between the battery and the windlass.

V Berth Storage Area

The triangular section between the berths is for storage, which has to now included a fairly heavy Danforth kedging anchor and its rode.  I may move that tackle to a quarter berth locker to further lighten the front of the boat.  There is a panel that fits over this storage section, rendering the entire area flat and suitable for mattresses.