Watch your head...

Once the saloon and galley had been emptied, and the kneecap ruining metal bastard had been removed, it was now time to move up forward. So far on my quest to empty her I had uncovered a fair few little bits here and there that were being added to the seemingly endless jobs list; things such as holes that needed filling and some fantastically dodgy bodges within the wiring and plumbing systems that would need to be rectified, but nothing was serious. As far as I had seen so far, there were no major structural issues that were going to bring this project crashing down, nothing that was beyond my ability to repair at the very least. 'Ho Ho I thought to myself, i'm onto a winner here'. I was still thinking of this as my boot went straight through the sole board in the heads, into the stagnant water that was hiding below - F****. However as I poured the foul smelling liquid out of my boot, I took stock. Whilst trench foot was now back on the agenda, I had at least learnt something important - the forward bilges don't drain aft into the main saloon bilge. So where had this water come from. Inspection of the chain plates in the area didn't show any signs of water ingress and neither did the thru-hull fittings, and the deckhead wasn't stained around the mushroom breathers so I could rule them out as the source.

Fixed to the bulkhead was the culprit. A domestic, gas powered water heater that was used to... you guessed it, heat the water. The previous owner had decided to install this to allow himself a shower, but had not thought to seal any of the flooring or surrounding woodwork. He had simply showered onto the 50 year old, unsealed, plywood sole boards, and had put an electric bilge pump, that was wired directly onto the starter battery to throw the water out, through a skin fitting drilled in behind the locker above the washbasin. The result of this was depressingly obvious. Water had penetrated the plyboard and wicked its way along, delaminating and rotting the old board and for good measure, it had seen fit to take out the sole board supports and the plate that the head itself sat on. My big fear now was that the water had gotten into the main supporting bulkheads either side and was silently eating away at their footings. Inspection of this showed that the good men at Offshore Yachts Ltd who had built her, had taken the wise precaution to glass the bottom foot or so up from the bottom of the bilge and as far as I could see and sound out, there was no obvious signs of rot, in fact they seemed bullet proof. Disaster averted.

Once the bilge had been dried out, the utterly ludicrous gas pipe work removed the rotten wood cut out and the infernal gas boiler unbolted the area suddenly didn't seem so bad, next was the head itself.

What is left of the heads compartment

I had inherited the standard manual Jabsco marine heads that are common through the yachting world, and fully intended to keep it. Simply service it, give it a clean up and reinstall, but when I got up close and personal to it, I changed my mind - it was feted. I could live with the cost of a new head, as long as I never had to sit on this porcelain horror. The removal of the head turned out to be easier than expected. As mentioned, the board it was mounted to was also rotten and had the same rigidity as a politician's morals. It really was a case of ripping the thing out. The pipework put up a bit more of a struggle but there was no way in a month of Sundays I was keeping them to be reused, and a hacksaw and jet lighter soon had them off and away. And so here I was now standing in what a few hours earlier, if you didn't look too closely at least, had been a fully equipped heads compartment, now though I was simply stood in a bigger project, however at least now it can redesigned as I wish.

Ironically, there was very limited head room (pardon the pun) in the compartment before, but now that the floors have been removed I can actually stand up in there, and am really considering not reinstalling new ones, and simply painting the bilge and calling it done.