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These pictures show the current status of the stern gland. I've just acquired the gland packing, the greaser and the grease but have started to wonder about ways of sealing the propeller shaft that aren't quite so neolithic.

A deep sea seal is the current favourite alternative. It will involve more expense but it has the following advantages: It doesn't leak, it doesn't need to be greased daily, and it has lower friction losses. The last point is good for electric drive - I have a strong suspicion that I'll be able to downspec the propulsion system so that it works out cheaper in the end. Either that or I'll spend the same but get more range and power. The disadvantages appear to be that they aren't quite as rugged as packing and that they cost in the region of £120+VAT. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, you can get drawings of a typical electric propulsion installations using deep sea seals from Lynch.

This is my water pump all plumbed in. I was going to squeeze it in beside the water tank but I decided that if/when it goes wrong, access would be very difficult. Instead, it will reside underneath the step for the front door. I'm on the lookout for something I can use as sound dampening material when I box it all in. The pump isn't very loud and I think it's nice to be reminded that you're on a boat by the sound of the waterpump but I still want it to be as quiet as possible.

Most of the plumbing is John Guest "Speedfit" bought from Screwfix. This is very easy to use. You have to buy a special pipe cutter to slice through the plastic pipe but it's well worth it. I've gone for 22mm to minimise pressure drops as much as possible. You can just see it at the top of the first picture. All of the sinks etc are on the port side to simplify the plumbing. Hence the plumbing will consist of a pipe run running aft for cold (that also feeds the hot water tank) and a short pipe run for the hot water. Two main pipes. Nice and simple.

The plumbing around the pump is all flexible hose, jubilee clips, and hosetails. This all came from A.S.A.P. It was the first time I had used A.S.A.P and they were a little sluggish. They also sent the wrong gland packing but I got my own back by ordering the wrong tank fitting by mistake! It all got sorted out in the end though and they're very helpful. The part that I ordered wrongly was the hosetail fitting to go into the female BSP spiggot on the water tank. I measured it with callipers to be around 1.25" i.d. and so ordered a 1.25" male BSP fitting. As many of you probably know, the BSP number does not resemble the actual diameter of the fitting. I should have ordered a 1" fitting. It would have been sensible to fit an isolation valve directly after the tank but it didn't occur to me - I may add one later.

You'll notice that there is an odd branch of pipe from a tee just next the the tank. This pipe currently runs under the accumulator and comes back to rest on top of the pump. When everything is boxed in, it will be vertical and will rise above the maximum water level to be the water level sight gauge.

The batteries to power the pump and other 24V cabin services arrived today. Two Hi-fase 135Ah marine deep cycle batteries bought from Dynamic Battery Services. I looked at two newer types of battery that claim to be better in several ways but I know of a couple of people who use one (well known) type who are dissatisfied with the performance and the other type called "Optima" were too expensive for me.

I've also ordered my 24V cabling from WF. I intend to use a 'bus' strategy for neatness and so that I can add equipment later on without having to route new cables back to a central distribution point. This means I need two monster cables to carry all the combined current (and for efficiency). I'm going for 35sqmm (12mm o.d.). I'm going to break the cable at strategic points and bolt it back together with two lugs. This way I can attach a third smaller cable and lug. Each smaller cable will go to a local distribution point. I'll conform with the safety regulations as long as I use the required cable sizes, fuses, and isolators.

Here begins some lessons. If you're buying a new boat, read carefully.

This is Uisce prepared for sandblasting last Monday. Almost all of the Intertuf was scraped off and the hull was sheeted in. The paint had arrived and I'd hired and airless spray unit from Speedy for a week (around £130). Well prepared. Perfect. Except that it was drizzling slightly and I'd neglected to make sure the sandblaster understood the requried level of blasting (SA2.5). To cut a long story short, the sandblasting did little more than to provide a slight key for the paint. The objective was to remove the millscale. What was needed was gritblasting with a larger compressor so the sandblaster went home. I was very disappointed but got on with the business of organising gritblasting. By Friday, I had organised for Ripblast, a specialist metal preparation and finishing firm, to come the following Tuesday (today). Their quote was more expensive than I had originally allowed for but they immediately gave me the impression that they knew what they were talking about. In addition, the airless spray unit that I had hired went back yesterday and would have cost a further £130 to keep it for another week (when it could easily rain all week!). Luckily, Ripblast said they had a unit that they don't use. We agreed to go halves on the cost of getting it running again. This comes out at about the same as a week's hire from Speedy but Ripblast were flexible and so I wasn't tied to a specific week. Excellent.

Ripblast arrived this morning and were soon making good progress. I breathed a sigh of relief and felt that everything was finally going well:

The dirty grey coloured section to the left of the picture is the bit that was sandblasted last week. The very dark section (middle left) is the hull with all of the paint scraped off. To the right is the blasted area - bare steel with no millscale on it.

The next three pictures show close-ups of the hull to show what the steel looks like before and after blasting.

Here is Uisce part primed. This is were things started to go wrong again. First, there wasn't enough grit to do the baseplate. Then we realised that there'd been some crossed wires: the airless spray unit they'd brought along for me wasn't electric as I'd assumed and required a compressor. Not a problem - we could use their compressor to get the primer on at least. I'd hire a small compressor to do the other coats. So we mixed the 2 pack primer and prepared to spray... and it wouldn't work. Assuming a problem with the gun, we dismantled it to investigate and promptly dropped and lost a critical part. Brian (the paint distributor) and I set to with rollers and brushes in order not to waste the paint. Again, I was very disappointed: it seemed sacrilegious to just slap the primer onto such a carefully prepared surface - it would have been so much neater (and quicker) to have sprayed it. Ripblast did such a good job on the steel that it'll stick well and the overcoats will be sprayed on properly so it shouldn't matter in the long run.

Ripblast are returning tomorrow to do the baseplate and they're bringing the now working sprayer with them. Third time lucky!