Plumbing the holding tank

We know this isn't a very exciting title for this chapter of the Silverton 34C blog but describes what we've been doing this past weekend.

In the last chapter, we had the holding tank's location decided.  This week we built and mounted a plywood base for the tank and then, using a 2-3/4-inch hole saw, cut a hole in the stringer immediately next to the holding tank so that we could run sanitary hose from the fitting on the bottom of the tank, under the floor of the head, exiting in the vanity.  That involved drilling though fiberglass, two sections of 3/4-inch plywood and another skin of fiberglass. It took a while, to say the least.  Here are the holes (one for the sanitary hose and one for the holding tank vent hose).

Once we had the hole drilled, we used a long section of 16 gauge solid electrical wire (you can see it in the photo) as a snake to see if we could find the opening in the floor behind the vanity. No luck. We hit yet another stringer that apparently runs fore-and-aft under the head.

We had to think about that for a while. We decided to cut away a little more of the plywood floor behind the vanity and when we did, we could feel the stringer and if we forced our head and shoulders through the open vanity door, we could actually see the it.  The opening in the floor was just big enough for a conventional electric drill (the battery powered one wouldn't make it) and with a new hole saw blade in place, we slipped the drill down under the floor and cut a new hole. Here it is with our electrical wire snake happily showing.  The plywood you see at the top of this photo is actually right under the head.

Eventually, the sanitary hose from the bottom of the holding tank will pass through hole we drilled, then though the second into the opening behind the vanity and will be connected to new hose that runs to the deck fill. Here's the old hose to the dick fill.

Next we have to deal with the the new hose that will connect the output of the new toilet to the top of the holding tank.  There is an old hose in place that ran from the old head to the maserator and we intend to pull a new hose in as we pull the old hose out. That will be a two-person job.  The bilge compartment where the holding tank is located is separated from the new toilet output hose by yet another stringer.  We lined things up and drilled a hole though that stringer. If everything works out properly, the waste from the toilet will exit via a new sanitation hose, go under the head floor and come out just aft of the new holding tank. With an elbow, it will go through the hole we just put in the stringer and directly into the holding tank.

The bridge ladder

Our bridge ladder looked pretty shabby and after looking at it for a summer, we figured out how to take it apart and refinish the teak steps. It's really quite well designed.  Each step is held in place with four Allen-head set-screws and four small square threaded stainless washers.

Once the set screws are loosened, the  steps slip down and off the stainless frame.  This is what they look like once removed from the frame.

We numbered them since we have no idea if each one is exactly alike.  Once the stainless bolts that hold the teak steps to the end caps are removed, the parts are lined up for cleaning and the steps for sanding a refinishing.

We've found that it's useful to have several boat projects going on at the same time: one on the boat and another that can be taken home.