re-launch looms

Julian and I braved the snow and drove to Bristol to dress the mast with the halyards. Robinetta is due to be re-launched on Monday, and the mast put back at the same time, so we needed to get it done.

compass re-mounted in the cockpit

While there we had a look at the completed work. We did not ask for her to be made "as new", so although the rebuilt bits look great the rest still shows her age, and work is still needed to prepare her for the season. The masonry paint on the decks has been replaced with off white Teamac gloss, and the rebuilt wood in the cockpit had been coated with le Tonkinois, like the mast and new fore hatch. I will need to work hard on the older bits to make them as shiny as the new.

Mark Rolt pointed out the top rudder mount, which looks on its last legs. Unfortunately no one noticed it until the hull was being painted at the end of the yard's work. Getting at the mount will be difficult without taking the cockpit apart, and it has only just been rebuilt...


Inside it is impossible to tell the ribs have been sistered without knowing what they looked like before, while the new bolts in the scarf joint in the bow are a lot more obvious.

The carving on the deck beam looks much neater than the original. Apparently it was Isaac's first attempt at carving, and I think he did a good job.

I did not look at the foredeck, since I will get to see it on Monday and it is currently still under cover.

More History

After posting the Blue Book, Mike Beckett who sails the beautiful Nobby derived yawl Bonita checked his 1947 Lloyds and notes that the Watermota engine is listed as having been installed in 1938.

We went checking and discovered that we have never written up the November 1937 Yachting Monthly article which has some good photographs. Alison has now rectified this and you can read it here.

But the 1938 RCC article only mentions that the single cylinder engine had been made to work.

So it looks like the Watermota was installed after she returned to Liverpool, and possibly even at Gallows Point after she was laid up for the winter.

So it might never have been used until after the war.

We decided against the brass plaque and have had the old registration number carved on the new beam. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Paperback publishing

I've been laid up after a foot operation for the last few weeks, and spent the time reviewing the collected blog books. Amazon have started to provide a print on demand service, so I played around with creating print, not just electronic copies of a couple of the books. They are 9"x 6" format, and practically every page has a full colour photograph on it. They also have maps of our route. The cost is high for their length, but this is down to the colour throughout.

Day Sailing Round Ireland: Fair Winds and Calm Seas . £15.99 ($22 in America)  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1977055427

Gales Every Weekend:  £8.99 ($12). https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1976907969

These links take you to the UK sales page, but the books can be purchased direct from any of the Amazon sites.

I don't know if any one will take advantage of the paperback availability, but if there are sales then I will probably publish the other volumes in this format too.

Robinetta's Blue Book

I got around to scanning in Robinetta's Blue Book. I haven't done the back page yet which has details of the sales but by stitching three chunks together it is at least readable.

The part 1 registry has lapsed of course. I believe it is possible to get it back, but a survey is required.

When Mark Rolt's team replaced the forward cabin beam, the original hull number carved into the old one was a casualty. We are looking into replacing it with a brass plaque.

Reading the page I discovered we have more information about her first two engines than I had realised.

The registration details indicate a 1932 single 3 3/4" cylinder Amanco with a 4" stroke.

The 1948 survey says she had a 1934 twin 2 3/4" cylinder 2 stroke Watermota with a 3" stroke.

I don't know when the Watermota replaced the Amanco.

Visiting Robinetta in Rolt's yard

I went to Bristol today to visit Robinetta in Rolt’s yard. She was moved there at the start of the month and they have been working on her ever since.

The rot in the cockpit ply has proved to be more extensive than we realised, and had infected the rear deck beam, among others. This means the main sheet horse and all its associated deck fittings had to be removed to give access. It will be necessary to keep cutting back the ply until no more soft areas are found, hopefully this does not mean the whole of the starboard side of the cockpit too!

The deck beam beneath the forward end of the cabin needed to be totally replaced, as did its “sister” behind it. Both were rotten. I had expected the main beam to need work, but there was no way to examine the sister beam before the main was removed.

It was necessary to remove the turning block horse to repair the beam, and it turned out that the wood around the bolts that hold it in place was beginning to go soft. This had been repaired, and the horse will go back in a slightly different position.

The bolt through the scarf joint was very wasted, but the wood itself is sound. The scarf will be filled with lead based putty before being re-bolted. With a new bolt of course!
The garboard caulking was very wet, and has been scrapped out and will be replaced. Once again the hull itself is sound, which is good news.
Some of the scantlings in the main cabin are cracked, and the shipwright working on Robinetta thinks they should be repaired. They have been in that state for a while without causing problems, but it is best done now if we can afford it. 
 
The leaks round the main hatch still need to be addressed. The leaks in the cabin ceiling were the reason we brought Robinetta to the yard in the first place, and we thought of having the glass fibre removed and replaced. With the rest of the work that is under way the glass will stay where it is, but the grab rails I fitted when we first bought Robinetta are going to be professionally re-fitted, which I hope will stop the drips on Julian’s head when we are in bed!
The mast looks absolutely amazing, all shiny and smooth. By the time it is finished it will have had 12 coats of varnish, with time for it to harden fully before being redressed. The very top, that Julian remade, will be painted white, since there is no way to colour match it to the rest of the mast if varnished. One of the hounds was damaged, and a new one had been made, the same for one of the cleats, but the remaining old cleats are also undergoing re-varnishing.

The new fore-hatch is made of sapele, rather than teak. It was cheaper to make a new one than repair the old, but it will use the same bronze surround on the porthole, so look very similar.

I am going to have to do some serious work on the rest of the bright work to match up with what I saw today. 

When I left Robinetta shrouded in plastic and undercover, with her cabin toasty warm to dry out the paint and glue, I knew she was in good hands.

New Blog Book

This is the time of year when I attempt to pull the blog entries together into a coherent narrative. This year's volume is called "A Strait, some Sounds, and a Sea" and is available from all the usual electronic book retailers:

Apple iBook

• Kindle
• 
  
• Kobo
• 
  
• Nook
• 
  
• scribd

The book contains maps of our progress that are not in the blog, as I have found it useful to put these in. It is also helpful to have a version of our journeys in a form that reads forward through the year.

I have also published a new edition of the second book in the series, from 2013 "Robinetta; There and Back Again". This should hopefully now read much more smoothly that the first edition, which was a straight rip of the blog. If you bought this previously through Amazon you should be able to update to the new edition without charge should you wish to do so.

I can not guarantee that either book is free of spelling mistakes, but there should be far fewer than in the original blog (although new ones always seem to creep in!).

I welcome any comments and reviews (even negative ones which will help me do a better job next time) and will always endeavour to correct any errors.

Lift Out

I got to Robinetta just gone 9 a.m this morning, having left home at 5. She was floating higher on her marks than usual, having been almost totally emptied out on my last visit. Today I took out the toilet, and the toolboxes, plus the last of the ropes and virtually everything else movable.

With the toilet out of the way it was possible to see where water was collecting beneath it. Once I moped this out it did not obviously refill in the next couple of hours, which is a good sign. There were traces of dampness around the thru-hulls though, so they need to be checked.

The end of the gaff needs some TLC this winter. Julian is hoping to change the construction slightly to make the end more robust.

Moving Robinetta with no one to help with the ropes felt odd, but it was easy to set them up ready to use. It was only about 100m from the pontoon to the lift out dock, and with no tidal movement, and hardly any wind manoeuvring was very simple.

The mast is coming out to get stripped and revarnished. It has not been touched since 2014 and unfortunately we had to dress it before the varnish was properly hardened then. At least this time it will be done undercover!

Lifting out was slightly nerve wracking as it would reveal if there was any below water-line damage to the hull causing the continual water ingress.

The Teamac D antifoul worked well, and the hull was reasonably clean. Pressure washing did remove some of the anti foul though, not surprising since it is an eroding variety!

This may be the source of Robinetta's bow leak. Only raking out and re-caulking will let us know for certain.

Underneath the iron keel shows signs of damage. Probably a result of our grounding on Limestone Rock, in Strangford Lough.

One season has not made much of an impact on the new anode.

Every yard has a different way of propping Robinetta up. These bits of timber look huge!

By 15:30 Robinetta was securely in the Bristol Marina yard, in the care of Rolt's Boatyard who will be working on her.