Hawse hole, Hawse pipe or the shiny bronze thingy

I was able to acquire three sets of solid bronze hawse pipes for Nellie Jo. But I need four, mmm. By the way I have to say thanks to a friend who GAVE me the three sets. He, she it wants to remain nameless so nameless it is. So I say to you THANK YOU very much. You know who you are.

I was on the hunt for a fourth set. Everything I read and found said they don't make these any more for the Westsail 32. Now mind you there where two types made. There is a spun bronze (or brass?) version which I have. (Leaky version shown below)

 They are thin and tend to crack over the years as mine are all cracked in several places. Then there are the solid bronze version. (Refer to the shiny picture above.) The solid bronze ones are just that...solid and about 1/8" thick and heavy!  There was a thread on the Westsail Owners Association about hawse pipes that I was participating in. I stated that I needed one more set of them. Well Mr. Westsail himself (Bud Taplin) says he happens to have one set left in his garage. Yippee, the lost set found! I sent him some money and now I have four complete sets! All is well in hawse pipe land!

Or so I thought. Remember I said I have the spun bronze hawse pipes on Nellie Jo? So I take one set off and think it will be a easy job to replace the old with the new solid ones. Oh but naive me shows my face again. I grab the new one and place it over the now hawse pipeless hole in the boat. It sort or rattles around in the opening...what, too small you say? No way these are MADE for THIS boat.

True, but so were the other big ones. Thus there were two sizes of holes they could have drilled. After I calm down and quit bitching about how "every little thing has to be hard" (You know the words if you own a boat...sing along with me...I mean bitch along with me...whatever). Ok I calm down and see that the new one will not cover all the screws holes of the old one...mmmm. This means I can't just seal it up and screw the new one on. Nope I have to do some fiberglass "repair".  I sit, I think, then I run over to my buddy Marty who lives in the Marina on a very nice 42' Hans Christian to ask for help. He asks is the question "Is this just a question or does it require a house call?" "House call please" I respond.  We ramble over and Marty see my dilemma. But Marty being Marty sits quietly and gazes at the opening and the new hawse pipe. He comes up with an idea.
The idea actually solves two problems at the same time. Marty says to make a fiberglass pipe the same ID as the OD of the hawse pipe. Make the fiberglass thick enough that it will match up with the opening on the boat. Then fiberglass this to the openings on both sides. (Fairing it in of course!) This will stop any possible leaks and give me a nice tight hole to slide each half of the hawse pipes into. I like it! (If you can't picture it you will have to wait for the assembly blog.)

Ok now this makes one more project I have to do. Like I said nothing is easy! Good thing I like working on the boat! Now you have to stay tuned to see the second part of this story when I make the fiberglass pipe and then do the install.

Did I mention the hawse pipes are made a bit long...this means I have to carefully grind down the end about a 1/4" or have a machine shop do it.  We'll see what method I use. Everything has to be hard.....sing along with me!