Hull Hardware Fittings | Installation

With painting the upper hull largely complete, it was time to refit all the hardware which I removed many weeks ago.

But before I could start that, I needed to finish painting the inside of the Dorade boxes.

First I masked off the front cabin wall, to prevent paint drips. Like this.

Then I abraded and cleaned the floor of each Dorade box and applied a third coat of gloss using a brush with its handle cut off short to allow access through the inspection ports.

A roller was used to apply the gloss and the brush to tip it out and paint the joins and corners. Here they are.

That worked well.

Leaving the Dorade boxes to dry I proceeded to dry fit all the hardware fittings, to be sure that everything still fitted and to familiarise myself with the various methods of installation.

Everything went into place without any problems.

One other thing I did test before final installation was the fit of the boom gallows and the support poles.

Here they are successfully fitted. You can see the rubber mallet that I use as a 'persuader' to tap the gallows into place on top of the poles.

The first fittings to be installed were the halyard lead sheaves on the cabin roof.

These have very limited contact with the surface, so I used butyl tape to make gaskets on which to bed the footings rather than use a sealant.

Here are the port sheaves installed, showing butyl tape roughly in place and the installation tools.

When the sheaves were securely in place and bedded in I trimmed off excess tape with a sharpened wooden spatula, like this.

That worked well and I think it is a good solution.

This is the butyl tape in question.

I found it was too thick and unwieldy for installing small fittings - it's 2mm thick and strongly resists flattening out - but it seems to be ideal for making gaskets for screws, bolts and similar fastenings.

All other fittings were reinstalled with white marine sealant. This is it.

It is Geocell Marine silicone rubber sealant, and is ideal for non-permanent waterproof bonding of fittings, hatches, portlights and the like.

It comes highly recommended.

Here it is in the gun, ready for use.

A bottle of methylated spirits is essential for cleaning up squeeze-out and associated mess.

The meths works really well with kitchen roll, keeping deck, tools and hands clean.

This is the port forward mooring cleat, fastened to the Dorade box in the forward deck well.

These are the port halyard cleats, on the cabin roof.

And here are the port stern mooring cleat and boom gallows stanchion support.

This is the upper rudder pivot eye bolt in place.

And this is the port anchor chock.

The machine screws for the ventilator bottom plates were held in place with lumps of Blu Tack during installation, while sealant was applied and the Nyloc nuts fitted. Like this.

And here is the starboard plate after final installation.

The port and starboard Dorade box inspection port surrounds were installed. Here they are.

And here they are with the inspection ports in place.

Here are the centreboard pendant thimble and cleat. I used butyl tape to install the cleat, because it is subject to high stress loads and requires a strong bedding.

I fitted new Nyloc nuts throughout where required - all the used nuts were discarded.

A selection of good tools were essential for this activity. Here they all are, in the forward deck well.

That's pretty much it for the hardware fittings. There are a couple more parts to go on, but they aren't on the critical path.

Onwards and upwards!