March 17, 2017
Halcyon 56
Friday
To finish up the revamped water system, I installed a length of 1-1/2″ hose to connect the deck fill pipe with the water tank.
At the owner’s request, I purchased a new 2-burner alcohol stove, and now I installed it in the galley. It fit nicely on the small shelf intended for its storage, held in place with the interior fiddle and some nonslip padding I placed beneath it on the shelf.
After installing a small buss bar for the negative distribution side of the electrical system, I finished up the wiring, connecting all the terminals I’d prepared earlier.
I’d picked up a new deep-cycle battery and some replacement bulbs for the running lights, and now I installed the battery in a covered box just below the electrical panel. I made up the final connections and powered up the system to test the various lighting. All lights tested operational. I still awaited the proper socket to finish rebuilding the stern light housing, so that light was not yet able to be tested. Once I’d ensured that the old running lights worked, I went ahead and installed the covers with their colored globes.
The riggers arrived to pick up the standing and running rigging for replacement, and drop off new lifelines to replace the originals in kind. I installed these now. The lifelines relied on the mast stays for support and direction at their forward ends, and the old lines had featured bulky blobs of tape to protect the rigging and lifelines against chafe where they intertwined amidships. These photos, taken either at my first viewing of the boat in the water before the project, or right at the beginning of the work once the boat was at the shop, show these areas in more detail.
Hoping for a cleaner, more effective solution, I’d asked the riggers to include little bronze ferules, through which the lifelines could pass and which could be lashed to the main shrouds in the proper position when the boat was rigged. Once the ferule was lashed to the shrouds, the lifeline could easily be removed from the ferule at haulout time (by unthreading one end from the turnbuckle at the aft end) in order to leave the ferule lashed in place on the stay. I included some marlin lashing line and basic instructions on each side of the boat, ready for when the mast was stepped after delivery.
With this, most of the work list was complete. Still ahead remained a few odds and ends, including maintenance coats of varnish on the mast and boom, pending completion of new rigging, interior cushions, and cockpit cushions, and other minor and sundry tasks, all of which I’d ensure completion of in short order.
Total time billed on this job today: 5.5 hours
0600 Weather Observation:
0°, clear. Forecast for the day: sunny, 30