Continuing on – The bow sprit work was finished today when I drilled the last few holes to 1/4″.  These holes were countersunk for flat head metric bolts but I purchased new 1/4″ SS carriage bolts.  The square shank will fit into the counhtersunk holes and thus freely turn.  To this end I cut slots into the carriage bolt heads to accept a flat blade screwdriver.  This will allow me to use nyloc nuts and hold the bolt from turning.

I also reinstalled the new retainer for the fuse panel door that I added behind the companion way steps.  I had removed this door to refinish a less than quality fit.  Now it looks great.  Lots of little details….

I worked in the garage this weekend doing some small tasks.  One was bolting the cradle to the removable panel between the port lazerette and the area under the kitchen sink. (Inspirations galley sink is located on the cabin’s aft port side) Having this panel removable allows easy access to the water heater.  As you read in previous bloglines we now have a Force 10 heater.

The removable panel has a cradle to attach a 20Hr burn tank of CNG.  This is a rather heavy tank similar in size to a 80 cuft scuba tank and holds about the same pressure.  One tank lasts all summer if you do not bake.  CNG is locally available and is a rather safe gas as it is lighter than air and will escape upwards and not to the bilge.  LPG scares me so it was either a CNG or diesel stove.  A diesel stove is a pain so I opted for CNG.  This may be changed as we head towards long term cruising grounds.

Pretty cold last night and with winds 23Kt steady with gusts to 30. Temp at coldest was -5.3F and right now 5.7F with high winds.

We have spent the weekend working on the bow sprit teak deck. It has three coats of Cetol Marine Light. We will do a couple more coats and then a last coat of Cetol Gloss (maybe two if we put it on too thin and leave a spot where it is less Glossy.

I looked at the diesel manual last night. I saw an two options related to using the seawater pump to pull water from the bilge. This option interests me a bit and I started wondering if anyone has ever used this option or has it implemented on their YS (or other). I’ll have to write the YS Message Board at MSN and find out.

We organized all the bottom painting tools this weekend and are not ready to VC17 Original the bottom the next time we go to the boat. This will be in a week or two – as soon as we get the bow sprit deck job completed.

During the last week I spent an hour or two detailing all the work we have done since the November haulout. The list goes on for two MS Word pages but maybe I will publish here or on the www.youngsunowners.org website.

Time to help VM2 with other things right now…Bye,