An update

It was about time I decided whether I wanted to keep the boat out of the water or in for the winter. The plan was that after I´d finished with major repairs I´d put it back in so that I could do some sailing and some other repairs that I could do while afloat.

To cut a long story short, I decided to leave it out of the water as I still wanted to check the rest of the thru-hull fittings and other things that could not be done while the boat was afloat. Also, last time I visited the boat the water had risen above the floorboards, obviously rainwater, but I was very concerned about having it afloat with so much water coming in..

I also had to take the mast down again to get it to the area where it would be stored. This was obviously quite expensive. I took the sails off for the first time and saw that the genoa was in a very good condition. The mainsail is quite tired and I could do with a new one.

One of the main jobs right now is to find where the water enter the boat and fix that. I know it will be very difficult to seal all the areas where water is coming in as the wooden deck is not in a very good condition.. If I get around to learning about deck repairs I'll try to change/repair as much of it as I can..

And I've just went through my expenses list for the boat and realised I've now spent double what I paid to buy the boat on maintenance, repairs and equipment... And I've still got loads to fix and buy.

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Some progress at last

I'd not visited the boat in more than a month and a half since I had the accident. The leg is still in a poor condition but I thought I'd better go to the boat and get on with the work as the weather is not going to get any better and the repaired wood needs to be painted otherwise it might start rotting again..

So I hired a van, bought some plywood to rebuild the shelves on the starboard side, picked up a friend and headed for the boat. One of the reasons I hired the van (apart from the fact that I don't really want to ride my bike for any long distances) is that I wanted to take out everything from the boat and put it in some storage space so I can then inspect the boat and do my work in a bit more comfort. Currently there is so much clutter and junk in the boat that it's very difficult to work in there.

In the end I didn't take out anything as there was a carnival in town and the road would close for several hours so we wouldn't be able to use the van to carry stuff to the storage space. Plus I thought of just moving the boat from its current location as it's not very convenient and is right on the high street and everybody can see me working on it so I don't feel very comfortable making noise or being very messy..

Anyway, my friend was very helpful and urged me to get our work done quickly. We sanded down the s/b side of the hull that I hadn't done the last time I was at the boat and then applied the antifouling. The whole process took about four hours. It could be done in a shorter time but the roller brushes we had were simply crap and I went through at least 5 rollers..

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