We never intended to stay out of the water for this long. As a result many of the task that planned to take care of when Veritas was back in its element are showing up on the list now. The bilge did not look too bad. Relatively clean as these thing go. But then seemingly small items start to show. Of course nothing is ever that simple.

The first issue being access. The sump is deep and not built as drawn in Bob Perry's plans. Also while it is nice to have multiple fuel filters, the location is difficult to work with. Let's see how this list grows (see Fuel Filters). Imagine reaching down three feet below the cabin sole.

We also found that there was some water weeping from the rivets that attach the rudder shoe to the heel of the keel. There is a foam cavity under the bilge sump. It extends aft from end of the ballast casting to the rudder (about 7 feet).

So this list started with clean the bilge. Now it includes relocate fuel filters, replace bilge pump and hoses, dry out the cavity and reseal the rudder shoe. To dry out the cavity we chose to cut a garboard drain and use a vacuum pump. We also added a drain in side of the keel for the bilge sump.

Finally, we added new bilge pumps, hoses and wire.