Four month hiatus

There has been only a splattering of boat building since my last boat building post – so this one should bring everything up to date.

More work on the transom voids/rudder cassettes occurred before Christmas.

We trial-fitted the engines to confirm the correct height for the engine stringers. With the weather becoming increasingly monsoonal, we decided to leave the engines in position, to help weigh the boat down in the event of a cyclone.

Tom’s work on the cleat mounts back in November paid off. Last month when Tropical Cyclone Carlos formed (with little warning) over Darwin, we were able to quickly tie down the boat. Fortunately the boat was unscathed, however the two large tarps that were rigged up on both open ends of the shed did not survive. This photo taken before the damage.

We have not replaced these tarps, as new ones would probably meet the same fate in this record-breaking wet season which still has a couple of months to go.

So whilst it is raining, which is most of the time at the moment, we have not been able to work in the boat shed. Instead we have been working on the boat interior, and most recently have been designing some of the major systems: fresh water production/distribution, raw water distribution, waste management, and energy generation/management/distribution. It has been surprisingly challenging – determining components required, from where to purchase, how and where to physically locate them in order to meet the various constraints. Our earlier complex head/toilet plumbing design has been ditched (what were we thinking!) in favour of a much simpler system. I will post the schematics of each of the systems once they are finalised, and component availability is confirmed.