Fitting out afloat

Getting back afloat did not mean we were ready for the season. There were a number of things that still needed doing before we could sail, including re-leathering the gammon iron. This is the hoop at the bow that the bowsprit goes though. When we bought Robinetta it was covered in leatherette, which wore through quickly and needed replacing every season. Once we knew a bit more about the boat we splashed out on having it professionally covered with thick leather by Classic Marine. We then ignored it until last winter, apart from regular treatment with grease.

When we took the bowsprit off to revarnish it I saw that the wood was quite badly gouged where it went through the gammon iron, and a look at the leather showed that it had worn through on the edges. The leather needed replacing.

We tried asking round for a leather worker, but no one was interested in the job, so it was down to me to fix it.

Luckily our friend Brian from Sender II had some appropriate leather, which he cut to size and pierced holes in. Then it was down to me to fit it and sew it. It took a couple of tries to mould the leather round the metal and I will have to see how well the stitching lasts, but the gammon iron is now back in place in the bow, its leather well greased, and with the freshly varnished bowsprit ready for action.

We also bent on our new staysail. This feels very stiff and crackly. It is heavier gauge cloth than the old one, has a proper leach line, and even tell tails to show how the wind is flowing over it. I am looking forward to seeing how it sets. The new cover is also much smarter than my old home made one. I can only hope it lasts as long!

Launch Day

 Today was forecast to be much calmer than Monday when we had first booked our launch, although more wind was due in the evening.

Alison agreed with the yard that we would go in the water at 1 pm.

My Gaelic class finished at 10:30 and we got Worm on the roof of the car and went to the yard. Robinetta was already on the hoist but her cradle was still taking the weight so we couldn't antifoul the patches where the props were holding her. We went on board and rearranged the cover and did engine checks.

We took Worm down and left her on the slip.

The plan had been to put Robinetta onto one of the yard's moorings until ours was serviced but they serviced it this morning so we could go straight there. 

The chap from the yard lifted her on the hoist so Alison could complete the antifouling and then went to launch another boat.

Then it was our turn. Robinetta was moved to the slip and I got on board while Alison went out in Worm. Our friendly yard chap asked if Worm was named because a robin eat a worm. Hardly anyone makes that connection!

It was all going fine until I tried backing out of the hoist. We didn't move. There was no prop wash. 

I went down and looked at the gearbox. The control cable had sheared. At least we knew what the problem was. 

After some discussion, it was decided to launch and put her on the yard pontoon while they looked for a new cable. The chap got on board and manually worked the gears from the cabin. Having a wireless remote for the hoist is super useful!

Getting the cable replaced took hours. The throttle cable is easy. I've done it twice myself, once in Cardiff and once in Brittany. The gear cable is harder to change at both ends and in the most inaccessible place. The engineer was great. 

But it was gone 6 pm before we were on our way. The wind was getting up and the tide had mostly run out but was still ebbing. By the time we got near our buoy, we were being pushed south quite strongly.

Of course the pickup was streaming to the south of the buoy. There was very little room between Carraig an Ròin and the buoy. It got really shallow and I was glad Alison was up at the bow with the boat hook and couldn't see the depth gauge.

We picked it up fine. 

By the time we had the covers on the wind was blowing hard and there were 10-20 cm waves bouncing Worm around as we boarded.

Tying the last corner of the cover on Robinetta from Worm as she bounced around was really challenging.

Getting ashore was fine with wind and tide in our favour but low tide meant a long trip across the mussel bed and beach with Worm. I went up to the house and got the trolley and Eleanor came to help.

Robinetta is now safe on her mooring.

Getting ready to go back in the water

The last three months have been pretty wet in Rosneath, making it a pretty typical west coast of Scotland winter. Julian ordered and fitted two replacement oil pipes, and we mopped out the bilges thoroughly, but that was pretty much all we could do until the weather changed. 

Last week we finally got the dry spell we needed for outside work, and I managed to prepare the underwater areas for antifouling, and give Robinetta a complete coat of Lauderdale Blue paint. I also arranged for an engine service (changing the filters e.t.c.). The engineer said he could do this today, although he had not appeared by 16:00 when the rain started and I put the covers on.

With the engine nominally ready to go I asked for a launch slot. It seems that this early in the season there is no need to worry about being in a queue, and my preferred date of 30th March was immediately agreed. I then went back to Robinetta and anti-fouled her with Alex's help before the rain began.

We should be back in the water in a week, relaunching within the 3 months ashore we paid for. Our mooring has not been serviced yet, but the yard offered us the use of one of their own moorings until they could service ours. Now I need to transfer my attention to getting Worm back into commission. She has spent the winter in the garage, and should be ready once the hull has been primed and anti-fouled.

Time for a new book

The last time I pulled the blog posts together and created a book was for our 2021-2 seasons, about bringing Robinetta round Cape Wrath to her new home in the Firth of Clyde. "Round Cape Wrath" is still available to purchase in paperback or electronic form, like all our books, but I thought it was time  to create a 9th book, about Robinetta's exploits from her Scottish home.

The electronic version of "On the Whale Road" is now available for pre-order for £4.99, with the release date being the end of February. The print version will also be available from Amazon on that date, but rather more expensive at £19.99. Unfortunately the cost of printing continues to increase and as the Robinetta books are print on demand I hold very little stock and price increases are inevitable.

Significant work goes into creating these books, which I hope adds value to the record in this blog. They should also contain no spelling mistakes, far fewer grammatical errors and have a more consistent style. They also contain maps to let you see our routes.

 Please have a look at the books, and if you decide to buy, then please leave a review.

End of year totals 2025

 Robinetta was hauled out on 19th December with very little planning, (see previous posts), so it is now time to publish her end of year totals.

This was a long season, beginning in April and not ending until September. In that time she traveled 1421 nautical miles in 420 hours. Only 113 hours of this was under sail alone, with the ratio lower than normal due to our being very conservative in our sailing during the 6 or so weeks that I needed to be careful of my broken elbow. The engine was on for 310 hours.

Safely ashore

 

 

 

 

  

One of the reasons we moved to Rosneath was to be able to moor close to the house. There are also 3 boat yards in walking distance, and a marina less than a mile across the water. Rhu marina told me that their work boat was being serviced, and was not up to the job of towing. Craig's (Gareloch Yacht Storage) is where we have come out before, but we know he does not have a work boat that could move her so did not bother getting in touch. Silver's is the closest, but when I phoned up, the lady in the office did not think they could move her today, which meant leaving her in the water over Christmas. Today was the last day they were working before closing for a fortnight's break.

 

It was also the last working day for RB Marine, which is the yard that laid and maintains our mooring. However they did have a boat that could move her, and were happy to bring her ashore for us today. I phoned them at 10, and by 11 I saw her under tow heading through the Rhu Narrows. They thought they might leave her in the slings over the holiday fortnight, but when I walked down to have a look at her they had decided to put her in a cradle instead so the slings were available if needed.

 Robinetta was being hosed off when I got there. They obviously know what they were doing with a wooden boat, as they were power, not pressure, washing her, with an apprentice standing by with a scrapper for the barnacles. They were very impressed with our anti-foul's performance too, saying only the bottom of the keel had any growth to worry about. This is an area that is difficult to get anti-foul onto, and since Tim had added a new strip of wood to protect the keel bolts there was no build up of old layers to help. We use Teamac D, and it had certainly done a good job this year.

Now Robinetta is ashore we can get her covers on to keep out the rain and dry out the cabin. We will be able to relaunch her at any time once we have fixed the engine, but will probably leave her out of the water until March.

 

 

 

What to do

 After yesterday's lucky escape we need to get things fixed. The most urgent things are the battery and the engine. We must hoover out the bilges too and bringing her ashore makes sense.

I found the last battery order and got the dimensions.

Length 258 mm

Width 175 mm

Height inc. terms 220 mm

So I will order one.

I suspect the external oil pipe rotted when the bottom of the engine was submerged. I've fitted a replacement before so I'll order one and see if that gets us mobile.