The morning started with a visit by Peter, the yard manager, and Dan from Division II who works here in the yard. Dan was tasked to work fixing the dings in our nacelle from the anchor/chain, glassing the ding in our keel and building up a broader base for the anchor roller. He was also tasked with repairing a small, cosmetic crack near our starboard stern steps.
While they were discussing the work, the rigger showed up with our spliced lines and to do the rigging inspection. Almost everything is ok. There is a little rough spot on the crane into which our main halyard runs – this is a job I can easily do. A little more complex is problem at the top of our forestay. The tee shaped attachment is sitting unevenly and taking all the pressure on one arm. Given that we’re taking this opportunity to fix what we can we’ve asked him to come back and fix this. It’s a little more involved and I would prefer a professional rigger to do the work.
Helen and I next took a trip back into town. We spent a good amount of time back in Arthur’s Emporium looking for stuff we needed as well as stuff we needed but didn’t yet know. I managed to find a small amount of solder which I’ve been looking for for ages – round here most stores sell it in quantities that would take me a thousand years to use. I also found some ‘suckers’ which I’d learned from John on Sea Mist could be stuck on the end of wire and then used to grease the balls on our through-hull valves. Helen found some scrapers which she was specifically lookling for. We did pick up quite a few more things that will come in useful but not what we set out to get.
At a car parts store we picked up some lens polish for our windows project (I’ll explain more later). We next visited the upholsters to pick up the back rest for our helm seat and to pay our bill. Last stop was Bunnings to see if the plexiglass for our windows project had arrived. It hadn’t even though it should have arrived the day before. We later received a phone call to say we won’t get them until Monday.
Back at the boat we grabbed lunch and then got back to work. For Helen that meant scraping the tape off the water line that had been put on for the sanding. That was what she needed the scrapers for. I set about greasing the through-hull valves and putting the new plastic nipples on. When Helen finished the water line she set about the windows, a project I will now explain in a little more detail.
Lagoon catamarans have the nice big windows in the hull providing fantastic views of the anchorage you’re in from your berth. For privacy, the outside of the windows are covered in loads of tiny white dots which create a one way system. At night time we have curtains for full privacy. Unfortunately, the tiny white dots degrade over time and gradually smear and wash off. On some boats the dots seem to last years. On Dignity, they haven’t. Now they’re an unsightly mess.
One other 420 owner solved the problem and published how he did it in great detail. It involves washing off the dots then sanding down the outside of the window with ever decreasing grit size sandpaper – starting with a grit size sufficient to deal with any scratches that may be there (we have none). After the finest sandpaper the windows are finished off with lens polish – that’s where that comes in. A new frame has to be painted around the edge of the window to hide the internal window frame.
On the inside, we have to make plexiglass inserts the exact shape of the windows. This needs to be done precisely and tidily. The standard sheet sizes are quite a bit bigger than needed so we can practice breaking off pieces and making round corners before doing the real thing. The final thing to do is to put perforated window film over the plexiglass to create the one way effect.
So Helen started on cleaning the outside of the windows and then researching online for a source of the perforated paper. This last piece has been ongoing for the last few days. We’ve visited a few stores in town and looked online. 3M make a product and we’ve contacted them. They responded in detail saying there’s a patent conflict in Oceania causing them not to offer their product in the region but they sent us contacts for others who might. We have a few leads to go on and Helen progressed this further.
After finishing all but the genset through hulls I tackled them. I decided to remove the intake valve to give it a thorough clean up as it looked like there had been some leaks in the past corroding the outside. It also allowed me to fully inspect it at close quarters. It was fine. I ran into trouble trying to remove the output through hull. No matter what tool I used I could not budge the huge nut holding it on the inside. I mentioned this to Dan who had learned a trick. He brought the yards grinder and cut some slots into the outside of the through hull and them hammered the outside flange segments inwards. They snapped off one by one and by the time this was done the inside nut had been knocked off the surface. Job done. In the full light of day the through hull could be fully inspected. The thread had gone through in a couple of places creating two small holes. The inside of the throughhull had been painted over with some sort of sealant. Not in our time. This must have happened while Dignity was in charter. Scary. But it does support the notion that the cause of the corrosion we’ve been seeing was way back. In those days the boat spent a lot of time connected to shore power and this is one of the most common situations for galvanic corrosion on boats. While we can’t be certain it does suggest the risk of this recurring is in the past and not present today. Chances are my replacement of all the nipples is an over reaction but I’d rather be safe than sorry.
Throughout the day the stainless steel guys would show up from time to time measuring the nacelle, checking wooden templates, etc. At one point we saw a sneak preview of the front plate which looked to be a very good fit. We’re looking forward to seeing the final result.
It was now near the end of the day but time for a little more work. I replaced the slider over the helm with Helen’s help. We’d had that off to clean the stainless steel and replace all the screws which had become rusty. In putting it back up I put in some sealant to prevent future water ingress from above. Helen removed all the old sealant from the forward section of the covers over our lines. The cover had come loose during the power wash (probably a good thing) so we need to reattach and reseal it. I attached the helm seat back, cleaned up the genset through hull valves then tidied away all the tools which were around the boat.
That was about it, bar what I’ve forgotten.
Lights at the end of the tunnel come in many forms. In this case, this morning we’ve reached a milestone. My projects list, described previously, now only requires one page to print.
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