Monday, 19 September 2011

Suddenly it's all done

It's always the way when you've got a jobs list that has several small jobs on it; one day it looks like there's a week's worth of work, then the next, it's all done and dusted.

We had a relaxed start this morning, as we knew that things were not likely to start happening until the replacement PRV arrived. In fact, the first entertainment was a small boat shuffle; Ice Breaker went out, and the spec boat came out of the paint shed to let Charlie Mills's boat Kintyre Mist go in to have a leaking window sorted.

Then we put the spec boat back where Ice Breaker had been. Next, the Ocado delivery arrived half an hour early, at half nine, having been booked for the ten to eleven slot. Once that lot was put away, we took a coffee break, then made a start on varnishing some of the areas where we'd succeeded in cleaning up the damp staining. Peter Mason has confirmed that there's nothing for it with the other areas, we'll have to rub down the varnish, use oxalate and then revarnish.

During lunch, we were told that the PRV had arrived, so Andy Grindrod has spent some time aboard this afternoon. The PRV has been replaced, and all the joints involved persuaded to stop dripping. The extra towel rail has been fitted, and new bits of acrylic supplied and attached with hook and loop tape below the prisms.

This is the second attempt at this strategy for preventing condensation forming on the prisms. Last year's design had the acrylic screwed to the prism liners. This worked really well over the winter, but in the hot weather the movement of the expanding roof steel, transmitted through the prism liners, fractured the corners of the acrylic.

Using hook and loop tape (ie generic Velcro) should avoid this. It means a bit of an air gap along the long sides of the acrylic, which may allow some condensation to form. If it does, we'll fill those gaps with stick on draught excluder.

Peter and Susan are lined up to come for a meal tonight, and tomorrow morning it will be heigh ho for Macclesfield, Kidsgrove, Stone and points south and east.

2 comments:

Tom and Jan said...

OK Bruce, I just love acronyms which are a trap for the novice. So; airing my ignorance.... what is a PRV (personal recovery vehicle - powered rotating vacuumer)?

Bruce in Sanity said...

Ooops, sorry - I thought I'd used the name in full earlier, but quite possibly not.

PRV = pressure relief valve. It sits on top of the calorifier as an emergency device in case the hot water system over-pressures. It has a red knob on top/at one end, which you should turn a quarter turn anti-clock about once every three months or so. This lifts the valve off its seat, blowing a bit of air and then water through the pipe that leads overside.

This makes sure that the valve hasn't welded itself to the seat, and will work if needed. Unfortunately, just occasionally when you do this, a bit of scale or swarf gets stuck on the seat. Even if you manage to blow it off by turning the knob again, it can leave a groove in the neoprene of the seat, so that the valve then dribbles slightly, making a wet mark down the outside of the boat.

The only answer is to change the valve; in this case , the supplier, SureCal, has accepted it as a warranty job, since it's happened very early on in the life of the calorifier, and was probably caused by a bit of swarf left inside after manufacture.

Cheers

Bruce