Making big holes bigger

When I first bought Comme Ci Comme Ca, as she was was known, she had a big hole in the roof where a broken vent had been.   Just about the first job I did was to replace it and within 10 minutes I'd broken it again.    It's been in this semi broken state for over two years until I finally kicked it clean off the roof last Monday.

I taped it up to stop the weather getting in and during the week I sourced a solar powered extractor vent.  The required hole was only a few mm more than the one that already there so I thought it would be a fairly straight forward swap.

The old vent removed 

Unfortunately things are never really that simple.  Although the hole was roughly the same size, the unit is considerably bigger and would not fit in the same location.  It fouled on the radius for the hatch slider and the base of the grab rail.

With a bit of adjustment to the hole and a cheeky chisel of the grab rail I was able to get the unit to fit in the space available.  The hole is a bit elongated but it has plenty of overlap. 

Having got the hole in the right place, I still couldn't get the unit into the hole as the cowl caught on the grab rail before the base could drop through the hole.   I needed to dismantle the unit, drop it in place and then build it up again... This was becoming a pain.

Cowling was riveted to base

With the cowl off  the base could fit under the rail.

Eventually all fitted in and bolted down, it looks pretty good, works while ever its day light and even better, the main halyard doesn't catch on it.   The next job was to get rid of the ridiculous VHF aerial connector from the coachroof.  The Radio hasn't worked at all this year and I suspect this.  I bought an Index Marine deck gland with the intention of doing away with this connector and bringing it all safely inside the cabin, out of the salty atmosphere. 

The old connector had been really badly fitted and no amount new bits was going to fix it. However, that will have to wait until the winter.  For now it is more a case of fitting the new gland.

With the gland fitted I spliced the aerial cable together and called the Coast guard for a radio check.  No problem at all, a good strong transmission.   The mast lamp cable also uses this gland now meaning I can do away with the aweful connector on the other side.  It's not connected yet but this and the aerial connectors will live in a Gewizz box which I have fitted inside.