A post lockdown condition check

I got all the covers on Robinetta the day before the latest lock down started, and I left a small low wattage oil filled radiator on her, set to its lowest settings. This is the first time I have tried such a thing, and I was not sure how useful it would be.

I went aboard for the first time yesterday, when the air temperature was only 2C and there had been a day and a half of fog. She certainly did not feel in any way warm, but there was minimal condensation in the cabin. In other good news she has finished obviously taking up.

Now we just need to do something about the engine...

Back in the water

The time finally came to get Robinetta back into her natural element. She was booked to go in on Friday, then I got a phonecall..... Friday was off due to bad weather, but there was a better chance on Saturday.

Saturday came, she was lifted off the cradle and into the slings after the rain turned into drizzle. Julian cleaned off the patches where the cradle had been, then dried them with an old tea-towel so I could slap some antifoul on and Robinetta was ready for salt water again.

She went into the water an hour before high tide, and rested in the slings while we checked the bilges. The bad news was that for the first time since we have owned her she started taking up. Water was trickling in at bow and stern, but only on the side that had been facing the sun while she was out of the water. It was nothing that the automatic bilge pump could not cope with, so it was tide to turn the engine on. 

The starter motor worked fine, but the engine showed no signs of turning over no mater what we did. Barry, our diesel engineer was passing and came to have a look. He recommended a shot of ether, then once the engine was moving giving it a good hard run to thoroughly warm it up and let the cylinders reset themselves. Unfortunately no one around had any ether..... We tried one last time, and this time not even the started motor showed any signs of life.

In the end the marina work boat came round and towed us to our temporary berth there. I wanted Robinetta surrounded by water rather than being in a mud berth until she stopped taking up, and there are still plenty of things to do before she is ready to sail again. 

When I left her on Saturday the bilge pump was going 2 minutes in every 15, but today (Monday) it was 2 minutes every hour. The trickle had become a seep, but water is still coming in. Hopefully she will get drier soon.

Slow but steady progress

 

I have not been good at updating the blog recently. This does not mean that nothing has been happening!

 

I was told when I renewed the insurance for this year that I would need a survey before they would insure me for 2021. This was a much easier process that when Robinetta was wintering at Cairnbarn on the Crinan canal!

Luckily there was nothing major picked up on the survey, although it did find that the trim on the stern quarters was rotten. It was easy to remove, and will just mean a small repair.

 

I got advice on what to do with the hair line cracks that were opening up due to the wood drying out. These would close up when she went back in the water, but they needed something to stop the water tricking in too fast during the taking up process. The surveyor’s solution was linseed putty, mixed with linseed oil and a little metallic primer, until it was as sloppy as possible and still stay in the cracks. As the wood swells this will easily be squeezed out, and in the meantime the dry wood will absorb the oil. Painting linseed oil onto the hull during construction was common practice in the days when all boats were made of wood. We will be painting over the filled cracks, so time will tell if this treatment is a good idea appearance wise!

The engine also needed some TLC. It has not been run for several months due to not being able to get to Robinetta during lockdown; the throttle was stuck and the flexible fuel pipes needed replacing. This is being sorted, and hopefully the engine will start when we get her launched.

Alex has been in charge of painting the hull, as I have been suffering from skin problems on my hands that started with following government guidelines on hand washing. Palms that split open when they are flexed are not conducive to wood work or painting, so I have been acting as a chauffeur and overseer. Having only one of us working has slowed things down, but Robinetta is slowly coming back together, and I have my fingers crossed for an October relaunch.

we have a rudder!

 I got a phone call from Paul Drake on Wednesday, to tell me that the rudder was now in place on the boat. I also get a set of pictures from Ian Rogers, who fabricated the fittings for us.

The rudder is solid douglas fir, with marine grade stainless steel fittings. The two bronze lower rudder mounts on Robinetta were still in good condition and remain in place, but the top was iron, and in very badly corroded. In addition the old mounts were not properly aligned, so there was unnecessary stress on the rudder. 

The sealing of the (non)self draining cockpit through hulls and the caulking is now complete too, so it it time to get out the paint brushes and prepare Robinetta to go back in the water for some Autumn sailing.

Yet more on the rudder

I went to Robinetta today to check on her, and met up with Paul Drake. He has finished making the rudder, so the next step is the fabrication of the new fixings. These are to be in stainless steel. He brought the old rudder stock for me to have a look at. It seems we were lucky the rudder broke when it did, the stock could have failed at any time.

Rudder update

decayed rudder fitting

Paul Drake let me know that while working on the rudder he found that all the fittings on it have decayed too much for reuse (although the ones on the boat itself are mostly okay). He will be getting new ones cast, but of course, that all adds to the time it will take.

It's looking like an autumn relaunch for Robinetta!

Work begins

Now Robinetta is out of the water the "winter work" can begin. My first step was to remove any raised areas of paint, and there was a large bubble on the bulwarks, just where they become the cabin sides. This area is actually inside the hanging locker, and I have made no attempt to paint the hull inside that locker since we bought the boat as access is incredibly difficult. On removing the exterior paint I found an area of very soft wet wood, and after it dried out overnight it crumbled, rather than hardening up.

Julian likes doing bulwark replacement, but he is snowed under at work, so I called Paul Drake and asked his opinion. He came to have a look, and thinks that the rot was caused by this area being  regularly doused in fresh water as the run off from the cabin top flows down here. He will remove the rotten section and put in a new piece. He is also going to re-caulk and redo the stopping of the opened up hull planking, so there is no point even thinking about painting the exterior hull until that is done.

There was some damage on the foredeck where we did not lash the anchor down securely, and I have patched it with plastic padding before giving all the decks a fresh coat of masonry paint.

Cap rails in both foredeck and cockpit have been stripped back to bare wood and given coatings of Deks no.1, as has the new cockpit pin rail Julian made over the winter. The varnish on the cabin sides needs renewing, and I stripped off the loose stuff, but so far have only managed 1 coat of new, so there is still a lot to do on that.

Covid clear out treasure

Back in mid- April I read a comment on the blog from a gentleman who knew someone who had some Robinetta memorabilia. Today I got to collect it from Peter and Mary Young, a lovely couple in Chelmsford who had been looking after it since they helped clear Mr and Mrs Herriott's house after their deaths.

As well as the china they had some papers from when Nigel Heriott owned Robinetta, including her pre-sale survey from 1949. This includes a listing of her equipment, which seems to have included this china. The dinner plates have gone missing, but the rest of the china from that contents list are here. Oddly enough the survey mentions there was no cutlery on board....

I now feel a strong desire to have a boiled egg for breakfast, just so I can use an egg cup.

Any doubts about Robinetta's original sail colour can be laid to rest too. In 1949 they were tan, (except the trysail) and not new.

I will be updating the history page soon, to include dates when Robinetta was surveyed for a RORC rating. Not something I had ever thought our tubby little boat would possess!

Finally out of the water

Our next attempt at getting Robinetta out of the water was booked for Saturday 23rd May. Weather looked okay, although with a force 5 gusting 6 slightly on the high side. Then that morning we got a call. It was actually gusting 7, much too high for a tow through a narrow channel BUT the weather on the next Monday was much calmer, with forecast wind speeds on 2-4 knots.

Now the yard does not normally work on a Monday, let alone a bank holiday one, but this was an exceptional year. Julian and I went along on the Monday, and with the aid of two inflatables Robinetta finally left her berth. Julian stayed aboard for the tow while I retrieved the ropes and brought them round to the dock.



Unfortunately I left my camera on Robinetta so have no pictures, but she made an amazing sight coming toward the dock, with one inflatable lashed alongside, and a second on a longer line behind to act as a brake. I was reminded of a liner with an entourage of tugs.

The weather this March, April, and May has been incredibly warm and dry for the time of year, and her starboard sides which were exposed to the sun have dried out a lot, with cracks along the plank lines. The port planking is in much better condition, and there is no sign of the open planking that caused the problems last summer. The garboards, that have caused problems in the past, are also water tight.

Most of the problems are cosmetic, and I shall ask Paul Drake to recaulk/restop the opened seams as appropriate. He has already removed the rudder to start the rebuild, which leaves the rudder fixings on Robinetta's stern exposed. Replacing/repairing these is also on this list....

Lockdown eased

With lockdown in England eased yesterday I decided that I should check on Robinetta. In the expectation that she would be coming out of the water I had partially removed her covers, and at the very least they should be put on more securely.

On first approach she looked fine, but her stern was well out. I did not have to look far to see why she was lying so strangely. The bow spring line was lying on the mud, while the stake it had been attached to had snapped. There was a lot of strain on the stern line. I had to get a "gangplank" so I could get aboard Robinetta from the staging to retrieve the bow line.

A chat with a live aboard neighbour revealed the problem must have happened during the last high tide as he goes past every day and had not noticed the broken stake before. Not long after I had retrieved the line one of the Salting's staff turned up with a new stake, and I was able to moor up properly again.

I checked the bilges and they were good and dry. The covers had been on well enough for the small amount of rain in the weeks since my last visit. I also greased some of the shackles.

We still plan to get her rudder fixed and get some sailing this season, so she needs to come out ASAP. The first high enough tide is not until the end of the month, and hopefully the yard will be back in full activity. Paul the yard manager has been furloughed, so there is no launching going on until next week at the earliest. I am conflicted about my decision to leave her in the mud berth during lockdown, since Paul Drake might have been able to get on with the work. It was the warmest April on record though, so I probably made the right choice.

And then there was Covid 19

With the UK government ordering every one to stay at home we have decided not to get Robinetta out of the water this spring tide. Why not? Because there is no way to know when she would be ready to go back in. Hopefully it will "all be over by Easter", but realistically it might be a lot longer than that before we can get the work done. The last thing I want is for her to be on the hard and drying out, with no way to put her back in, so for now she is staying in the mud....

Unluckiest Boat in the Saltings

Went to Robinetta today, hoping she would be coming out. Paul did manage to get the boat that came out yesterday and was blocking the slipway out of the way. Unfortunately in the process he discovered a couple of problems with his tractor and trailer that need major welding. This will happen tomorrow, but by the time the essential repairs are done the springs tides will be over.

It will be nearly a fortnight before he can try again.

The only good thing is that there are no other boats left to come out, so Robinetta has priority, but who knows what the weather will be doing then? The way things have been going there will be another gale!

Delays and more delays....

The winter is always a quiet time for us, but we generally have a maintenance schedule and post regularly.  This year is is the exception.

We decided we wanted Robinetta out of the water as soon as possible in October so we could get the rudder pintles sorted out, a new rudder built, and some caulking done. Here we are, middle of January, and she is still sitting on her mud berth. There are reasons for this, but it is still frustrating!

1) As we discovered over the summer Robinetta can only get out of this berth for at most six days a fortnight. Most of the time the yard only works for 4 of those days since they are closed on Sunday and Monday.

2) With no way of steering the work boat is needed along side to move her, so the tide needs to be really high for the channel to be wide enough. Down to 6 days in the month...
3) Tollesbury is so tidal that the yard is lucky to get 3 boats out on a tide. Our first scheduled haul out was in December (other people booked first).

4) The weather. High winds on the available haul out days in December meant is would be unsafe to move. Date changed to January.

5) Strong winds again, plus the yard manager is sick. Looks like the earliest we can hope for is first spring tides in February....

We don't know how long it will take to make the new rudder, and Paul Drake who will be making it can not give a cost estimate either until he has a good look at it (and the pintles it will hang on). Our sailing season might start late.