Plymouth Progress 6 - Solar Panels Installed

Current location: Boat, Plymouth; Us, Stroud

This is getting hard. Every other Sunday we pack up the flat in Ebley, carry everything down two flights of stairs, load it into the car and drive 130 miles. There we unload it into a trolley (sometimes two), transport it to Pontoon A and unpack it all into Mehalah. The following Sunday we reverse the process and take bedding and remaining food back to Ebley.

This week's stuff ready for loading into the car.

The first thing we did last week was to try our Hugh's little shelf behind the cooker. This looks like a simple fabrication. Far from it. It's made from a shelf that used to pull over the old cooker. Consequently it has a stainless steel underside to protect from heat. First problem..cut through it. Second problem...cut it down to size which is not easy as there are no right angles and we want to re-use the smart wooden lip. Hugh asked for advice from his neighbour, an expert woodworker. "Can't be done" he said. Undaunted Hugh spent 8 hours and 17 different tools to accomplish this impossible task. It fits. It's smart. Great work Hugh. We'll see you and Linda next week for another set of jobs!

That's it at the back with the speaker on it. And the oven still gimbals just in front fo it.

Next up. Replace four old over bed non LED lights with four smart new ones with LED bulbs. These are really caravan lights but as caravan equipment is generally half the price of boat equipment Gilly got a really good deal on these. Staining and varnishing them next week will be one of your jobs Linda.

During the previous week I ordered all the new solar equipment and they were waiting for us in Plymouth when we arrived. But I couldn't install the panels on the guard rails until the guardrails had been replaced with solid stainless 1" tubes. By a fantastic feat of planning Paul the stainless man arrived with the new rails on Monday. Another great piece of work. We took out the old wire and he bolted and tapped the new rails in place. Jobs a good 'un.

Guard Rails.

Stainless tubing ready for solar panels.

Whilst he was with us we gave Paul the sorry looking jib sheet return blocks. They need new intermediate plates and a general refurbishment. Not cheap but a lot less expensive than some new solution. And anyway this is what a Stevens 47 is supposed to have. They should be ready in a couple of weeks. Paul will do the stainless work and a retired friend of his will turn the new bearings. It really is amazing how little routine maintenance had been carried out by the previous owner even though Mehalah was used as a training boat. New engine, generator, sails, standing rigging, water tanks(!!!) and toilets but considerable neglect of the smaller things. Still, these are all things we need to check before we set off so it's just a bit more work than we expected.

Bits of a jib sheet return block.

Stuff is happening fast and furious now so we've resurrected the old white board we found under our bed. I guess this was used in the evening for theory training. However it has now become our 'must do' board. It sits there in the saloon taunting us every time we sit down for a rest.

Now, what's next?

Most of the work identified prviously by Allspare the riggers we have done ourselves but a few things we asked them to come back and do. We were slightly concerned when Sam seemed to have lost the boom but luckily he found it a couple of minutes later and added the requisite shims to stop it falling off one day. Another job we could have done if we had realised what had to be done.

What? No boom?

His main job though was to install a pair of steps high up on the mast so that if (when) I need to work up there I won't be dangling for hours cutting off my circulation so that my legs fall off. Natty little goodies they fold up and are rattle free when not in use.

The steps.

Up we go.

Easy peasy.

We squeezed in another job now that Mike our engineer had returned the now reinforced gear change bracket.

The new reinforced gear change bracket (unpainted).

The new reinforced gear change bracket (painted red). Well actually not painted red as I forgot to take the picture!

By now Chris and Audrey had arrived from Cumbria. That's a 6.5 hour drive or in this case a 10.5 hour drive as a pedestrian had been hit by a lorry on the motorway causing havoc. Still they seemed quite phlegmatic about it all so we gave them their jobs for the week. Chris' main reason for coming down was to measure up the shaft brake template before making the final disk but I wanted him to help with the solar panels too. He loved it! Thanks Chris. [I should add here that Chris, a former submariner, was the guy who first showed me that you can make do and mend when needs must. For long time readers of this blog you might remember that early in the days of Petronella he helped us limp back to port and then fix things when the bolts on the prop shaft universal joint flew off! He is still known as "Petronella's Chief Engineer"]. Audrey was to help Gill with replacing the seals (oink) on two of the larger hatches, scrub the canvas work to remove the Plymouth winter green mould and, as befits a Senior Open University Lecturer, compile a list of all the first aid and medical items aboard. Still leaving time to add a few geocaches to The Brown Teddies impressive list of more than 6,000!

Beware. Scrubber at work.

Meanwhile back at the solar panels. I had already drilled and fitted the Swedish supports for the panels. Now it was time to fit them onto the guard rails. We used this technique for Petronella and it seemed to work well. But P was steel and M is not and P had relatively small panels and M has 160  watt panels. I hoped everything would be strong enough to take their weight.

With the panels installed and the deck glands completed we were well on our way. The first panel took the better part of a day. So skilled were we by then that the second was a snip at just a few hours. And so to the internal wiring. Anyone who has ever done this type of thing will tell you that running cables inside a boat is always testing. This was no exception. For more than a day Chris and I twisted, squirmed, cursed and swore as we pushed and pulled cables where they did not want to go. Remove wardrobe headlining and sidelining. Push cable through, get it stuck. Repeat. Wonder if I bought enough cable. Get it into the middle of the boat. And then repeat on the other side. Then install the monitor, the controller and the junction box. Finally use endoscope, twine, 2mm rope and more cursing to pull the wires through to the aft heads. So now we have the cables run and all that is left is to join up the wires (once the extra 6mm cable arrives next week).

So it's now our last day. Gill has left to spend her Christmas present from me with Emma and Chris is concerned we're never going to get his shaft brake template tried out. Never fear. Back on our heads and we're upside down in the engine compartment. Yippee! It fits. And we think we can see where the calipers will go too.

And so it's back to Ebley again for a week of work on the canal restoration and to help brother Philip and his wife Jane move house.

Late news. The first water tank has been made and should be in Plymouth when we get back again on Sunday. Looks like a job for you Hugh!