Fastening down Morso squirrel

[stickleback]

Hi. For my boat safety certificate, I have to have my morso fastened down. At present it just "sits" on a tiled base. There are screws through the holes in the legs, which I assumed went somewhere (and which the inspector must have assumed went somewhere too) but they are not fastened to anything.

 

If I made shaped pieces of wood to fit in the hollow at the back of the front legs, and glued these down to the tiles, would fixing the screws into these two pieces of wood constitute a fixing for the purposes of the safety certificate? It would save drilling through tiles and causing goodness knows what damage in the process..... I would be using a very strong glue obviously!

Edited January 10, 2011 by stickleback

[Speedwheel]

I would think having wood touching the stove is an absolute no no.

[koukouvagia]

 

If I made shaped pieces of wood to fit in the hollow at the back of the front legs, and glued these down to the tiles, would fixing the screws into these two pieces of wood constitute a fixing for the purposes of the safety certificate? It would save drilling through tiles and causing goodness knows what damage in the process..... I would be using a very strong glue obviously!

 

I wouldn't be too worried about damaging the tiles if I used a special tile bit and drilled slowly, not using too much pressure and remembering not to use a hammer action.

The secret is not to let the drill bit get hot. I've used a spray bottle to keep everything cool.

[Neil TNC]

Hi. For my boat safety certificate, I have to have my morso fastened down. At present it just "sits" on a tiled base. There are screws through the holes in the legs, which I assumed went somewhere (and which the inspector must have assumed went somewhere too) but they are not fastened to anything.

 

If I made shaped pieces of wood to fit in the hollow at the back of the front legs, and glued these down to the tiles, would fixing the screws into these two pieces of wood constitute a fixing for the purposes of the safety certificate? It would save drilling through tiles and causing goodness knows what damage in the process..... I would be using a very strong glue obviously!

 

To be honest, I don't think that has much of a hope staying fixed, what with the weight of the stove and the movement of the boat. I think the only solution is to bite the bullet. Mark the holes, remove the stove, drill through the tiles, then screw the stove down.

 

I adopted the standard Riversdale way of monunting Mrs TNC's Pipsqueak. 5mm steel tray hearth, with stove bolted down, through tiles, to threaded holes in the tray. The Pipsqueak did not have any holes on the legs, in fact the legs were attached to the integral base. I discarded this and got No 1 son to machine up some brackets, out of angle iron.

 

Hopefully Jim Mc Donald will approve of my stove installation, when he does the BSC on NB Earnest in a couple of weeks time. It is the only thing that has changed since his last visit...and he will remeber it not being there!

 

[koukouvagia]

 

Hopefully Jim Mc Donald will approve of my stove installation, when he does the BSC on NB Earnest in a couple of weeks time. It is the only thing that has changed since his last visit...and he will remeber it not being there!

 

 

Jim is one of those old school surveyors who makes his judgments on the basis of common sense, experience and the competence and general nous of the owner. Also he will spot things on your boat, that while not covered by the BSS regulations, nevertheless need correcting.

[stuart]

I had the same issue on my boat, I simply drilled some holes in the existing Squirrel stove feet, used some small steel angle and bolted through the tiles into the hearth base.

[canaldrifter]

Jim is one of those old school surveyors who makes his judgments on the basis of common sense, experience and the competence and general nous of the owner. Also he will spot things on your boat, that while not covered by the BSS regulations, nevertheless need correcting.

 

Absolutely! Jim is one of the best. He is not just a BSS inspector. He is a qualified surveyor too. (But an iffy banjo player!)

 

Tone

[Speedwheel]

(But an iffy banjo player!)

 

I have it on good authority* that he can pick up virtually any instrument and get a decent tune from it.

 

(*Source: MacDonald, J. 2008)