Westerly Griffon refit

I seem to be very short of time playing with the toys ( I am loving my new toy, an aeroplane, its an RV4, G-IKON: http://gikonhome.blogspot.co.uk/ ) so am not doing very well with this blog. Anyhow, here are some photos of the finished job (remember, you can click on the photos to bring them up to full size )

Blue Oyster on her F/A mooring at Brightlingsea.

Hanging wardrobe.

Heads overhauled with new electric macerator/pump, much nicer than the hand pump. I have re-routed all the anti-syphon plumbing into the wall on the left. Hot and Cold pumped water to the sink.

Fwd cabin. I removed the wall linings, cleaned all the old glue off, fitted new "scrim foam" (very thin foam) to the walls (it had all fallen appart) and refitted the old vinyl on the walls to retain the match with the ceiling.

Fwd cabin looking back, you can see the back of the cushion in the main cabin through the "cat flap".

You can see the heating outlet where the water foot-pump used to be. There are two further warm air outlets inside the fwd cabin. I used an Eberspecher warm air heater (taken from a prison van!) which has a thermostat in the main cabin.

New cabinettes on the side and one under the cockpit entrance.......lots of work, but I had really lifted the feel of the main cabin. In this picture you can see the new chart table, the corner locks into a catch to support it when full out. In the table there is a slot for charts to be kept unfolded.

The quarter berth now has a small opening window into the cockpit, more light and ventilation. You can see the CO detector under the step and the smoke detector under the electric panel. Under the electrical panel you can just see the RCCB and one mains outlet, the other mains outlet is at the back of the top shelf in the "galley" area.

With the table full out makes for very comfortable dining.

All the upholstery was made by SLC Upholstery at Clacton. They did a beautiful job for a very reasonable cost, I could not recommend them higher. ( http://www.slcupholstery.co.uk/ )

Dual batteries serviced by 20W Solar panel and Rutland 504 windcharger. My dealings with Marlec the manufacturers left much to be desired with faults in both the HRDi controller and the wind charger. I would not use them ever again and would not recommend them to my worst enemy....all right maybe I would!!

I made the Sapelle wood curtain and center ceiling fittings. The center railing has an LED strip light down the middle (Red or White with variable brightness) and helps retain the ceiling panels which have been recovered.

Finally at sail for the first "shakedown"......14kts wind and a log speed of 5.7kts & we weren't really trying. Rigging still needs adjusting.

No boat is complete without a cocktail cabinette!!!

All the water-ways and cooling jacket were very badly choked with corrosion debris so all the core plugs were removed and a considerable time spent mechanically removing all the rubbish.

The engine mostly rebuilt with honed bores & new rings. All the bearings in journals were in exceptionally good condition and re-fitted.

Rebuilt with all new gaskets and seals. Note the additional water pump on the back of the accessory case. This is for the fresh water cooling system via a stainless steel heat exchanger. No more corrosion to worry about!!

Clean and painted with new sound proofing panels in place.

You can see the stainless steel heat exchanger in the back on the left.

The black cylinder bottom left of this picture is the coolant (anti-freeze mix) header tank with a sight glass.

The keel reinforcement had not been done very well on the Stbd side, "sounding" ( tapping the fiberglass reinforcements where they bond to the hull ) the area revealed a lack of bonding between the gussets and the hull so I very carefully cut out all the gussets ( being very careful not to cut into the hull, but most of it could just be pulled off! ) and remade all the gussets and added an extra one.