Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Sunny days

Took advantage of a sunny day to continue putting Varnol on to the cockpit lockers. I stripped some of the Sadolin off on Sunday, and I can't leave bare wood untreated for too long. Luckily Varnol doesn't mind being put on when it's cold (although the finish will have to be redone since it's almost certain to be dulled by the overnight dew/frost before it dries).

I checked the area Julian cuprinoled on Sunday, and sanded it down a little, then put on the wood hardener. It should be ready for filling next time we go.

It was very wet yesterday, and I had to empty just as much water off the foredeck cover as Julian and I did on Sunday, and manually pump out/mop out the cabin again. It's a pain not having the batteries on board; I'd been taking the float switch operated electric pump for granted!

Sunday, 16 January 2011

Small steps forwards

Went to West Mersea today. Got a bit of plastic tube glued in to the hole for the depth transducer and some prep on the bullwarks. Alison took some Sadoline off the cockpit and put another coat of primer on the hull.

Found some rot in the rear starboard rib where the bullwark screws on. Put Cuprinol on it and left it to dry. Alison will put some hardener on and I'll either use epoxy filler or thickened epoxy on it. Will need to scarf in the new piece.

Saturday, 15 January 2011

OGA AGM

Dashed from the boat show to the Cruising Association HQ in Limehouse for the AGM. Missed the financial report and weren't last!

We tried to go last year but the trains were messed up. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was great. Got to meet several people new to us and get a flavour of the Solent region. There are more commercially minded people in the Solent and this seems to cause some friction with the folks at the opposite end of the spectrum.

The "big thing" was the discussion around the celebrations for the 50th anniversary in 2013. There is a struggle here between the imperatives of funding, the opportunity for publicity and the need to be inclusive of all the existing members.

I think we need a better way of keeping in touch.

At the boat show

Had some nice chats at the boat show and bought some rope. Nice people at the Cruising Association (including Brian & Lorna of course), at the Westerly Owners Association (Alan & Norma Banks), Howard & Sue with good advice on our propeller and some random people here and there.

It turns out that the owners of the first Rayner boat and more or less the last Westerly - Norma Ann - live 12 miles apart and keep their boats about the same distance apart!

Looked over the new Cornish Crabber 26. Apart from the fact that she's a shoal draft boat with a centre board she looks like Robinetta stretched 4' amidships. I think the Commander would have loved her. The down side is that she sells for 10 times the price we paid for Robinetta.

Sunday, 2 January 2011

Propeller Details

Our old propeller is a 3 blade bronze propeller marked 12x10. That's 12" diameter with a 10" pitch. It is right handed with a 12:1 taper of the hole for the shaft from around  25mm down to 20mm over a shaft length of 57mm.

Reading around the web the most efficient propeller would have one blade and the smoothest would have a large number of blades. Yacht propellers are always 2 or 3 bladed. Two needs a larger diameter for the same thrust.