Some tinkering time

As the weather outside wasn't great for polishing or painting corroded aluminium bits, the tinkerer inside the captain needed other things to amuse him. Of course, being a boat, some popped up.

Firstly, the earthing strap fitted to the starboard stabiliser was loose. The bolt was duly removed, the connection cleaned up and then came the fun of refitting it with almost no access to the underside to allow the nut to be held in position. There were hoses carefully placed nearby to stop hands and fingers from getting just where they needed to be. The old trick of feeding the nut onto a cable tie, feeding the cable tie through the hole and pulling it into position worked luckily and prevented lots of bad words. Only a few were needed.

The gearbox oil pressure sender is mounted directly onto the box itself  with a little pressure snubber in between but two had already started weeping oil and been replaced in the past 8 years:

The current one had lasted way longer than the previous senders but there was a hint of oil around the case again. Knowing the signs, a new sender was ordered this time together with a remote mounting kit to see if vibration was the cause (although other Nordhavn owners reported that theirs were also directly attached and were fine):

Only when it arrived half the parts on the installation instructions sheet were not there and the oil line was missing too. When you check with the suppliers the answer is "Oh, they are the wrong instructions, all those parts are not in the kit but we did forget the oil line and will send that to you".

When you ask "but are these parts needed?" the answer is yes! Why do they call it an installation kit we wonder. Every contact in the past with the Murphy controls UK distributor has been equally frustrating. Shame.