Sustainable Sailing

This morning was the scary task of making the new holes in the bottom of Vida (ironic given how much time was have spent filling old holes).

Fortunately, the old raw seawater intake for the engine was positioned so that it is easier to access (not tangled up with the engine bearings) and had just enough clearance to the aft bulkhead (between then motor compartment and the aft heads). So we drilled a new 60mm hole there.

Then we could dry insert the skin fitting

The Trudesign requires enough space to screw the whole seacock fitting onto the skin fitting so we needed enough space between it and the bulkhead to spin the seacock on. Phew it fits.

First one on 🙂

We are going to be removing the “bulge” in the aft bulkhead (just above the sterntube) to increase the space in the aft cabin and to make the PSS Dripless Seal more accessible. The bulge was there to give enough height for the anti siphon loop in the diesel engine exhaust – which we no loner need.

So here is the 2nd seacock dry fitted after the hole has been drilled.

This is what they look like on the outside

Before we stick them into place (3M 5200 sealant) we need to sand the paint off the outside (and add a protective epoxy layer) and fit a backing plate on the inside. The hull thickness needs to be increased so that the Trudesign meets design standards in resisting sideways force (such as if you fell and kicked it). Going to use our 10mm FR4 sheet for this. But we will continue with the dry fitting so that we can get cockpit drains connected and stop water getting into the bilge.