Headlinings and Headaches

Again, I'm afraid, this post falls into the category of being a record of our preparations rather than interesting photographs and tales of exciting world travels. Aside from the odd short excursion, that is likely to stay the same until we set off properly in around 4 months time. Hopefully still of some interest though.

Not that any sane person would have really wanted to go out sailing this week. The view from the cabin was distinctly grey and wet as a series of F8-11 gales blew through.

Nicky completed an RYA Radar course; a day spent in the classroom followed by a day at sea putting it all into practice with a few exercises. I'm not sure that she learned much new on what we had taught ourselves from reading the books but technically if you have a radar fitted to your yacht you should have received formal training on how to use it.

Battery temperature sensor

With the rain beating down I spent that time finishing off various projects down below in the cabin (close to a steady supply of hot coffee and biscuits). The NMEA and other wiring associated with fitting the new chartplotter is all now tidied up and I fitted a small electric cooling fan to the compartment that contains the HF radio. The battery temperature sensor for the new battery charger arrived in the post so the cable needed running from the batteries, which are housed in a compartment in the middle of the boat, to the machinery room at the starboard quarter. The little grey sensor is bolted onto the negative terminal so that it can measure the core temperature conducted through the metal.

Running-backstay block protectors

Between rain showers the new padded protectors we have made were sewn onto the running backstays. These blocks are as big as your hand and can swing about potentially bumping into the boom or shrouds. Previously they had leather patches sewn onto them but the patches were curling at the edges and looking very tatty. Modifying the design slightly to hold the material and padding more tightly around the block seems to have worked out well and they certainly look smarter.












We were also visited by the guys who made our bimini. We have asked them to make up a series of removable panels which connecting the bimini sunscreen to the sprayhood. This should allow us to relax in the sheltered cockpit and watch the world go by even if it is raining or particularly cold. We're hoping it will prove to be a nice quality of life improver when we move onboard full time. It should also provide us with loads of extra space to dry things like oilskins after a wet passage without bringing all of that moisture into the cabin area. It was very exciting to see how far they had got and to see how they had made up templates from white material for the more complex panels to make sure that the final ones are an exact fit. It looks good so far and might even be finished by next week.

With Nicky back onboard we set about finishing the insulation of the deckhead. Just the area in the forepeak was left to do but it was still a fiddly job as the headlining trim panels needed to come down and then the insulation carefully wiggled into position.

The spares locker

We also pulled everything out of the 'spares' locker under the bunk in the forepeak. Lifting the panels at the base of that locker we  found some useful extra storage space we didn't know we had around the holding tank there; that will come in handy for the spare alternator and boxes of new oil and fuel filters. This was the start of a big project to make up a catalogue of everything we have onboard and where it is stowed, along with identifying what other spares we need to get hold of before Spring.

It was an extremely productive week but not everything went according to plan. We knew that the starboard foot block for the genoa sheet needed some serious attention as it had been getting very stiff with the block now only turning when it is under load. I'd taken a brief look at it a couple of years ago but the components would not come apart and I didn't have the time to try to fix it without compromising sailing adventures.

Theoretically the spindle should slide out easily when the securing screw has been removed. The reality, after 12 years of exposure to the sea environment, is an immovable pin. We have managed to track down two replacement footblocks (not easy as they are now a discontinued model) but getting the whole unit off will be a major achievement. The block is very securely attached to the deck and, whilst the two aft bolts come out, the U-bolt at the front will not budge. A real headache.

Taking this 'headache' in stages we have started to drill out the central pin. It's 10mm in diameter and about 4 cm long so it will take some time to do, but if that works we may be able to use the existing housing attached to the deck but with the new moving parts. Whether we do just that or move onto removing the whole thing we don't know yet. It's certainly going to keep us entertained over the next few weeks. We did take the opportunity to replace the genoa cars as they are likely to get a hammering over the next few years and we found some nice ones with side rollers when we were searching for the new footblocks. I think they have become my early Chrsitmas present.

Phew, after all that work it was time to go home and carry on with painting the passarelle and the shelf for the aft lazarette.

Stepping Ashore in the Med

Mooring in the Med is generally done with the stern (or the bow) of your yacht facing the quay. That leaves a gap which needs to be overcome to allow you to get ashore. Passerelles are apparently the thing to have when cruising in the Med to allow you to gracefully step from your yacht to the quay. We don't have one so I went looking for what was available when we were at the Southampton Boat Show.

It seems to depend on what boat you have. It looks as though motorboats must have a super-duper hydraulically powered passerelle which cost about the same as a small yacht. Superyachts' passerelles appear to be designed in from the start allowing them to emerge from behind secret panels; they are even remotely controlled so that, at the press of a button on a key-fob, they can be retracted or extended when you are ashore. Yachts like ours, however, apparently just need an 'ordinary' aluminium and teak runged passerelle or perhaps a posher composite one.

Whilst gazing at examples of these passerelles (somewhat amazed at how many noughts there seemed to be on the price-tags) I was pounced upon by the sales lady. She assured me that I could be in serious danger of a hernia if I went for an 'ordinary' aluminium and teak runged passerelle. What I needed was their special carbon fibre passerelle. Light, stylish and incredibly strong. So strong in fact that it could take the weight of six bikini clad models; she showed me the pictures of it doing just that. A passerelle therefore went on the list of essential requirements.

The start of the passerelle project

For some unknown reason BV's Financial Director was not similarly convinced of the 'essential' requirement to be able to simultaneously host six bikini clad models on our passerelle. For the passerelle project I was therefore issued with a scaffolding plank and some sandpaper (admittedly at 1/100th of the cost of the carbon fibre passerelle) so that I could turn the rough plank into a thing of beauty.

Drilling, shaping and sanding is now complete; just the painting to go.

With sanding and painting the theme for this week's work we also turned our attentions to the shelf for the lazarette; a project which had somewhat stalled. The carpentry was finished with the inclusion of a cutout and the shelf has now moved on to the painting phase. The cutout will allow the Pela oil extractor to be stored in the back corner of the lazarette which is currently unused dead space; a neat solution we think.

Having just redone our First Aid qualifications Nicky set about checking the contents of BV's First Aid Kit. Amazingly even bandages have a shelf life. To set us up for our travels we therefore
decided to replace everything close to expiry date so that we won't have to worry about restocking the kit for a couple of years. The poor assistant in the pharmacy must have thought that we were serious hypercondriacs as we unloaded our basket at the check-out.

Routine Maintenance

Sadly there have been no exciting travel adventures to photograph and show you. Nicky spent last week revalidating her dinghy instructor qualifications and I took the opportunity to spend 2 days on a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) getting my RYA Powerboat Level 2 qualification (Lots of fun on a 4.5m RIB with an 80 HP engine on the back).  Both us then spent a day in the classroom renewing our RYA First Aid qualification so that we are up to date for our commercial endorsements. That was the out on the water 'fix' for us, so this week we have spent a few days down on BV completing some more mundane maintenance.

Our Pela oil extractor in action

Since owning BV we have always changed the oil in her engine twice a year. Fresh oil just prior to winter and then another change around Easter ready for the heavier summer use. Probably overkill but marine engines are very expensive to replace so hopefully our regular oil change regime will prolong the life of our engine. The first task this week was therefore an oil change for the main engine and the generator. It's difficult to put a drip tray under a boat engine to drain out the oil so we make life very easy by using a Pela vacuum pump to suck the old oil out through a thin tube we put down the dipstick pipe; a brilliantly simple and very effective bit of equipment we will be taking with us on our travels.


Next we turned our attentions to the fuel system and replaced all of the fuel filters and a  new air filter seemed to complete the oily work.



However, changing the fuel filters puts air in the fuel system and diesel engines don't run too well on just air so we spent what seemed to be an hour head down repeatedly pressing a small lever on the low pressure lift pump to prime the fuel pipes and filters getting rid of the air. It was very satisfying when we fired up the engine and it ran smoothly without missing a beat.

We've found that our Duogen wind and water generator needs its bearings replacing regularly. In our experience it's pretty much the only bad bit about the Duogen. At some stage I'll get around to asking other owners if they have the same problems with theirs, but in the meantime we just accept that every year we have to completely strip down the generator and replace the two main bearings and the shaft seal. Not too difficult to do but you need to make sure that you keep your fingers clear when you are putting it back together as there are some big magnets that always seem to pull together sharply potentially nipping stray fingers (mine!). Seems a fair price to pay for the free energy whilst we sail along.

Our mini NMEA 2000 network

When we weren't tinkering with the oily engine and generator we carried on with the task of fitting the new chart plotter display. The best way of getting the AIS data to the new chart plotter was by adding an NMEA 2000 network. This is made up of a backbone cable which theoretically runs the length of the boat to which you add in a T-piece wherever you need to plug in an NMEA 2000 compatible piece

of equipment. It seems to be well thought out and is very expandable by separating the plugs and adding in more T-pieces or longer cables as they are needed. At the moment we just have two electronic gadgets that need to talk to each other on NMEA 2000 so our 'backbone' is as short as it can be. It's made up of just three T-pieces (one for the plotter, one for the AIS and the third for the power cable). End caps which contain resistors have to be fitted. It is definitely 'plug in and play' with none of the foibles of the older NMEA 0183 network; I just wish the components weren't so overpriced!

Along with the wiring we had to do a bit of carpentry to mount the display and we took the opportunity to revarnish the wooden panel whilst it was pulled apart. Lots of work but the end result looks good and we now have our navigation station updated and ready to go with all of the separate components 'talking' to each other properly.