Fitout rolls on

A few pics here of what has been happening with the fit out.

Here is one of the battery holders. These 7.2 Ah batteries are quite small but should be enough for what I need.

 

The picture below shows the finished depth transducer installation. It is mounted as an "in hull" transducer and hopefully will punch signals through the small section of solid GRP I made when constructing the hull. Also as you can see I have made a protective box to stop anything damaging or knocking the transducer off it's epoxy bed.

And here is where I have installed the display for the depth sounder. I chose this model for it's simplicity and low power consumption.

Obvious what is going on in this picture. The location for the porta poti is not as in the plans as this unit is a little to wide to be mounted at the forward location. But this spot is just as good. I made a raised removable floor for it to sit on. I had considered putting in a proper marine head, but recent changes to marine rules about discharge of waste made me think the extra cost and weight not worth it for my intended use, for now anyway.

I'm still enjoying working on the boat even after all this time. Though I've been putting in a few more hours lately as I hope to have it in the water for summer holidays :)

VHF

It is nice to be doing a few jobs that do not involve sanding or fibreglass. One of these jobs is installing a fixed VHF radio.

This picture shows where I have mounted it, in the starboard hull. I will be putting all electronics/switches for both hulls in this area so that they can be operated from outside by just leaning in to the cabin without having to go inside.

 

 

In this picture you can just see how I have made the hole for the cable. I drilled an oversize hole, then filled it with epoxy filler then drilled a smaller hole through the epoxy so hopefully this won't get water/rot problems later.

And here the aerial is fixed in position.

Hatches

I have finally installed two of the first pieces of hardware I bought for the boat. The bow hatches.

First check they fit ok and mask around the edge. The sealant can get very messy if you're not careful.

 

Then the sealant is added.

 

Here it is, screwed in place and job done.

It is funny, I have heard this stage of a build seems to take longer than you think it will. And sure enough it does! I think the main thing is that the number of jobs on the "to do" list becomes massive compared to earlier in the build. The list was something like 3 things, build hulls, fibreglass hulls, paint. Now the list has at least 30 things on it!

Just like Bernd said, I think I have done 90%, so now I just need to do the last 90%. :)