Once again I delved into the bowels of Susan in an attempt to sort out the bilges last night. What a kuk place to be buried under the floor boards, up to your elbows in grime and smelly grunge. I ended up throwing overboard about five basins full of old brown and very smelly water as part of the emptying the old water from the bilges. The reason for this is the non functioning electric bilge pumps and also some of the smaller compartments, dont drain into the vessels sump(s). A couple of the areas that I did the other night, have dried out and I have ground them down with my grinder running a wire brush head in preparation for the application of a light grey flow coat. Hope to get that tomorrow and paint on Sunday. I have also been busy with the inside checking of the through hull fittings, specifically the main cooling water inlet which I am going to replace when I get her out of the water. The fitting is very badly corroded but functional with some "extra" water feeds off the pipe which go no where and are blocked off. I have found some other pipes and wire which go no where which I am gradually disconnecting and getting rid of as part of my tidy up process. Seems like the previous owner just changed things as he went along and left the old pipes and wires lying around under the floor board and behind the panels.
Once I get the water inlet off I think I will replace the pipes and probably reroute the main pipe as currently it runs under the sump and and if there is ever an issue with it it wil be difficult to trace and hard to replace or repair. Other than that I have located two major points of water ingress into the boat which need to be dealt with. Parallel with the engine, water is coming in down both sides of the boat and I suspect it may be either through the toe rail bolts or the genoa track bolts. I guess I will need to lift both at some stage and reseal them.
Another replacement on my plan is to replace the two plastic fuel tanks and replace them with a proper diesel fuel tank. I am looking at a veturs 42 liter tank for about Zar1414 which isnt too bad. Certainly better than the current heath robinson arrangement which must be full of sediment and is a safety concern.