Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Fastener Nightmare

I spent yesterday morning sorting out the boat hardware and figuring out all the stainless steel and brass fasteners I needed to purchase. Then it was off to the local Big Box Depot and spend an hour trying to match up all the correct nuts, bolts, and washers. Stainless steel and brass fasteners are not cheap, everything cost at least $150 total.

The brass deadlights are now installed and also the dorade box vent cowls. The bow eye is in place and the nuts are hand tightened but I need to borrow a couple socket set extensions to tighten the nuts. Working in the forward bulkhead compartment and reaching in through the inspection port was to say the least a little awkward.

This photo shows the stainless steel tubing fitted and cut to the correct length for the boom gallows. I must have measured 10 times before cutting the holes in the seatback decking for the tubing. It was a tight fit but the gallows seemed to be straight and true. As mentioned in the manual the stanchions for the tubing that are mounted on the cockpit decking inside the storage astern must be trimmed with a cutoff wheel or else the hull sides interfere with the stanchions lying flat. Even then it is an extremely tight and awkward fit and if I had the foresight I would have simply moved the holes in the boom gallows about an inch closer and would have had a much simpler installation. WARNING: Do not permanently install the boom gallows while the boat is in a standard garage. The height of the boom gallows from the keel is about 82". A standard garage door is about 80 inches so if you install the gallows at this point you will have an interesting conversation piece in your garage for awhile.

3 comments:

Trev said...

Wow! That's getting to be one impressive looking little ship :) Love the brass deadlights.

Nearly time for a sea-trial!

Unknown said...

Hi,

I'm getting close to purchasing fasteners for my PS. You don't still have the list kicking around of the various fasteners you need for the PS hardware, do you?

Thanks,
Mark

Dave C. said...

Sorry Mark, no master list. I compiled mine from the parts kit available from CLC and from reading through the manual (several times). Good luck sourcing your supplies. Maybe you can be the first PS builder to actually create a master list of all the necessary hardware.