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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2017 17:18:29 GMT
Get in there kida Motivation for me to carry on...not that i ever thought to give in no chance. Looks well sat there very inviting with the sun shining down You picked a great weekend to launch her shame you couldnt get out but lots of good times ahead. Well chuffed for you kida Cheers mate! I think she aged me a bit this time round Won't be long till you are bobbing about π
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Post by larkboy on Apr 15, 2017 19:03:40 GMT
Top job Gazza, glad everything is working as, or better than it should with the new throne being the icing on the cake! Happy cruising mate...π
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2017 19:27:07 GMT
Top job Gazza, glad everything is working as, or better than it should with the new throne being the icing on the cake! Happy cruising mate...π We will be your way end of August so will be sure to look you and Phil up. Dad has got his boat at Littleport Boat Haven after getting fed up of contributing to the Ting Dene owners helicopter fund - he's moved from Oulton Broad for at least a year so we are going to visit him durimg our two week break. Cheers mate
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Post by JohnV on Apr 21, 2017 11:49:20 GMT
The flexible hydraulic pipes on my steering (The rams are exposed as are the pipes) had been quite badly degraded by the sun and general exposure over the last 15 years so I changed them (OuchΒ£) total of 6 pipes. This morning I was completing the job by topping up the oil (reservoir is in the steering head) it is possible to top it up without taking the wheel off and removing the panelling but it's a little hit and miss as you can't see the little window in the head until you have. As I was going to need to add two or three pints of fluid I decided to remove the panels so I could see the level marker. When I panelled it all in I was careful to design it so that the two panels around the steering head (big floor standing affair) could be removed without wholesale disassembly. ........... unfortunately someone hadn't measured carefully enough !!! (You just can't get the staff nowadays ) Anyway, I had cut the wood just too large (quarter of an inch) and it would not come apart ....... so I had to take the grill for the underfloor heating grid apart to get it out !!! (Decided I had to modify it so it does come apart easily otherwise you can guarantee that I will need to get it apart in a desperate hurry)
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Post by JohnV on May 19, 2017 7:42:59 GMT
Well it's nearly a month since I last added anything on here ..... after the panic before the tides and the trauma of them not making settled down, I have started tiptoeing through some of the finishing off jobs. I have made a wooden box to cover the steering gear both t protect the hoses from the sun and also to provide a seating place on the stern. Up to now I have just perched on the engineroom hatch if I have wanted to sit out there. SAM_0677 by mudlarker2, on Flickr When I bought the first crane for the boat, my plan was to have a mounting base on both sides of Sabina and move the crane as needed. However it is such a palaver to strip the thing down into sections light enough to carry that I decided to buy a second one ...... I felt it was worth Β£165 to avoid the hassle. SAM_0678 by mudlarker2, on Flickr I have also pressure washed the majority of the deck and started working out where to fit lashing points to secure the mooring ropes (I don't have a proper rope locker) I know they say you can never have too much rope but boy it's stacked everywhere. The big yellow one in the foreground is a spare but I will have to find another place to coil it as it is too close to the winch and restricts the working area. SAM_0679 by mudlarker2, on Flickr I have also had an unexpected and annoying fault with my water system Opening the hatch in the flooring, which is my cold beer store (they sit on the bottom plates) I found it 4" deep in water ..... clean fresh water. As normal with that type of thing the problem is finding where the hell it was coming from. One thought was that The air admittance valve on the top of one of the tanks was letting water through and I had overfilled the tanks flooding through one of them. Unlikely, as 4" of water in Sabina is a mahoosive quantity and I would have had to have left the hose on for a good few hours to do that. They were dry, and so was the area on the top of the tanks. Lifting the hatch for access to the water pump showed about an inch of water (this is 4 or 5 foot forward of the beer store hatch) the pump was dry in it's little drip tray and there didn't seem to be any leaks from the pipes in that area. about 3 days of pumping still left water in the bilge just a few gallons but more than could be accounted for by draining from areas around frames etc. Each of the two water tanks has an 1 1/2" stop valve on the outlet with the same bore balance pipe connecting the port and stbd tanks to a pump isolator valve amidships.
I turned off the Stbd tank isolator and dried for another day ....... with no further reduction in the water at the hatches. That at least meant that the water had to be coming from the port tank. however removing access panels in that area (I have tried to have as few bits of flooring etc that cannot be removed as possible when fitting out Sabina) showed the pipes and bottom of the tank in that area to be dry. The area where the balance pipe went after the tap off point for the pump is one of the least accessible areas (of course !!!) The only access points are quite restricted and you have to be a bit of a contortionist to see and feel in there. That of course is where the leak is. After the big shutoff valve there is a 90 degree elbow ...... that was leaking, it seems to have corroded through half way along the elbow, I can only think that the galvanising was faulty or there was a flaw in the casting. Fortunately there was a pair of naval unions in the pipework on either side of the tap off point for the pump so I was able to split the steel pipework and cap the leaky section. Removing the elbow is totally out of the question. There is no way you could get a pair of stilsons in there nor room enough to heave on them without demolishing a massive amount of the fitout. As a temporary measure I just ran on one tank ( each tank is about 160 gallons so I still had a substantial supply) I suddenly remembered that each tank, in addition to the main transfer valves was also fitted with a smaller (3/4") valve (It was the best part of 20 years ago the tanks were installed) so what I plan on doing is bypassing the larger feed from the starboard tank and running it from the drain valve to re-join the original pipework at the pump takeoff point, I will do this in 25mm speedfit ....... I need to do a bit of tidying up in the pump area anyway, it has all got a bit messy over the years and I also want to install the new tank level meter I bought a couple of weeks ago. I have all the bits ..... it's just a matter of psyching myself up to do it, as I know the first bit is going to be a right pain
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Post by JohnV on May 19, 2017 11:45:38 GMT
I am now deeply deeply deeply deeply pissed off. My brilliant idea on how to get round my plumbing problem is a washout. The 3/4" drains on the tank are completely blocked up. I think after 20 years the bottom of the tank has a thick SOLID layer of scale and watertank black. I have tried poking up with various implements but without success, the trouble is they have never ever been used. The main takeoff point is about an inch above the bottom. The inch and a quarter pipe needs to be undone from the valve and there really is not enough access without totally dismantling the cabinet. I am going to have to try cutting the steel pipe with a hacksaw (there is not enough room to get in there with an angle grinder) and then trying to get a pair of stilsons on it ........ it is going to be fun and I have strong doubts that I will be able to get enough leverage to undo it. The alternative is to demolish the cabinet and I really really do not want to go that route. It looks like I am going to have only one water tank for the immediate future. I will just have to careful with my supply for a while SAM_0688 by mudlarker2, on Flickr the access !!! SAM_0687 by mudlarker2, on Flickr The offending section SAM_0689 by mudlarker2, on Flickr the cupboard I would rather not demolish Edit to add ............. looking at the pictures (first time I have been able to actually view the pipework) it looks like it might have been leaking where it screws into the valve
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2017 12:02:52 GMT
Feel for you John. About to start my final attempt at sorting out a bath waste that has corroded and fallen apart. If mp plans do not work then I have two options - major works on the bathroom or accessing the fittings by creating a hole in the outside wall. I hope your initial plans go well.
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Post by JohnV on May 19, 2017 15:18:12 GMT
well !!! one successful bit It was possible to get a small angle grinder into the gap (proper wriggle job) and was (just) possible to switch it on. It was a bit hairy as I was using the grinder one handed and cutting blind as with my arm through the gap holding the grinder I was unable to see the pipe at all !!! The discs were too small to cut all the way through the pipe from one side (and I couldn't get to the other side) so there was still a small strip of steel holding them together. Fortunately I could get my stilsons on the horizontal part of the pipe and twist it one way and then the other until it snapped off SAM_0690 by mudlarker2, on Flickr The problem now is that I can't get my stilsons on the rest of the pipe to try and unscrew it ...... I have been struggling but they are just too big for the job. Tomorrow I will have an ask round if anyone has a smaller set or some big mole grips. Anyway I have had enough for the day now !!!
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2017 15:28:46 GMT
Good luck.
Working blind one inch from the feed pipe didn't work for me. Hope you have better luck.
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Post by JohnV on May 19, 2017 15:43:06 GMT
Good luck. Working blind one inch from the feed pipe didn't work for me. Hope you have better luck. Thanks I really need any luck going !!! Trouble, as you know, is that each time something doesn't work the next step involves even more grief !!! It doesn't help that there is probably 60 or 80 gallons of water still in the tank !!! If it comes to it that I need it empty I will have fun and games even so I really, really, don't want to take the cabinet apart ....... that would be days of work
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2017 16:07:47 GMT
Good luck. Working blind one inch from the feed pipe didn't work for me. Hope you have better luck. even so I really, really, don't want to take the cabinet apart ....... that would be days of work You know your stuff so take this as a bit of a check. I had a choice go for it or take a cabinet apart. I chose wrongly, the cabinet + sink + toilet will have to be taken apart and if my worst suspicions come correct then the bath will have to go too.
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Post by JohnV on May 19, 2017 16:11:34 GMT
even so I really, really, don't want to take the cabinet apart ....... that would be days of work You know your stuff so take this as a bit of a check. I had a choice go for it or take a cabinet apart. I chose wrongly, the cabinet + sink + toilet will have to be taken apart and if my worst suspicions come correct then the bath will have to go too. sometimes with these kinds of jobs you are damned if you do .... and damned if you don't
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Post by peterboat on May 19, 2017 16:23:49 GMT
Oh John the easiest of jobs always go wrong. Yesterday I took the bath out of the bathtub [broads cruiser] It nearly ended up with it on the bottom!! The bath waste was below the waterline I couldnt see that and in my haste I damaged the pipe! Of course its a 40mm pipe so canal water was gushing in and erupting like a fountain I was struggling to get enough clearance so couldnt see the water coming in, and it was only when I stopped that I heard it!! Well I was like the little Dutch boy and the dyke hand over the leak but nothing to stop it with to hand!! buggered or what? In the end I put some plastic bag over it and pushed a joint onto it so it was stopped. Which idiot puts a skin fitting under water without a valve on it? he wernt an engineer that is for certain!!! So when boat is mobile its dry dock fibreglass gel coat and antifoul for the sodding thing!!
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Post by JohnV on May 19, 2017 16:52:04 GMT
Well I was like the little Dutch boy and the dyke hand over the leak but nothing to stop it with to hand!! buggered or what? Bloody hell Peter ....... but I'm sorry, I couldn't help but laugh at the mental picture !!! (It reminded me of accidentally chiseling through a central heating pipe ...... black water gushing out .... a thumb over the hole but my tool box JUST out of reach !!!) I'm glad you found a temporary solution, it could have been very nasty if you hadn't heard it in time !!!
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Post by smileypete on May 19, 2017 17:15:09 GMT
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