An alternator is a good thing to have..

..but as I've said before mine is faulty and that means that I cannot recharge my batteries when I don't have access to shore power. Previously I've dealt with that by making sure my only working battery was fully charged before setting off and not starting the engine many times while I'm away. But obviously that is a bit risky.. 


So I got a quote for repairing it and it was quite steep (£100). I thought I could do better than that and found a second hand for around £50 on ebay, which I didn't buy in the end as it was missing the pulley. Then I thought about repairing my alternator myself but I wasn't entirely sure what was wrong and it seemed slightly complicated to find out and actually repair it so I ended up buying a similar alternator on ebay for £110.. So now I have an alternator and I'm quite happy about that. 

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No longer a bargain

Two days after I returned from my holidays in Greece I received a call from the boatyard saying that the boat was ready. Good news I thought, although I dreaded what would come next: the cost. My heart sunk when I heard that the job cost nearly as much as the purchase price of the boat. No point going on about it now – I was warned that this could be very expensive. I’ve now paid in full and the boat is at the boatyard ready for further work. The repair looks quite good and strong although it does look like the coachroof has been patched.

Next on the list is antifouling although I’m not sure whether I should remove the existing antifouling or use any primer first.. To be honest I can’t be bothered rubbing off all existing antifoul – I just want to get the boat back in the water as soon as possible any enjoy some sailing.

Having now invested quite a bit of money on this boat I am wondering whether it would be best to keep it any do more work on it rather than replacing it with a bigger one as my original plan was.

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Time vs. money

I can't say I'm really happy with this decision but I took Ting-a-Ling to a boatyard to have the coachroof professionally repaired. The person at the boatyard was very helpful and wondered whether it's worth repairing as the cost would be quite high - about half of what I've spent to buy the boat. He advised me on how to repair it myself but for me it was a matter of time vs. money. I will be away for 10 days in July and I want to do some sailing in August so the only option is to have someone repair it as I don't think I can do it on my own before the end of July... Also, just to have the mast stepped/unstepped would be quite a lot of money even if I did the work myself.

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