Operation POOTANK (Part 1)

Some people had street parties to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Bank Holiday Weekend... we fitted a holding tank!  With lots of wiggling it fitted into the heads and then into the wet locker behind.  However, weighing in at 17 Kg it was very difficult to move into its final position.  The solution was for Nicky to climb into the machinery space so that we could both lift and rotate the tank.

Once in position we were able to drill the holes for the bolts to secure it.  It was a huge relief to find that the tank fitted perfectly.  All of that careful measuring work and time spent making the mock-up was certainly worth it.

The silver stripe you can see in the photograph on the right is one of two metal strips we stuck onto the outside of the tank.  The contents gauge we have bought will measure the capacitance between these two strips to work out how full the tank is.

Having got the tank into position it was then possible to mark out and drill the holes for the deck pump out fitting.  The deck is made up of 3 layers with the middle being balsa wood.  That makes a light and stiff construction, but any moisture getting into the balsa wood can cause it to rot.  We therefore had to dig out some of the balsa wood and fill the recess with glass fibre.  Once set it was sanded smooth and the shiny new deck fitting was then screwed into position on a bed of sealant.

That finished the fitting of the tank.  The next job was to plumb it in and run the wiring for the contents gauge.

Before we could move onto those jobs though, the rigging needed some attention.  The rigging was still  relatively slack after our aborted attempt to lower the mast last week; not good with some relatively strong winds and rain forecast.  I had also done some thinking about the length of the backstay and wanted to lengthen it slightly. So it was time for Nicky to wind me up to the top of the mast.  Whilst up there, as well as lowering the backstay down so that we could work on it, I also sprayed water repellant into the socket for the anemometer and sealed up the socket with tape so that the contacts are protected.  We'd removed the anemometer to protect it as part of the preparation for lowering the mast.

With the backstay on the ground we were able to undo the Sta-lock fittings at the top and on the upper HF antenna insulator.  We measured and cut a new length of 10mm rigging wire which was 7cm longer than the previous one (4 cm to account for tightening the forestay to get the mast rake correct plus 3 cm extra so that we would be able to easily release the backstay with the backstay adjusted fully unwound).  Then came the 'fun' of trying to remove the old Sta-lock cones.  Whilst the cones themselves are always replaced, they jam solidly into part of the fitting that you want to reuse.  One of the fittings came apart with a hearty thwack with a hammer - satisfying.  The other fitting was far more troublesome and I had to drill out some of the old wire to free it up.

Nicky got another work-out winding me up the mast so that we could re-attach the backstay.  Once in position we set the forestay adjuster to give the correct mast rake (hopefully the last time we need to do that) and were very pleased to find that, with the newly added length, the backstay could easily be disconnected.  Maybe the delays in getting the mast down are a blessing in disguise as we now have exactly the right length of fore and aft rigging that we need.