Two big projects this week: the removal of a blockage in the mast conduit and the interior lights. The lights are on-going but the removal of the blockage took three days and was only achieved by Moo’s brainwave.
Weekly Video Round-Up
Watch how Jamie burns himself on a white-hot weld!
Mast Conduit Blockage
As I said in last week’s video clip, one job normally means another five jobs and this week we spent three days just trying to clear a simple blockage.
The old mouse (a piece of string running the length of the mast used to feed new cables) had broken free and dropped down inside the conduit. Over a number of years this became more and more wedged into a tight, knotted ball, preventing us from feeding up the new VHF cable.
We spent three days using all manner of tools, instruments, cables and rods. We even resorted to heating up rods with a blow torch and sending them up the conduit to try and burn through the string, to no avail.
On the second afternoon Moo came up with the idea of welding a 25mm drill bit to a 5m rod, and attached that to an electric drill. It worked, but not before adding another 2m to the rod and burning myself in the process.

Interior Lighting
Dang, the varnisher, was tasked with spraying the lighting conduits in black.
In the following image you can see a close-up of Dang’s painting and Dean’s wiring.
The over-all effect is shown in the following photograph, with both the main strip light and the red nightlight in the chart-table area. We’re pretty pleased with the results!
What’s Next?
It’s taken Moo and me two weeks to refit the main and mizzen masts, so next week we’ll continue with the booms and the spinnaker pole. We hope to see the ceiling completed along with the lights. Once done, we’ll take the ceilings down and start the job of creating new through-deck fittings.
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Hello,
I’m writing to you from France.
The question I want to ask you is about the lining of the ceiling. I’ve watched videos of your refit, and I’ve seen that the ceiling lining has no visible fixing. How does it stay in place? I’d like to do the same thing, because it’s much nicer than a flurry of visible screws. Thanks for your help. Enjoy, I obviously don’t know the whole world,but South Asia is the most interesting of the areas I do know
Hi Gerard. They are fixed with a lot of Velcro! However, after a decade some of them have come away so we have been screwing them in place.
Hello,
I’m writing to you from France.
I’ve only recently discovered your channel. There are already a lot of videos in French.
The quantity of videos produced is impressive, as is the variety of subjects covered.
You’re in the part of the world where I want to go with the boat at a later date and you’ve taken the route I’d follow if my project comes to fruition, hence my interest. I’ve already been to a few countries in this area on holidays that were too short; Taylande, Indonesia, but the holiday are not significant.
I am currently restoring an old steel sailboat (1995) L 11m which I bought from a
Belgian sailor after his accident in the Channel, dismantled by a Chinese ore carrier,
on his way back to the Caribbean.
He had previously spent a few years in South America. The boat, amateur built is much more rustic than yours, and I’m redoing the interior after redoing the roof which was dented on the starboard side in the accident. Steel is much more demanding than polyester, and I had previously built another.
Fact curious, looking for the origin of the boat’s name on the internet, I came across a video of the Marquesas lifeboat that had rescued her after another dismantled in the Pacific in 2017!
I snorkel, and I really enjoy observing the corals and their magnificent fish. I have very
fond memories of Lombok, Gilis and Sengigis. Unfortunately, the coral in the area has turned white. I remember the first time I saw a Napoleon at Sengigi. I got out of the water.I’d never seen a fish that big before, and I wondered what it ate.
I’m gradually watching your videos, I liked your video on wetting, you wet even heavier than I do, but I think you’re right. nothing is worth a quiet night. I didn’t understand the purpose of the gimbal on the anchor. Here in F, we just have a shackle.
The question I want to ask you is about the lining of the ceiling. I’ve watched videos of your refit, and I’ve seen that the ceiling lining has no visible fixing. How does it stay in place? I’d like to do the same thing, because it’s much nicer than a flurry of visible screws. Thanks for your help. Enjoy, I obviously don’t know the whole world,but South Asia is the most interesting of the areas I do know