andyandsallyb

Hi, Me again! I thought a little while ago that 'ES' could do with some instrumentation for the upper helm as the only time the inside helm is used is if its raining! and that was not very often last year. 'ES' has no upper helm instruments at all other than a large orange warning light, although nobody has yet to confirm what it indicates, only to say that if it ever were to come on, it would probably be quite a good idea to stop somtime soon! Tried a couple of layouts on the CNC mill this afternoon and settled on this one. Won't be fitting it though until she comes out of the water in June for the interior work, much easier to run cables then. ! Andy

"What would be the correct flag to fly on the bow?" An NBN flag of course Andy No Worries, Where do I get one? ! Andy.

by smellyloo » March 22nd, 2010, 1:36 pm Picky, picky me .... shouldn't the ensign be bringing up the rear? Sorry, don't really have much of a clue on this, but the mounting pole has been measured about 100mm taller than the highest point of our boat and has been fitted so that it will fold back if it comes into contact with a bridge, so if it ever does, I know that it is very unlikely that we will 'make it'. At the time this was the only flag I could get that was the right size. What would be the correct flag to fly on the bow? ! Andy

Hi Everyone, I could not resist posting these pictures. We took 'ES' out on the water on Saturday from Potter down to the Stracey windpump. First run since last November, absolutely fantastic. Unbelieveable how dirty a boat gets just sitting on the mooring for four months! A couple of buckets of boatwash and a 5 minute hose down later (Thanks Sue & Tony at the Stracey) and Hey-Presto! Back on Friday evening for the Weekend... ! Andy

Progress...... Amazing! A couple of days off work and.... Basin fitted and plumbed. Power and ariel sockets in cabins. New battery isolator panel fitted. ! Andy

Why is it that no matter how experienced you are, when you set yourself a window of time to get a particular job done, it always takes at least twice as long??? Changing the Waeco Inverter (Due to original catching fire!) is a complete pain in the ar** as the revised (I am told much more reliable) model has a couple of important differences that make the swap much more than just a disconnect / reconnect. Firstly the old model PP2000 has 2 twelve volt supply connections for both the pos and neg, so four cables in total The replacement unit PP2002 has only one pos and one neg terminal for a single much larger 300A cable. Therefore the previous wiring installation requires replacement also. Not a problem, but time consuming. In addidtion the remote control switch module has the same telephone style connection and indeed both inverters have the same socket so the cable from the remote fits both devices, but for some crazy reason they are not interchangable. I tracked down an engineer at HW who kindly provided me with a plate which they have had made with a remote switch for the new style inverter, that is the same size as the old Waeco one (so they obviously change a few of these then?). So after running a new twin core cable for the remote switch the supply and control side was finished. Because the revised unit is a completely different size and shape to the old one, it has also required me to resite the domestic panel, all done now, plus the new isolation switch panel is fitted that alows the inverter to be isolated separately from the other domestic devices. Allowing engine services and inverter to be isolated while still enabling essential items such as bilge pump to be active during longer no use periods. Back up on Wednesday to fit new wash basin and take a few photos. ! Andy

So, our first setback... We want to tackle the headlining replacement as one of the first tasks as it is likely to create the most mess, but have today had it confirmed that the windows will have to be removed for sure - all of them! I have today booked ES to be lifted and moved to the fairmile shed at HW for the work to begin, but they cannot move her until the 7th June once the scheduled work on thier hire fleet is complete. Brian Taylor reckons 2.5 - 3 weeks work to complete everything, so the good news is we will be finished before the summer, and we can still user her as is until the begining of June. I am going to continue with the list of jobs I intended to tackle myself starting with the new inverter (see my post in technical questions regarding WAECO pp2000 Inverter) and power sockets, followed by new inset basin and therostatic shower in aft cabin en-suite. ! Andy

Just got home and thought I'd post up these before and after shots. The removal was a bit of a pain as there were a few screws hiding, but on the whole, not too bad. Ply panels straight forward. I found a length of right angle hardwood in B&Q to add a nice finishing edge to the front panel.

Yep!, looks like the same thing to me Mark. We have collected carpet and vynyl floor covering samples this week. I am comming up to Potter Heigham on Tuesday to get some of the woodwork done before Brian at HW can make a start on the patterns for the new seating area. As I said previously, it look like the windows will have to come out for the headlining replacement, still waiting on a final descision, but not looking forward to that! or the price. ! Andy

Hi Steve, A self made item, I use a CNC Milling machine, this is made from a product called 'COBEX' should be available from most autofactors. Andy

Hi Neil, The base material for the instrument panel is available through any durite stockist (Most motor factors) it's called COBEX Engraving Laminate and available in Black/White or Red/White, the last item in this pdf. http://www.durite.co.uk/pdf/3/03.5%20sw ... minate.pdf I have found the durite website to be most useful and they also supply marine specific gauges. http://www.durite.co.uk ! Andy

Aha! I knew I had one somwhere, this is the exact material we have chosen for our seating and matresses. The seating design has a more prominant bull-nose edge that will be in the solid colour as per this picture and the actual seat section will have the pattern. Matresses will be in the same solid colour as the bull-nose section. ! Andy.

Thanks for all your comments. Before I posted this I had already started on my solution to prevent this happening again. We have four 664 type batteries, one is for the engine circuit and the other three are in parallel for the domestic supply. There are 2 isolators, one for engine and the other for the domestic. We have always isolated the engine supply and left the domestic supply on. the inverter is powered from the domestic supply and so is the bilge pump, so it has to be left on. My intention is to split the domestic isolation into 2 and feed the inverter through a third isolator. I dont want to power the inverter from a single battery as we regularly use a 1400w vaucum cleaner and the drain when that is in use is considerable. Also we are using standard lead acid cells as opposed to leisure type batteries. Lead acid cells will only full cycle (discharge below 11.8volt and the fully charge) around 200 times if you are lucky, as opposed to a deep cycle leisure battery which will cycle over 500 - 600 times. So potencially the single battery powering the inverter senario will substantially shorten the life of the battery. Andy.

Hi Everyone, Just posting this for your information. Last weekend I visited our boat 'Evening Star' moored at Potter Heigham to carry out some preparation work before the refit starts in a couple of weeks. I arrived with my 11 year old daughter around 10:30pm and to my dissapointment -3 degrees C and a fairly thick covering of snow with a considerable ammount of ice beneath. Anyway, boarded ES and turned on lights, problem, no lights or electrical power at all. Cant start engine as she is winterised... Managed to get some heat from gas hob before we both went to bed... Very cold indeed !! I had brought up my spare batteries to swap over and in the morning swapped them over. All seemed ok until connecting up the domestic supply. Large spark when connecting positive terminal, so I thought we had left something on? After checking everything we had not left anything on at all, Amp meter is showing a negative draw of around 8 - 10 amps! By a process of elimination it turned out that disconnecting the supply to the inverter the current drain was eliminated. The supply drain is apparent as soon as the supply is connected to the inverter without it being switched on! When the inverter was switched on though, it did work as it always has done? - Very strange. I removed the inverter and took it back home with us for further investigation. On further inspection, the inverter has caught fire internally with several of the regulator components completely charred !! This inverter is only 14 months old, and had very little use, but just out of warranty. I called WAECO only to be told that it was probably unrepairable and the only real option was to by a replacement unit at £375.00 + vat. The replacement unit is a PP2002 and I have had a chat today with Herbert Woods who fitted the Inverter, In their words the PP2000 is "not the most reliable" but no problems so far with the later PP2002 model. A quick search of ebay revealed two sellers both selling the PP2000 model as faulty units brand new out of the box. Not great then !!! I now have PP2002 on order and Herbert Woods have an adaptor cable that they make up to connect the older remote on/off button (so they obviously change a few then). Product : 2KW Power Inverter Manufacturer : WAECO Model : Perfect Power PP2000 Fault : Caught Fire ! Andy

Hi Martin, Regarding the instument panel. The base material is a laminated hard plastic, the front and back surface are both gloss black but the center lamination is white. We used a horizontal CNC mill to cut away the black surface to reveal the white underneath. cutting depth is less than 1.0mm and the cutter diameter was 0.75mm. Below is a picture of the mill used to make our panel, ! Andy.

Hi Jonny, Well, its Grey - drab, cold, unwelcoming, dark, miserable, its just too Grey... We would like something - warm, light, airy, and co-ordinated. Anything but Grey, why even the head lining is Grey! The picture below is IMHO better. The following link provides a 3D view : http://www.kriscruisers.co.uk/res/panos/panoPamela.html ! Andy.

And now a taste of the job ahead... A couple of shots of the interior colour scheme - IMHO Yuk!! Andy.

Exterior Changes: ES's exterior was in pretty good shape when we brought her so only cosmetic changes so far. Fenders, Upper helm seat and cover, seat pads for bench seat on deck area, covers for all opening roof hatches and saloon / upper deck door and roof opening. Fitted permanent external digital tv ariel, rear mounted lifebuoy and finally a pulpitt rail. Andy.

This is my next job to complete.... The rear ensuite shower / toilet has a very small basin and we wanted to replace with a larger one. The existing basin is fully inset and the replacement needed to be the same as to the left of it is the shower mixer unit which is very fiddly to use as variations in the hot and cold water pressure when the pump is running means it is almost impossible to achieve a constant temperature. So as can be seen from the photo, a new thermostatic shower mixer has been deployed. when the job is complete, the basin will be fitted with a forset type single mixer tap with remote waste control. the new basin and shower unit mounting panel has been made from MDF and laminated with GRP. A strip of anodised aluminium has been used to trim the lower front edge in keeping with the rest of the original installation. More pictures to follow when complete. Andy.

Next on the list - The Instrument panel. This was right up my street as I work in the electronics industry. The original panel was well "rough around the edges" so to speak, with instuments that did not match and an oil pressure gauge that needed a good thump to get any sort of reading! After taking a good look at the wiring loom behind the panel I decided that a complete replacement was in order. On the industrial park where my business is based there is a small auto factor and parts supplier who we have become quite friendly with over the years, they stock a range of products for a firm called DURITE and I borrowed a catalouge from them to see if they had all the components I needed. The DURITE calalogue has an entire section for marine instrumentation, BINGO! So, new Tachometer (Rev counter), Water Temp gauge, Oil pressure gauge, Volt meter, Amp meter, Engine runtime and service interval meter, battery charging warning lamp, 3x splash proof toggle switches for Bilge pump, Fresh water pump and screen wiper, cig lighter and new unique keyed ignition switch. All mounted on a CNC machined and engraved black panel. I am lucky enough to have access to a CNC Milling machine which I used for the manufacture of the panel, just couln't resist putting the boat name and logo on it! Andy.

Well here goes then! Since taking ownership of ES early last year we have already made a few changes and they are listed here. Firstly, as can be seen in the two photographs, we have upgraded the kitchen worktop and basin / drainer. Removed the original stainless steel basin drainer and complete worktop and replaced with beach effect worktop and round basin with separate matching round drainer. Forset type mixer tap has been fitted with a useful extending hose that allows easy cleanup and rinsing down. Additionally I have made a ground finish stainless steel splashback for the hob, I have access to a guilotine and folding press so this was fairly straight forward. Finished the job off with beach effect melamine paneling to the rest of the surrounding wall area and a set of brushed stainless steel cupboard door knobs. Andy.

Hi Mark, Yes, the restoration section would be better, please move it there when you get a moment. ! Andy

Hi Everyone, I have started this topic as a pictorial diary for anyone who is interested. Evening Star is our Aquafibre 38 Lowliner, previously Herbert Woods Twilight 2. We purchased ES in April 2009. This refit has always been our goal, and so when choosing our boat it was more important to obtain a craft in good exterior condition with a layout we liked. fortunately the interior of ES in particularly the woodwork is in great shape. We have spent last season really getting to know her and ironing out a few inevitable issues. The colour scheme of the soft furnishings is pretty hidious, predominantly Grey and Blue and although clean, functional, and tear free it really is time for a change. This refit is going to be soft furnishings only, Head linings, curtains, carpets, sofa foams and coverings, matress foams and coverings, and wall coverings (where carpets have been used). Additionally we are removing a glass fronted storage cabinet in the saloon and replacing with a second sofa that will also double as a single birth, bringing the sleeping capacity to 9. Other than that the actual layout is remaining unchanged. I am going to carry out any contruction work myself but we have been lucky enough to secure the services of Brian Taylor of Herbert Woods to do the rest. The first major job is going to be the replacement of the entire head lining (currently grey!) and the replacement existing strip flourescent lighting with halogen low voltage downlighters throuout. It is looking more likely that most of the windows will have to be removed to do this ! Oh My God !! We did make the journey up to Potter Heigham this weekend but the weather was so cold that we really did not get much done at all. I did manage to remove the internal stairs from the saloon to the deck and have today rubbed down, re varnished them and re treaded the steps with the same covering used for the topside of skateboards ! ! Andy & Sally