Maintenance Weekend Feb 2014 - Day 3

The day started with the bosun managing to block the heads. After he'd dismantled the pump and before he started taking the plumbing to pieces, I pointed out that simply raking the plug of toilet tissue out of the bottom of the bowl might do the job!

That sorted, the bacon went on the stove and the kettle was fired up for breakfast.

Once we got up and got moving, we set about the main below decks job for today as it was blowing old boots and decidedly murky up above.

The task was to sort out the engineers stores and tools into the aft locker under the quarter berth and the quarter berth storage shelves.

In addition, we went through a crate of stuff that had come off Brigantia and never been sorted deciding what to keep, what to chuck and what to take home.

That done and coffee consumed, we decided it looked rather brighter outside so we set about hauling all of the chain and warp out of the chain locker with a view to improving the marking thereof.

Unfortunately, the chain markers purchased, ostensibly for 8mm chain which ostensibly is what we've got, weren't quite big enough. My guess is they would fit on cheap thin section chain but won't go on quality calibrated stuff.

Hey ho, but to worry. It'll have to be done with Humbrol paint another day! Putting it all away, we discovered that if you utilise the octoplait warp it's essential that somebody goes below decks during anchor recovery to pull the warp through from the chain locker right up in the bows to where it stows under the v-berth. Otherwise, there isn't enough room for the chain in the locker.

That's not a massive problem since 40m of chain is usually going to be adequate for our purposes anyway so the warp will rarely be used.

A spot of lunch was followed with a general tidying and putting away session after which we made an early dash for home via the yacht station.

Not much progress on repairing and reinstating the dinghy dock, I doubt I'll be alone in being unhappy if it's still out of use at the start of the season. I'm also mildly miffed that the woodwork on the tender has been spiked by the top of the security fence it's been left leaning against.

However, it's about knackered anyway and urgently needs replacing so I'm not going to get too stroppy about it!

A fast drive home finished of a very successful weekend

Maintenance Weekend Feb 2014 - Day 2

After a mixed night, slept well until around 4-ish, then dozed and grumbled until about 7, we woke to a bright, breezy and chilly morning.

Copious coffee and bacon butties desert urea up for the day and we cracked on with fitting the new sink drain sump pump.

Once we'd got it worked out, a trip to the chandlers at Burnham plus a visit to Wickes at Maldon sorted out the final bits and pieces of electrical string, choc bloc and jubilee clips.

Back on board, a couple of hours work saw the pump installed, plumbed in and wired up. A test proved it works nicely!

Lunch of soup followed by cheese and pickled onion sarnies refueled us ready to tackle the next job of sorting out the anchor warp.

We've a decent length of chain supplemented by a further length of octoplait nylon warp but the join between the two was a bit of a problem. The warp was spliced to a short length of chain which was then shackled to the main chain and the whole assembly was very reluctant to emerge from below decks via the chain pipe.

With the shackle disconnected and the short length of chain cut out, I set about splicing the warp directly to the chain. I think it turned out ok but by the time I'd finished it was too late to test it.

We put my bed back together, tidied up the main cabin and repaired to the pub for beer and food. An early night looks likely though as we're a bit tired!

Maintenance Weekend Feb 2014 - Day 1

Having kicked the Chandlers up the bottom yesterday, the parcel of bits for this weekend's main job duly arrived this morning, albeit minus the 1" hose connector that might be needed to bypass the existing sink pump

I could have done with another couple of hours sleep after being woken up by the delivery driver but it wasn't happening so I gave up and made ready for trip down to the boat.

The bosun sneaked out of work early and I picked him up about half past three so we arrived on board just shy of six. Bags on board, food on cupboard, cold stuff in fridge, off to the pub by seven!

Grub, beer and natter ensued and we stayed much later than we'd expected. Fortunately, the bosun picked up the bill, we're leaving early tomorrow night when it's my turn to pay!

Back on board for rum and coffee then to bed. Even the squeaky fenders won't keep me awake tonight!

Weights and Measures

[1] In the beginning was created the Tun being a cask of two hundred and fifty two gallons whether it be of wine, beer or water.
[2]. It being found that a Tun of wine weighed two thousand two hundred and forty pounds thus defined the original Ton measure of weight
[3]. A Ton being also twenty hundredweight thus one hundredweight equalled 112 pounds

[4]. And it came to pass ...

[5]. That the Tun became commonly used as the measure of the capacity of a ship

[6]. And thus ...
[7]. The capacity of a ship became known as its tonnage - spelling being somewhat optional - being the number of Tuns the ship could contain within its hull
[8]. And in time the total volume of a ship became its Gross Tonnage
[9]. Whereas the actual cargo capacity became its Net Tonnage
[10]. And thus ...

[11]. In the Old Worlde a Tun weighed a Ton and a ship carrying one hundred Tuns carried a weight of one hundred tons

[12]. And Yea ...

[13]. When the Pilgrim Fathers landed upon Plymouth Rock they spake thusly ...
[14]. Verily ...
[15]. One hundredweight shall henceforth be one hundred pounds
[16]. and one Ton shall thence be two thousand pounds
[17]. And thus ...

[18]. was created the Imperial Ton and the US ton.

[19]. But sorely displeased were the traders of ye olde worlde when upon them dawned the realisation that the colonials were skimming ten percent off the top
[20]. And thus ...
[21]. It came to pass that the galleons and the cogs of the old world would also load by the ton of two thousand pounds and thus was born the Short Ton

[22]. Meanwhile ...
[23]. The Tun became progressively smaller, as containers of consumable commodities are wont to do, finally being settled as containing two hundred and ten imperial gallons
[24]. And thus ...

[25]. Was created the first confusion, the Tun now weighing around seventeen hundredweight in England or a little over eighteen hundredweight in the colonies and rather less than a a Ton be it Imperial, US or Short

[26]. And so matters did rest for a time until ...

[27]. The tribes of Europe did come together in council whereupon they begat the Common Market
[28]. And the tribes of Europe, and especially those of Gaul, did pour scorn upon the US Ton, the Short Ton and of the Imperial Ton they could not bring themselves to spake
[29]. And the prophets of Europe went unto the mountain and came down with commandments upon weights, measures, currency and counting
[30]. And thus ...

[31]. The Pound was replaced with the Kilogram, the Ton with the Tonne and the Gallon with the Litre
[32]. And it was decreed that the Tonne would equal one thousand kilograms
[33]. And the kilogram would be the weight of one litre of water

[34]. The Britons were displeased by the adoption of Gaulish measures but so desperate were they to be admitted to the European campfire they acceded to the tribes of Europe save only that they reserved into perpetuity the right to drink beer by the pint, this being sacrosanct

[35]. The colonials having long since divorced themselves from the mother country, and having their own campfire, retained the US Ton and the US Gallon also maintaining the Inch, the Foot and the Yard although the Mile had suffered much as the Ton in earlier times and could no longer be considered unsullied

[36]. And thus was created the second confusion, the Tun now being relegated to history, the Ton being two thousand pounds, the Tonne being two thousand two hundred and four pounds, maritime Tonnages having nothing whatsoever do do with Tons or Tonnes and a pound of bananas weighing 0.453592 kilos

[37]. The merchants and yeoman of Olde Englande still, however, drink beer by the pint. Praise the Lord!

Shopping!

Online of course, perish the thought of actually doing it in person!

I actually did most of the shopping yesterday and the first of the orders has already been delivered this morning!

That's three selection sets comprising a bunch of stainless nuts, bolts and washers, a second compartment box of countersunk and round headed self tapping screws and a third box of assorted aluminium rivets

The stainless stuff is all A2 stainless which is readily available and reasonably cheap. Ideally, aboard a boat, we'd use A4 stainless which has better resistance to salt water corrosion. However, no prizes for guessing that A4 is significantly more expensive

Now below the waterline I wouldn't even consider using A2 and I'd prefer to avoid using it on deck as well. However, below decks A2 will do just fine. As the primary purpose of these selection boxes is a stock of stuff to deal with unexepected repairs, planned work can use nuts and bolts etc ordered up from the swindlers, sorry chandlers, specifically for the job

The same applies with the rivets. Monel rivets are preferred in marine applications and are definitely recommended if your rivetting stainless parts to aluminium spars but they're stonkingly expensive and only available from specialist suppliers. If we have to use ally rivets as a temporary repair and then replace them with Monel later so be it as we're talking £6.99 compared to £49.99!

That little lot came from Screwfix, the next order was to Seamark Nunn (whose prices are now back below the competition after a spell last year where my business crept away from them). The main part of the order is a sump pump for the sink drains. As I've previously mentioned the current setup involves a pump fitted under the head of the starboard v-berth which has to be manually operated using a button in the forward cabin. It's a pain in the bottom and no mistake.

This little beasty will be fitted below the cabin sole in the saloon and automatically pumps the water out of the sink drains overboard.

We think we can install it using the existing piping but just in case I've laid in a few metres of 3/4" and 1" hose plus some connectors

Also included in the order is a glass fibre kit for glassing in some mounts into the bilges which I think we'll need to do

The final part of the order had to be split between Seamark Nunn and Jimmy Green Marine. I want to make up a couple of anchor snubbers now that we'll be lying to an all chain rode more often than not. It's not a good idea to rely on the anchor windlass as the belay point for the anchor chain in anything other than calm conditions

This was never an issue on Brigantia because firstly we were always laying out at least some nylon warp as we only had 10m of chain and secondly we didn't have a windlass!

There is a chain hook aboard Erbas but it currently has about a metre of 8mm line tied to it which is rather inadequate. I plan to reuse the hook with around two to three metres of 12mm 3 strand nylon, which gives good shock absorbancy and is easy to splice, to make up a short single snubber for general purpose use in sheltered anchorages.

However, whilst I'm at it I figure I might as well sort out that aspect of the anchoring kit properly once and for all and also make up a bridle onto a chain shackle such as the widget to the right ...

Unlike the chain hook, which can fall off the chain if the tension comes off, the shackle is more secure albeit more fiddly to attach.

This I shall attach to a bridle along the lines of this setup albeit using the shackle rather than the illustrated hook.

This will also be rather longer than the single hook line as it's intended to introduce a significant degree of shock absorbancy into the anchor rode.

To that end, I needed a reasonable hank of 12mm 3 strand nylon rope and Seamarks don't stock it. It was off to Jimmy Green Marine for that and given the relative costs I decided to splash out on a 50m reel of the stuff.

What I haven't ordered is shackles and thimbles as I haven't decided what, if anything, I need in that line. There'll no doubt be a trip to the chandlers in due course

The final order, which I've been meaning to get around to for weeks, was for 24 bottles of bio-ethanol. That order will be split between our needs for the cooking stove on Erbas and the Bosun's spirit fire in his living room.

And as I type I've just recalled that I used the last of the lamp oil so I need to lay in a supply of paraffin for the cabin heater (which isn't burning that well on lamp oil it has to be said) and consider whether to buy the cleaner (and more expensive) lamp oil or just use the paraffin in the lamps.

Oh and the keen eyed reader might be wondering what's been happening with the Yachtmaster Theory course since the last update a couple of weeks ago. The answer is not a lot as I have been struggling to get enough sleep due to the disturbance caused by the several houses nearby being re-roofed. I must get back on it asap though before the momentum is totally lost!