Fettling while we wait...

...  for both news from the insurance, and my initial feelers for anyone who has a replacement engine to sell...

With no mechanical motive power last weekend (see previous post for why) then thoughts turned to other activities - one of the things that slipped off the maintenance list last winter for lack of time was the tender, with an enforced break int he sailing season then it was an ideal time to pick it up...

Down the club Sunday morning then, which, by the by, was heaving as a result of the juniors week*  and I hauled the tender over from the pen to the boat house so I could get some easy access to electric for the drills and the like..

"Fledgling", for so she is called, is not the most classy of birds, but she did only cost me twenty quid, and she meets all the necessary requirements of getting me to the boat and not attracting too many covetous eyes when ashore, but the downside is that she isn't made from the best of materials...  if I was forced to guess, I'd say she was originally some Optimist'like dinghy as you can see where the dagger board has been glassed over.

Looking considerably better...

The thwarts seem to be some kind of dark softwood, so they have rotted in places over the years I've owned her, and screws/fixings seem to have been of the domestic kind rather than stainless so they tend to give way, and that was the cause of the fettling this weekend..  the knees at the back of the boat had come away from the transom. A quick and painless 20 minutes later and four stainless screws had reattached knee to transom...  while I was there I checked the others and put a couple in the front, and I also put an additional in one of the rowlock holders as it was feeling a little "fragile"...  job done...

With plenty of time to spare, I'd also bought the garage floor paint with me, small roller, fluffy head, and twenty minutes later, after a stiff brush down, the inside of the tender was looking considerably better than it did...    another job done.. 


In other subjects....   within 12 hours of me putting up a notice on the club Facebook page about the theft, two members had offered me the loan of spare engines....  you know who you are Chris/Julian, it was very much appreciated and went a long way to restoring my faith in human kind...  I've taken Julian up on his kind offer, as he has a long shaft 3.3 Mariner that should do the trick nicely, I pick it up on Tuesday so should be sailing again within a week..  in the meanwhile I have a notice up at the club for a more permanent replacement, I shall also ask my outboard mechanic to keep an eye open.... fairly simple requirements ..  4/5 or 6HP, 2 or 4 stroke immaterial, long shaft required, F-N-R preferred...

*Lastly, what a thing of joy the juniors week is - as I was walking to the shed on Sunday morning to start work on the tender I passed the clubs commodore, Tim, standing with his mouth open at the sheer volume of activity in the club... the level of planning to get 30+ youngsters engaged for a week in all manner of sailing activities that had gone seamlessly was a thing of brilliance..  we're a self help club, and a dozen or so members and some parents had made it happen - bloody brilliant - I think I know how Tim felt...  not only that ..  30+ youngsters enthused...  bodes well for the future of the hobby/sport/pastime!