4th March I managed to get some boat work done today but first I had to buy another can of antifouling.
There were a few barnacles left on the hull from the initial scrape but those came off easily. After a brief sand to key the surface, I started to apply the old can of antifoul before moving on to the new one. The whole underwater surface got painted in around 2 hours.
The masking tape will get removed tomorrow once the surface has dried.
5th I spent most of today waiting for the delivery of a potential replacement for the anemometer rotor. This finally arrived just after lunch.
After a dog walk, It was almost 4 when we set off from the heath to the sailing club. Unfortunately I didn’t have the required size of Allen key to remove the damaged rotor from the anemometer but I have confirmed that the diameter of the replacement is the same as the original. I have ordered a large set of keys from Screwfix which I will collect tomorrow. This includes both imperial and metric sizes down to 0.7 mm and 7/250” so should have the required size to fit any practical Allen bolt.
While I was at the boat I removed the masking tape from the antifouling and collected three of the 5L fuel containers so I can set up the tank ready to motor out to the mooring.
6th Today’s biggest boat job was constructing a test stand for the outboard motor. The idea for this is to use the black plastic container which is usually my flammable store as a water reservoir. The wooden frame then holds the motor with the propeller and exhaust in the water.
There was also a quick trip to LSC to fit the alternative wind speed rotor (intended for a Davis Weather station) and collect the fuel tank and pipe. While I was there I got involved in fitting the last remaining retaining bolts between the balcony steelwork and the wall of the clubhouse. This was a little more difficult than intended because the last two cartridges of epoxy turned out to be intended for a different design of mixing gun. As a consequence, instead of injecting mixed epoxy into the holes, the two parts had to be manually squeezed out of the cartridges onto a surface and mixed before smearing on the threaded rod.
March 7th Lunchtime catering at LSC from 11 to 2 with Jayne as my helper instead of Helen. Today was fairly busy because of the proximity of launch days so we did 23 covers. Somewhat slow start though as I had to do a re-boot of the oven which had not been responding to the control system so didn’t pre-heat until after we should have been serving food. Everything was finished and cleaned up by about 2:30
9th and 10th A couple of days taken up by a trip to Doncaster to deal with the consequences of the tenants in our house having abandoned it.
11th As my boat will be back in the water in a week’s time there are a few urgent jobs to do. The first of those is checking the outboard motor. I have ordered fresh 2 stroke oil and a pair of spark plugs which will definitely help improve my confidence in it’s operation but they will potentially arrive at the weekend. As a first step towards the re-launch, I spent the remainder of the morning adapting the outboard stand so it holds the engine at the required height (ie 12 cm lower than my initial design.
My engine service is basically cleaning the existing spark plugs using the aerosol carb cleaner and then replacing them. They were a little oily looking and had black insulators but that is to be expected as I started last year with a tank of fuel mixed with double strength oil. That was a precaution because of the inboard engine having been rarely run for so much of it’s recent history but wont have been helping the outboard. While I had the lid off the outboard I also cut off the two core cable that would provide a low voltage for lights while the engine runs. The manual suggests this will not be a high enough voltage to charge batteries so it wont be any use on the boat and the wire has been a bit of a nuisance every time I have to move the engine.
The existing fuel in the tank proved to be OK for the test run and, although the engine was a little smoky, it ran on about the third pull which is actually better than it has usually been. I will be transferring the remaining fuel into a metal can and preparing fresh as this is the third year that I will be using the same tank without having previously emptied it and cleaned it at all.
12th This morning I managed to get some time at the sailing club to mount the outboard motor on it’s modified bracket. The lower positioning looks as if it will achieve what was intended and the only possible problems are a slight catch of the outboard tiller on the bracket (which might be annoying during steering) and the need for a bolt or something similar to lock the motor in the raised position as the engine & longer distance makes a combination which is slightly too much for the friction to keep it in the raised position.
I also attached the rudder and tiller so I am ready to go back in the water and motor out to the mooring.
I was intending to inflate the tender and row out to the new mooring positions but the wind is a little strong and with worrying gusts. The windsock is completely straight so I will leave that job to another day.
14th Clear blue skies and only a steady moderate wind this morning. I inflated the tender and rowed out to the new mooring. It is slightly further than the previous one, close to the opening in the wall and opposite the mast crane barge.
It was a fairly easy job attaching the strops using my clamp-on vice on the transom to tighten shackle pins and mouse them with wire.
18th March 
I arrived at the sailing club a couple of minutes after 6 to find the crane had already arrived. After being involved in initial setup, I spent most of the rest of the morning dealing with tag lines and lifting strops. The first boat entered the water at about 6:40. We managed to complete the list for today and move the crane ready for a quick start tomorrow morning.
As far as I am aware the mast crane has performed as expected today with the only problems experienced being over heating on the launch engine due to a miss-set control valve.
19th Today is the second lift at LSC. Another lovely clear day with bright sunshine as soon as it came up. Some wind but nothing to make the lifts challenging.
The crane had stayed in place overnight so a prompt start was made – The driver was on site before 6 and first boat going into the lagoon as soon as we were ready. Today’s challenge for the lift master was the relative lack of boats that were ready at the start and able to go into moderately shallow tidal state. Predicted tide was about 1M above datum at 6:00 increasing to 2M at about 9:30.
Rathenice went in as the fourth boat – The lift was slightly challenging due to the presence of the tree almost overhead and other boats fairly close. The outboard started fairly easily and worked well (& quietly!!) on the modified bracket. The forward mooring strops are a little shorter than ideal for the new mooring so I had to extend the aft ones by tying in some rope. New longer strops at the front will solve the issue as there is plenty of space to move aft a bit. Getting on the mooring was a little challenging due to the cross current near the entrance which caused me to lose the new extending boat hook (plastic handle slipped off while I was pulling hard). Despite that temporary setback I was all sorted out and waiting for a launch trip back ashore by 8:00.
By 10:30 we had done all 30 or so boats scheduled for lifts today and nobody else was ready for a lift.
I still need to put the mast up and attach sails and running rigging but that can be a job for another day when I have made the new mooring strops.
20th March I bought some pipes from B&Q to provide chafe protection and also 10 M of 14mm plaited rope from the local chandlers. The timing was not ideal for the tides but I rowed out to the boat at about 12:00 to find the boat solidly aground with about 1 M above datum. This means that any bow strop extension will not move her backwards and so the stern strops wouldn’t get sorted out even if I stayed on the boat to do the splicing. I managed to measure how long the bow strops potentially need to be so I can cut the rope and do the splicing ashore.
I would have about 2 hours on the boat before the tide starts to fall to an extent that makes rowing back to the club difficult. It was also not really effective trying to get the mast put up today so I unloaded the vice and all the tools onto the boat and then rowed back to the club My tender is now parked on the concrete near the slipway ready for the next trip out to the boat.
My evening was occupied by splicing a thimble, some anti-chafe pipe and a mooring loop into 5 M of 14mm octoplait rope.
23rd I was at the sailing club for 9:30 with some time left before the highest tide today so I rowed out and started by changing the mooring strops. The new one that I made yesterday is a little longer than is absolutely needed at the bow so I have left the previous longest “backup” strop in place as the operating one and added the new one as the emergency backup. This meant I could remove the two additional pieces of rope on the stern lines. That seems to be a suitable arrangement now and has dealt with a tide that was predicted as 2M above datum.
Getting the mast up is always quite a long job because of having to sort out the different shrouds, backstays etc. Then rig the A frame and do the actual hoist. This time I managed to lose one cotter pin overboard so the forestay is attached with two shackles at the moment. Everything else is done properly although I will need to adjust the shrouds after moving the mast aft a little so that the second bolt can go through the tabernacle. It is probably going to need a couple of hours more work to get the boom and sails organised but hopefully I can get some sailing in before the weekend.
I collected together all the additional tools and packed them into the tender as well as possible for the trip back ashore – The A frame will have to make that trip next time as the two mast supports took up a lot of room. I was home and stashing equipment in the garden by 1:30 which allowed enough time for lunch and a change of clothes before taking Helen to the dental appointment.
26th Today it was almost 3pm before I was on my way to LSC.
My key achievements were getting all of the standing rigging attached and partially tensioned. There will still need to be some work to slacken off the shrouds and move the mast aft a little so that the second mast bolt can be put in.
The other job was installing the boom ready for attaching the sails
On the way back ashore I took the A frame and the larger tools back ashore as those wont be needed on the boat until it is time to take down the mast or further modify the mooring arrangements.
First published 4th March. Updated 7th, 11th, 14th, 18th, 22nd, 23rd, 27th