Modernisation with a Sneaky Peak

 

 

 

On Saturday we visited the boat to strip some panels down to replace the saloon lighting for led.

The above photo shows the pelmet above the starboard dinette area and how ineffective the old rope lighting was. When Moonshine was built 16 years ago, there was no led lighting like what we have today, and the rope lighting she had, although innovative for it's era had tiny none replaceable bulbs in.

 

 

 

This photo shows the pelmet above the galley to port has been removed. All the main lights just had to be unplugged to enable them to be removed before the pelmet would come free.

 

 

So now it once again looks like parts of the boat are taking over the house, and that Lottie's play area is once again a 'no play zone'.  But I know this is a 'means to an end' and that the end is now in sight.
On Moonshine we do seem to get a bit of brown water that dribbles down onto the vinyl above the galley and also near the tv.  After taking the pelmets down, we have come to the conclusion that this brown unsightly water is caused by condensation and the staining of the wood the pelmets are made from.  Therefore, the back of the pelmets will be painted to help seal this and prevent this from continuing. We had thought about putting insulation in the void between the superstructure and the ceiling panels, but we have decided against this as there needs to be good airflow in that area, however suggestions to the contrary would be gratefully received.
The above photo shows the new Fluxia warm white LED tape lighting has been applied to the pelmets.

All the existing lamp holders and bezels have been removed for the new LED lamps to be grafted into the existing holders. The brass coloured bezels will be stripped and repainted in white and also given a spray of clear lacquer.

 

On Friday we had an initial canopy fitting.  We were hoping we were not going to be shocked by our choice of a completely different colour as the old canopy is navy blue and we now want something a bit more modern looking.  The new canopy has been made using Sunbrella and we have opted for Dune. It doesn't look much here, and my lack of photography skills do not do the colour shade justice.  However, we are looking forward to the day that Moonshine's wheelhouse no longer has a leaky canopy and that we can move forward with new carpet in that area also. All of the wheelhouse upholstery was also taken away for the old vinyl to be replaced with Silvertex in champagne.

No rest for the wicked!

After all the work we did on Moonshine last weekend, we thought we deserved a well hard earned rest at home this weekend.  Well these things don't always pan out how you plan them. Instead we have been redecorating Natalie's bedroom, and today laying laminate flooring...no rest for the wicked. And the purchase of a new wardrobe and chest of drawers has punched yet another large hole in the old credit card.

However, we haven't neglected Moonshine completely this week, as her port duo props were taken to www.aewoodwards.co.uk   These will cost around £130 to rebuild the severely damaged one (25% of the blade was missing) and to rebalance the other. The damaged propeller itself appears to have good life left in it as the metal is quite thick and the new weld hopefully will adhere to it. We were told that after inspection they had been repaired before and that the repair was very good as only a keen eye would be able to know it had been repaired.  We hope this won't be a case of throwing good money after bad as a new set for the one side would cost about £500, however before the start of next seasons boating we will purchase a complete new set for both sides and these old ones will become spares.

 

 

Also new vinyl was purchased for the wheelhouse trims this week from Dunelm Mill (http://www.dunelm-mill.com). Not marine quality, but we have used this before for re-trimming areas in Luro's wheelhouse shortly after buying her, and it still looked good after 5 years when she was sold.  A new heavy duty staple gun was also purchased for the job along with stainless steel staples. Only half way through recovering them but they are looking good so far.

This also means that over the coming weeks the sewing machine will have to have the dust blown off it, and a new steering wheel cover made along with fish finder hood with a black stripe.

Galvanic Isolator, Wheelhouse Trims and Removal of Damaged Duo Prop

www.safeshoremarine.com

On Thursday we collected our Galvanic Isolator from safeshoremarine.com as they are based not far from where we live.  We needed to fit this before the winter set in, to help prevent galvanic corrosion of skin fittings, outdrives and propellers etc when plugged into shore power. This can also help to reduce anode wear. In fact this was installed this morning as the first job of the day.
You can see from the website that they have a very good selection of galvanic isolators at more than competitive prices.

 

Galvanic Isolator fitted in void space above aft cabin,
and status indicator fitted inside aft cabin wardrobe

 

 

 

 

Last Sunday we removed all of the vinyl covered trims including the white powder coated aluminium trims on the back of the hardtop and on the interior of the sunroof apertures.

 

 

 

 

All of the vinyl has been removed from the wooden panels.  Where there has been damage caused by water ingress, these have been repaired and the rest of the panels cleaned. They will be painted on the back to help prevent further damp/water penetration and recovered with new vinyl.  The white panels will be recovered in white once again, however the turquoise panels will be covered in black.  The lighting panel has had the lamp fittings removed ready for new led lamps to be fitted. 

www.bedazzled.uk.com

 

The original wheelhouse lighting was very dim with 4x 10w festoon lamps.  The light fittings themselves are good quality Aqua Signal fittings, a good reason in itself for not replacing them.  Therefore, we purchased new 21 led lamps with wires, which are designed for adapting existing light fittings.  To hold these particular lamps in place off the lens some spacers were required to be made.  An old silicone tube was exactly the correct diameter and this was cut down and glued in place.  Then this assembly was glued into the lens with a dab of silicone.  We have used these lamps before from Bedazzled on our smaller Hardy Seawings 305 Luro, and have found them to give excellent light with a long service life and give no electrical interference, however they do come at a cost of £14 each.

 

www.lsn-coatings.co.uk
 

The once white powder coated aluminium wheelhouse trims that again had suffered from damp and salt corrosion were dropped off on Monday at www.lsn-coatings.co.uk in Castleford, West Yorkshire.  They were ready for collection on Friday, and have been chemically stripped back to bare metal, re-coated  in silver and finally given 2 coats of clear lacquer all for £60. The end result looks fantastic.

 

Wading in the water

 

Damaged Duo Prop

 

After discovering the damaged 3 blade prop and a slight bend on the other 3 blade duo prop (port side) on our River Trent tidal trip the other week, these needed to be removed and repaired before going tidal again, due to potential damage that could be caused at high speed caused by the vibration to the engine mounts. These were going to be removed last weekend, but an idea was had to purchase a pair of chest waders to make the job a tad more comfortable.
Upon discussing this idea with a fellow SYBC comrade we were told he had a pair that his work had provided for the purpose of one job several years ago, and that since these were surplus to his requirements we could have them.  To be honest it was this or a wet suit, and Peter wasn't that keen on the idea of donning a tight wet suit for all to see!
As a temporary measure an old 4 blade pair of duo props from Luro were fitted to the port outdrive to give us good  maneuverability back to our mooring.
Hopefully these will be taken to Woodwards in Hull (www.aewoodwards.co.uk) for repair this week.