Tidying Up

I went on the boat today and tidied the wiring for the instruments up in preparation for the hutch for the VHF being installed. The wiring has to now run to the roof of the cabin, so I did some work to extend it. I also added more epoxy to the wooden battens the hutch screws into. They should be pretty firmly attached to the roof once the latest epoxy has had a few days to set.

I'll post photos once the VHF is located in it's new home.

Thanks to David (see comments below) I've found I don't need to renew my VHF Shorts range Certificate. It's for life!

Just in case anyone needs a cheap course, Portsmouth Marine Training do a course at the moment for £75, then there's the RYA Exam fee of £60 on top.  But £75 quid is cheap compared to some.

As an aside, the 19th is the date I first met Mrs SkintSailor. We were exchanging emails and I was due to go to Southampton for my SRC course and nipped over to Portsmouth to see her. Our first date... lol. A typical bloke's way of remembering the date, nothing romantic involved at all. :-)

God, that was back in the days I was running this gas-guzzling beast:

How times (and myself) have changed.

I also brought the Depth sounder home as it's been getting a bit intermittent. I had a session re-soldering some of the iffy joints on the circuit board this evening which should hopefully solve the issue.

I also brought the volt meter I use to check the battery voltage home and installed it on the hutch.

After painting it this week, the hutch is now ready to install.

Also today I got a new gas bottle for the boat. That 4.5Kg Butane bottle has lasted almost 4 years!

While Removing the depth sounder and the volt meter, I measured up to make a new plywood flap, so the depth sounder can be flipped out into the companionway, but the flap won't go across the whole companionway. Instead it should be less than half, so it won't block the way.

I also offered the rudder I bought up to the stern of Jim's boat. It is definitely big enough. The profiled part of the rudder will end up sticking down further that the keels. I marked to position of the Gudgeon and Pintle as well as marking the top of the rudder. The top will need cutting down a bit to make sure the tiller fits under the pushpit. I just need to find the fittings and a way of connecting the tiller to the rudder.