Nightmares!!

Published on 22/07/2021

As we continue on with our essential maintenances, we come across various nightmares which we overcome in true Salty Lass fashion.

Boat wiring

The less that is said about our previous owners electrical workmanship the better, sticking two bits of wiring into a block and then covering from head to toe in PVC tape although will do, is not exactly what basic amateur let alone professional.

Washing up on the hard

Seeing as you are out of the water, then the only way to do the washing up is to use a bucket, lower it over the side and wash up in the sinks in the toilet. We did try using paper plates and cups, but it seemed very wasteful so better to waste a little time than all those resources needed to make paper plates

New regulator

Fitting a new gas regulator for the external tank was one of the quickest jobs to do, but the flame on the gas cooker afterwards was fantastic, so well worth doing

New depth gauge

The new head for the depth gauge arrived, but it did not work, however with this device it needs to be in the water

Fitting the life raft

We spent our You Tube earnings on a cradle for the life raft, however it came with a host of issues, because the securing nuts were not concentric with the holes in the cradle, so they actually removed the tread of the screws, we had nuts that were different sizes, a securing bracket that was no good for deck fitting and bolts that were malformed. Both Beverley and I were not happy, however rather than take it back and spend time organising all that we decided to make the best of it. So we used some mahogany strips of wood that we have and drilled a long hole that went through the wood, through the cradle and into the hatch cover. It took a lot of doing because the stainless steel cradle blunted a few of our drill bits but soon it was done to our satisfaction. One of the little tips that we shared along the way was to put tape on the drill bit so that we knew how far to drill down.

Hydrostatic release

We used webbing that wrapped around the cradle and this was used to attach the life raft to the cradle. This then went to the hydrostatic release, that has a knife in that cuts the rope if the boat sinks and the life raft is still attached to the boat.

Anti-fowl

As well as painting the keel, we decided to paint the boot strip with a commercial ablative anti-fowl. So more preparation that made me look like a Smurf, but it all needed doing.

It was hard work but at the end if three weeks we had done the following jobs

ENGINE