43DS - the stern access challenge

[markevans]

I have been so concerned about lack of access to this important area that I decided to create an access point through the electrical locker by relocating the shore power and foregoing the liferaft locker. But even then, accessing the starboard quarter is almost impossible when the steering quadrant and stops are still in place. I'm on the slim side and only made it back out by removing shoes and kneepads!


I've also been upgrading the LPG installation and needed to temporarily lift the gas locker out too. I'd love to be able to return this in such a way that subsequent removal was much easier. There may be enough give in the copper tube to allow this but since the gas vent should flow in a continuous path down to the transom, I would need to insert a break point that can be disconnected from the new lazarette.

I know others have removed the gas locker for access so I'd love to know if you have any suggestions on how to access this area without needing the break the locker and pipes out each time. 

Thanks.

PS. When we finally get off the hard, I will supply updates on this and our other improvements and learnings!

[alenka]

Mark,

I for one am not sure what you mean by lack of access to the stern?

Maybe you could explain what it is your are modifying and why in more detail.

Cheers

[windspeak]

Nov 8, 2018 17:21:31 GMT alenka said:

Mark,

I for one am not sure what you mean by lack of access to the stern?

Maybe you could explain what it is your are modifying and why in more detail..

Cheers

I have spent most of this week in the starboard stern space under the gas locker swivelling my ars around lumps of stuff whilst hanging on to the bitter end of the sheet ( new solar instillation ) the port side is impossible I cut and installed a so called watertight door in the aft locker which gives some acces to the area otherwise humanly inexcessible looking for an urangutang crew Jollybob Grenada W.I.

[markevans]

Nov 8, 2018 17:21:31 GMT alenka said:

Mark,

I for one am not sure what you mean by lack of access to the stern?

Maybe you could explain what it is your are modifying and why in more detail.

Cheers

Hi Alenka. I'm referring to the space between the transom and the aft cabin(s).
If anything was to go wrong with any part of the steering, or there was an electrical issue with the engine panel or any of the other wires back including those to the binnacle there then I'd be stuffed without ways of getting in there from the cockpit. 
Also, I didn't fancy hanging on the back of the boat in open seas trying to deploay the liferaft, so I've taken that out and infilled the opening. I scared myself seeing how difficult it was to retrieve the liferaft while on the hard and how easily he liferaft locker came out.
So I now have a lazarette where the electrical locker normally is.
My issue now is that I'd like to access the starboard side in the same way but I can't do without the gas locker and this area is much harder to work in.

[windspeak]

Hi it is possible to get in behind the gnition control panel I have just done so the inset panel (black on my 43 ) is held in by six brass studs with flat nuts inside impossible to reach solution drill the six studs out from the front of the panel should now be free and will now pull out there is a lot of wire !!! make up six pieces of fibreglass 15mm thick I bastardised the tube off a big felt tip pen packed it with glass /resin drilled out the Center chopped into pieces and glassed them onto the the back of the frame behind the holes the brass studs were in when set drill through and relocate / fix panel with six no 8 screws . So now take off the Perspex cover 2 min remove six screws from ignition panel within five minutes the wiring is in your hands

The starboard side is not that difficult to access remove the seat cover two hinges, the gas bottle bay is held in and gas tight ( important) with silicone you have to disconnect the drain and the gasplpe and slice the silicone ,with the gas bay removed access is now easy unless you’re on the portly side I have looked at this area a number of times as extra stowage the important thing is that you can get in there should should you part a cable on the quadrant etc I would certainly advise caution stowing anything loos in that area I have extended the aft bay of the gas container downwards this now holds a six kilo gas’ bottle of propane
Jollybob Grenada WI

[saltymetals]

Windspeak, as for the gas cylinders i have found that the 4.5 Kg Calorgas will fit with no modidication. The 5 kg Eurocamping/Italgas will also fit if you dispose of the lid (store somewhere else) that is under the seat.

It is a tight fit but i had some electronics guys wire my solar panels that are on my transom arch and they very neatly wired up the rectifiers in the space under the aft port locker. Think they had one of their team who was smaller than most of us! I did some wiring of a windgen through the same space but fortunately managed it all without having to squeeze myself down into the limited space. I used to get my son to do that stuff when he was smaller but he is now taller than me so i have to find someone else to do that sort of thing now.  

Andrew
"Genial Bee"

[rxc]

The "bin" for the gas cylinder is removable, as is the bin on the other side of the cockpit. Unfortunately, the drainage around the gas bin is not adequate to deal with water dripping down into the boat, so you get a leak into the aft cabin. The bin on the other side, however, has good drainage. Both of these bins were opened up when I had my arch installed, and I asked the installer to not seal them back in, to give me the access that you are talking about. I still have the non-gas bin unsealed, but the gas bin is now sealed to keep out water. The non-gas bin gives me good access to the genset that was installed where the liferaft locker used to be, and provides some stowage for trash and other stuff that you don't want inside the cabin.