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| Before |
Apart from a short break for some late New Year’s Eve
partying on the fly bridge, mostly this holiday weekend has been about
completing our move to the boat, and getting back into our punch list of
projects & repairs. One project that
I’d been putting off for a while was finding a fix for an item that actually
turned up on the initial boat survey, which identified a potential safety issue
with the vent pipe for the exhaust stack. Basically the thing got really
hot….you could cook on it after running the main engine for only a short while.
In the first pic you can see the exposed exhaust vent, which is on the (upper) boat
deck, and in close proximity to the steps leading to the fly bridge. Michelle & I did not consider it a high
priority item until we knew that we were having family visitors aboard later
this month – including our 3 young grandchildren. The thought of one of them losing balance
& using it as a handhold was beginning to keep me up at night. It was time for a solution, even if only
temporary.
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| After |
There are a number of ways to attack this, but I
decided to simply wrap the pipe with a titanium webbing that was originally designed to
protect human skin from hot motorcycle exhaust pipes. The stuff is rated to 1800F,
and with the stainless steel securing straps it should be OK for an outdoor
application.
Admittedly the end result (2nd pic) doesn’t look nearly as attractive
as the original chromed stainless steel, but at least now I won’t be
worrying about one of the little ones scorching themselves on it.
