Fettling...

Fettling?! Chaos...😁

Been a fortnight since the last sail and I was hoping to get lucky this weekend, but I was busy on Saturday, my day of choice, and as suspected when I got to the boat yesterday (Sunday) it was blowing a high end 4 gusting 5 from the West, along with grey and slightly (very slightly) showery intervals...

It really didn't fill me with a sense of joy so I decided to lounge about the boat on the mooring, fettle, fish, read, drink beer, and snooze instead...😀

Along the way however, some necessary work was done, that would have needed doing anyway so the time was very much not wasted..

First on the list was the hinge fitting for the tiller pilot which was showing signs of stress after a couple of years of use...

Here =>

The hinge is stainless steel but not particularly thick - and whereas I was right that it doesn't matter when the pilot ram is extending (as the base presses into the cockpit coaming and supports the hinge), when the pilot ram withdraws it causes a compression at the points marked by the arrows and the hinge has bent slightly..

Wanting to nip this in the bud, I wanted to put some extra support to the bolt hole closest to the hinge - the answer was to put a substantial penny washer on the outside of the hinge in addition to the one already in place on the inside...  to do that though required me first to remove the pilot base (that block of wood), and then remove the cockpit hatch cover, as you need to get your arm up inside the cockpit coaming to get to the nut end of the bolt holding the hinge to the side of the cockpit.. 

Either way - job done - already looks better - it may need a more substantial hinge at some time in the future but for now the job is done.  I've bought the base/block home for a sand down, and another coat of paint..

Next job was a check of the oil level in the outboard, which I had lowered when I first got on board to allow time for the oil to settle.. 

You may remember from the last blog post that I had noticed an oil film in the pan of the engine the last time I had sailed and was concerned it might be leaking..  

Either way, it was a warm day (despite the clouds) so I didn't think it was necessary to run the engine up to warm the oil further, pulled the dip stick and checked the oil (mine looks like that one right - the oil level is read from the very bottom part of the dipper - the straight bit just after the cone)...  

Happily the oil was mid way between the two marks, so no further action required, and a weight off my mind..  looks like the leftover oil was from a previous issue (I have a suspicion the dip stick wasn't fully tightened up during last years use and there was some leakage)

Last job was to check tension of the side stays upper and lowers, and all was good apart from the rear lowers which were very slightly less tensioned, so I gave them a few turns to taughten them up..

Jobs done - fishing rod deployed for the first time this year (nothing, nada, not a sniff), then a beer, a snooze, and a read, before the showers finally drove me home..

Good day but I need to bring the broom out next time - she's hairier than Jimi Hendrix under the water line..💩