Let there be lights

Whilst progress may seem slow, when I look back and round up the photographs it is clear that lots has moved on since last time we met.

Antifouling is on and we have chosen Coppercoat which was a bit peculiar to apply for the first coat or two but eventually as the layers built up it began to give more confidence of a reasonable finish. If doing this, the technique is to pick the right day and go round and round until you've used it all up so be prepared for a long day. 

After that we had an enjoyable day putting in place skin fittings and trying not to get covered in mastic, and here are some the results.

The Golant Gaffer has a hatch in the cockpit centrally below the tiller which means that hinging the locker top doesn't help so D invested in some rather nice latches with handles (small fortune) and here they are in the process of being fitted ('scuse the mastic..that's now gone).

Regarding light in the cabin, here is one of the portholes in place and the finished forepeak hatch.

Below is the fitting that takes the bowsprit shroud, small but perfectly formed.

And the sheeting arrangement (forward end is on the left hand side). This has two leads for the jib and staysail and the aft one is for the cruising chute.

This photo below shows the compass, I looks wonky but its not finally fixed yet. Getting this compass required a bit of work as it needed to be one which would work at 15 degrees off vertical as this is the angle of the bulkhead. This is not as straightforward as it sounds but eventually we found one which was acceptable.

and below we have opted for a two burner spirit stove because we have used a one burner version  in our current boat and it has been a joy to use and very efficient. One of the considerations for its installation was how to make the most of the storage space below the cooker and here I have had my input such that D will be weighing the cooker plus the hinged panel it sits on and installing a gas strut so that I can rummage two handed below. Obviously I will only do so when not cooking anything on top !

In terms of internal lighting, we have invested in two led lights above the cooker and nav station, two in the forward part of the main cabin and two task lights on long bendy arms (see below). They are quite sophisticated in that they are optionally red light or white light and dim as well. Manufactured by Prebit these at not for the faint hearted price-wise but from our point of view they need to do the job required and we were advised that cheaper ones just fall apart.

Underneath the companion way, D has built a really nice removable switch panel for all things engine and electric.

and to keep her safe and secure, a cunning lock for the hatch, well I say cunning.... once you have worked out that they are incorrectly put together when packaged and you actually have to take them apart and turn a key piece around and reassemble...... we had three grown men in a chandlery scratching their heads for quite some time trying to work out where the padlock went. I will take the credit for realising that it was impossible as presented and that it needed to be otherwise.

So, we're now down to the fiddly bits, plumbing, installing further lights, speakers, instruments, wiring up the mast and putting the fittings on the spars. It feels like the beginning of the end....