October 4, 2015 Hours spent building to date: 1,500
Just hit the 1500 hours mark. I was sort of thinking 2000 when I started the Tardis, but it looks more like 2500. But then again, I work slowly and take a lot of breaks.
Anyway, it was a good week, even with interruptions to prepare for the non-existent, TV-weatherman Hurricane Joaquin. The hose runs from the water tanks are all done, the tanks are tied down and any necessary floor supports are in. As you can see in the photos, THEM TANKS AIN’T GOIN” NOWHERE.
They look like decent tanks to me, from an outfit called Ronco in Tustin, CA. Ron made the radius of the edges less than the finished thickness of the tanks (3/8 inch, but the plugs I took out are just over that). So when the rotomolding machine spun the plastic into the mold, a lot ended up in the edges and corners. I made all the tie-downs and blocks tight to the edges, and the assembly seems really strong. I ordered a bunch of stainless corner braces from Amazon to fasten the tie-downs for about $20, no shipping. They came in by air from Hong Kong — beautifully machined, buffed edges, perfect. How do they do this? So I subbed Home Depot galvanized where possible and saved the Sino-stainless for a tougher application.
Also ran my first PEX tubing. This will be the majority of the plumbing — it’s tough, doesn’t grow critters, and uses “press on” fittings that are far superior to hose clamps. But there is a learning curve here, and the three fittings shown took an hour and a half to assemble since “press on” means push-and-cuss-with-every-sinew-of-your-being, and I didn’t have much room to work in. Future builders should really cut down the size of the main water tank a bit — there are lots of 25 and 27 gallon tanks available. The lack of space for proper fitting of fittings has cost me many hours.
I lightly screwed down all the subfloors after the tanks went in. Being able to move anywhere on the boat with a solid floor under your feet is a great feeling, and should speed things up.
Hose runs port
Hose runs starboard. The skinny hose is for a small bilge pump just ahead of the water tank.
First PEX hose run
Water tanks with tie-downs and subfloor supports
Poop tank
Subfloors lightly tied down.
The Tardis Project 
I think the mariners of the missing El Faro cargo ship, and the inhabitants of various Bahamian islands, might argue your contention that Joaquin was “nonexistent”. As I’m sure you know, it was actually a very serious Category 4 hurricane. The fact that it ended up taking an offshore route that avoided the US–which was not a preordained certainty at the time–doesn’t reduce the seriousness of the storm, nor its clear potential to affect the US east coast. Notwithstanding the awful media sensationalism of today, I find your comment flippant–or at best unfortunately worded–given that the storm was indeed very real. We should consider ourselves lucky that the storm stayed offshore, not inconvenienced by its unrequited potential.
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Very fair comment. It was certainly quite serious further south and I apologize for any offense.
But as I monitored the NHC and other sites and compared the forecasts to New York media, the hysteria wasn’t warranted or doing anyone any good. I know they didn’t want Joaquin to hit, but sometimes they had a tone of almost eagerness for a big story.
I think we made some expensive decisions ar the Connecticut River Museum long after Joaquin turned simply to counter the members fear factor.
Hope you will keep following, Lackey Sailing is an essential educational underpinning of the project.
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Love the pics Paul someday will be a great book
Ray
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