Job #9 - Cockpit locker lids - measurements/prep

If I put the details here I won't lose them...  😏

So about 33mm, but add 8mm for the blank bit at the start of the ruler, and also add a couple of mil for the reverse coaming on the cockpit sides..  so I need a hinge where the first hole is either over 45mm (so the nut for the through bolt will sit over the lip), or less than 20mm (so the nut will sit in the gulley)...   the hatch cover is 12mm and I don't think there's enough thickness to rely on screws rather than nut/bolt..

Looking at that line of dirt at the bottom - I'd say someone in the past has used gaffer tape as a hinge...

60 days to go and the jobs have started..

...at bleeding last...

Nothing earth shattering but it was a warm'ish sunny day and with no other jobs planned I got down to the sailing club and started work on some of the list....

First on my list was to strip clean and re-grease the wheels on the tender launching trolley - funnily enough not a job on the list but I knew I would probably have to do it following the make do and mend session [clicky], and a trip down the other week showed the wheels had seized again...  Eventually managed to remove the split pins (which are the work of the devil - I can guarantee you any split pin in a marine/salt environment will be welded into the hole within half an hour of putting it there!) had to drill one side out, removed the washers holding the wheels on, whacked said wheels with a hammer and off they came...  cleaned up, re-greased, and replaced, and they seem a lot better - I think I probably need an alternative to the waterproof grease, which seemed like a good idea, but may be too thick...

So that "10 minute job" took most of the morning... 😏

Once that was done I then turned to finishing off the hatch covers (job #9), with mixed results - for reasons known only to myself I decided to trim the overhang at the front of the cover on the starboard side hatch - ran a pen along the edge of the hatch opening underneath the cover to get a line but didn't notice that the front of the hatch is very slightly bowed - result - hatch cover now too small...  idiot...  left the other as was, other than to trim the corners - taken it home and I'll use it as a template to cut another. Lesson learned....

One thing I did spot before drilling/cutting though, was that the hinges I'd bought were not suitable - the hatch opening was a gulley (for rain water drainage) and then a raised lip (which the hatch cover sits on) and then the opening...  for the hinges I have, the first screw hole on the tang holding the cover were too close to the actual hinge - meaning that any nut/bolt would foul the raised lip... just need to find some hinges with a longer tang, or where the distance to the screw hole is longer than than the distance from the cockpit side to the lip.. ...

Last of all I replaced one of the bolts (job no. 19 in this post [clicky]) that I'd done back in April 2013 - the nut may have been stainless, there was no way the bolt was!

Impatient to be getting on now, but the forecast this week is not brilliant...