Winter in the shed

Julian and I drove up to Largs on Saturday, with Alex, which gives us eighteen "man days" to spend on Robinetta and Worm this visit. We are half way through the week now, and the work is progressing, but there is always a lot to do! I made the new galley work surface at home, and after some fitting on site I could prepare the galley area to fit it. The paint needs touching up, so the work surface will not be put in place until the end of the week.

Julian had prepared the thru-hulls and their fittings at home too, and we now have a self draining cockpit again. He had also cleaned the other thru-hulls and replaced them. I bought a compass at the ExCel boat show, and Julian fitted it in the cockpit, including wiring up the light so we can use it at night. Not that we are planning night sailing, but you never know! Another task on Julian's list was tidying up the wiring, and he is in the middle of that.

Julian's first job was filling the gap in the forward starboard bulwalk, which took two days. Meanwhile Alex preparing the rest of the bulwalks for painting as well as touching up the primer below the waterline.

Alex's main work in the first couple of days was preparing Worm for a fresh layer of Woodskin inside and out, then painting it on. The temperature has not got above 5C, and even at 23C Woodskin needs 24 hours between coats. Hopefully leaving any second coats until the end of the week means the first will go off enough for the second to adhere properly.

The low temperature means that any varnish will take a long time to go off. The Epifanes teak "varnish" on the forward bulkhead was put on in 2009, and is beginning to peel. There is no way to give it enough coats to last under the current conditions, so I have decided to change it for Daks no 1, which can be multilayered on wet on wet (like varnol). Unfortunately that means all the varnish has to come off, so I have spent a lot of time sanding.

Apart from sanding I have repaired a couple of  bits of minor internal wood work, which have suffered through normal use. Nothing major, just screws and hinges that have come apart in the last couple of years. Hopefully they will all be done by the end of the week!