Loads of little jobs, including the windlass

Today we tackled a plethera of small jobs including the windlass, well especially the windlass. Fitting the new windlass has been an ongoing issue. First we had to build the block to lift it up for the right angle, then it became too high for the locker. So... today we cut a hole in the locker and made a cover out of marine ply to cover the hole so that the windlass could work a few cm higher.

Cutting the hole in the locker was a job and a half. I did one half, Tim the other. When he was cutting he stopped for a moment and remarked, 'You know how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Well, cutting a hole on a Nicholson is the same, one millimeter at a time!' Nicholsons really are very solid boats and cutting any sort of hole takes a lot of effort.

Tim also removed the piece of marine ply that had rotted over the companionway hatch. Now that may seem ironic that one place its difficult to cut a whole and elsewhere it has rotted. The cause of the rot was that over the eight years King Malu was on the hard she settled for'ard down by a good few centimetres. This meant that all the water that should run out of the companionway hatch actually ran into the hatch... and thus rotted it.

We also glued in place battens for mounting the shelf for the domestic batteries and battens for mounting the water pump for the fridge/freezer. When they are set solid [next weekend] then we can mount the pumps and the shelf. Whenever we get any epoxy left over we fill any dings in the deck ready for laying the Treadmaster.

We also worked on the ceiling pieces above the galley. These have warped and will need replacing. They had to come down anyway to mount the new strip LED lights. So we measured up all the marine ply we will need in the next few weeks... replacing the for'ard heads door, these ceiling pieces, the hatch cover etc.