The steering committee

Was convened this morning

Tony came round to give me a hand with reinstalling the rudder



The job turned out to be easier than I expected and we soon had the rudder back where it should be

The rest of my day was spent putting the steering gear back together, getting the wheel properly aligned (it wasn't before we dismantled the steering!) and trying to sort out the rather stiff steering

I didn't succeed to any significant extent. It's either the cables, the hub or drag from the autohelm drive. Sufficient unto the day as I can sort that out once we're back in the water

I knocked off early for a serious practice session on the guitar getting ready for the gig I'm booked to play a week on Saturday

Then it was off to the pub for food and beer with Tony and Shelagh

Progress update

The sterngear is now all done. The only remaining engineering jobs are to fit a breather tube to the shaft seal and to nail the fuel filter back onto its mounting (I caught it with my foot and the screws pulled out!)

I've decided to just fit a breather to the shaft seal rather than plumb a water supply to it temporarily as I'll be revising the engine plumbing when I fit the calorifier. It just means that for now we'll have to "burp" the seal (push the bellows away from the seal to let some water in) after drying out

The first coat of Woodskin has gone on the rubbing strakes, two more to go, and the bits of the rudder and rudder post that won't be accessible have had two coats of antifoul

That means we should have the rudder back in in the morning.

I'm still waiting for the topsides paint which may arrive tomorrow or may be Thursday. As I've a job to do in Limehouse in the next few days I'll have to work around that. It may mean getting on with the antifoul although I'd rather paint the topsides first

And I've booked the relaunch for the 15th of September so we're now on a deadline!

As well as customer jobs, between now and then I've got a gig in Warwickshire and we're moving house having finally managed to buy a new place

That's the final step in the chain of events which started with putting the old house on the market the best part of a year ago.

Propped and flat

Over the last few days, I've reinstalled the stern gear all but. Just got the final tightening of the prop nut to do and the water feed to the new stern gland to sort out



The epoxy coating of the hull is nearly finished. James and Adam came round on Monday and pit propped the boat so I could drop the cradle pads and epoxy the final bits. Before and after...





I'm letting the protective coating harden off for a few days so I can feather in the edges before applying the primer coat

Meanwhile, after wasting a couple of days and more than a few quid on paint trying to touch up the topsides, I've given up and decided to repaint the whole lot. So I'm well on with sanding back the existing paintwork and filling the dings and scratches that have emerged



The paint, an economic marine enamel, is on order. Ideally I'd like to do the job with two pack epoxy based paint but that would require a great deal more preparation and really needs to be done indoors.

The weather and work will determine whether I can get everything done in time to relaunch a week on Monday which is my current target. Failing that, it's the 16th of September when the tides are next right to go back in

That wouldn't be the end of the world and if I can get a reasonable finish on the topsides now we can potentially avoid coming out next year (when I'd planned to repaint anyway) altogether

Getting shafted

It's been a bit wild and wooly here at Fambridge today so painting operations were suspended

Instead, I set about cleaning up and degreasing the shaft tube and prop shaft

I soon wished I'd done it sooner when I found that the shaft is showing some significant wear in way of the stuffing box

That's a potential problem because the new packless gland relies on two 'O' rings to form a seal on the shaft

A new shaft would cost money we can ill afford and delay getting back into the water for weeks

So I decided to assemble the tube, shaft and cutlass bearing and have a measure up



And it looks like the seal of the new gland will land on an undamaged area of the shaft

If that works out as I hope it'll be a major relief. There's no worries about the structural strength of the shaft, the wear isn't significant from that point of view, so provided we can get a seal we're in business

Blue for you

That's the final coat of epoxy on. Just the areas behind the pads to do (all three coats of course) which has to wait until the rest has cured off hard enough not to be damaged by the props

We're celebrating with a pint or two and lunch up the pub :)

What a grey day

Goodly and cream

No more poxy epoxy

At last! The sanders have been put back in their boxes (barring the two that I killed during the process of getting back to a sound hull which have gone in the skip!!, the keel is faired and primed and the hull is smooth and clean

Weather permitting, tomorrow we start applying the first of three coats of proper epoxy. We need the humidity to be low, the temperature moderate and no more than a gentle breeze ideally. It looks like it'll be rather warm with moderate humidity and breezy!

Delaying application of the epoxy will only be done if we absolutely have to so we'll be studying the weather forecast and actuals very closely over breakfast!

Smoootttthhhh

Well, almost!



The poxy epoxy is all gone, all bar the bits under the pads which will have to be done separately

And the process of filling and fairing is well under way

Getting her back to a sound base has, without a doubt, been the hardest job I've ever tackled on a boat (and one of the hardest things I've ever done period come to think of it)

The epoxy (the proper stuff this time) and antifoul should be waiting for me in the marina office but there's probably two or maybe three days work to do getting a nice fair hull with no dings, dents or scratches before we're ready to apply it

The prospects of getting back in the water before the end of the month are looking up but I'm not counting my chickens just yet

Heavy metal

2.7 tonnes of iron to be precise!

It's been a week or more of continued scraping and sanding interspersed with jobs for customers but at last I can see to the end of the job

The port side is all but cleaned back to a good surface with perhaps another five days work to do on the starboard side

Then I'll need to fill all the dings and scratches to get a fair surface before applying proper marine epoxy followed by an undercoat and antifoul

The topsides will need touching up and buffing but I don't plan to spend too much time on that at this stage. A full repaint is needed really but not this year

Other news of note is that we've sold Erbas for a good price and finally exchanged contracts on a new house. Within a fortnight then we'll finally have completed the house and boat changes after nearly a year of stress and setbacks

PS there's not much point in my posting daily blogs at the moment. One day is the same as the previous and the next until we get to the end of cleaning back the hull