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The week of progress…
By Ewan | July 23, 2008
Faced with the never ending jobs list we decided a full frontal assault was the way forward. Weekends here and there just wasn’t getting through the list quickly enough.
So Duncan and I took the week off, with the intention of craking through a few of the jobs, and the ambitious aims of getting the boat in the water, rig stepped and going for our first sail by the end of the week…
Mostly things went really well. The hull is now ready to go in the water - 2nd coat of antifoul with the new waterline, new saildrive seal, new saildrive oil, new prop anode, new waterline.
We’ve also been busy working on the new mast, which is now white, and we’ve been transferring fittings and wires over from the old mast. The spreaders and boom are also painted up and ready to be put back together with the new standing rigging, and the newly washed running rigging.
No boat time would be complete without spending some serious cash. We’re gradually collecting the bits and pieces that we’re going to need on the trip. We now have a new tender (which JUST fits in the stern locker after the third or fourth attempt - these things are hard to roll up!), duogen, satphone and we’ve been beefing up the pushpit to cope with the duogen.
The inside is looking much better too - more like a boat again and less like a workshop. Mum and Dad have been doing a great job on refurbishing the floor boards which looked great until the antislip granuals - at least staying on our feet down below will be easier. The engine has been serviced, and pending a happier startermotor should be just about ready.
We also rigged up the B&G kit to keep Dunc happy. Once it was all plugged in Dunc ‘made like the wind’ and we happily watched the numbers on the screens follow the simulation.
We’ve also been planning where to put the fridge unit, possible watermaker, anchor and rode, saltwater system, watertanks, additional batteries, personal storage, windsurf and surf kit, spare diesel, outboard etc etc. We’re just hoping that we can find space for it all, and then leave enough for food, water, clothes and 6 bodies.
The only real issue we had was with the starter motor, which wasn’t very happy so has gone back to the professionals for some more attention. Oh, and we’ve discovered that putting the mast and rig back together isn’t going to be quite as simple as we thought - we’re going to need to find out what the correct tensions are for the standing rigging, and then source a pump that will push the mast up against the rigging to the correct pressure/tension - all new to us - more stuff to learn! Apparently this will also make the rig stiff, which would be good as the mast is a bit wobbly at the moment…
So the big plan is to put it all together this coming weekend, with launch first thing on monday morning, put the rig in and then sail the boat over to Poole where we’ll be doing the rest of the preparation - watch this space…!
Topics: Boat Preparation |