Afloat and planning new adventures

We are very pleased to report that Maunie is safely back in the water! The insurance survey, carried out the week before launching, went really well and we were impressed with our surveyor, Nick Vass, who was hugely knowledgeable and helpful. Needless to say, he really liked Maunie! We haven't received his report yet but he gave us a good verbal review - a couple of minor issues but otherwise the boat got a big thumbs up.

The last winter job before relaunch was to plug a rather large hole in the bottom of the hull. We'd removed the seacocks, which allow cooling water to be pumped to the engine and generator, since it was 10 years since we'd replaced the originals with good quality bronze fittings. The seacocks are actually a trio of fittings - a skin fitting which bolts through the fibreglass hull, a ball valve which screws into the skin fitting and can be shut in the unlikely event of a water hose failing, and a strainer which filters out any weed or other debris to prevent it being sucked into the cooling water pumps.

We'd realised at the end of last season that the ball valve for the engine had failed - the handle turned but too easily - clearly the valve was stuck, luckily in the half-open position so we could still use the engine. This was obviously a major safety concern, so removing and replacing the skin fittings and valves was a must-do job on our winter list. 

Three seacocks with water-strainers. Left to right, they supply the generator, engine and water-maker with salt water. The valve handles are in the closed position here.

The engine strainer, ball valve and skin fitting. The easiest way to remove it was to cut the outside of the skin fitting off and push it upwards through the hull.

The broken ball-valve. Still partly open even though the handle is in the closed position - not good!

The generator strainer is polished up and the new valve and skin fitting test-fitted, ready to go back into the boat.

Everything refitted and ready for launch. 

It's very important to bed the skin fittings with plenty of sealant!

Of course, we filmed a short video of the process for those who just love a technical video! https://youtu.be/nNf30nQZj_c

Launch day, last Tuesday, all went very smoothly though it was an early start to catch the tide.

Last chance for underwater checks before we launch

Ready for the hour's motor down river to the mooring

Maunie is pretty much ready to go now, with all the sails fitted. We'll aim to get down to her early next week for a test sail and to add various bits of kit that are still at home. Amongst the items to go back aboard is our Icom long-range SSB radio that was such a wonderful thing as we crossed the Pacific. Our record distance for boat-to-boat voice communications was nearly 5,000 miles when we were in New Zealand and our friends Ana & Colin were approaching the coast of Chile. 

We don't use the SSB much in UK waters - the normal VHF radio (with a range of perhaps 20 miles) plus mobile phones are easier to use - but we felt it was time to give the machine a bit of tlc. The metal case had become a bit rust-spotted in places (it sits near the main companionway) so we took it off, removed all the paint, cleaned the metal to remove any traces of rust and gave it six coats of spray paint. 

A satisfyingly chunky bit of kit. The radio is about 25 years old so has lots of knobs and buttons to play with - it now looks as good as new.

So the plan? We're aiming to be back aboard at the beginning of May for another Scottish adventure. Stay tuned for more news, as they say in radio circles.

Winter Jobs - Part 4

The moment when we put Maunie back into the water is very near - next Tuesday, in fact! So we've been busy finishing the main winter maintenance jobs and have started to reload the boat with sails and cruising kit. 

Having re-faced the floors, which now look wonderful, some of the surrounding woodwork looked distinctly tatty in contrast, the worst offender being the door into the forward cabin. It became clear that, when the door was originally fitted, the bottom edge had been planed to fit but no protective varnish had been applied. As a result, damp had penetrated the facing veneer and it had stated to lift and flake:

We took the decision to strip off a section of the damaged surface, apply a veneer patch (in order to get a level surface) and then apply a single sheet of teak veneer to the whole door:

The old veneer was scored with a knife and a sharp chisel was used to remove the veneer. The metal rule clamped across the surface was there to prevent the chisel going too far!

Applying veneer patches

Carefully applying a single sheet of veneer, making sure we didn't trap any air bubbles. The veneer had a coating of adhesive already applied so it was a case of peeling back the protective plastic coating progressively as we moved up the door

Very pleased with the results, after an application of wood stain and six coats of varnish. Just the door handle and hinges to refit.

The suppliers of the veneer really liked the photos and the video that we sent them so Graham has produced a version for their website, complete with their logos, which will appear soon. The original video is here: https://youtu.be/HFMF4y5ltfk

The short warm spell a couple of weeks ago was the ideal opportunity to remove Maunie's winter covers and refit her sails and sprayhood:

In all it took us a couple of hours but there's a 2-minute time-lapse of the process here: https://youtu.be/9qMadkpK3gg

The full boat condition survey, required by the insurance company, took place on Thursday and, as we'd hoped, the surveyor was very happy with Maunie so we're all ready to launch.

Of course, we'll never run out of boat jobs but another important one was to look after a rather smaller boat, our inflatable tender. During the sailing season it's stored in the Kinsgwear 'toast rack' where dinghies stand upright on their transoms (Blunt ends!) between metal hoops - just like slices of toast in a toast rack. Exposed to the elements, especially the degrading UV of bright sunshine, many of the boats look pretty worn out but we always put a cover on ours so, at 15 years old it still looks remarkably good:

However, our covers have been made using £25 sheets of "UV Resistant" woven plastic waterproof sheeting which we have found last only one season. Not a very sustainable solution, we thought, so we utilised some left-over boat cover material (off-cuts from our cockpit dodgers project of a couple of years ago) plus some new, long-life Sunbrella (it's fully waterproof and the light colour will reflect the heat of the sun prevent the dinghy baking inside it on hot days) to make a cover that should last 10 years or so. A long zip that we cut from a damaged cover that we found in a skip in New Zealand (we love a good boatyard skip!) completed the components so out came the trusty Sailrite sewing machine.

Bertie helps with the measurements! The old and damaged plastic cover is used as a template

The boat stands upright on the ends of the two outer tubes so the cover is open at the bottom for good airflow to prevent mould.

If all goes to plan, our next update will be on the water - we can't wait!