The first jobs to be tackled were a (short) list of BSS failures and some recommendations from the survey.
The BSS 'fails' were:-
- Insecure gas pipe in the gas locker and behind the fridge (apparently the clips holding the gas pipe were too far apart).
- No fuse in the positive lead of the battery charger.
- A defective fire extinguisher.
The surveyor visited again in January to inspect my work on the 'fails' and was satisfied. Notos now has a BSS certificate valid for the next four years.
The recommendations from the survey included:
- Fitting a galvanic isolator.
- Bonding the 230V earth to the hull.
- Having the boat blacked.
- Fitting new anodes.
- Topping up the distilled water in the leisure batteries.
I was a bit concerned about the leisure batteries as the water level had been allowed to fall to well below the level of the plates. They appear to have survived at the moment, mainly I suspect beacuse they are currently on a trickle charger and are (at the moment) used very infrequently. A friend suggests that because they have not been used very much it is possible that the plates have not been damaged - I can only hope he is right, time will tell.
All of the above jobs have now all been done and I'm getting round to doing other jobs. To day I refilled the stern tube greaser (the screw was at the bottom of its travel). There was a little water and oil in the engine bilge which I cleaned up. The gas bottles in the gas locker were secured by a strap system that was very awkward to reach. I spent two hours this afternoon rearranging and fitting new straps. Again being a contortionist would have made the job much easier.
Hopefully that will be the last fiddly job in the gas locker, although a suggestion from the survey was that the locker would benefit from a de-rust treatment and being repainted. I think I'll leave that until the summer.
Tomorrow we are visiting the boat with a view to actually having a short cruise for the day - our first since buying the boat.