Update on Painting

The painting of SONFLOWER is going really well. The painter is now putting on the sixth coat, the first of the top coats.

The boat was taken back to bare metal and rust treated. A couple of perforations were found in the steel which were repaired by the skilled craftsmen at Tooley's who seem to be able to tackle any boat building tasks: well they have built boats in the past!  Here is a little bit of welding done to repair a perforation at the foot of the gunwhale near the gas locker.

Plate repair at gunwhale end

This had been letting water into the engine bay.

Bare metal

More bare metal

Shiny bow

The full paint treatment is:
Above the rubbing strake:

• rust treatment
• primer
• undercoat 1
• undercoat 2
• top coat 1
• top coat 2
• finishing coat
• lining
• sign writing/graphics

And, of course the hull beneath the top rubbing strake will be blacked with bitumastic paint.

I did discuss sand blasting and epoxy coating. But Tooley's do not offer this at present. That the epoxy might also need bitumastic protection was also suggested. So epoxy to stop pitting of the steel and bitumastic to stop the epoxy being rubbed off or coming away in sheets.  I will continue with the age old treatment. Bitumastic to stop pitting.

Pottering

It is good to have the time and freedom just to potter.

Fenny Compton Marina were good to their word. They opened the Gas Enclosure exactly at 10am and we exchanged an empty 13g Propane for a full one. The chandlery is quite reasonable and we needed a chimney so I took advantage of it and bought a cheap one to get us by untul I can do a proper job on an insualted double skin with Twin copper bands and a red band too. I also invested in a cooley hat but  I couldn't get any brass chain to link it all together and stop it blowing off into the cut. Another thing for the list.

I stoked the fire, (alight all night I proudly say so I haven't lost the knack) and then the sealing rope fell off the door. The Best Mate reminded me that we had some of teh glue for that under the sonk with the sove blacking. So I got it out, opened the top and the brush stayed in the bottle with the hardened cement.

So I went back to the chandlery and purchased another 25 ml bottle of glue for £6.50! But there is no price on safety and poor seals mean the SILENT KILLER CO could escape during the sleeping hours. Too risky even with a new CO alarm (which I must get round to fitting sometime!)

Next job on the lost was to fix a tidy screen to hide the clothes hanging rail. Then a curtain rail for the shower room window. Htere was a sunny oeriod so I went round the windows with  Capt Tolley's Creeping Crack sealer becasue there is ecidence of water ingress from quite a few of them. (Jobs were flying by) A quick break for lunch and then next I turned my knees to the floor boards and laid carpet tiles on the shower room floor. Quite a lot of trimming and fitting was required and a few part ties were wasted before I got it all right to boith my and the Best Mate's satisfaction. It was not a particularly easy job.

Lots of gash wood from the moat now needs processing as firewood. All things to keeo us busy.

Now to relax.after a very satisfying day. A glass of Corbiere is in order. Or may be even two!

Leaks! More leaks.

Yes, this time on the waste pipes from the galley and bathroom sinks. As I walked down the boat this morning I smelt a familiar aroma. Drains! A quick test indicated that the galley sink waste was running slowly.After emptying the cupboard the rodding eye plug was easily removed and the black slimy deposits that had accumulated cleared away. A quick flush and all seemed right as rain again here.

The Best Mate had told me earlier that there was water under the bathroom vanity basin. I investigated and found dampness on the waste. Here the arrangement is completely different. No u-bend and rodding eye. Just a 1.1/2"BSP end cap screwed very tightly onto the pipework. I failed in my attempt to remove it. The waste is flowing well enough so I resorted to self-amalgamating tape. OK for a quick job!

So, two more leaks fixed that could contribute to the "water-in-the-bilge" problem. I am sure there are many more!

Matt from Tooley's asked yesterday whether I had any leaks. I told him I didn't know! I think he wanted a check on the diesel leak they had fixed. As far as I know, that is still OK.

The roof light still leaks though. I have to work on that next. One thing at a time.

Back to Routine

The leak" is fixed.

I haven't paid the bill yet but I have had a service done on the engine as well. There were a few things found on inspection:

a) The coupling bolts were loose! Nylock nuts needed replacement.

b) Gearbox oil filler cap unsecrewed! Re-tightened.

c) Air filter hanging off by the rocker box vent tube! New rubber sleeve fitted so that the air filter pan could grip the inlet manifold entry boss.

All in all worth having Tooley's man have a look. Potentially all the above could have caused serious difficulties. Its not too good if your drive fails! Nor if the gearbox oil disappears. Nor if oil continually flows from the rockerbox vent into the oily bund under the engine. It was a rocker box gasket leak that has led to another boat on our nooeings being towed to Tooley's after an engine seize. Oil is pumped up to the rocker box and is supposed to drain through the engine to the sump. A leak at this juncture causes a severe lack of oil!

So we are ready for winter. Antifresze checked, clean oil, no deisel leak, full tanks and clean filter.

"Dusty" came by this week too, so we are stocked up with coal.

Now all we need is the snow. No! Cancel that order, we can so without that!

What a waste!

We have a 70mm diameter waste in the sink. It has an integral overflow. The plastic screw that holds it all together was suffering from terminal fatigue and failed. This made the stuff in the undersink cupboard wet.

In order to replace the broken component viz a plastic screw which is no longer available (hopefuly because the designers of the things found that they degrade and embrittle in the arduous conditions of a sink waste) I had to buy two waste kits. One was a 70 mm waste and the other one an 80mm waste with overflow entry.

So does anybody want an 80mm waste kit without an overflow?

Now the waiting.....

No pictures...the camera gave a message 'that operation cannot be completed' and gave up.

The surveyor did a thorough job. SONFLOWER was duly hit with a chipping hammer outside and inside and declared sound enough to be insurable.

There are some advisory points like rust treatment, four additional anodes to be fitted, engine maintenance, bilge pump reinstatement.

However....the ballast in the boat is aparently unecessary and the counter is about four inches lower in the water than it really should be. This means that the weed hatch standpipe was designed to give four inches more freeboard than it has. This means that there is a potential risk of sinking if the back end of the boat gets full of water and the weed hatch joint seal leaks. The surveyor recommends that an extra four inches are put on the weed hatch or ballast is removed. The latter would mean taking up a lot of the floor as the 'ballast' in her is made up of great big precast concrete kerb stones. These have also kept bilge water back and made the bilge damp. A recipe for corrosion. And there has been some.


The good news is that the surveyor was confident that the boat will last my lifetime.

The painting isn't a waste of money then!

The waiting is for the report.