Spring at last

Alison has been working on her most days but there still seems lots to do. We got the fore-stay chain plate fitted on Saturday. We had to wait until past high tide to get across the Strood. This spring tide is very high because the moon is at perigee - a 20 year earth-moon minimum. The sun was warm and there is blossom on the trees.

On Saturday evening we went to the East Coast dinner at the Royal Burnham. Sat opposite "Harry" who remembers working on Robinetta at Burnham in the 1960s. He said the Heriot's were a respected family with two boats being looked after by the yard, Robinetta and another, larger boat.

Got the new bulward primed on Sunday.

Progress

The new planking to replace the rotten bulwarks is finally in place. The rotten piece was not original, but I had to take of some of the original forward of the rotten piece to have somewhere to scarf the new wood in. Yesterday it looked pretty awful but I'm happy with it now.
The hole for the echo sounder is getting smaller, thanks to marine epoxy plastic padding. I can't see any decent alternative to epoxying in the transducer - the keel is just too deep to fit it in a removable manner.
Still lots to do - a plank on the port stern is trying to lift and some caulking needed around it too. The forestay chain plate is nearly ready to refit - the old holes have been filled with dowel and re-drilled. The new propeller is not fitted yet and I haven't been up the mast to fix the VHF antenna. It does feel a bit less daunting now.

New Prop

We now have a nice shiny new prop' made by Steel Developments. West Mersea Marine will fit it and do something better than we had for an anode. I'm sure the old anodes used to work but I'm equally sure the lost blade was due to galvanic problems. The yard told us back before the East Coast Race that it sounded broken but it worked all summer.

They used the old prop as a model for the shaft hole in the new one, but followed their own design for the blades.

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!

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.

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.