Oh boy, Eerik - your Paradox looks lovely!

I never seem to have much success with making patterns this way, with curved areas.  I've tried in the past and always seem to end up with just as much fiddling as with any other method.  This undoubtedly reflects more on me than the method.  Your patterns look far more elegant than the ones that I have made.

I'm running scared of hot glue at the moment: the last time I used it, it tore off not only the paint, but the plywood underneath.  I've tried using it against packing tape, but that only works some of the time.  It will be nice to lay the decks, which is a much more straightforward project!

Anonymous wrote:

Another thing I should have mentioned.  The anchorages here are often quite silty and I like to use salt water for cooking - seawater has the perfect ratio of salt for bread making. One of the advantages we found on Badger was having perfectly clean sea water in less than clean anchorages.  I'm sure the two Davids are right, but I suspect I'm a victim of early brain washing.

In the past there has been concern with failure of thru-hulls and gate valves. On charter yachts we used a NZ Ministry of Transport approved gate valve which was constructed from bronze. Unfortunately the valve stem was of brass so eventually the valve plunger would no longer go up and down because the brass threads of the valve stem turned to mush in the salt environment. I was once trying to pull an engine saltwater intake hose off a bronze seacock on a not very old French production yacht, fortunately while the boat was on the hardstand, because with all my levering to get the hose free of the nipple on the seacock the whole caboodle snapped off at the thru-hull. That would have been a very messy situation if it had happened while the boat was in the water! But I think that modern plastic thu-hulls and ball valves should be very reliable.

So maybe a couple of liters of sparkling clean Pacific Ocean bottled salt water for bread-making, and a gushing plentiful supply of slightly silty saltwater for every thing else?

When we first got 'Footprints' the galley sink drained into a 20 liter container under the galley cabinet, in the interest of no thru-hulls. It only took a couple of times of forgetting to empty the container with the result of a bilge full of dishwater that I desided that the system was ridiculous and I put in a proper thru-hull drain, (with a Hansen valve), as soon as possible. 

Well, just to add my take on salt water at the galley. I have always fitted a salt water pump to each of my boats. I use the Whale double action foot pump which gives good pressure for rinsing dishes etc, and I am very happy using a nylon thru-hull fitting with a modern plastic ball valve, reinforced nylon hose, and double hose clips. I feel this is a very secure method of getting salt water to the galley and the chances of failure and eventual foundering of the vessel are I think minimal, (yes, I know similar things were said about the Titanic!). I would only use a good quality valve which in New Zealand means the black body, blue handle Hansen ball valves which are pressure rated to 15 Bar. And I have a soft wood conical plug attached to the ball valve in case something should ever go wrong. For added security the hose could probably be led above the waterline with an anti-siphon valve fitted. I have never had any problems with blockage from marine growth, but sometimes when I am swimming around the boat I will poke a small screw driver up the thru-hull to clear any possible obstructions. I am not a big fan of multiple thru-hulls so on 'Footprints' the only thru hulls which are under water are the salt water intake, and galley sink drain. The thru-hull for the vanity basin in the head is above the waterline. Of course when leaving the boat unattended for any length of time we close the thru-hull valves which seems a sensible precaution.

Anonymous wrote:

I plan to dry the boat out, or be anchored in very shallow water, where the keels will probably touch the bottom at low water, very frequently.  In that case the intake may not work, or may be bringing in muddy, disturbed water.  The 10 litre container ensures that I have clean water.  

Yes, that's a valid justification for the container, but the only one that I can see. It depends on the proportion of time spent afloat/dried out, but a bucketful taken as the tide leaves me does the job for me.

Arne, I was just about to come back and edit this, because I remembered the clinching reason why I had decided against the idea.  (I love the Norwegian saying, by the way!)  II plan to dry the boat out, or be anchored in very shallow water, where the keels will probably touch the bottom at low water, very frequently.  In that case the intake may not work, or may be bringing in muddy, disturbed water.  The 10 litre container ensures that I have clean water.  Yes, I agree it is not obviously rational, and I can truly see both sides of the argument.  I'd also add that I can see I'm being a bit paranoid, too.

I've thought about the long pipe, but it's more complexity than I want and the small galley pump would be struggling to pull water through such a long pipe.

The pump emptying the sink will be a lot higher up, so I think that will be less of an issue.  It would be easy to fit a seacock by the outlet, too, if I feel it necessary.  The one on Badger never siphoned back, however.  The pump mechanism does, in itself, provide a bit of a barrier against water ingress, being much heavier than that for a galley pump.