Completed job list '23/'24 lay up..

By way of record keeping, and to remind me in the future - here's the completed job list from the winter layover...  all in all I would say it was a good one, mostly because without a shadow of a doubt it was a VERY good idea to bring the tender home - it kept me occupied most of the long dark winter, whenever I got bored I went out and did a few more bits on it..  😏

Completed list...

1/. Titivate the tender - from this..

..to this..

Most gratifying..  the full list of what was done is here [clicky] and here [clicky] but in essence, washed down, rubbed down (both bottom and inside), all thwarts cut out and replaced with epoxy encased piping covered in three layers of cloth, rubbed down some more, sacrificial strips screwed and epoxied to keel, rear seat removed and strengthened, before sealing both front and rear seat - then painted..  inside with garage floor paint, outside with an off the shelf back oil based house paint, seats used the same stuff I use on the cockpit locker ids and washboards..  I don't have a picture (must get one) but I then permanently attached six fenders I got at a boat jumble over the winter with oversized tie clips. Done...  this winter I think I'll do the central seat, it needs a bit of strengthening.

2/. Jib halyard has worn at the eye strap for the diverter - cut out a foot and then rewhipped in the hard eye 

3/. Outboard well inner and outer pads replaced - for the outer edge I went with (rot free) plastic chopping board - a double thickness of high-density polyethylene chopping board - for the inner edge I used some aluminium plate I had knocking about

Oxalic removed the stain from the old pad at each end..

4/. New Windex sourced, and fitted (as I waited for the tide to come in 😀)

5/. Tiller got a much needed does of love with a rub down and re-coat...  

After...  nine (maybe 10 😏) coats of varnish later..

Regular/annual items:

• Locker lids rubbed down, minor crack on one repaired, followed by two coats paint
• Wash boards - two coats paint

• Tiller pilot support - two coats paint
• Tiller pilot clip rest - two coats paint
• Rub down and coat of wood preservative cockpit board - gave it two coats
• Antifouled - Hempel Cruising Performer this year
• Serviced outboard - ouch...  I'm not paying that again next year 😨
• Serviced the Life Jackets
• Pick up chain - new shackle between chain and swivel, a new swivel, and a new shackle for swivel to mooring buoy connection

• Pressure wash, pre launch wash, and Oxalic

Few last jobs to do..

Few last jobs to do - 

• I've bought the tiller home with me to sand down and varnish in the comfort of the garage - didn't take a before picture unfortunately as it would make an excellent tutorial picture to show how not to maintain a tiller - this is the best I can do and dates to end of last season  add on 6 months of outside in winter and you have a good idea of how bloody awful it looked..

Post rub down..

Post nine (maybe 10 😏) coats of varnish..

That'll do, pig... 😀

• Sparrow needs a damn good wash - it's been a wet, wet, winter and she's showing a lot of green  - DONE/CLOSED

Cockpit filth removed...  for now..

Plus a wash down outside, a couple of hours with some extra fine wet and dry (to remove all the bump and scuff marks from the tender last year), and then an Oxalic wash along the water line and other area's of staining - cleanest she's been since this time last season..😏

• The Windex needs to go back on, but that's a last minute job, maybe even on the water to avoid it being damaged during launch
• Cockpit hatches need to go back on - DONE/CLOSED

Before.. what a grub...   for shame... 😏

After.. note bottom left of the lower wash board - that's what got the item added to next winters maintenance schedule..

• Tender needs to go back to the club - DONE/CLOSED
• The mooring tackle needs to go back on the buoy - managed to get a lift out to the mooring on the club launch - DONE/CLOSED
• Outboard pad needs replacing (job #10) - old and rotted ply (which was always considered to be sacrificial due to the crap'ness of the ply and was installed in 2021) was replaced with a double thickness of high-density polyethylene chopping board - rot proof and maintenance free. Got the biggest one I could find but it was a couple of inches shorter in width, but no matter - she's bolted in, sealed around the edges, and when I get a moment I'll tidy up that staining at the corners to tidy up the installation. I have a square of 3mm aluminium plate for the inner edge of the well, but intend to leave that unattached - the outboard clamps will hold it in place.. DONE/CLOSED

More ticks than a mangy dog...

...yes, it's one of those posts - funny how they always seem to occur when a launch is imminent..  😏

We've had two or three days of decent weather which has, at last, allowed me to get on with some jobs on Sparrow..

First and foremost though, the antifoul is done...  what a balls ache of a job antifouling a boat is - it smells, it's uncomfortable, the stuff gets everywhere, and it doesn't dam well work anyway - you wonder why you do it! 😀

Before...

During.. masking tape still on..

After...  from chaos comes order...  from splodges come straight lines...  😁

That's epoxy primer on the rudder..

Boats look the dogs nadgers with dark blue antifoul... 😀

Separately - 

• the washboards are done - two coats emulsion and good to go, though at least one of them is going to need replacing soon - that may well be/is, a job for next winter..  I may make it easier for myself and do a single board rather than a two part'er..
• the tiller pilot attachment wooden block is also done - two coats of paint - it was new last year and holding up well
• tiller pilot rest wooden block is also done - two coats of paint
• the cockpit board is done - sanded down and two coats of wood preserver - I also took the opportunity to renew the bungees holding the solar panel to the board
• the cabin has had a wipe down to remove those few spots of  black mould that have appeared over the winter - the bathroom paint with anti fungal properties is working well

Few last jobs to do - 

• I've bought the tiller home with me to sand down and varnish in the comfort of the garage
• Sparrow needs a damn good wash - it's been a wet, wet, winter and she's showing a lot of green
• The Windex needs to go back on, but that's a last minute job, maybe even on the water to avoid it being damaged during launch
• Cockpit hatches need to go back on
• Tender needs to go back to the club - Thursday for that one
• The mooring tackle needs to go back on the buoy - next weekend I think..  maybe during the week if the weather is good

Tenders done... mooring upgrades...

Time's rushing on, the launch is a week next Tuesday (the 9th April, weather permitting) and it has been one long run of rain, wind, rain with wind, wind with rain, and repeat, to the point where the antifoul I need to get on the boat is beginning to keep me awake at night! 😏

For good reasons the club likes us to get the stuff on at least a week before launch otherwise it is too soft and will rub off on the strops of the hoist, and then from boat to boat..  not good.. either way, it's currently still windy, but sunny, and it looks to be the same tomorrow (Easter Saturday) and the car is loaded and tomorrow the job gets done...

First though, the stuff that has got done... the tender is complete just need to bolt the transom board back on, and tie-clip the fenders to the thwarts, but it's ready to go. Rodders is bringing his trailer round next Thursday to cart her back to the club.

So from where I left it last time - the filler is drying and been sanded to shape - while I waited for this to dry I decided to have a look and see what was underneath the rear seat... there's a big gap where it meets the inside of the transom which allows water in, but I also wanted to see how the seat was supported..

Note the gap at the back of the seat..

...and lo and behold...

...expanded foam with four point milk containers embedded in it - presumably for extra buoyancy...  time expired milk containers, as the one's I could see were brittle and cracked..

The seat rests directly on top of that foam - it is only supported at the front, "bugger this", quoth I - so ignoring the foam and extinct bottles I bolted in a batten on the inside of the transom for the seat to rest on, and screwed everything down.. I then cut and screwed in a batten along the top edge of the rear of the seat to close that gap with the transom - filler was then squeezed in all round the edge (a sikaflex copy sealant/adhesive mix) to make it watertight..

..with the thwarts ready for cloth and epoxy, the following is mid way..  two coats of cloth with epoxy on each layer..  seats have been sanded and had a first coat of paint..

...closer view of the batten.. 

Updated scene of the crime - front seat also sealed, sanded, and first coat of paint gone on..  I then applied more sealant to close out a few more gaps..  finally, once the epoxy was dry on the transom I added two more coats to seal in the cloth...  so that's four coats of epoxy with a layer of cloth between each of the first two layers

Calling the transom done I then gave the whole of the inside of the boat a going over with a sanding wheel on the angle grinder to remove all loose paint, and then gave it a coat of my unguent of choice - garage floor paint in dark grey. Weird I know but it does work; it's what I paint the bilges with on Sparrow, and what I also used to paint the inside of the last tender with - it's tough, slightly rubbery, and is UV stable. The only downside is that it takes 18 hours+ to dry, even longer when the temperatures are between 10 and 12 degrees like they were at the time.. 

No worries, turned it over to let the inside dry in peace, and attacked the hull with the sander - put a coat of epoxy primer on the repairs..

Two coats of a one pack, off the shelf, exterior black emulsion was then applied.. 

Bottom done...

...turned her over, and the interior was now dry.. how good does that look..   😀

Like that colour of floor paint.. 

...extended the black to the thwarts, and then to a mould line inside the hull.. 

...second coat of garage floor paint, a second coat of white on the front and rear seats and left it to dry.. I'm leaving the central seat in natural wood...

Looks better...  a veritable polished turd.. 😁

Separately, annual item #7 is complete with the addition of the following - I couldn't get the new shackle I bought last year to connect chain to swivel to undo, it is the poorest piece of galvanised sh*t I think I've ever seen, deeply rusty/flaky - angle grinded it off and replaced with a new one..  you'll note also I learned from my error last year, and I have a piece of whipping twine between the pin and the shackle (bottom left), so that when I'm out there bobbing up and down in the dinghy, hands cold, and trying to thread the pin though the mooring buoy eye, and I inevitably drop the pin, this time I won't lose it!

Antifouling tomorrow.. 

...and even more epoxy.. transom time..

Transom time...  and here's the scene of the crime... 

 

"Fledgling Too" (for that is her name) has a most unusual (but solid) construction..  a hardwood full length encapsulated keel (as we found when I repaired the bottom) and the gunwales are made from lengths of pre-bent, and then welded, steel pipe, encapsulated again in GRP. Strong and robust but you need to keep on top of your maintenance as one crack in the GRP and the water gets in, and the soft steel pipe becomes toast within years, especially in a salt water environment.. and so it was in this case. The rest is good, but the transom gunwale is a massacre scene..  

First job was to find out how much of it was still sound, and then start cutting out the rubbish..  it basically turned out into two repairs, the bigger one on the starboard was the first to get attention.. my plan was to fill to get shape and then epoxy cloth over the shape to strengthen and seal..  

First step find something that mimicked the steel pipe shape - in this case an old broom handle - cut to size, clamped, and then fixed in place with the trusty two part filler..

Clamps off, first sand, ready for some more filler..

Ports side was better - the pipe is sound either side of the rot..

Cut it out to clean (with an angle grinder)..

Piece of broom handle cut to size and fitted, next step was to fill round the edges, sand to shape, and then get both repairs ready for epoxy and cloth.. 

More on this anon..

..and separately, the outboard has had it's 20 hour service - it was a stupid price, but job done, warranty maintained, and it's ready for the new season..

Epoxy, windex's and life jacket stupidity..

Stuff is beginning to happen..  unguents are being splashed around, and tasks are being ticked off..

The big job this winter is #7 "Titivate the tender" - a major suite of fixes to the new to me tender I got half way through the year..  this was, and remains, a major bonus to me as she is far more stable and capacious than the old one so is well worth the time and money to fix a few of the major issues..

First job though was to get her home - much easier to work on in my garage than at the club..

Two of the jobs for the winter can be seen in that picture..  first the obvious one - the coaming at the top of the transom, what isn't so clear is the hole in the rear of the keel where it's been dragged over the years by someone..

Fitted just nicely on Rodders trailer..  

...the other job is at the very front of the keel where again we see a hole, this time due to years of grounding on the concrete ramps we have round here..

Better view of the two main issues mentioned above..

Once in the garage work started straight away...  the nose is all but complete... apologies was so keen to get on with it I didn't take a before picture, but this is after the second day - 

1. rubbed/sanded down
2. hole filled with two pack plastic wood
3. rubbed/sanded down again
4. cleaned with acetone
5. two layers of woven rovings wetted with epoxy (yeah I know, overkill, for this job ordinary GRP would do but I'm used to, and already had, some epoxy, and also had the cloth from an old job so went with it) 
6. rubbed/sanded down again
7. I had some steel bar in my spares box, cut off about 9", tried to and largely failed to drill a couple of holes of the right size - I went with pilot holes but it took a LONG time to drill - Heaven only knows what this stuff actually is. Either way got a couple on the end, then pre bent the end to fit the contour of the nose. Nailed this into the keel, and then bedded it in with more epoxy this time stiffened up with some micro ballons to the consistency of lemon curd..
8. rubbed/sanded down again

These following are post step 5/. and pre 6/.

....and this one is step 7/. - the strip is intended to be sacrificial to stop grounding issues going forward..  should last a while!😏 Need to rub it sown again and then we'll see whether I out one final coat of epoxy on, or just call it done..

....rear of the keel is not so advanced...   I want some lighter cloth for this (that's on it's way) as the curves are complex and a lighter cloth will conform more easily but basically the plan is the same as above with the exception of the metal bar, which for this application doesn't require a curve, so allows me to use a fairly solid offcut of aluminium plate - much easier to drill..

Following then are mid step 5/.

Elsewhere on the job list - #11 "Source/fit new Windex.." is half done - got  a bargain online..  same windex I had previously so it's a straight swap, but I'll do it last thing before launch, or even on the water just before putting the mast up 

..but on the regular job list #6 "Service Life Jackets" is complete, but not without the usual stupidity/real life intrusions.. 😏

So just to close this one out with what is hopefully a laugh here's the sorry tale..  so there I am, the jackets unzipped and folded out, unscrew the bottles and weigh them to make sure they're within tolerance of previous year(s) - all good - I then go to screw the bottles bottle back in, to leave for the 24 hour inflation test. What I didn't spot was that on the first one, where I had been manhandling the jacket to blow it up, the striker arm on the firer (a Halkey Roberts) was down, as the yellow ball on the end of the trigger rope was caught behind one of the straps...  cue hissssssssssssssssssssss as it pierced the bottle as I screwed it back in...  buggering thing was the new one I bought last year as well!! 😂

Trigger on the right - gas bottle screws into that hole - in the centre of the hole is the spike on the bottom of the trigger arm - recessed here as the trigger is in the up position..

Now replaced, and both jackets are online and ready for the new season.. 

At some time I really need to think about replacing them I guess, they are Remploy Commodore II manual inflatable life jackets...  no longer made and the label in the sleeve of the vest says they were made in March 1997 - 27 years old...  most people wouldn't think twice, but I have serviced them every single year, the bladders and covers are good, the bottles are fresh/new, and with very few moving parts I trust them implicitly..   I hate waste, but they are old.. 😏

Postscript - if my stupidity wasn't enough this year, I also found out I've done it before [clicky]..  DOH!!