A trip to the boat turned out to be a good day. I finished some work on the vent. I took the tape I had around the vent off and cleaned up a bit of the bedding that had squeezed out. I used some wood plugs and filled the screw holes. Two of the holes were deep enough I was able to put them in easy enough and two others needed to be cut down. I put a couple coats of varnish on it too. Toward the end of the day, it had rained so the water beaded up nicely. I plan to apply more coats but this is a good start to protect the wood.
Most of the exterior wood has turned grey. There's still some old varnish still flaking off. Some time, I'd like to finish the rest of the exterior wood. I had a bottle of Teak Cleaner so I wanted to see how it would work on the grey wood. I started off with a test spot but then spread over most of the port side. I like that it turned out well. It might work well in getting it refinished.
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| Wet from rinsing with fresh water |
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| Transition between grey and cleaned teak |
I want to get the Airhead ready to use. Then I can go for a weekend sail and stay anchored out. I took one of the two coir bricks and added water while in a 5 gallon bucket. I broke it apart as it absorbed the water. The brick ended up expanding to fill half of the 5gal bucket. I didn't put any of it in the toilet but left it so it will be ready to go. Now, the only thing I really need to do is to wire up the fan for ventilation and it's ready to go. I might do something for a temporary setup until I can set it up better but I'll have to see what I'm able to find.
At one point, I was adding the second coat of varnish around the vent. One of my dock neighbors who was around decided to check out how everything looked and got to talking. I set down the cup of varnish and next thing I knew, I saw it had spilled over onto the deck. Not too crazy about it so now I need to find a way to get it off. I've already been suggested to try a heat gun and/or acetone or some other solvent. Hopefully I can get it cleaned up and looking nice again soon.
Just goes to show you not everything turns out great.
Apparently the neighbor makes suggestions saying certain things are not good for when I sell the boat. He said having a composting head would make it hard to sell. Today, he saw a small amount of varnish and run off of the vent base and said it would make it hard to sell the boat.
And NO I'm NOT selling my boat.
With exception of the spilled varnish, it is looking great Dan!
ReplyDeleteLooking Good, I just have time to keep after them. I tried to keep up with my teak toe rails. I was applying teak oil but for some reason, suspect high humidity, they would get moldy in the early fall. In the end I just let them gray, I wash the teak down with salt water every once in a while. No more moldy rails and it maintain a pretty constant silvery color.
ReplyDeleteHead project is turning out nicely.
I do have teak oil but haven't really used it on anything. I know many people like to keep the teak gray for the lower maintenance. I've been taking the old varnish off and it's been gray for a while but I'm thinking to try getting some color back into it. If it turns out too much later, I can always go back. ;-)
DeleteI'm glad the head is turning out so well. Now I can try doing an overnight trip out on the lake during the weekends. It'll be nice to get away from the docks once in a while.
Hey Dan, message me on facebook, https://www.facebook.com/sv.dominamari I have some question about Yanmar engines and finding parts...got some problems with mine.
ReplyDeleteHi Dan. Great Blog. I really appreciate the effort. I'm an aspiring Nor'Sea owner and have a dumb question about the composting head. What do you do with the grey water? I assume you seal up the head thru-hull, but what do you do with the grey water from the galley? And for what its worth, I'm willing to bet the composting toilet will be a selling point for boats not too many years down the road. Not that you're selling. :-)
ReplyDeleteAndy
Thanks for stopping by.
DeleteFor the head itself, liquid and solid waste is separated into to containers. Grey water coming from the hose going from the drain of the head sink goes to the bilge. I haven't used that sink and even thought of getting rid of it. There's a sink in the galley that drains overboard. In a boat this size, I don't think the head sink is really necessary. It'll stay for now though.
I think you're right about the toilet being a selling point. Reading different forums online, everyone tends to agree that working on a traditional head is no fun. Something lower maintenance like this one is probably a good idea. A more recent post on this blog, I posted a video showing the space it takes up and a little more details of how it's installed.