In the Shed

Half term means heading north to Largs and getting started on the winter work. Robinetta is under cover for the first time since we've owned her, and it's nice to know that when I mop out the bilges they are not going to fill again until she comes out of the shed!

I had a good look at the bulwarks where I found some rot at the start of the season. Luckily it is not as bad as it could have been, and I've scraped out the really soft bits and hopefully the rest will dry out before February when Julian will rout out the rot and insert a new bit of Siberian larch.

Alex spent all week painting the hull. It took that long because there were places that were down to bare wood, which needed two coats of grey metallic primer then two coats of undercoat before the toplac went on, then a final coat of Toplac on all over. In the pauses waiting for the paint to dry he sanded down the gaff, boom, and bowsprit, plus most of the varnished wood on the hull and rudder, and gave them three coats of varnish. Robinetta's paint work is still not finished though, since the bulwarks will need painting in the spring.

The portholes in the forward bulkhead have started to leak when it rains, so we've taken them out to let the wood around them dry out thoroughly, then we'll put them back with new mastic.There are also a couple of persistent leaks just under this bulkhead that needs tracking down.

We need the hatch surrounds rebuilt since they've been leaking for the last couple of years, but I don't feel confident in my woodworking skills and Julian does not have time, so we will be getting those done professionally. One bit of woodwork I do feel competent with is remaking the galley again, to accommodate the Orego stove. We've used it successfully for two seasons now, but I would like to get it on gimbals if I can.

I spent a fair amount of time grubbing around in the engine area, cleaning it up and giving regular doses of WD40 to the thru-hulls for the cockpit self drainers. These have been open ever since we bought Robinetta, and we never even thought about them since we were told they did not work. The surveyor who looked at Robinetta last winter reported that they were open, and the pipes that led upwards from the hull fitting were brittle and needed replacing. We replaced the pipes before launch, but could not get the thru-hulls to close, so we blocked them off at the top instead. I asked one of the boat builders about sealing the openings in the hull, and he said it would be much better to make them movable! He advised the WD40, and after three days of twice daily applications I finally got some movement. By the end of the week, when Julian could finally join Alex and me at the boat shed, the WD40 had worked through enough that he could get the cones out of the holes. He brought them home to clean them, and will replace them and repair the linkages to the remote opening handles in February.