New Hatch Covers

Whilst I have been based in Central America I decided to have some new covers made for the hatches. The one you see in the picture to the left is for the butterfly hatch. I hope enough light gets though the white in order to let some light in below. I dont have the dimensions for the glazed section in order to insert a transparent window. I suppose I can do that back in the UK. The top looks a bit floppy; the reason for this is that I am generally increasing the on-deck safety on Roach and one of the improvements is adding hand-rail everywhere. I have decided to take a tip from a Laurent Giles and add a mahogany hand-rail to the top of the butterfly hatch.

I also took the opportunity to have a cover for the tiller pilot too, as they dont seem to be made for sea, so hopefully the cover will prevent the worst.

PS cheapest quote for a hatch cover in the UK was £100 per hatch! Her is it $10.....

Roasting Hot!

One thing I have always missed on Roach is an oven. Oven's are such great things on boats as you can make so many lovelt dishes - and in safety whilts you get on with other things!

Well there are two reasons I have no oven on Roach. The first is the lack of space, and the second is the fact that I don't believe in gas (Roach has a Taylors) and a new Taylor's parraffin stove WITH an oven costs around £1,500 - I kid you not! So there we go, I have to make do with this oven which I have yet to test. But at 1% of the cost of Taylo'rs with an oven, I am willing to give the thing the benefit of the doubt!

Dinghy Painting Stage

Well it has been a long time since I posted any progress and the reason is that I stalled because I have run out of epoxy. As the plywood here is of very poor quality (strange - as the mahogany is of very good quality) I am need to cover the whole boat in epoxy if it is to last any time. Once I finished encapsulating the outside of the hull I realised I was running low; I held off any more jobs requiring epoxy unitil I could find a local source.

I have not found epoxy per se, but I have found an epoxied paint that is used locally to paint the inside of cistern tanks holding potable water. Now, if this paint can hold water in, logic dictates that it must keep water out?

Above is a picture of the latest progress. I have painted the inside of the buoyancy tanks before the lids go on. The inside is really the important thing so have done a test paint on the bare ply, and it seems to be going on well. I will ofcourse need to coat the boat in normal exterior enamel as this epoxy paint as no UV filters in it and it will go chalky in time. I have enough for one coat of the outside too, so here is one side painted before I flip her over. The next three days will be usy painting I think, but we are looking at a launch day of sometime next week I would say.