End of the year

The weather has been horrible for the last fortnight, snow on the ground, and the temperature hovering around freezing. A week earlier it hit -15C in our garden. It finally crawled up to 5C today, so we headed over to Robinetta, despite quite thick fog.

The repairs look good, and the extra fastenings on the other planks at the bows should stop them from springing even if we get more iron nail sickness. Julian dried the bare wood off with a heat gun, and then got it under-coated, while I did the stern quarter.

We had taken the wedges out from the mast and soaked them in Cuprinol for a fortnight, and on this trip we put them back, painting the inside of the mast hole with Curprinol. We need a better method of sealing the mast boot..

We rigged a tarpaulin over the cabin top and cockpit to try and keep the inside a bit drier, then headed home. The days are really short at this time of year!

Professional repairs done!

Got a phone call from Paul Drake today: He's finished the work we commissioned! Robinetta should now be water tight at the bows, with no rotten planks, and the starboard stern quarter is back in one piece. We need to leave about a week for the putty sealing the caulking and the screw heads to harden, then we'll head over and give the bare wood a coat of paint.