Getting on with it

I headed up to Shotley today with a long list of things to do, and our younger son Alex to help me. He's a dab hand with a paintbrush, so got on with anti fouling the rest of the rudder, and varnishing the cheeks while I drilled out and filled the too large holes for the gooseneck fitting. I'd made some square soft wood plugs at home, so it was just a matter of sanding them to fit, on 80 grain sandpaper, then glueing them in place.
I re-ran the ariel lead and fitted the fair lead, then Alex and I had lunch and a walk while the glue and varnish dried.
I cut the plugs off level with the mast, and cautiously drilled the first one out. I was afraid that the plug would just disintegrate, so drilled the hole a size smaller than I would otherwise have done,; the plug stayed intact and when I screwed the screw in a little it bit well. I did the others the same way, and fitted the gooseneck.
After that it was just a matter of sliding the boom back onto its fitting, lashing on the sail, refitting the gaff, and checking it all worked. Just a matter of..... I re-ran the ropes four times before it all worked properly!
Alex gave the rudder cheeks a second coat of varnish while I tidied up, then we headed home, tired but content.

Bosun's log

To do before we can sail (some more critical than others):

• fit mast boot
• repair gooseneck fixing screw holes
  
• fit gooseneck
• fit boom
• attach throat halyard to gaff
• attach gaff saddle to mast
• bend on mainsail
• run topping lifts
• raise mainsail and see if halyards must be re-run
• finish anti-fouling rudder
• varnish rudder
• fit ensign holder
• run aerial lead and re-fit UHF plug
  
• fit running lights and wire-in
  
• move jib halyard lower down mast onto small hound
• fit bow fair lead
  
• whip end of jib traveler in-haul
• improve attachment of block for port jib sheet to grab rail
• fit longer tiller bolt
  
• touch up paint tiller on jaws
  
• fit new buffer to stay sail traveler rail

Putting her back together

The yard put her back in the water on Friday. We went down on Sunday to sort the rigging out and hopefully leave her ready to sail.

At first sight all looks well. Down below she's nice and dry. Then we start to notice a few things. The jib halyard is tied on where the forestay should be and the mast hasn't been blocked in or booted. We get the mast sorted and the forestay on properly and rig the bowsprit but there is something funny with the jib halyard. Eventually we work out that we've fixed it on too high up the mast. We'll have to go up there and sort it. Definitely not a job for today.

Then we try fitting the gooseneck. Three of the screws on the starboard side of the lower bracket have stripped holes. We do a few bits an pieces feeling very demoralised. Alison will talk to the yard tomorrow - we thought fitting the boot was something they were going to do and getting it sealed is not trivial. So we turn her round to bring the rudder near the pontoon for final painting and leave for the day. The rudder looks OK.

will she - won't she ?

Took a look at the Marina webcam - she didn't go back in the water yesterday - will they get around to her today ?

Fitted the repaired rudder

Eversons at Woodbridge repaired the rudder. Went to fetch it this morning and fitted it this afternoon. Alex primed and anti-fouled it and put a layer of varnish on the topsides.

Fitting the tiller was a problem. Need to do a better job with the bolts later but at least she can go back in the water as planned on Monday.

General work

Alex did a great job removing the Sadolin from the front of the cabin and varnishing that. The only Sadolin left now is on the sides of the cabin and in the cockpit.

I tried to free-up the salt water inlet/outlet for the vanity basin and the heads. Think it might need a bit more work another time.

We re-ran the cables for the echo sounder, running lights, etc. so they don't go through where the stove fits. We might be able to fit the stove once it gets cold.

Work on the Hull

Not too much to do. Plenty of bare wood below the waterline - result of last years pelagic exploration of the east coast and a couple of nasty scrapes. Sanded primed and anti-fouled. Alex did a fine job fettling the gloss above the waterline and we re-drew the join line. I like it better now.

Rigging

We've renewed all the serving on the rigging. The serving we've used is white braided polypropylene which works well but is not very UV proof - possibly worse than the natural fibre (parcel string?) that it replaces. We painted the aloft stuff with a thinned black acrylic, mostly to dull it down but with the hope of providing some UV protection.

Three of the wire loops were unusual. The strands had been un-laid and three brought each way round to make the loop and re-laid. I tried splicing the ends in a bit better with mixed success but much learning.

Work on the mast

We knew we ought to have the mast out and take a look. After the VHF antenna cable came loose on the way back from Mistley it became a must.

This is what we found:

Water had got in via the VHF antenna mount and the top 10cm of the mast was rotten.

Two wooden brackets holding the peak halyard on were slightly damaged.

Other than that everything was sound.

We stripped the Sadolin off and soaked epoxy into the mast and then varnished.

I made new brackets from teak.

We sawed off the top of the mast and made a new top out of russian redwood (same piece of timber used to repair the bulwarks last year). Fixed it on with 4 dowels and glue and then tacked a copper band round the join. Time will tell if its a good enough job.

Fitted the new home-made LED anchor light (bulb from ultraleds, brass bulb holder from Ryness, glass from an old spice bottle).

Oh No!

The rudder broke! We were going for a sail before taking her out of the water for a scrub and anti-foul when the rudder failed. Luckily we could get back on the mooring.