My momentum carried me forward on the replacement of the portholes and i managed to get all the new perspex, drilled out the template holes, sourced the correct grade stainless steel self tappers this past week and negotiated with one of the local shipwrights to do the external installation. So to save money, this past weekend I stripped out all of the internal porthole fittings and nuts from the end of the screws. !48 in all to remove and a few of them were real beauties....
Another on-going project is the head. I sourced a replacement service kit for the head last week and planned to upgrade it over the weekend. After collecting it from the suppliers and after much debating whether or not the kit supplied would fit, they phoned me on the way home and offered me a replacement pump for the same price as the kit. I swapped things out on Saturday morning and planned the swap on Saturday afternoon. A yachts head has to be one of the worst possible place on a yacht to try and work in. It is so small especially where you are well of 6' foot tall and access is appalling..Anywho I started to undo the head from its plinth, messy job as the head has leaked for a prolonged period and everything was damp. I eventually managed to get it apart amd off the plinth but couldn't move the toliet as a complete unit as it wouldnt fir through the head door. Nothing for it but to seperate the bowl from the other assembly. The old head was in a poor condition and was showing all of its 25 years. To remove the main assembly I did have to unscrew the output linkage from it and at a later stage had to remove that plastic fitting from the outlet house. Not fun either but eventually managed to get everything stripped and ready for the refitting. I cleaned the bowl throughly ands scrubbed the most unaccessable areas and it came up quite good. Decided to replace the toilet seat as well while Im at it, so in addition to a new gasket between the bowl and the fitting, I will stick on a new seat. Whilst Im still at it I think I'll replace the fresh water inlet pipe and hose clamps as well.
Hopefully it goes back together reasonable easily and works. During this work I was hosted on my friends Catamaran Compromise and have come away with a number of useful tips concerning heads on yachts. use white vinager to reduce the calcification and smell of the heads. Also grease the bottom of the pump piston before use to slightly reduce the pressure within the unit. The alternative is too much to comprehend. I also managed to scrounce 3 fresh water pumps last Friday and my friend John "have a cup of tea" Gordon is rebuilding them and we hope to have a few running pumps in the next few days. That will address the running water problem.
Seems like my "to do" list is getting shorter but Im sure that it is only an illusion and if I really start to think about it, there is lots of new items to be added to the list.