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Project Log:  Saturday, March 29, 2014

The epoxy filling in the new deck hole had cured overnight, so I made my first task the installation of the mast wire chase through hull fitting.  With the fitting dry-installed from beneath, up on deck I scribed around the perimeter of the nut, then removed the masking tape from that area.  Then, I gooped up the fitting from inside and out and installed it in the usual way.

         


A while back I started using a black livewell hose--very much a black version of that white sanitation hose--for bilge pumps and water tank fill lines.  Tough stuff with a nice smooth inside wall, but miserable to work with.  This is the hose I'd led from the chain locker into the water tank area beneath the v-berth.  However, another attempt to force this unyielding stuff onto the bronze pipe fitting at the tank, working through small openings in a confined space, convinced me to use something else--something more flexible.   

Going through supplies of hose on hand, I found a section of nice corrugated heavy-wall hose that I chose to use instead, and in short order I had this sweetly flexible hose in place, secured, and clamped down.  While this hose might not have been necessarily "suitable" for potable water, I thought it would be fine in this application, where no water would be resting in the line.

    

Next, I installed a vent line, running a loop of 5/8" water hose from the tank vent fitting up into the chain locker, where I secured it.

         

Next, I turned back to the head, and the toilet supply line.  I used 3/4" heavy-wall hose and led a length from the intake seacock, through a hole I drilled inside the cabinet (in a small corner of the head platform that extended into the space), and up into the locker outboard of the toilet, where I formed a loop beneath the deck before leading it back out into the head compartment through another strategically-located hole. 

At the top of the loop, I installed a plastic vent plug that was required for the Lavac system to work.  I chose the black plug (black and white were provided) since my toilet was just at the waterline; the other plug was for installations above the waterline.  I could always switch it later if needed.  I marked the plug location for future reference and secured the loop to the bulkhead, keeping the little vent plug free and clear for proper operation.

         

         

The shipment of heavy-wall black sanitation hose that I'd ordered, but which had been involved in a shipping warehouse error earlier in the week, had arrived in time after all, so that meant I could wrap up the head installation.  I led lengths of the hose to and from the waste pump, leading from where the toilet would be installed and then through a hole leading into the compartment beneath the v-berth where the waste system was located.  I'd make up all the connections there a little later.



         

Now I could actually install the toilet.  Before proceeding with the installation, however, I wanted to check the seal between the bowl and the base.  When I installed the Lavac in my previous boat in 2001, the seal had not been tight here, and the toilet leaked after installation, forcing me to remove it so I could tighten the bolts.  Fool me once...

The nuts beneath the base were tight to the point of seeming cross-threaded on the bolts, and indeed one of the four was so badly distorted that it wouldn't come off, and  I had to resort to a big ratchet with extra leverage to eventually snap the bolt, since the nut was so badly jammed on.  Inspection of all  the bolt threads showed clear evidence of damage from the nuts--whether intentionally from distorted-thread locknuts (I doubted this) or because the wrong nuts were used I would never know, but needless to say I found four new bolts in my stock and used those instead.


After inspecting the seal, I reinstalled the base with the new fasteners.  Then, I secured the head to the platform with sealant and four bolts; I could reach the nuts through the access ports.

         

         


After tightening the fixing nuts and cleaning up the sealant, I made the final hose connections, cutting the two hoses as needed to fit properly.  Sometime later, I'd seal around the hoses where they passed through the bulkhead.


To wrap up work in the head compartment, I installed the rectangular access hatch, this time with sealant and all ten screws.

    

         
 

Total Time Today:  5.25 hours

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