Quite a long title, quite a lot of ground to cover tonight!
Top of the extensive winter "to do" list is replacing the main water tank. So my first mission was extracting the damn thing from under the v-berth.
This proved less difficult than I feared, with some assistance from Patrick ("Orca") without which I'd have definitely struggled.
Once the tank was out I was able to closely examine it and our decision to replace it with a new plastic tank was vindicated
The quality of construction is poor, the steel is to my mind too thin and the welds have clearly been re-welded in several places
There's very obvious signs of where the tank has been leaking in three places, all of them previous repairs.
Even repaired again, this tank is just going to be trouble and we'd rather get it sorted properly once and for all
So my next mission was to design the new tank. I could have simply recycled the dimensions of the existing tank but I'd found that it was significantly smaller than the available space. In fact, I calculated that by simply making the tank the same shape but to fit the space I could gain oer 5 gallons capacity. That may not sound much when you're used to having unlimited water on tap but it's worth between three days and a week longer between visits to a hose pipe.
I could, in fact, have gained perhaps a further five or six gallons by making the shape more complex but the trade off would have been increased cost.
So here is the final design. I've had, perforce, to retain the fittings in the end walls rather than the top face, which would be preferable, as reducing the height of the tank by the four inches necessary to install the fittings on top would have reduced the capacity substantially.
Tek Tanks responded with a quote within two hours, I'm waiting for Henderson Plastics to respond.
So I can't continue tanking it until that quote comes in.
So I throttled back to tickover...
Pagan has been squatting on the river pontoon since we got back from the Blackwater and this weekend the tides would be right to finally get back on our berth.
The Friday tide of 5.1m should have been just about enough but with a high pressure weather system and who knows what other factors, it came up short by nearly 0.2m as I found when I checked the depth at high water with the lead line. Added to which, we once again had a fairly stiff Easterly breeze.
Saturday, however, looked perfect. A 5.4m tide and a moderate Southerly breeze should serve nicely.
Since high water wasn't until late morning, I decided to tackle the excessively fast tickover problem. Since we repitched the prop this has become even more of a nuisance with Pagan making over 3 knots at tickover! That makes slow speed maneouvering a wee bit tricky to say the least!
Adjusting the throttle stop and sorting out the morse control cable mounting combined to get the old Merc rumbling at a sedentary 600rpm
The good ship Laurin arrived shortly after I'd finished and I had ample hands on deck and on the shore to assist with docking. Pagan was behaving herself particularly well and with good slow speed control now available we gently eased into our berth without any drama at all.
The Laurins then cooked brunch aboard Pagan as their cooker is playing up. They came back and cooked tea later that day and then back again this morning to cook breakfast! I'm not complaining!
This morning we need to "car" shuffle to pick up the Laurin's Landie from Burnham and whilst we were at it we picked up the new addition to our fleet ...
Whilst we were round at Marconi the conversation had turned to my search for a cheap sailing dinghy to use as a knockabout on the river. Our friends Neal and Jocelyn offered us their Super Graduate dinghy on launching trolley and road trailer for the princely sum of £0! She's not been getting used and she was sitting slightly forlornly in the dinghy park at Burnham Sailing Club
So we hitched her up behind the Landrover and fetched her back to Fambridge. I set about her with the pressure washer and she scrubbed up rather nicely. She shows the scars of a long life but she's serviceable and just what I wanted.
Mind you, I might have to fight people off with a big stick to sail her myself, there's a growing list of people who want to borrow her! That's fine by me
She'll get a name in due course when I decide what to call her. Something with a pagan-esque feel to it methinks
And that brings us, finally, to thinking ahead
Jane had to get her holiday bookings in sharpish for next year so we already know when our main trips will be. Back end of May into early June we'll have 12 days pottering around the Thames Estuary, our goal being to get to grips with sailing Pagan as a couple
Then mid July to early August will be, if plans come to pass, a big trip. A whole 25 days away on a sojourn to the Solent. I've been there before of course, but only as far as Chichester Harbour on a cruise and twice on a mission to bring boats back from Port Solent and the Hamble.
With crew provisionally pencilled in for the out (Glen) and return (Rik) legs, Jane will join ship for the middle two thirds of the trip. I'm hoping to get into Rye for a couple of days, spend some time in Chichester harbour exploring, make landfall on the Isle of Wight once or twice, maybe make it as far as Poole to pick Rik up and a visit to Portsmouth mainly 'cos I want to go and see the Mary Rose
Then at the beginning of September we've got another 12 day break. No firm plans for that yet but there's a possibilty we might fly out to Italy to join the crew of the good ship Laurin for a week or so. If that doesn't come to pass, we'll do something else!
Top of the extensive winter "to do" list is replacing the main water tank. So my first mission was extracting the damn thing from under the v-berth.This proved less difficult than I feared, with some assistance from Patrick ("Orca") without which I'd have definitely struggled.
Once the tank was out I was able to closely examine it and our decision to replace it with a new plastic tank was vindicated
The quality of construction is poor, the steel is to my mind too thin and the welds have clearly been re-welded in several placesThere's very obvious signs of where the tank has been leaking in three places, all of them previous repairs.
Even repaired again, this tank is just going to be trouble and we'd rather get it sorted properly once and for all
So my next mission was to design the new tank. I could have simply recycled the dimensions of the existing tank but I'd found that it was significantly smaller than the available space. In fact, I calculated that by simply making the tank the same shape but to fit the space I could gain oer 5 gallons capacity. That may not sound much when you're used to having unlimited water on tap but it's worth between three days and a week longer between visits to a hose pipe.
I could, in fact, have gained perhaps a further five or six gallons by making the shape more complex but the trade off would have been increased cost.
So here is the final design. I've had, perforce, to retain the fittings in the end walls rather than the top face, which would be preferable, as reducing the height of the tank by the four inches necessary to install the fittings on top would have reduced the capacity substantially.
Tek Tanks responded with a quote within two hours, I'm waiting for Henderson Plastics to respond.
So I can't continue tanking it until that quote comes in.
So I throttled back to tickover...
Pagan has been squatting on the river pontoon since we got back from the Blackwater and this weekend the tides would be right to finally get back on our berth.
The Friday tide of 5.1m should have been just about enough but with a high pressure weather system and who knows what other factors, it came up short by nearly 0.2m as I found when I checked the depth at high water with the lead line. Added to which, we once again had a fairly stiff Easterly breeze.
Saturday, however, looked perfect. A 5.4m tide and a moderate Southerly breeze should serve nicely.
Since high water wasn't until late morning, I decided to tackle the excessively fast tickover problem. Since we repitched the prop this has become even more of a nuisance with Pagan making over 3 knots at tickover! That makes slow speed maneouvering a wee bit tricky to say the least!
Adjusting the throttle stop and sorting out the morse control cable mounting combined to get the old Merc rumbling at a sedentary 600rpm
The good ship Laurin arrived shortly after I'd finished and I had ample hands on deck and on the shore to assist with docking. Pagan was behaving herself particularly well and with good slow speed control now available we gently eased into our berth without any drama at all.
The Laurins then cooked brunch aboard Pagan as their cooker is playing up. They came back and cooked tea later that day and then back again this morning to cook breakfast! I'm not complaining!
This morning we need to "car" shuffle to pick up the Laurin's Landie from Burnham and whilst we were at it we picked up the new addition to our fleet ...
So we hitched her up behind the Landrover and fetched her back to Fambridge. I set about her with the pressure washer and she scrubbed up rather nicely. She shows the scars of a long life but she's serviceable and just what I wanted.
Mind you, I might have to fight people off with a big stick to sail her myself, there's a growing list of people who want to borrow her! That's fine by me
She'll get a name in due course when I decide what to call her. Something with a pagan-esque feel to it methinks
And that brings us, finally, to thinking ahead
Jane had to get her holiday bookings in sharpish for next year so we already know when our main trips will be. Back end of May into early June we'll have 12 days pottering around the Thames Estuary, our goal being to get to grips with sailing Pagan as a couple
Then mid July to early August will be, if plans come to pass, a big trip. A whole 25 days away on a sojourn to the Solent. I've been there before of course, but only as far as Chichester Harbour on a cruise and twice on a mission to bring boats back from Port Solent and the Hamble.
With crew provisionally pencilled in for the out (Glen) and return (Rik) legs, Jane will join ship for the middle two thirds of the trip. I'm hoping to get into Rye for a couple of days, spend some time in Chichester harbour exploring, make landfall on the Isle of Wight once or twice, maybe make it as far as Poole to pick Rik up and a visit to Portsmouth mainly 'cos I want to go and see the Mary Rose
Then at the beginning of September we've got another 12 day break. No firm plans for that yet but there's a possibilty we might fly out to Italy to join the crew of the good ship Laurin for a week or so. If that doesn't come to pass, we'll do something else!
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