Fitting Out (Year 16):

Date	Discussion
April 2025	Well, here we are again! This is the sixteenth year of the "Just the Fitting Out" process. If you're still with me - congratulations!! The hull took about eighteen months to build - who would have guessed that the fitting out process would still be happening sixteen years after that.
10 May 2025	My background is electronics engineering and as a result, I have made various plans, over the years, for what electronics should be incorporated into the boat. Certain people might view some of those plans as "over the top", but undaunted, the plans remain. Now, however, it's time for me to deliver! Boats should have a heated towel rail in the bathroom - you have to be able to dry your socks on a rainy day. The bedroom should have a large, illuminated mirror, with variable colours and brightness to do your makeup. Over the bed should be a remotely operated ceiling fan for those particularly hot nights and so on. You start to see what I mean! Wiring is a fairly simple task at least, it should be. However, wherever a cable needs to pass, unanticipated, through a bulkhead, or any other panel, new holes have to be drilled. Those holes then have to be painted with timber preservative and, finally, a coat of two-pack epoxy paint. The whole process is proving very time consuming! One major task that is happening away from the boat is the building of the dashboard. It has eight gauges: Engine and House battery voltages, coolant temperature, engine and gearbox oil temperatures, engine oil pressure, exhaust oxygen content and a rev. counter. The rev. counter has an engine hour meter built in as well. A depth sounder transducer is fitted in the middle of the hull and from it the remaining gauge on the dashboard shows the depth of water below the keel. It also shows water temperature. The last item is a digital display which is connected to a flow meter in the engine's cooling system. The units are not important, but experience will suggest what the "normal" value should be. The unit will then offer an early warning of a blocked, or reduced, coolant flow. All the gauges have panel lights, and a dimmer control is provided. A block of eight toggle switches is installed in the middle of the dashboard. They control power to the engine, the headlights, the bow lights, the deck lights, the windscreen wiper, the navigation lights and anchor light. The remaining switch is planned to enable the usually illuminated interior courtesy lights to be extinguished for night cruising. The Holden badge at the top left of the dashboard has been encased in clear epoxy and is now illuminated in red whenever the boat is occupied. The badge itself, inside the epoxy, is an original from 1965. These badges were given away at the Royal Adelaide Show, by Holden dealers to potential customers, as a promotional item. Given that they are sixty plus years old, they are now quite rare and those in good condition, such as this one, are starting to fetch significant prices on the collectibles market. Not now that it's encased in epoxy though, I suspect! A fuel tank selector switch is provided. It has four positions. The first is "Off" which, unsurprisingly, will stop the engine, but must be selected in case of a fire. There are two 25litre removable tanks, accessible via hatches above the transom, and a main 420litre tank under the saloon floor. The engine "Start" button is on the dashboard and is illuminated green when ready and available for use. This will only occur when certain conditions are met. Particularly, when the main engine power is switched on and one of the fuel tanks has been selected. It will not be available unless the gearbox is in neutral or if the engine is already running! There are fourteen warning lights, in two rows, across the top of the dashboard. Some of the lights are orange, some red, and one is green. The orange lights are advisory, and simply warn of various situations that may need attention, such as freshwater tank empty, black tank full, bilge pumps active, house battery voltage low or shower drain blocked. The remaining orange lights show if the LPG supply or 240v inverter are on. Red lights indicate more serious situations that may need immediate attention and will trigger an alarm. They are: raw water supply fail, LPG/petrol sniffer alarm, muffler and engine temperature alarms, and oil pressure or alternator failure. The single green light is used to indicate that the gearbox is in neutral. A key switch, similar to a car ignition switch, is located on the side of the dashboard and is used to activate all of the power systems on the boat, including the engine. When the boat is unattended, the key can be removed and the only circuits still active are the bilge pumps, the LPG/petrol sniffer and bilge blowers, navigation lights and the communications systems. Power is connected permanently to the fridge, even while the boat is unattended, but it does have an illuminated isolating switch in the galley. The key operates a 300amp relay under the floor near the main power distribution busbars. A number of the boat's electrical systems are managed via controls that are not located on the dashboard. The solar panel isolator switch, for example, is located high on the Port wall of the passage to the bedroom. Other controls are on the starboard wall of the saloon, in a row of eight matching mountings - (3D printed by my son!) They are the information display from the solar controller, the master current and voltage monitor for the house battery system, the forward and aft ballast tank controls, the 240volt RCD switch and the level displays for the freshwater, blackwater and main fuel tanks. The remaining two controls are for the 240v inverter and the LPG system. They are both on timers. The inverter runs for one hour and the gas system for four hours. Mechanical timers were chosen so that, in the event of any electrical system failure, both systems will still switch off after their times have expired. Important, especially for the gas system. The starboard wall panel is hinged and, after removing three 3D printed knobs, drops down to expose the wiring and electronic modules located behind. Items such as the helm changeover controller, ballast tank relays, and the tank level gauge drivers. It had always been planned to build a swim deck, to be mounted across the full width of the transom, just above the waterline. It serves as a docking point for a tender boat and another access point for the boat if moored stern first or, a so-called Mediterranean Mooring. There is a shower available, in a locker, on the transom as well, and, oh yes, it's a swim platform as well. Building a swim deck is quite a big job and uses a significant volume of fibreglass and reinforcements, and is therefore, costly. Imagine my delight when a friend suggested that they had one in their garden that had been recovered from another boat that was being scrapped. I very quickly went to "have a look" and was delighted to discover that not only was it complete and in very "re-usable" condition, but it was also exactly the right size!! A bargain was struck that had a lot more to do with wine than money and the new swim deck was on the roof rack, on its way to the boat shed. Sincere thanks to Tess & Lisa - I am so grateful!! And, you just have to be lucky some days!
30 June 2025	Some of May and most of June have been dominated by some health issues that have slowed the boat building process somewhat. My first introduction to Covid was rather more serious than I had expected and in order to speed my recovery, I had to suspend my rheumatoid arthritis medication. Once the Covid got bored and went away, the arthritis decided that it was its turn. Not being able to walk, lift one's arms or close one's hands is a bit of a nuisance, and being able to sleep would have been nice, too! However, boat building goes on, albeit at a snail's pace. I've mentioned building and wiring the dashboard many times and you will be happy to know, as am I, that the pesky thing is almost finished. The panel light dimming system is now finished and working and looks very handsome. The attractive and tastefully illuminated "Start" button should be a simple thing, right? Well maybe not because, logically, it should only be available when certain conditions are met. The gearbox should be in neutral, for example, which involves fitting a microswitch to the gear selector mechanism. Also, before you can start the engine, you have to have selected one of the three fuel tanks. Then, of course, it should not be available if the engine is already running! Creating the logic circuit to implement these conditions is not, in itself, particularly complicated, but it has to be done. It involves three relays and a handful of diodes and now works very well. There are fourteen warning lights on the dashboard, some of which are triggered by situations that need immediate attention. To ensure they do not go unnoticed, an alarm buzzer is connected to the ones that matter - (the red ones). Ultimately, there will be a repeat buzzer on the second helm position, upstairs as well. However, a buzzer that cannot be turned off would become annoying, very quickly but it would not be wise to have an "off" switch, since it might be left in that position and an emergency situation might go unnoticed. A solution is to provide a "pause" button. If the alarm is sounding, pressing the button will silence it for several minutes and then ensure that it returns to its normal state. This is achieved by yet another circuit built into the back of the dashboard. A commercial timer module, modified to last minutes rather than seconds, is used to control a relay that temporarily disconnects the alarm buzzer. These timer modules, as I discovered, can be ordered in either of two versions. One switches off after the time period expires and one switches on. Needless to say, when it arrived, it was the wrong one... Back in the boat, holes have been cut in the walls to install the light switches and air conditioning controls. The main room lighting in the saloon, and bedroom, ceilings are all now connected and working. The A/C fan speed modules have been installed in the top of the wardrobe but have been left open to the air to keep them cool. Also, inside the wardrobe, on its starboard wall, are the small 240v inverters needed to power the heated towel rail and the ceiling fan. The towel rail is operated by an illuminated switch mounted high on the wall outside the bathroom door. The ceiling fan has an isolating switch mounted on a small panel at the side of the dressing table area, together with switches for the electric blanket inverters and the illuminated dressing table mirror. The panel also includes a pair of USB charge points and a 12v accessory socket. You would think that installing a ceiling fan is a simple matter - just hang it up and plug it in. Well, not necessarily. There are 12v ceiling fans readily available for caravans and RVs. However, it turns out that they all utilise brushless stepper "motors" which have two small problems. One, you cannot control the speed externally and two, they are noisy. The simplest solution seemed to be to switch to a 240v fan, via yet another small inverter, especially since I had a spare fan in the shed. An additional benefit was that I could use a wireless remote to control the fan without getting out of bed. Having installed the new fan, I was somewhat disappointed to discover that it didn't work. It turns out that having hidden the wiring in a trench in the roof beam before I glued the roof on, it would have been better not to drill a hole straight through it in order to mount the fan. The upside is that the cable for the stern navigation light is in the same trench, and I missed it, so it still works! Grrr. It was difficult to fix and the "making good" is still to be addressed. Two steps forward and.... Well, you know how it is! The final insult was to discover that the new, 240v, fan, once finally installed in the boat, was a bit noisy too! I'm suspecting that the baby 240v inverter, which has a "modified sine wave" output, is the culprit and that the synchronous fan motor may not be very happy with that - so, the investigation continues...
31 July 2025	This month has been the Age of Electricus. A myriad of small jobs, all of which are absolutely essential, but all of which take time. Especially when things don't go quite as planned. The solar panels, and the engine alternator, for that matter, both charge the Engine battery first. Once that reaches full charge, about 12.8 volts, a dual sense relay operates and connects the charging system to the House battery as well. The plan is to always charge the engine battery first because you can survive without the House battery, but not without the engine battery. There is also a heavy duty emergency changeover switch, that allows the engine to be run from the House battery instead of the Engine battery, if all else fails. I hope that it is never needed. I was somewhat non-plussed, when testing this emergency changeover switch, to discover that when it was activated, not only did the engine circuits come to life as expected, but all the house circuits did too! Definitely not expected! It took half a day to find the problem and, in the end, as these things so often are, it was really quite simple. A wiring mistake on my part. Grrr... The worst thing was having to make two new 300 amp cables, complete with soldered 8mm lugs, because it's really unfriendly stuff and hard to use. It's very thick and doesn't want to bend and takes a really large soldering iron to attach the lugs. Not a big problem in the end, but tedious and a waste of a day. However, it does all work properly now! Thankfully! The testing of the solar charging circuits needed a test "rig", of course. This involved getting a couple of old solar panels from home and building a suitable timber mounting frame. The frame had to be pointed to the North and raked at an angle of 53degrees (Southern Hemisphere settings) and then a cable was run into the boat to connect into the solar isolator switch, which had been installed earlier. Since I am only running one battery at present, testing is not quite complete. However, everything seems to work as expected. In passing, I noticed that the solar controller has an output that senses when it's light or dark. I suspect this might provide an elegant solution for automatically activating the courtesy lights, in due course. Getting power to all points within the boat has required the use of a number of combination fuse & distribution blocks, which are quite convenient. They are connected to the main House battery busbar, via a 25amp cable, and allow for that power to be then distributed to a variety of smaller circuits, each with their own fuses. One neat trick is that each fuse has an LED wired across it, so that, if a fuse blows, its own red LED is illuminated. There are six distribution blocks installed so far. Some have twelve fuses and some only six, depending on what's convenient. One fuse block is located just under the helm position and feed some of the dashboard. There are two in the bedroom, one on the Port side and one on the Starboard and there is one adjacent to the engine. The fifth one is behind a drop-down panel on the Starboard side of the saloon; it is connected directly and permanently to the House battery, even when all the power in the boat is otherwise turned off. This last unit is used to provide power for survival systems such as the bilge pumps and scavengers, the gas/petrol vapour sniffer and the electronic communications system (computer room!), together with the fridge. The fridge can be left on when the boat is unattended, and the main power is off. It has its own, separate illuminated, isolator switch in the galley. The solar panels will provide sufficient power for the fridge to operate permanently without draining the House battery. A sixth distribution block will be fitted under the stairs to supply various pumps, such as fresh water, domestic water, shower drain and A/C water dribbler. The boat key activates all the power systems on the vessel, as described earlier. Once the key is turned on, the boat's nameboard, above the bow, is illuminated and the courtesy lights activated - only after dark, of course. All the ceiling lights in the galley, saloon, bathroom and bedroom are now installed and operational. The indirect LED strip lighting hidden in the roof beams, conceived so long ago, really works very well and looks terrific. Power consumption is about 3amps (36watts) per room. The stove is now connected to both power and gas, together with the safety cut-out solenoid on the gas bottles. So finally, after seventeen years of building Rhapsody, it was possible to boil the kettle and make the very first, ceremonial, cup of tea. It tasted very special. I am sure that there will be many, many more to come. An extractor fan and a bright light, above the stove, have both been installed. The fan is a 240v model and has its own baby inverter out of sight under the helm position. The LPG system together with the 240volt inverter are on timers so that the turn themselves off after a given period. These are both installed on the subsidiary electrical panel and are now fully operational. The power from the inverter is wired back to a 16amp RCD safety breaker and power point, which are also mounted on the same panel. The connection, in the galley, for the microwave has been wired in and there are two more to come. The subsidiary panel also contains a display from the solar controller showing details of the panel's output and the Engine battery status. House battery information is provided on an adjacent display, showing the immediate rate of discharge or charge and the battery voltage. The wiring for various other items has also been completed, such as power for the TV and the two-way radio. A micro switch has been added to the gearbox control lever to show when the gearbox is in neutral. This will allow the engine to be started and light a green pilot light to illuminate on the dashboard. That reminds me, I must wire the engine up soon and see if it actually runs. 'Course it will...
24 Aug 2025	The big news this month is that the dashboard, which has been built at home over the last few months, is finally installed in the boat. It has ten gauges, mostly monitoring the status of the engine and gearbox together with a depth sounder and fuel tank selector. A bank of eight switches, each with its own circuit breaker, is used to operate things like nav. lights, headlights and windscreen wipers. There are also fourteen panel lights to monitor a variety of systems around the boat, such as full/empty tanks, grey and raw water systems failures. Some of these lights are connected to an audible alarm, as well. A number of the lights, and the alarm, will be duplicated at the secondary helm position on the sundeck. Once the dashboard was fitted, it was possible to see how much room was available behind the panel for other things. On the left side of the dash, there is now a USB and 12volt power socket conveniently located adjacent to a small shelf laughingly known as the Servery, where I expect to use a tablet computer showing the river maps. Another most important item now fitted on the side of the dash, is the "ignition" key. It looks like an ignition key, but, in fact, it activates all the power systems in the boat - except the actual engine ignition, oddly. When the boat is moored, unattended, only survival systems such as bilge pumps and solar battery chargers are active. On visiting the boat, you need a key to open the sliding access door and the "ignition" key to activate all the electrical systems via a 300 amp relay. The key switch is located on the right side of the dash and is not hidden, exactly, it is just not immediately obvious. There will also be a curtain there, so again, it's not hidden exactly, but unless you know it's there... The first items to be fitted behind the dash are a couple of busbars. There are several high current circuits to be accommodated, such as the headlights and using busbars would simplify the wiring. Having decided that these items were needed, Lady Luck intervened, quite unusually. My friend, Peter, is a regular visitor to the boatshed. He calls in, armed with sticky buns, looking for a coffee and, of course, happily, all work ceases. As it happens, he is currently selling his boat and whilst clearing out years of "stuff" found two brand new busbars, still in their packets, which he was happy to donate to the cause. Thanks, Pete! The dash is hinged at the bottom so that it can be opened for easy access, but it does need some restraint to stop it opening too far and damaging the hinge. I thought a couple of hooks and lengths of light chain might be the easiest. Then, of course, I had an alarming mental picture of metal chain hanging around, in amongst the electronics, - not good! So, off to the shops for a roll of light 3mm cord - problem solved! It was then obvious that the subsidiary electrical panel, which is also hinged at its bottom edge, for the same reasons, should have its very own matching bits of string, too! And people wonder where the hours go! The sixth, and final (I hope), fuse panel has been fitted under the stairs in the area colloquially known as "The Harry Potter Suite". It is very cramped and an uncomfortable place to work, but various pumps will be installed there, out of the way, so it is convenient. I mentioned earlier that the solar controller had an output to indicate whether it's day or night. Well, yes and no. It can, but only if you order that feature and pay extra for it, presumably. Trying to select that feature on its control panel simply returns a message saying, "Not Fitted". Grrr! There are three LED courtesy lights fitted by the side of the sundeck stairs and having them come on automatically, after dark, would be nice. So, back to the workshop to design and build a "sunset switch". It monitors the output voltage of the solar panels, and when it drops below a certain level, the courtesy lights come on. Easy! A myriad of minor wiring jobs have been completed, such as bedside lights, the big, illuminated mirror in the bedroom, 12volt power outlets for charging phones and so on. Power was also required for the hot water service. The original unit used two "D" cells to power its ignition system. That's not very convenient, so they have been replaced by a 12 to 3 volt converter. In the HWS locker are also a couple of thermostats that operate a ventilation fan if things get too hot. These had to be wired in as well and it seemed prudent to then test them. Armed with a hot air gun, testing began, but "Murphy's Law" was alive and well that day. To gain access for testing I had to remove a couple of screws - no problem. Except that I dropped the screwdriver and "Murphy" decided that it should fall into the flue of the HWS and disappear down into its "works". Some considerable time later, with the aid of a strong magnet on a stick and some harsh language, the offending tool was recovered. The thermostats and fan all worked perfectly, of course...
21 Sept 2025	This month has seen "more of the same", that is, wiring various bits and pieces, either those already installed, or at least, planned previously. So, the navigation lights are now operational, including the stern light! At least they are wired to a terminal block, in the dashboard area, where they will be connected to their relevant switches, in due course. Similarly, the Deck Lights. These are six courtesy light fittings outside the coach house, three down each side of the boat, where the intention was to illuminate the side decks at night in case you need to move around outside the boat. However, since they will be very visible to any curious folk who might be around, it seemed like a good opportunity to promote the boat's identity. So, all the deck lights shine bright blue, that matches the hull colour and the illuminated name board at the bow, for that matter. Trivial, I know! The illuminated mirror in the bedroom is now completely installed and working. It is a 240v unit and because its power supply is sealed, I've had to power it via another baby 150w inverter. Since I don't want the power to the inverter on all the time, it has an isolating switch. The inverter could actually stay on, but it's a waste of precious battery power, albeit only about 50mA, and also might, conceivabley, be a fire risk if it were to fail. There are two other isolator switches installed for the same reasons, one for the ceiling fan inverter and another for the two inverters under the bed that power the electric blankets. All three isolator switches are now mounted adjacent to the "dressing table" shelf and show red when active. The panel that holds the isolator switches also has a twin USB socket, and a 12v "cigarette lighter" style socket, to facilitate charging phones, and any other accessories, that might find their way on board. The panel was originally finished in a mock "carbon fibre" material to match the main dashboard. However, after it was finished, the black look didn't really appeal. Since the panel is a vertical surface, adjacent to the main wall of the bedroom, which will be carpeted in pale grey, it seemed that perhaps it, too, should be carpeted. So, rip it all out, and do it again! Now, it looks good! Whilst removing finished items and re-making them is a nuisance, and a waste of time, it was useful, in a way, because that decision set the theme for two more panels, one each side of the bed head, carrying more USB charge points. Since those panels hadn't been made yet, they could be carpeted from the start. They are now finished, and installed, and look very handsome. The A/C controls still have to be wired in. The mounting holes for the panels were cut some time ago, but the fact that they needed painting was overlooked. (I hate painting, as you know!) So, "gird the loins" and out with the epoxy preservative and white paint. Once armed with a paint brush, I realised that there were several other areas that had been similarly overlooked. The steps down to the bedroom had been modified to allow clearance for the installation of various cables underneath and the solar isolator switch needed a dab or two. The ceiling fan, mentioned above, continues to waste far more time than its relevance would deem reasonable, however, it's still noisy and it's still annoying. Having decided that being driven by a "modified sine wave" inverter might be the problem, I've been watching Marketplace in case a suitable "pure sine wave" unit came up. This week a suitable inverter was advertised which had all the necessary attributes: - pure sine wave output - and cheap!
4 Nov 2025	Melbourne Cup Day! Another $2 wasted on a sweep. Ah, well! Still, a glass of champagne (O.K. - white fizz), with breakfast, was nice. To continue the enthralling story of the ceiling fan, I am now the proud owner of a suitably small (300w) pure sine wave inverter. The old "modified sine wave" unit was removed and the new one fitted, (it wouldn't fit in the same spot - predictably), however, once it was switched on - oh "joy of joys", the buzz/hum had gone. Will this saga never end? Perhaps not. The ceiling fan originally had a diameter of 48". Given that I am proposing to have a mosquito net around the bed as well, such a big fan ran the risk of catching in the net. So, I cut six inches off each blade - problem solved! Well, not quite. The reduction of the swept area meant that, with the reduced loading, the fan rotated too quickly to provide the gentle breeze that I was expecting. OK, back to the electronics bench to make a "little black box" to slow the fan down to the desired speed. Ah! The serenity! If you know that reference, you must be as old as me! So, is that, finally, the end of the fan saga - I really, really, hope so! The steering joystick is connected via a 6-core cable that I had attached whilst the unit was still on the bench. Now it's installed in the boat, I quicky realised that the cable is too short to reach the area where the control unit, (when I finish building it), will be installed. However, naturally, I didn't have enough spare cable to fix it, so, back to the trusty Internet to order some more. This duly arrived and a replacement cable, of the correct length, was cut and installed. I had ordered sufficient cable to allow for the (yes, still unfinished) helm control unit to be wired to the actual steering motor at the back of the boat, and also, to install a length of cable up to the sun deck, ready to connect the upstairs helm position, in due course. Whilst considering the future needs of the sun deck area, a 12 volt power line was also installed. I'm not sure what it will be used for yet, but I'm sure that it will be needed, if it's only a light over the BBQ to see if the steaks are cooked. Electrical connections for the two fuel pumps and solenoids required to manage the auxiliary petrol tanks have also been installed. The positive goes to its own fuse on the engine fuse panel, and the two negatives go to the selector switch on the dashboard. Each solenoid has a 1/2" BSP outlet, which has to be connected to a pump, which has a 1/8" BSP inlet. After much research, I have managed to order brass hex nipples, with a different thread on each side, to be able to screw the solenoid and pump together to make a single unit. Since there are two fuel tanks, of course, two nipples are required to make up two sets of solenoids and pumps. The air conditioning fans, and their control units, are now fully operational. It was disappointing, however, to find that if the fans were started by turning them directly up to full speed, they made a terrible screeching noise. Some pondering over several cups of tea suggested that the output of the speed control units, which is a fast square wave, was creating a phasing problem with the armatures of the DC brushed motors, whilst they tried to catch up to the required speed. A solution seemed to be to smooth the square wave out a bit with a couple of capacitors. This has been done, and the noise has disappeared. So, another small win! There are a number of magnetic float switches installed around the boat, monitoring water levels, in various areas. Not being careful enough with what is the Normally On, and Normally Off, status of these switches has resulted in dashboard warning lights coming on when things are working properly and going out when things fail! Grrr! "Easily fixed," you say! "Turn the switches up the other way," you say! Yes, if there were sufficient clearance, and they hadn't already been sealed into place with copious quantities of silicone rubber, I might agree with you. It's always the small things that catch you out...
21 Dec 2025	Christmas Week - what better thing to be doing than updating this missive for the last time this year. (I can think of quite a few other things, actually.) "It has been six weeks since my last discussion and I have constructed." So, forgive me - and the story continues... The brass nipples, mentioned above, that were planned to physically join the auxiliary fuel pumps to their respective solenoids, have arrived and matched the two different threads perfectly. Problem solved? Well, not quite! The two units, when screwed together, I now realise, are too big to fit into the areas allowed for them. Those spaces were created many moons ago, when the transom was being built. They are special in that, when completed, they will be fully sealed so that should any fuel leakage occur, it is vented to the outside of the boat and not inside, into the bilges. Ah well, back to the drawing board with another cup of tea. More on that later - when I think of a solution. Planning for the installation of the whole fuel system is well under way. A relatively simple job, except that the fittings of all the various components seem to require different threads. Furthermore, they are all designed for different size fuel hoses, as well. So, to simplify matters, I have decided to adopt 8mm hoses throughout (almost) and adapt everything to that size. I decided against copper piping, for the fuel lines, on the basis of convenience, so have purchased braided stainless steel covered flexible hose instead. It's very tough stuff and whilst it's slightly awkward to work with, it's easier than copper and its abrasion resistance should be at least as good. An 8mm braided SS fuel line, connecting to the auxiliary tanks in the back of the boat, is now installed. The wiring is almost complete too, with the exception of the engine and dashboard. A few changes have been made to the arrangements such as deciding on a separate horn button. Originally, the joystick, used to control the rudder's left and right movements, could be pushed forward to sound the horn. All very clever but using the joystick whilst hanging out of the door of the boat, trying to manoeuvre into a tight space, would inevitably result in inadvertent and annoying blasts of the horn. (Might usefully drown out the bad language, perhaps?) With so much of the wiring completed, it was a good time to test the solar charging system. The two 340w solar panels for the roof of the boat have been delivered but not installed because the lack of headroom in the shed is a problem. So, a couple of old 80w units have been set up and work well enough for test purposes. Yes, outside the shed - it's sunnier there! To test the dual battery system properly you need, well, two batteries. So, it seemed a good time to buy the actual engine battery. (Black Friday sales helped.) An Optima Red Top 34R was duly delivered together with a very handsome milled aluminium mounting plate. These were duly installed and then the necessary battery cable terminals soldered on, as well. The dual battery system works beautifully. The solar panels charge the Engine battery first and once it reaches 13.2 volts, the system then connects the Engine and House batteries together. Thus, both batteries can be fully charged. If the House battery is then placed under load so that its voltage starts dropping, the Engine battery's voltage also drops initially, until it reaches 12.8 volts, then the two batteries are electrically separated so that the Engine battery is always maintained at full charge. The system is also "Dual Sensing" which means that it works back the other way too. If the Anderson plug on the transom is connected to a 12v charger, both batteries are charged properly, although the House battery would be charged first in that instance. It's worth noting here that the engine's alternator is connected into the same circuit. When the engine is running, the Engine battery is charged first and then the House battery. However, when the engine is operating, the solar system is disconnected to allow the alternator to take over the management of the charging rates for the whole system. Disconnecting the solar controller ensures that there is no conflict between the two units. Whilst the real House batteries will not be purchased until the boat is ready for the water, it seemed a good time to finish the boxes that will contain them. They are under the bed at the very aft of the boat. This location was chosen not only for convenience, but to try and balance, or trim, the boat. There is a lot of weight ahead of the Centre of Buoyancy, and there is some concern that the boat may be bow heavy. Finishing the battery boxes, by association, suggested that it was also a good time to complete the whole bed frame. Any mattress needs to be supported on a flat base, of course, but experience has shown that it also needs to be ventilated because of the potential for condensation and damp to cause mould. So, a set of slats, made from old pine floorboards, are now painted and installed and should do the job nicely. The battery boxes finally have their lids as well. They are designed to be airtight, and the boxes are separately vented to the outside. Whist modern AGM batteries are supposedly sealed, in dire circumstances they can release hydrogen, which is very explosive and much better outside a boat than in. (As a good friend discovered, to his cost.) Having considered all these weighty issues, we come to the much more important matter of the bedside reading lights. There are two reading lamps installed on the head of the bed. I have always wondered why such lights always seem to be mounted on the outside edges of the bed frame pointing toward the centre of the bed, directly in one's partner's eyes. Surely, being located in the middle of the headboard, pointing outward, is a vastly better plan! Oh, well - we'll see, because that's where they are!
20 Jan 2026	With delightful family get-togethers and other distractions of the holiday period over, it's back to building a boat. Well, only partially, perhaps, given some home maintenance issues needing to be addressed and some very hot summer days, over 40°, that make working in a shed a distinctly unattractive proposition. I mentioned quite some time back that the wiring for the two helm position joy sticks had been installed but was still awaiting the construction of a box of electronic trickery to manage the selection and switching of the relative circuitry. Well, wait no more - said "box of tricks" has now been built and installed. Needless to say, it worked perfectly (eventually) and, more importantly it allows the somewhat bizarre steering system to be fully activated and tested in its entirety. Now, the unbridled joy of wiggling the joystick and having the rudder respond vigorously, can be enjoyed at will. It did expose a couple of electrical issues, however. Particularly, that the power to the steering system is provided via the engine relay. Which, for 99% of the time will be fine, except, for example, whilst the boat is having to be towed. (Arghhh!) In which case, the engine power switch will need to be "On" despite not using the engine, simply to provide power to the steering. That raised another, small, though concerning, problem with the emergency engine power switch located under the floor. The idea was that if the engine battery failed, then the House battery could be used to start the engine. This is fine but the number "2" position on that switch, whilst it will power the starter motor, won't activate the steering systems, the fuel pumps or the fuel injection system. So, in an emergency, position "1+2" will have to be used, which will simply interconnect the two battery systems, rather than position "2". Having installed the steering electronics and having the dashboard in place, it seemed like a good opportunity to wire in the main engine switch. Simple, yes? Well, there's a hitch. Each of the bank of eight dashboard switches is illuminated internally with a small, red LED. However, that LED is connected inside the switch, which turns out to be a real nuisance. The manufacturers assume that you will be switching each circuit from a positive supply to the load but, in this instance, I'm not. So, the polarity for the LED is wrong and it doesn't work. The alternatives are to rip out the wiring already completed and re-install it to suit the switch, or to dismantle the "innards" of the switch and modify it. I suspect that you can now guess the subject of half a day's work and the next paragraph... Taking switches apart is simple - unless you need to be careful enough to allow for its ultimate re-assembly! It's a very fiddly job that involves removing some internal connections and soldering very fine wires to the LED itself and bringing those wires outside the switch body. Once re-assembled and the LED wires connected correctly, the switch now works as required. Some judicious use of a Hot Glue gun secures the changes, and all is well. Many moons ago, I built an over temperature alarm unit for the muffler. The muffler is from Vetus and is plastic, which is fine, but it has a temperature limit of 70°C. So, a little electronics kit from Jaycar was built into a small box, calibrated to the required temperature, and installed near the muffler. It has a small internal alarm buzzer but will be connected to a dedicated warning light on the dashboard, as well. Remembering that the exhaust gasses are already mixed with the outlet of the engine cooling system, hopefully the trigger temperature will never be reached. Ironically, the problem with engines using raw river water for cooling is often that the engine doesn't get hot enough to perform properly, rather than the other way around. Incidentally, to try and avoid this problem, I have installed an adjustable cooling water bypass valve, but its effectiveness cannot be assessed until the boat is in the water.
4 March 2026	Well, it's been a while! So, given that a note from my Mum isn't available above ground - here's the excuse list: - It's Summer in Australia and it's HOT. Working in a steel shed in 42 degrees Centigrade is not fun, nor particularly productive, usually. The ratio of achievements vs cool drinks is pretty low! So, it's better to stay home and find something useful to do within the range of an air conditioner. I've also had a deck built on the back of the house and have been invaded by all these muscled, tanned and tattooed young men, full of life and vigour, who have done a really great job. It's one I should have done myself, if I had got around to it, perhaps, fifteen years ago. It's all the boat's fault!! Ah, well, those young men will get old too, one day - life balances out. One of the issues mentioned briefly above is that of float switches that don't work the way you assume they will. Dangerous things - assumptions. A regular float switch consists of a stainless steel float with a tube through the middle. When the liquid level rises, the float moves higher up the tube and, eventually, a magnet inside the float activates a reed switch, inside the tube, and the circuit is made. Err, no. Quite the reverse, in fact. When the liquid level is low, the switch contact is made. As the liquid level rises, the circuit is broken. Hardly intuitive, in my view! Still, that's how it is - so, deal with it. There are eight float switches used in the boat. There are two in each ballast tank to check for full/empty conditions and, since I designed and built the electronics that controls all that, I can modify the circuit slightly to accommodate the float switches' idiosyncrasies. There's a float switch in the shower/hand basin waste sump, (grey water), and, by chance, that operates as needed. The sump is normally emptied automatically, but if it fills up, perhaps because of a blockage, then the switch is made and an alarm is raised. No problem. The remaining switches are the issue. Specifically, the black tank, the freshwater tank and the raw water reservoir/distributor. The solution has been to design, and build, a small "black box" that takes each float switch's output and logically invert it. So now, if the freshwater tank becomes empty, a warning light on the dashboard is illuminated. Similarly with the raw water reservoir. The black tank part of the circuit is slightly more complicated because if the tank becomes full, not only does a warning light need to be illuminated on the dashboard, but the toilet needs to be disabled, and an additional warning light then illuminated in the bathroom to warn people that the toilet is no longer available. Whilst working in the bathroom recently, I was reminded of a problem with the handbasin. It is white porcelain, and very handsome, (and expensive.) However, whilst visiting a friend's newly built boat recently, I noticed that his handbasin was actually a much larger stainless steel affair, such as you might find in a laundry. His comment was that "the boss" (his lovely wife, Wendy) had apparently said that "If he expected her to wash clothes on the boat, she wasn't going to do it in a handbasin". Hence the laundry trough. (Thanks, Dick!) The thought stuck in my mind and, therefore, this week, I ripped out the lovely porcelain handbasin and replaced it with a 32 litre stainless steel laundry tub. Whilst it might seem slightly odd cleaning one's teeth over a basin that is 260mm deep, when it comes to washing a pair of jeans, the benefits will be readily apparent. The fuel injection computer (ECU) has also been finalised during the hot weather. It has had all its connecting plugs added and the installation wiring planned and fully documented. Some issues have come to light, particularly in relation to the gauge, or size, of the wire used to power the injectors themselves. Each injector draws eight amps and there are two of them operating in tandem. So, not only does the positive side of the wiring need to be able to handle 16 amps, but obviously the negative side too, and there's the catch! The negative cabling of the ECU not only has to handle the return side of the injectors, but that of the high pressure fuel pump as well, which can be up to another 11 amps. So, the negative side of the ECU wiring has been modified to use a heavier gauge wire to ensure that there is no voltage drop in the wiring and that everything operates at its best. With the rudder now fully operational, it was time to connect my home made Rudder Position Display (RPD) unit. There is a magnet installed on the rudder quadrant that is positioned under an array of Hall effect solid state switches which activates a set of nine LEDs as the rudder turns. There are four red, four green and one white LEDs to indicate Port, Starboard and Midships respectively. There are actually two rows of LEDs, the second being for the upstairs helm position. To my utter delight it all worked perfectly - well, almost. There is a slight alignment problem such that when "Midships" is indicated, the rudder isn't quite in the middle and when the rudder is "Hard-to-Port", the final Port red LED doesn't activate. Of course, I now realise that I haven't allowed for any adjustment, I just assumed that my maths and geometry would be good enough - such arrogance! I should know better! So, the sender unit had to come out, and its mounting holes elongated a little to allow for a fine adjustment. Easy? Yes, drilling holes in printed circuit boards that you have made is simple except, there's a problem. Now the rotten thing doesn't work at all. Grr...
30 March 2026	In line with my usual practice of starting a new chapter every April 1st, (a most auspicious date, you will agree), I thought I would close this chapter with a warning. Since that red-headed lunatic (in my opinion) in the US has decided to start World War III, the "fall-out" has already hit Australia. Our fuel prices have risen by 70% and now even availability, itself, has become a concern. The diesel fuel situation is even worse, which badly affects trucks, buses and trains, obviously. So, now the availability of even food staples, is being affected. Ridiculous! The round trip from my house to my boatshed is 152Kms and, as a result, the cost of petrol for my usual three trips a week has risen to over $120, which is not sustainable. What to do? Stay home and conserve both fuel and money, obviously. It seems reminiscent of the Covid Lockdowns. The local road traffic in my area has declined noticeably, so others are obviously reacting in the same way. I have two cars and they are both full, but when the local petrol stations put up the "No Fuel" signs, as has happened twice in the last week, that's not much help. So, how can I continue to build the boat from home? Well, I have always had a number of electrical modules planned for the boat. Many might suggest that some of these ideas are overkill, but my background is electronics engineering and it's my boat, so, guess what? I have always "put off" building the electronic modules, but now reality is intruding. The boat is nearing completion, and some of these things are required before much more progress can be made. Ironically, I've not delayed building these items for any practical reasons, and it's an odd thing, but once I have designed something and drawn it up, so far as the "To Do List" in my head is concerned - it's finished, and I get on with the next thing. So, now, I'm in my home workshop busily building these items, which qualifies as a contribution to the boat building process and doesn't cost any petrol at all! Some of these circuits actually work, too - although I'm forced to concede that it's not necessarily on the first try... Anyway, I'll tell you all about the electronic bits and pieces in the next riveting chapter - so stay tuned. Howzat for a "Cliff Hanger"?