Purchases for the new season....

Marked as dispatched within about 15 minutes of ordering - not bad service! 👍

 

...and with little chance that I'm going to break the back of my electrical installation this winter (or even start it!) I was looking for a way of quickly and simply boosting the range of my hand held VHF...  first step is one of these...  this screws onto the stub aerial socket of the hand held and presents as a standard BNC/coax type socket..  all I need now is a standard VHF aerial, which can either go up the mast (ready for the proper VHF), or more likely, mounted on the push-pit board for the time being...

Job #10 - Cockpit locker hinges - completed

Another weekend gone..

I'd been gagging at the bit to get down on the Saturday, which was the warmer and sunnier of the two days, but family commitments wouldn't allow, so I had to settle for the considerably colder and windier Sunday. It was still a damn good three hours spent down there though, before being summoned back..

During the week before I'd taken delivery of some new hinges, and this weekend I was determined to bite the bullet and actually drill some holes in the boat to make sure they fitted/worked... not sure about anyone else but I'm very reticent about drilling holes!
 

Test fitted first side, single bolt to hold the hinge to the coaming (easier to fix/fill a single hole in the event they didn't work 😝)..  Happily, they worked perfectly..

Single bolt to hold the tang - I'll leave the other hole as is, or find a screw to act as a cosmetic filler as the hole is right over the lip of the hatch..

Top dog!

So pushed on, and completed both sides..  all looking good...

Finished off by drilling the second holes on both sides and making the hinge attachments permanent with butyl tape and a good tighten with a spanner...

I now have the covers at home - two or three coats of decent exterior paint and they can go back on permanently..  once they're on I'll finish off with the padlock hasps, and a line of neoprene tape round the top of the lip to make water tight..

Time's moving on -

• I'll put the outboard in for a service this weekend
• I've just ordered some Silky Marine Deep Cleaner [clicky] - she's filthy (as you can see) and I want to give her a good clean while I have access to plenty of fresh water
• Need to find some anti-foul

Also thinking about the next jobs - top of which is to complete the jammer replacements...

More slow and tentative steps forward....

43 days to go...  every year I wonder why I put that buggering countdown timer over there on the left.. 😏

Some further small and tentative steps - last weekend was a washout from a work on the boat point of view but despite that there has been a little progress...

A second coat has been applied to the half of the cabin I did that wet and windy Sunday - that side's done now - also the cockpit hatch - just need to do the other side (which is smaller/less complicated)..

Despite the excellent suggestions, I've also decided to stick with hinges for the cockpit lids and have found some - just waiting to fix them...

"This" is on the way.......

...must stay focussed!!