The Old Kent Road - Part 1

Blimey; will it ever stop raining? I managed 45 minutes on the boat this week rubbing down some filler and applying a coat of paint before it got dark and I repaired indoors to the workshop.

This week's workshop job has been to assemble the Kent Rotary Screen. (That's the spinning piece of glass which serves as a windscreen wiper). The Huntsman 31 screen is curved right in front of the helmsman, so Faireys came up with the idea of mounting the Kent on a GRP fairing instead of fitting the Kent straight onto the perspex screen at a funny angle.

Unfortunately, the old seal was well past it's sell-by-date and no one holds spares any longer. Thankfully Seals Direct came up with two neoprene sections which, when bonded together mimic the old seal profile quite well. They also supplied the waterproof contact adhesive.

The two neoprene sections were carefully bonded together; the fairing was rubbed down and resprayed; the Kent chromed surround was polished and then bonded to the GRP fairing using the same glue and the new seal was then trimmed and fitted.

All that remains is to fit the fairing assembly to the windscreen and then fit the motor and round glass screen. That's the job for Sunday - if it stops raining.