More and bigger holes in our boat

Today has been drier than forecast. So we have been getting on with hole related jobs.

First I have turned the old fitting that held the stuffing box (the not quite waterproof, old fashioned way of sealing a propeller shaft) into a clean flange for a PSS Pro dripless seal.

We have just done a bank transfer for nearly £2,000 which represents everything needed to go from the motor reduction pulley to the propeller. Nearly all of this would have been needed even if we had kept the diesel engine. Much more on this when we start fitting it.

So from this

To this

Next we have been grinding the outside of the hull around the old seacocks so that we can have a few layers of glass fibre on the outside. There will be thickened epoxy in the actual hole and more layers of fibreglass on the inside. This is the method recommended by West Systems (one of the best known names in epoxy for boats).

So far we have ground out 7 holes. With 4 to go.

The "done" ones

The to do holes (forward heads and old speed sensor).

We have only recently decided to fill the speed sensor hole. We don't like paddle wheel speed sensors, they are forever getting clogged by weed. We can't afford a nice, fancy ultrasonic speed sensor at the moment. We can manage with just a gps (which gives speed over ground rather than speed through the water). So rather than have a hole waiting for a sensor we may never get and which is likely to be a different size we are filling it in.

We still have a depth sensor but this is epoxied in place (so structurally it doesn't count as a hole) and we think we can keep the old depth sounder for a while (later we can upgrade it to one integrated with the full navigation system).