Well thought I would fill in another hole in the deck, ie. the hole just forward of the main hatch. It had a horrid plastic mushroom vent that was brittle and didn't take much effort to remove.  I have this lovely brass mushroom vent...

However, it needed a wooden Surround to mount it on and a similar piece of wood to finish it off inside.  I found a nice bit of teak and set about cutting out a circle with a hole to fit the mushroom vent.  Having a small lathe I decided to turn the wood and these are a few pics of me doing this.  I firstly made a disc the diameter I wanted then when happy with that. Started to cut the hole.  Had to be careful to tuen off the lathe once I had broken through.

 Result looks pretty good I think.  Now to fit it to the boat.

Pic of vent closed and open with teak base.

I was having second thoughts and thought maybe I should buy one of those solar powered vents and sell the bronze one to cover the cost.  What does anyone think?  The mushroom vent is fine but if I forget to close it and get one over the top I will get water below.  Whereas the solar vents allow air but no water to vent the cabin.  I would have liked one of the low profile cowl. Vents but they seem to be very expensive.

I have a smaller mushroom vent that I might fit on the stern to vent the rear lockers.

Well, progress albeit slow...here are some more pics with the bolts in temporarily and the perspex.  Now to decide if I put the dome nuts inside as first thought or outside.  Any thoughts anyone?  I think the hex head bolts on the outside would look cleaner.

This last picture shows the perspex bedded into the inner frame and the outer is bolted on simply to hold the perspex in place whilst the Sikaflex goes off.  I will remove the outer frame and then bed this in separately and putting the bolts in one final time.  The bolts will be finger tight until the Sikaflex cures then tightened up.  Hoping this gives me a strong water tight seal and also look good.  Then it will be on with the Starboard side.

Long time no action but ....

Well it has been a very long time since I posted an update to my blog.  Lots has happened in my life, I was very ill for a while and as a result no longer commuting to London every day, and no longer in a profession I have been in for over 30 years.    Stopped drinking alcohol, only drink water and tea now.  Lost weight, now starting out on my own gardening and DIY in Sussex and surrounding area.  Bought a VW T25 camper and had to do lots of tinkering.  Drove all the way to Bordeaux in the summer which was fun and surprisingly relaxing.   Also making things from recycled materials, bug hotels, candle holders, wooden iPhone amplifiers, all-sorts, whatever takes my fancy and whatever springs to mind.  Also have a few dinghies to work on for some friends.

Sea Witch has been sadly neglected but not forgotten.  Today I finally pulled back the tarp and got to fitting the new windows.  I had four identical frames cut from 3mm stainless left over from another boat project.   The idea is to put one frame inside and one out and to bolt through the fibreglass and sandwich a tinted perspex window inbetween.

Today I used Sikaflex to fix the port inner frame in place.   i bolted the outer frame in place to pull the inner frame against the coachroof and to give an even fix.  I will then remove the outer frame, bed in the perspex and re fit the outer frame and place the bolts and dome nuts back. Once the Sikaflex has cured I will tighten the bolts to give a water tight seal.

This may seem all a bit OTT but I had the stainless and having the frame in one piece gives the boat a good look I think as well as adding some strength.  Here is a pic of the frame in place before fitting the perspex.  More later this week and hopefully this is the start of more activity... Famous last words...