More post-repaint work - re-fitting the Windpilot

Whilst Maunie is still inside the Baltic Wharf Repairs shed we thought it'd be a good idea to refit the boarding ladder and the Windpilot self-steering gear onto the transom. Unfortunately we had discovered, through email correspondence with the Windpilot people in Germany, that the original installation was 'very bad' - the designer, Peter, asked for more photos to be sent and advised that the upper and lower mounting brackets were too close together and the angle of dangle was entirely wrong.

So, what we thought would be a case of 'just' re-bolting the 60kg aluminium kit using existing bolt holes turned into about 6 hours of fiddling with the geometry of the beast to get a better angle. Of course, we'd get one bit right, then have to adjust one of the lower legs only to find that it had put the original measurements out. After much fiddling, we eventually got to the best compromise, took a brave pill and drilled four new holes for the lower brackets. Just hope it's OK!







I should, perhaps, explain what the Windpilot does (though the name sort of explains it). On a long offshore passage we can attach a wind vane to the top, lock the main steering wheel and then the Windpilot steers the boat using its own rudder to keep the boat at the same angle to the wind. Unlike 'Constance', our electronic autopilot, 'Winnie' does this completely silently and uses no electricity. However, if the direction of the wind shifts, the boat will just follow it so Winnie isn't great for use on coastal passages.

We finally finished the job at about 4.30pm and now just have to find a neat way of hiding the original bolt holes!

The Vancouver Yachts Association dinner

We drove down to Chichester last weekend for an owners' open day at the Northshore yard where Maunie was built. Sadly, the Vancouver marque is being gently dropped by the company as they concentrate on producing Southerly lift-keel boats but there were quite a few Vancouver owners there.

An evocative sight greeted us as we walked around the yard - the original moulds, from which Maunie appeared back in 1997. It seems unlikely that they be ever used again, which is a great shame.








On a more positive note, we then went to the Vancouver Yachts Association annual dinner and met some really interesting folk - most of them have thousands of miles under their belts. We were particularly interested to talk to Kevin, an ex-Northshore director who had played an important part in the design of the pilothouse 34 and 38 and had sailed on Maunie several times with her first owner!

The first views of the completed paint job

We've just been sent these first photos of the completed paint job. Quite a transformation, don't you think? Graham visited on Friday morning but that was before the blue stripes were added.





The shiny mahogany-coloured paint below the waterline is the Coppercoat antifouling and they have achieved a really smooth finish so we should be good for an extra half-knot of speed!

We'll get new graphics for the name on the transom, refit the boarding ladder and Windpilot steering system then she'll be ready to go back outside to have her mast rigged. We can't wait to see her for ourselves.

The repainting project moves on

The process has moved on from stripping old paint and sanding the hull to applying the first 4 coats of primer. It was all going too well, of course, until we received an email from the yard saying that, after the first coat of white primer, they'd found lots of pin-holes in the gel-coat. Apparently this can happen with older boats and the suggested solution was 3 more coats of primer, applied with a roller rather than sprayed on, to fill all the pinholes. This has been a success but has added cost (no surprise there, this is a boat after all) and has requred extra sanding down.





The first gloss topcoat will be sprayed on Monday, followed by a couple more. As you may have guessed by the primer colour, Maunie is going to look a lot lighter! She looked huge in the spray-bay!

Ashore for some serious winter work!

Maunie's now out of the water for the first time in over 2 years (the odd inter-tide dry out for antifouling excepted)- we have a big winter makeover planned!

A couple of weeks ago we groped our way up the Dart in seriously thick fog to get to Baltic Wharf in Totnes at high tide. We were hauled out onto the quay by a very professional team and spent the weekend preparing for the next stage of what will be an interesting and expensive few months. We removed sails, boom and halyards then disconnected the mast cables to allow the mast to be lifted off a couple of days later.

After a bit of swearing and some hot water, all the seacock hoses were persuaded to come off and the seacocks themselves (probably the originals) loosened for later removal.

The big project ahead of us? Well, Maunie is about to get a smart new paint job and an anti-fouling system called Coppercoat.



We always planned that one day we'd have to repaint the boat - the original dark blue gelcoat looks lovely from a distance but, in previous ownership, Maunie's suffered a fair few scrapes and dings and we've probably added a couple since. The hull is also quite abraded in places where she's rubbed her fenders and we've joined the commonly-held opinion that dark blue's a nightmare to maintain. It absorbs the heat of the sun like mad, too!





So we're having her repainted in a new colour - won't spoil the suspense by telling you which just yet.

Once the mast was removed the first job was to blast the hull clean of many layers of old antifouling paint. The contractor did a brilliant job, taking 3 hours to do what would take painful days by hand, and the hull is in good condition; it's remarkably smooth after the blasting. We'll have 2 coats of epoxy primer applied to give it a good protective seal before the copper-rich Coppercoat paint (which does the job of antifouling without the hassle of annual scraping and repainting).





The work is being done by Baltic Wharf Repairs; director David Sharp showed me a SS31yacht he's just repaired and repainted after a very nasty collision with a fishing boat, so we're confident that Maunie will look fantastic when she rolls out of the shed in a month's time.

Will keep you updated..

Dartmouth Regatta 2011

Once again we were aboard Maunie for the Regatta but, for the first time, just the two of us. We had some excellent sailing and the racing fleet enjoyed Force 4-5 conditions for most of the 4 day series so there were some entertaining moments. We went out to the big-boat course on a couple of the days and hove-to near the windward mark to take photos. The absence of the Red Arrows was sad but otherwise there was plenty to watch in the river, with lots of helicopter displays and an amazing parachute display.


Mind that mast (1)




















Mind that mast (2)





















Mind that seagull!

















How not to do spinnakers:
























We're planning winter work on Maunie so will probably just have one weekend's sailing left before she's lifted out for the winter. We'll keep you updated on progress.

Proof that Laura saw dolphins at last!

After years (about 10, I'm told, not 7 as previously mentioned) of failing to see dolphins with Laura aboard, her reaction as they (about 20, I'm told, not a dozen as previously mentioned) came alongside this time was suitably euphoric!