Chelsea clock and barometer 2015

Anchored in Acapulco - mid January 2015

The Chelsea clock and barometer (CB) had gotten rather bad looking over the years. After about five years, the plating was looking bad - especially the tops and some of the top fronts of them both. The salt air just eats away at it. We tried wiping them off as best we could but we could not beat the salt air. We were thinking of having them powder coated with some brass paint or some other measure to re-do the finish. However they are solid brass so why not have the clock repaired by Chelsea and do the same as we did to the bell? Well not us I guess because we are done using them. 

From the Chelsea web site:
"Chelsea clocks and barometers are made of heavy solid brass forgings designed to last for generations. Chelsea uses more brass than any other clock manufacturer in the world.

The 6" Ship's Bell Clock for example, contains up to seven pounds of solid brass, most of which is the casing, forged (not cast) from a single chunk of metal to provide maximum protection from rust and corrosion. The high quality and volume of brass also accounts for the inimitable bell tone of the Ship's Bell Strike."

Our ships bell is original to the boat and was in really bad shape when we purchased the boat. We had to sand it with many different grades of sand paper and then steel wool. This took many hours but it is brass so it came back nicely. We then coated it with polyurethane to protect it. This is on the blog. Anyway, the CB are not brass and are just plated.

I was working when we bought the CB and we owned a 30’ Catalina. Last year the clock broke. I original purchased these because they looked good and I liked the sound of the ships bells.

Now we are retired and really do not want to know what time it is all the time! So we took them down until we can send in the clock parts for repair or replacement in the US.  Now we are liking the open space on the bulkhead. 

 Since we mounted them on a piece of oak, there was only one screw hole to put into the bulkhead – this is a good thing!!  The oak was already mounted there with a clock from the original owner. Without the oak plaque it gives the boat a more roomy and uncluttered look. We will repair the clock eventually and possibly sell them both off.

We never really used the barometer as we get so much weather info from so many different sources that it was not needed. It still works and needs no batteries or such for power. We, however, are not crossing oceans and have access to other sources for the barometer.

This summer we will teak-plug the little mounting hole and varnish the bulkhead with satin varnish (keeping with our varnishing theme).

So in hindsight, we should have sprayed the CB with polyurethane like we did the bell to protect it. It is just that when the CB were new they looked so good you do not want to take a chance of drooling some polyurethane on them :)

Next trip to visit our daughter, maybe we will bring them to the US and try to sell them?

Note:
 in 2016 we ended up selling these to Alan and Elizabeth on s\vVivacia..