Sitting on the dock of the bay..

Well... summer's here, the boat is in the water and the archipelago promises sunshine, and quiet anchorages, swimming, and grilling on the shore. Whatever happened to long runs under a ballooning spinnaker, and splashy beats up a wind whipped Mysingen?

Sadly, after all that work on boat maintainance the skipper's now in dry dock for some maintenance of his own. Right now I can do a good impersonation of Nelson's "I see no ships!"*

Hopefully I'll pass muster before the season is completely done for...


* ..or was it "I really do not see the signal"?

Back on the water

It's that time again. The outboard is on, the tiller back where it should be and we are waiting for the crane. Time to get back on the water.

Here they slip the boat from a trailer with hydraulic arms that cradle her on the move, but let her free once she's in. But first the crane to lift her onto the trailer bed.
The guys here are expert, lifting her out from between the neighbours like picking a parcel from a shelf, and launching is just as smooth.
Clean plugs and the outboard is thrummimg into life, and free of the mast she heads eagerly out from the quay for the cruise round to the berth.
Friday's sunny potter is repeated twice on Saturday for a date with the mast crane. With utmost care the shiny new Windex goes on, and we winch the mast into place - and just for once the job is done with the Windex still in one piece. Miracles will never cease.
So, there she is... Boom on, sails clad and all ready to go!

?? How is it that some people think it OK to tie up on the quay by the crane and then go off to start preparing the mast. Guys... YOU ARE IN THE WAY!

Finishing Touches

The weekend saw us back at the marina taking advantage of the sunny weather to finish all that needs to be done before sjösättning. That meant painting the waterline, making repairs to the caulking on the deck edge, prepping & mounting the outboard, scrubbing out the cockpit, oiling the teak facias and generally making things shipshape.

It doesn't empty the joblist... the tiller is at home getting a lick of varnish, the sprayhood needs time with a needle & thread, there's a window that needs sealing, charge the battery and a final polish to last the season. Plenty still that can be done!
But on Friday she goes back in the water... and looking her best we hope!

Namesake

After talking about it for seven years it has finally happened.... we have put the name on the the boat. ..and it looks great if I do say so myself!

Also after seven years I've fixed the seacock on the port side cockpit scupper... so now we are properly seaworthy :-) That was a job that used a tip from the IF discussion forum: We plugged the scupper and then it sat for a week and a half with cooking oil in to penetrate and lubricate. It still took a while to get that critical first small movement, and a while longer to free up the last couple of millimetres to et proper closure. But now it's done. No more wet feet when we have guests onboard!

True blue?

That nice blue hull looks really nice when it's given a rub down and a lick of polish.. but somehow it never lasts the season loooking that way. It quickly matts off and looks patchy and streaky... The gelcoat has had too many summers in the sun.
But maybe this year it will be different?

We spent the weekend with sander and polisher, cutting back with wet and dry and going over again with rubbing paste to bring up the shine - a compromise between wanting to get rid of the oxidation and not wanting to cut back too deep... Time consuming but hopefully worth it - the bit that's finished looks really good.

All in a days work...

It's that time of year again... the countdown to launch, and the clock has started!

Last weekend, amid the easter snow showers we were out to Karlslunds to take off the covers and give her the once over- which might have been more of a twice over if we'd remembered to bring the boat keys!

This weekend in the warmth of the spring sunshine it was time to start the work in earnest... and this time with a some new technical tricks to help things along (no not the brush!).

First, simplest and best was a long handle... usable with sanding block or roller for both sanding and painting the hull. .. and a very good job it did too. Much easier on the back and you don't end up looking like an extra from 'The Martians Have Landed'.

Next was the electric 'detail' sander - perfect for rubbing down the waterline... usually we rub it down by hand - but always in a hurry and it soon needs doing again. This year it was just as quick, but oh so much better!

And last... a natty new polishing machine for rubbing down the gelcoat. According to the plan we are going to do a 'really good job' this year. So far it looks much like it usually does after rubbing. Good - but still with room for improvement. We'll see how it looks next week after phase two...

All of which made for a busy days work - which is why it was a bonus to fit in one of those 'really ought to do' jobs: sanding down and glassing over the crack in the aft hatch cover.
I wonder if we have some deck paint left to tidy up with after???