So I tackled a few inside jobs.... First I epoxied a piece of 5/8" marine plywood into the lazarette where the tang is going to go for the series drogue.... After it cured for an hour, I fiberglassed the whole thing in with some biaxial fiberglass... Pretty expensive stuff, but AMAZING strength....
Then I noticed the the ceiling in the new shower was sagging a little.... I discovered that like the other attempts at making something stick to the ceiling, the new whiterock stuff was also having no part of staying stuck to the ceiling.... Rather than take the whole thing down, which would have been a BIG job, I made the executive decision to add 2 small stainless steel screws and a washers which snugged the panel up to the ceiling and solved the problem.....
Would I preferred to have no screws in the ceiling? - Yes, but given the choice of basically starting over, by taking out most of the walls, just to try to get another ceiling piece to stick, I chose the easy way out.... I think it still looks okay....
After that I did a few touch ups in the galley and for about the fourth time since we started, I can now say with some confidence that the galley is DONE!!! (unless Shelley finds something else for me to do...) I also ran the P.A. horn wire from the nav station to the base of the mizzen mast completing all of the wiring jobs...
My last job today was to tackle the solenoid problem in the propane system... After about a half an hour of searching for a leak in a connection or a hose, I discovered that one fitting had a crack in it and the solenoid was not shutting the gas off completely in its normally closed position.... I tried for some time to fix the relay switch, but all I was able to do was slow the leak down considerably... When it comes to blowing up the boat, a little leak is still a big problem...
On the internet I found the exact replacement for $85 plus $20 shipping to our mailbox... that seemed expensive so with a little research I found another brand which does EXACTLY the same thing for half the price and half the shipping.... So I bought 2.... Without a solenoid we can't cook on the stove, so a spare sounds like a good idea... By the way, when someone says something is "MARINE" don't always believe them... The old solenoid had a galvanized housing and was all rusty... It says "Marine" right on the label... the replacements I found are some kind of PVC, so the wont rust at least....
On the way home I stopped at the metal supermarket and bought 2 pieces of 1/4" x 4" x 22" aluminum...
I will be using these as backing plates for the series drogue tangs... I have a feeling when this project is done, the hull will be ripped to pieces before these plates let go.....
When I got home I found a message from a man in the US who has gone WAY beyond the call of duty for me.... For months now I have been trying to find zincs for our Varifold propeller.... It turns out that there is no US or Canadian distributor for such a critter.... He did however find the last 4 in America and bought them for me... The really cool thing is that his company doesn't even sell this propeller! He also got me the email address for the person in the UK who manufactures the props and zincs so when I need more I will either have to order them from England or find someone who will cast them for me here in Canada or the US... The cost to replace the prop would be easily more than $5000 so I really need to put effort into looking after the one I have....Nothing is ever easy is it???!!!
Shelley and I are off to the drive-in tonight.... I haven't been there since I was a teenager.... I hope I remember what to do... :) :) :)... (I'll probably fall asleep... :( :( :( lol )
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