Mast Foot / Step

After re-sealing the Jib tracks, I noticed some water coming in from the mast step.

Cue the crane to suspend the mast so I can reseal the deck step :)

Jib / Genny Tracks

I finally found the major source of water ingress, the Jib tracks!

With the help of my good friend Ant, we lifted, cleaned, sealed and re-fitted them.

Luckily that night there was a downpour, no leaks :)

Lines led Aft

We've led the main halyard, topping lift and furling line aft as they are the PITA ones to get at!

Reefing can be done from the companion way, or worst case but leaning over !

Dusk

So many things to post after the work over the past few months!

Arrived at the yard to do some work just after sunset.

Lorenz GPS and NMEA

I managed to get a Lorenz chart plotter and Raymarine DSC Radio for decent prices on the world famous flea market, however there were no instructions available for the plotter, and for once there was scant little information about it on t'web.

After finding the menu settings on the Lorenz and discovering that it was sending out NMEA V1.X sentences, I then looked up the communication protocol and found out it is based on RS232, i.e. ground and +5 V signalling.

So all I had to was strip back the wires, plug in the scope and test each one to find the +5V signals. Second attempt gave me this:

Now I had found the signal wire, I just had to hook it all up:

And sure enough the radio detects the GPS information :)

New Cushion Covers.

The old Cushion covers were vinyl, and i have never liked Vinyl!

Additionally, one of the cushions was stolen whilst the boat was in the yard before I bought her, and so as I had to replace one I decided to make new cushions.

After buying a bargain ( love a bargain ) sewing machine for a tenner on t'bay, I set about watching videos on how to sew cushion covers... here's the pics !!!

Compass Find

Unfortunately 'Penny' as SWMBO has nicknamed her doesn't have a compass fitted, so I've been watching t'bay for a while now hoping against what seemed like all odds to find a bulkhead mount compass at a sensible price ( read cheap! ).

In the worst case scenario I was prepared to buy one new ( as luckily I don't have to replace the Depth Sounder ). All of a sudden, not one but two turned up within a matter or hours, the same model - Plastimo Mini Contest.

This was perfect, the only question was would they go for silly money?

Well to cut a long story short, I managed to get one for a reasonable price, knowing that it wasn't perfect.

It arrived quickly, but the first observation was that 2 of the mounting bolts were missing and one was broken off in the unit.



After turning the bolt, it turns out it's a actually threaded rod... and not only that I have some stainless bolts that are the same thread.



Hacksaw to the rescue..



Drilled out the stuck bolt and now there are 4 mounting bolts where they should be :)



Next unscrewed the light as it wasn't working...




Bulb totally blown, but it's the same size as a 5mm LED, so a quick search of t'bay later and for the princely sum of £1.42 I have a 12v LED installed.