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Completed three jobs on Windchaser today that I was very happy about.

Bilge pump hose shifted: When I bought Windchaser in 2012, I discovered that in very rough steep chop with it slapping on the stern, water came in to the bilge via the manual bilge pump hose (only bilge pump installed at purchase) to the point where I found it sloshing across the cabin floor. So, I put in a new through-hull fitting with non-return valve and at the bottom of the bilge pump hose in the bilge I installed another non-return valve. The valves helped keep the water out at those times the water is extra choppy but not all of it. Sometimes a bit of grit in the valves or something like that meant quite a bit of water came back in. The problem is that the hose does not go high enough as it runs under the cockpit floor. When I put an automatic 12v bilge pump in, I routed the pipe up under the cockpit seat. So, today, I took out the old hose, put in kinky black hose and routed it up high as well.



Stove upgrade: My butane stove is of the type which was withdrawn from the market due to possible dangers of explosions. Decided to replace it with a better model and to complete the base I had been meaning to finish for some time. The base is wood painted with acrylic decking oil so the wood is protected from spills. To make it more level, seeing as the stove recess floor is angled, I put two screws in underneath as legs and adjusted for correct fitting.



And, the tricky bit, I put two screws in the top section to hold the stove in place. Two of the feet on the stove sit over the screw heads thus holding it in place but still allowing the stove to be lifted out for cleaning.



The other design feature is I made the base such that on the right hand side, there is enough space to store a cup or whatever but the edge of the base keeps it away from direct contact with the stove body.



Replace anchor rope: Recently I put in a new anchor rode with 20 m of Australian chain and 50 m of Australian 14 mm nylon rope. I found that sometimes the rope-chain splice would slip in the gypsy. I thought maybe it was too thick but read today that making the splice too tight on the chain can do something like that. Oh well, I had bought the 50 m of 12 mm nylon rope so I spliced it on, making sure the wrap around the chain was looser than I had done for the previous rope. The 12 mm has a breaking strain of about 3,000 kg so is plenty strong enough (interesting to compare: silver rope 12 mm breaking strain 1,285 kg). I am glad I went back to 12 mm as with the 14 mm, the chain 'pyramid' was high enough that it sometimes caused a problem with the last metre of chain being fed in.





troppo

Good one Troppo,
Its amazing how satisfying getting those little jobs done is, have been re-bedding my mid-ships cleats & a deck hatch last week(will finish it this week), with butyl tape.

Is the water always that murky up there?, or is it because of the recent flooding.
Water has been nearly crystal clear here lately, can see the grains of sand on the bottom of the river even, although we are very close to the ocean & everything gets flushed out with each tide.
cheers

Shaun, the water varies from not clear to very muddy. Is never really clear. Up north, Mackay, their river is clear. I guess us folks in Rockhampton are just lucky seeing as our river is like coffee.

And I am jealous of you having nearly crystal clear water.

With re-bedding your cleats and deck hatch, any pics? I'd love to see what you have been doing.

Louis