Stainless arch is up !
- Ian & Caroline
- Dec 3, 2016
- 2 min read
A few weeks late but our arch has finally been fitted. Through discussion and some artistic licence given to the fabricator there are some nice additions, the davits are swing out and lock into place giving the strength as if it was one solid piece which easily will hold our dinghy and outboard. Small tubes have been added all around the rear sections to make cable runs easy and if the arch has to be removed for any work 8 bolts is all it takes without effecting the plates which are bonded onto the hull. The final part of fitting is to integrate the bimini hoop and pushpit to firm it all up.
Although we have a Rutland 913 wind generator we were aware it was getting old and not as efficient as newer models. Nick & Carol on "Annie" have just bought the new Rutland 1200 which boasts very impressive amps so we decided to buy one to run alongside the 75w solar panel. We will monitor everything next year and if necessary we'll fit 250w solar panels on the arch as there's space for them in the design.
Our liferaft has been serviced, repacked into a canister and the cradle mounted above the stupid locker. We've positioned it high enough that we can still open the locker as our outboard fuel tank just fits in it.......... it's useless for anything else!
One unexpected job was to take a look at the holding tank to see why it was draining slowly. Probably best not to go into too much detail save to say if your boat is 11 years old and it's got the original pipes and hasn't been cleaned "internally" do it now before it becomes a real problem.
The new pipes are Vetus sanitary which are non permeable meaning no smells can escape, what I should've realised was the pipe was not as flexible as the old one and "forcing" it onto the toilet was always going to lead to something going to crack. Well crack it did so there's a nice new loo in the heads too now !!!
We're now back on track with the hull to clean and polish along with replacing the gold stripe followed by antifouling between christmas and new year.
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