167. Navigation Lights
Nothing delights a bureaucrat more than
an excuse not to issue, or to cancel a licence, and I have a sneaking
suspicion that the original deco style navigation lights from a slipper
launch, which I have been able to acquire, will provide just the
necessary non-compliance. To get around it, and having no intention of
further vandalising my boat in the name of "safety", I have purchased a
pair of approved, plastic horrors. They are just about small enough to
fit inside the chromed brass originals. I have no plans to be motoring
the boat about at night anyway, but in case I have to, and to avoid
running foul of the law, I will merely have to flip the original
fittings off the top of the plastic ones, and I will be compliant
again.
The approved ones are just a tiny bit tall to fit inside the old ones completely, so the stands will have to be trenched out a little for them to be able to sit inside comfortably. Then the old covers can be screwed over the top.
There would have been another way around the problem too. I could have used battery powered stick-on lights as the compliant ones, and the old originals as purely decorative; but, having gone to the trouble of wiring for the navigation lights all those months ago, I do not feel like abandoning my efforts for a set of Garfields.
The light stands are cut from solid mahogany, 10 mm. clear all around, and the trenches are routed into them for the plastic fittings.
The penny dreadfuls of the light world. Without their covers they will fit into the old traditional fittings.
The light is built onto the stand.
From without it looks like a traditional lamp.
The approved ones are just a tiny bit tall to fit inside the old ones completely, so the stands will have to be trenched out a little for them to be able to sit inside comfortably. Then the old covers can be screwed over the top.
There would have been another way around the problem too. I could have used battery powered stick-on lights as the compliant ones, and the old originals as purely decorative; but, having gone to the trouble of wiring for the navigation lights all those months ago, I do not feel like abandoning my efforts for a set of Garfields.
The light stands are cut from solid mahogany, 10 mm. clear all around, and the trenches are routed into them for the plastic fittings.
The penny dreadfuls of the light world. Without their covers they will fit into the old traditional fittings.
The light is built onto the stand.
From without it looks like a traditional lamp.
The wiring is now extracted from its
position under the deck, via holes drilled though, and the bulb
carriers are cabled in to the navigation light switch.
The forward white light and the port marker can be seen.
The forward white light and the port marker can be seen.
The old light covers are showing their
age a bit, especially the coloured lenses. The starboard one in
particular is quite pale.
The stern light is the same as the
forward white one.
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168. Hooking Up the Horn
Forward to December
'09The
wiring for the horn is supposed to pass from the rear of the mechanism,
through a groove in the strut to a hole in the base plate and on
through the deck. I felt that there was potentially too much friction
where it passed through the groove, so I ran it into a watertight deck
fitting, down into the cockpit. The wiring from the horn button comes
through the dash bulkhead from the motor compartment to splice with the
horn's wiring underneath the deck fitting.
169.
Hinging the Rear Hatch
Cover
Because
of
the camber of the rear deck, only one hinge can be used; and that
had to be offset sufficiently that the hatch trim can lift off the deck
as well. The transverse members into which the hinge screws is aligned
vertically, so, in order for the hinge screws not to penetrate the
front
of the frames they have to be started a little back from centre.
The
hinge
is a loose fit, and it allow the cover to move about quite a lot
when it is open. So much so that the cover's sides can easily hit the
deck instead of dropping back into the hatch opening. Some sort of
guide mechanism is required to prevent that. It may have been a lot
simpler to follow the advice in the plans and use a drop down pot type
hatch.
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170.
Hood Hardware
Earlier
this
year I determined that the correct height of the rear of the hood
was 650 mm. above the side deck. In order to place the deck hinge for
the rear bow of the hood, I rigged up a dummy again. The projection of
the stowed bow astern of the coaming is important. It should not come
up against the mooring bollard in front of the hatch. With a piece of
scrap to represent the bow I marked its position in the open (hood up)
position, and in the stowed position. The location of the deck hinge is
still not fixed.
The dummy rig for the hood.
The dummy rear bow collapses to an acceptable distance back from the coaming.
The dummy rig for the hood.
The dummy rear bow collapses to an acceptable distance back from the coaming.
In
the
shot above, the bow falls comfortably into a position out of the
way of the bollard, and with plenty of room left for the forward bow to
lie behind it. Luckily, the deck hinge for this to occur has to lie
above the glovebox. That gives me the opportunity to bolt it down
rather than rely on screws into ply. In case the hood is ever caught by
a gust, screws in ply would stand a good chance of being ripped out.
The location of the deck hinge, above the glovebox.
The location of the deck hinge, above the glovebox.
The
only
problem with the deck hinge is readily appreciated when the
plastic one coming with the kit is shown against the stainless one
which will replace it. Because the width of the hood is slightly less
at the top than is the width of the bows at deck level, the deck hinge
need to incline towards the coaming a little. The plastic one does that
because of its asymmetric base. The stainless one would need to have
a small wedge fashioned to serve the same purpose. But the easiest
solution is to use a swivel hinge on the deck. This can accommodate any
angle necessary.
The wedged, unwedged and swivel deck hinges.
The wedged, unwedged and swivel deck hinges.
It
turns
out to be cheaper to buy a complete bimini kit and adapt it than
to have one custom made, even though the canvas top will not serve the
purpose. The bows have to be trimmed to the right length for the
slipper launch, and here the two rear ones, bows 1 and 2 are seen
before trimming.
After
they
are cut to the right length they allow the bow to sit snugly
behind the coaming.
With
all
four bows up the hood appears to be riding far too high, but that
is because it is too short. I will not be using this hood, but will
have one made to fit, and its longer length will allow the first and
last bows to sit much lower.
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