Ready to sail

Today was a beautiful day with more wind than we expect tomorrow. But we still had lots to do. Worm needed collecting by car from Fairlie and a few screws adding where the epoxy had failed. None of the electrics were done. Only the staysail was bent on. We had no water, diesel or beer on board. My first job was the electrics. I got the running lights working. I must find a connector I like for them. It takes me an hour every year to re-crimp them on and seal them. This year I had also re-run the wiring down below. Still it all worked. Just the anchor light to check once it is dark enough to see.

Then on to the electronics. I had rewired the chart plotter, depth gauge, radio and tiller pilot while in the shed in February but none of my NMEA links worked. I had left it, hoping the problem was lack of outside signals in the metal shed.

I ran the VHF antenna and soldered the plug on. Radio check. Loud and clear from Belfast Coastguard.

I turned on the chart plotter. The depth came up immediately.

I went back down below. GPS position from the chart plotter was visible on the radio.

Everything I did in February is working! Hurrah!

We met Alex and Marilyn West of the Westerly Owners Association. We met them in Lossiemouth in 2014 and briefly again yesterday. Today we had lunch with them in the Bosun's Cabin. Lovely. 

They are busy helping organise the WOA 50th birthday. There will be an event in the Solent and one on the Isle of Man. 

Then we got Worm and did some shopping (beer sorted) and did the repairs to Worm.

While I was doing the electrics Alison sorted the water, including replacing the tap in the wash-basin. The she bent the mainsail on and we raised it and found a few twisted ropes and sorted them. 

We looked at the tides and the south going one started at noon or midnight.

The Reeds tidal stream atlas said we could get up to 3.4 knots against us. I fired up the Navionics charts on the tablet. They showed nothing worse than 0.4 knots tomorrow.

An early start beckons. 

I started bending the no. 1 jib on and discovered we had stowed them folded. Just as well we were sorting it now. We go both jibs furled and ready to go and left the no. 1 bent on. The bowsprit is run (they gave us a large berth with plenty of room to back out).

Alison has made new staysail and foredeck hatch covers to match the mainsail. They look very fine.

We are in the Largs Sailing Club with beer and wifi.

The evening is beautiful and the club has been out racing.

Hang Spring Cleaning! Tomorrow we sail!

Back in the Water

After a long drive up to Scotland we arrived at Fairlie Quay Marina at 5 on Sunday. The yard had moved Robinetta in the shed and made a clear run for her to the double doors to let her out tomorrow. After getting the anchor and chain aboard Julian got on with measuring Robinetta for her new handicap rating while I put the things we had left on the cabin top away, and began to wipe down the cabin paint.

Monday morning saw us back at the yard with Julian working on the mast. He had made a new dead eye from cherry wood over the winter, so he needed to fit it and replace the whipping to hold it in place. I kept cleaning, and a loaded a few bits and pieces on board that we would need for the afternoon's trip to Largs.

The yard came and moved Robinetta and Worm outside at 12. It was bitterly cold, with a strong northerly wind, making me appreciate the time in the shed even more!

The mast had not been in the shed, and now it was clear of the others I could see that the varnish really should have had some attention, There was no time to do anything about it though.

The mast went in, and Julian and I spent an hour putting the rigging back together. In theory the yard should have done it, but although they know what they are doing it was really much easier for us since we knew where everything should go. In the process Julian discovered another of the dead-eyes had badly damaged. (I suspect that this was the one I had noticed before and reported needing replacing, since the one Julian took off was not really too bad). No problem, since we had brought back the damaged dead eye, so just substituted it for the really badly damaged one!

All this took time, and Robinetta was due to be lifted in at 1400, but by 1405 we were ready, and the yard came and put her into the slings and took her to the launching bay. We stepped aboard as she was lowered in, and Julian went forward to take a bow line on each side to help keep her straight when the slings were lowered. Meanwhile I had a sudden thought, and went below to check that the through hulls were really closed. Good thing I did, because the water inlet for the toilet was open. That's one that can put a lot of water into the boat though the toilet bowl... I closed it and went back on deck.

As soon as we were low enough that the water inlet for the engine raw water cooling was under water I turned the engine on. It started first time, but I had a nervous couple of minutes waiting for the engine cooling water to appear in the exhaust... The slings dropped still more, and Robinetta was afloat, held in place by the bow lines while the crane moved back and cleared the slings from beneath her. Then the crane man gave the nod, Julian caste off the bow lines, and I put the engine into gear and steered forward. We left Worm ashore at Fairlie, since it was a bit rough to launch her to tow with Robinetta.

We had no depth gauge, and no chartplotter hooked up, so I took no risks with the course, heading out along the line of the dock where deep draft boats come along side, then aiming for the safe water mark at the entrance to Largs Marina where we were going to spend the night and finish our fitting out. Unfortunately this put us into some quite rough water at the end of the dock. We were heading into both wind and tide, so quite slow, but by 1500 we were tied up safely in Largs Marina.

We walked back to Fairlie and picked up the car, then moved more of the gear aboard before spending our first night on Robinetta since last September.

Summer plans - Widdershins around Ireland

The outline of our Summer cruise, weather permitting, is now firmed up so I thought I'd get it down in public.

Robinetta is due to be launched at Fairlie on the 18th of April. We then have two weeks aboard. We hope to get around Malin Head to Lough Swilly. We will probably sail down the Scottish coast to Portpatrick and then hop over to Belfast and along the northern Irish coast.

Then it's back to work until the 20th of May when we have three weeks to get to Fenit in Tralee Bay. I'm really looking forward to this but somewhat daunted by the prospect of the Atlantic swell.

After another work break we restart on the 10th of July, although Alison is thinking of staying out there and inviting friends to crew and explore the Shannon Estuary in June. It's all right for some ...

In July we have just two weeks to get around the Dingle and Kerry peninsulas. We were thinking of ending up in Crosshaven, but it looks like we would find ourselves in the middle of Cork Week so we may stop before then.

Our final leg, from the 20th of August, assuming thinks work out, will take us back up the Irish Sea to Holyhead, just in time for the Traditional Boat Festival.

Of course, if the weather intervenes, we might not get round at all. Wherever we end up, I'm sure it will be wonderful.

Continuing work

This was the view of the repaired bulwarks on Monday evening. Julian had filled all the gaps with linseed putty, which in theory needed 30 days before it could be sanded down and painted over. We gave it 2, then Alex began to paint over on Thursday, getting on one coat of grey metallic primer, one of Pre-Kote, and one of Toplac before we left on Saturday lunchtime. I shall have to see what state it is in by the Autumn!

The rest of Alex's jobs are less problematic. Robinetta's hull above the water line got all necessary coats back in October, so should be good and hard for the upcoming season. This week below the waterline got all bare wood (of which there was very little) coated with three coats of primer, then a full coat of anti-foul.

Meanwhile Worm got 2 coats of Woodskin inside and out, plus two coats of underwater primer and a layer of antifoul.

Julian tidied up the wiring in the cockpit locker, and the hanging locker with some trunking, then spent a good bit of time trying to make the  depth gauge communicate with the tablet that holds our back up electronic charts. If anything goes wrong with the chart plotter we have no way of knowing our depth at the moment (I keep thinking we should get a sounding line...)

Julian also fixed the mast head light, so our all round white light is back in commission. It was too cold outside to do anything else to the mast, so he removed one of the deadeyes to work on at home. It cracked in 2014, and we brought it home then to glue back together with epoxy. This glue has now partially failed, so Julian is thinking of making a new one.

Looking inside the hanging locker at the hull makes it very obvious that this is the one area of Robinetta that has not been painted since we bought her. It makes an interesting comparison with the rest of the hull! The wood is dry and solid, just very awkward to get at.

Meanwhile with the paint on the other side of the cabin all touched up I installed the work surface and put the rest of the galley back together.

Work surface and sink back in place

crockery rack re-installed

First gimbal in place, plus the tea/sugar shelf

Stove on its gimbals

Stove in its normal use position

I do not know how often we will use the gimbals, but having them, and a pan holder to hold the kettle in place, makes me more confident about making tea when under way.

The port holes facing onto the foredeck now have their glass back, which is set into fresh mastic and sealed round. We used the same mastic as holds Robinetta's depth gauge in place so we know it's waterproof! We also used this mastic on every gap and crack in that bulkhead. The teak got ten or so coats of Deks no1 before we replaced the glass. It is very like Varnol to use, but has not gone as shiny, so I suspect we still need more layers before we put on any no 2.

Julian, Alex, and I spent over 100 hours between us working on Worm and Robinetta this week. Some of that was unproductive, trying things that did not work, cleaning up between jobs, making tea etc, but we did get a lot done.

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!

Collected blog books

With no more visits to Robinetta scheduled for the moment, it feels time to collect this year's posts into book form. It is shorter than last years, but then we were only aboard for six weeks rather than getting on for twelve. The book is in blog form with daily posts but we have edited them into a single voice (Julian's for a change).

I have also updated Light Airs and Yachtsman's Gales to remove some typo's and add captions to the pictures. If you own this eBook you can update your copy at no cost.

You will see a new element in the side bar. With the eBooks coming onto more platforms I wanted an easy way for people to find the ones they want.

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.