Fitting Out (Year 17):

Date	Discussion
April 2026	Greetings Boat Building Blog Readers! I've put "Readers" here in plural, which may be a bit presumptive, but my site hit counter says there are still over fifty of you a month dropping by, which is nice. So, welcome! Anyway, here we go again - another massive missive describing what may, or may not, be achieved within the next twelve months. You will recall that the building of the hull was started in July 2008 and took about eighteen months. Now, eighteen years later there is still "Just the Fitting Out to Go". Hence the title of this section of the website. So, welcome back, dear readers - let's press on...
26 April 2026	The red haired lunatic, who is in the process of alienating anything American from the rest of the world, is still wreaking havoc on the Australian economy and, more particularly, the price of fuel for my vehicles. In fairness, it has actually improved slightly, now the panic buyers, opportunists and greedy profiteers (read Oil Companies), have had their fill. (Pun intended.) So, some sense of normality has returned, albeit a more expensive normality. On February 28th, when Trump started annoying Iran, the world oil price went up by 6%. That same night, my local service station put its fuel prices up by 33%, which tells you all you need to know about oil companies. And I use the term "service" in service station very loosely. Some new, and very necessary, electronic bits and pieces have been built for "Rhapsody in Glue". I mentioned, previously, that the various float, or level, switches used around the boat don't necessarily work in what, to me, is a logical fashion. In some cases, I have been able to modify the way they are used and for the remainder I have built a small box of electrickery that inverts their signals. The switches affected are the raw water reservoir, the freshwater tank and the blackwater tank. The blackwater switch now also operates a relay that will be used to light warning lights around the boat and to disable the toilet once the tank is full. A "tank full" light is installed next to each of the pump-out and flush connections, so that whilst filling the tank with flush water, it tells you when to stop! When the vessel is unattended, not surprisingly, the bilge pumps remain active. If one of the pumps comes on, it would be useful to be able to trigger an alarm. The alarm, in this case, is a blue xenon strobe light, fitted above the Anchor Light, on the roof of the boat. Anyone in the marina, seeing the strobe light flashing, can then get someone to have a look at the problem, or contact me, before the boats sinks, hopefully. The strobe light will also be activated by the LPG gas sniffer in the case of a gas leak, low House battery voltage or intruder movement inside the boat. However, my very computer literate son has upgraded my expectations by also using those signals to send messages to my phone. Quite how that all works, well... The five bilge pumps are all sealed units with the float switches built in. So, determining if one of them is actually running becomes a problem. The solution is, of course, to monitor the current being consumed by each pump, looking for any value other than zero. Therefore, yet another box of electronics has been built to do just that. It provides the necessary outputs for the strobe controller and the remote cell-phone monitoring system. It will also drive a set of pilot lights, on the auxiliary electrical panel, when the boat is occupied. The hand basin in the bathroom now has to double as a laundry trough, as well. The new stainless steel trough has been acquired but, of course, it has a different "footprint" than the previous porcelain unit. I have to confess that attacking my, what I had previously considered as finished, beautiful oiled redgum bench top with a jig saw was somewhat dispiriting. However, needs must... In reality, the new sink is actually wider than the old one, so some parts of the benchtop only had to be removed to accommodate the new width, which is simple enough. However, the front to back depth of the new unit was somewhat less, meaning that new material had to be added to the benchtop, which is not nearly as simple. The front edge of the hole, in the benchtop, had only been "sculpted", in one small spot, to fit the porcelain sink and it simply had to have its edge re-built with epoxy. The area would be hidden under the front "lip" of the new sink and would not be visible. The back edge was a different proposition. The new sink is about 60mm less deep than the old one, so a new piece of benchtop had to be made to fill in the gap at the back. The benchtop is laid with strips of Redgum, 40mm wide, which had been sanded and oiled. Fortunately, I found a small piece of the original timber, in a pile, at the back of the shed. Then it was only a matter of matching the grain, and the laid strip pattern, and glueing the bits together. All of this is very time consuming, but now it is finished, completely re-sanded and re-oiled, it looks terrific. With the new sink installed, as well, it is a very satisfying improvement. It is doubly pleasing in another respect, in that the pieces of Redgum, used in that bathroom benchtop, were salvaged from an 1897 paddle steamer called the P.S. Marion. A lovely old boat which I have skippered many times. The ECU, and its associated wiring, has now been installed together with a separate relay to activate the high pressure fuel pump. The original plugs and sockets from the donor Ford vehicle were retained and have been grafted on to new wiring, to make a very tidy and, hopefully, reliable installation. The engine, itself, has been fully wired, too, and the cables brought out to a series of moisture proof connectors, but they have yet to be wired into the boat. Other systems, in the boat, have had some time, now, to settle down and prove themselves. The solar charging system, which is running from a small, and very ancient, temporary solar panel array, connected to a similarly small, and very ancient, car battery, is working well. The shiny new Engine battery is being maintained properly, at full charge, which is nice. The Rudder Position Indicator has been a nuisance. When the rudder was actually at midships, the display would show it as being slightly to Starboard. When the rudder was hard to Port, the display would go out altogether. Assuming that it was simply a matter of adjustment was a bit disappointing since I had made no provision for any such adjustment. I had just assumed that my design geometry was perfect - such arrogance - I know! A quick and easy idea was to drill out the mounting holes in the sender unit to a bigger size, to allow for some movement, and all would be well. Had I not carelessly drilled through the 10-way cable that drives the display at the same time, that approach might have worked. Now I have to cut out the damaged piece of that 10-way cable and splice in a new piece. Another "Five Minute Job" that definitely isn't...
2 June 2026	There is a deep and dark fear that lurks in the minds of all computer users; one day your machine doesn't boot properly! Next day it gets worse and so on, until you are forced to concede that not only is something really going wrong, but that you have to fix it. In this case, it seems that installing both Microsoft and Dell updates in the wrong order causes software mayhem and the only solution is to delete everything and start again. That takes a few hours, it's true, and is a nuisance, but the bigger problem is all the customisations one makes, over years of daily use, that aren't backed up anywhere. Well, here we are, back on the "air", albeit a bit delayed… The "cliffhanger" at the end of the last thrilling instalment was trouble with the Rudder Position Indicator and the "five-minute job" required to repair some self-inflicted damage. You won't be surprised to learn that, of course, that particular five-minute job stretched to half a day and, to make things worse, it still wasn't working completely, but I have it worried, I think. Update: a couple of days later and the Rudder Position Display, for both helm positions, is working properly and that installation finalised. Phew! Fitting up the new sink/trough in the bathroom is progressing. The waste pipe is in a different spot, of course, and is a different size to the previous porcelain sink, but they are not difficult changes. However, the more disappointing discovery was that the very special tap I had purchased, so long ago, will not fit on the stainless-steel trough. The tap is a "Waterfall" style unit with a glass spout that is illuminated and changes colour, from red to blue, based on the temperature of the water – very tricky! Ah, well! There are two auxiliary removable fuel tanks in the transom, and they each need a pump to transfer their fuel to the engine. Naturally, it's not quite that simple. If the pump on one tank is operating and the other tank either empty or not installed, it can allow air into the system which will stop it working. As a result, a solenoid operated fuel tap is installed in front of each fuel pump. This has the advantage that in the event of an emergency, the fuel taps both mechanically default to off. Small, vented enclosures were created inside the transom during its construction, so many years ago, to accommodate the expected pumps and solenoids, but naturally, their actual sizes, then, were just guesses. Happily, they turned out to be reasonably adequate and with a bit of juggling, the necessary hardware has been installed. The wiring to both pumps and solenoids is also complete, and they can be operated, as intended, from the dashboard. Sections of stainless-steel braided fuel hose have been cut to length to connect everything, and a single line is then used to connect to the remainder of the fuel system, in the forward section of the boat. In that forward section is the main fuel tank, which is a 420litre aluminium ex-truck tank. It now has a custom filler hose adaptor, whilst the existing fuel supply connection, breather pipe and fuel gauge sender equipment have all been retained. Like the aft tanks, the main tank has an isolating solenoid tap and its own high lift diaphragm fuel pump. The two supply lines are merged into a manifold via manual isolating valves, as required by law. The boat doesn't have its real House batteries yet. They will be purchased nearer to launch time. In the meantime, a single car battery is being used to test the various systems on board. There are two very second-hand 80w solar cells, mounted outside the shed, to keep it charged, and every time I visit the shed, one of the first jobs is to check the various voltmeters to make sure that all is well. On a recent visit, I noticed that the temporary House battery's voltage was showing only 10.2 volts – dead flat! It turned out that I had left some lights on in the boat, and the old solar panels could not keep up. However, the system does have a dual-sense isolating relay fitted to protect the status of the Engine battery, in this circumstance, and whilst the House battery was very flat, the Engine battery had been fully protected and was sitting at a very healthy 12.9 volts and was still fully charged. I hadn't intended to test this part of the system in such a drastic way but can't help being delighted that it all worked perfectly! Quite a relief, actually.
30 June 2026	While fitting the main fuel tank equipment wiring, I finally had to address a couple of jobs that I had been putting off, simply because they were a bit awkward. The main fuel tank is in its own compartment, or locker, and is largely sealed from the remainder of the boat, to stop the spread of explosive petrol vapour. So, it has to have its own ventilation blower and bilge pump, and installing those items would require the removal of the fuel tank to gain the necessary access. Luckily, Mark came by later that day and was able to help me lift the tank out. It's not especially heavy, just awkward! However, when initially "dry fitting" it, so long ago, I had attached a temporary rope harness to simplify its installation and, happily, the harness was still in place. So, removing the tank was very straightforward. Perhaps I will leave the harness there in case someone is unfortunate enough to have to remove the tank again in the future – not me, hopefully! Wiring for the various units in the tank area were installed. Specifically, these were for the bilge pump, bilge blower, tank solenoid and pump, tank level gauge sender and black tank full warning light. The "Full" light is provided in each of the WDS connection lockers to ensure that if flush water is being pumped into the black tank, it is not overfilled, which can be quite messy. Ventilation in the area is provided by a bilge blower, (in vacuum mode, obviously) which exhausts via a trunk built into the wall and finally through a skin fitting in the hull, to the outside. The original position of the blower had to be changed to accommodate the toilet waste pipe, which crosses the tank locker and needs to maintain a predetermined "fall" for it to work properly. A new position for the blower was created, but the unit was never re-installed. It is now. Also, there is very little clearance under the tank, so a shaped timber duct was made. This gives the blower access to the very lowest area of the locker ensuring that it is vacuumed effectively. This was done many moons ago but still had to be connected, via 75m flexible hose, to the blower unit. Since the fuel tank locker is effectively a sealed area, it was always intended that it should have its own bilge pump. However, whilst the skin fitting, in the hull, had been installed, the pump was still in its box, on the bench! With the tank removed, it was a simple matter to finally fit the bilge pump and its associated hose connection. The main fuel tank (420 litres) is just one of the three on board. So, the same solenoid tap and pump arrangements were required, as for the other two tanks, allowing final tank selection to be made from the dashboard. A different model pump is necessary because of the depth of the tank and the additional "lift" required. The solenoid tap has no mounting points, so a small timber saddle had to be made and, once this was done, it had to be painted, of course. And I wonder where the days go! Later, the solenoid could be installed, together with the pump. The output of the pump is fed into a manifold, where it joins with the hose delivering fuel from the two aft tanks. Individual, manually operated, isolating taps are provided and the output is connected to a cartridge fuel filter and water separator. From there, fuel travels to a Day Tank in the engine compartment. The Day Tank is simply a 1.25 litre tank that is required for the fuel injection system. It provides a destination for the unused fuel being returned from the injector body. In a normal installation, with a single petrol tank, that would be sent back to the main tank. In this case, where there are three tanks, the return line has no way of knowing which was the originating tank, so, a small Day Tank is used, instead. The Day Tank also contains a Bosch 044 high pressure fuel pump which is connected to the throttle body. The throttle body, (taken from a 1990 Ford EA Falcon), has its own fuel pressure regulator built in, which returns unused fuel to the Day Tank, via a return hose. It should be noted that the Day Tank will need to have the air bled from it, should the system ever be allowed to run completely dry. There is a bleed tap and clear sight hose installed for that purpose. The hoses used to interconnect the various parts of the fuel system are sheathed in a stainless-steel outer braid. They are very tough and abrasion resistant, which, necessarily, makes them extremely difficult to cut. The best method seems to be to wrap the cut point in "Gaffer" tape and secure a Jubilee clip either side, then cut with an angle grinder. End caps, in a tasteful bright blue, with integrated jubilee clips, specifically designed for braided hose are difficult to fit, and prone to injuring fingers, but in the end, produce a very professional result. The braided fuel hose is made to the AN6 standard, which, weirdly, is actually 8.7mm I.D. However, it creates what may become a problem in the future, because most of the brass connectors used in the system are either 5/16, which is only 7.94mm or they are exactly 8mm. Given that the hose is specifically designed to resist crushing, the end clamps have to be very, very tight indeed, to try and ensure that a good seal is made. Time will tell whether they are tight enough! I'm not quite ready to do the domestic water system yet, but a pipe for each of the hot, cold and drinking water supplies to the galley, will have to pass through the petrol tank locker. It is much easier to drill the holes for the pipes whilst the tank is out, so that has been done. Also, that, and all the other odd holes, for cabling and the like, have all been painted. Whilst waiting for the paint to dry, another outstanding job was to make the installation of the two sinks in the boat permanent. They are both stainless steel and use the same nasty little folding clips to secure them to their respective bench tops. Once their mode of operation was determined, (there being no instructions, of course) dozens of these little clips were installed. All of which required lying on one's back, on the floor, and working at full arm stretch, overhead, by torchlight. Not nice! The next part of the job was to install the taps. No problem except for the galley sink, which, because of a lack of access, required the sink to be removed again in order to reach the securing nuts for the tap. Grrr! The galley tap is very tall and when it is simply screwed into the thin stainless material of the sink, it flexes and wobbles, which is not good. So, a support bracket was made from 5mm polyethylene sheet, and installed underneath, to stop that happening. Now, the metal tap body has come loose, for some reason, and the sink, brackets and waste pipe connections all have to come out again in order to fix it. Are we having fun yet?