Well – Yes and no. There has been a lot going on at home in the last few months ranging from the family all seeming to go house moving mad through to acquiring a temporary “family” to fully replace them at home. But all that has slowed down boat progress. The younger daughter has moved… Continue reading Surely there must be other things going on while waiting for a ship registration ?
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A farewell to my most reliable helper.
It has been rather a sad week as we had to take Charlie on a final trip to the vet on Monday because his kidneys had failed. Now I am going to have to find another first mate or sail solo. If you have read any of the brief mentions of holidays earlier in this… Continue reading A farewell to my most reliable helper.
How hard can it be to get a ship’s radio license ?
The rules for using the Humber estuary require you to have a VHF radio on the vessel unless it is impractical to power anything electrical that is larger than than a torch. Having a radio makes a lot of sense given the size of some of the ships that use the Docks at Hull, how… Continue reading How hard can it be to get a ship’s radio license ?
November – Finishing the sail cover.
Do me a favor – If you ever see the boat for real, dont look at the sail cover too closely! I was definitely not cut out to be a sail maker or to have anything to do with sewing machines. You may have already seen the first steps with this job back in July. … Continue reading November – Finishing the sail cover.
August – Caravan holiday so nothing got achieved. Except a few beach visits and a harbor or two. September – Guard rail repair.
Another of my rather irregular posts but that’s a reflection of the fragmented time I get to work on the boat while still working at a notional 37 1/2 hours a week job in the NHS. The reality is definately slightly on the higher side of 50 hours, with some paid overtime but a lot… Continue reading August – Caravan holiday so nothing got achieved. Except a few beach visits and a harbor or two. September – Guard rail repair.
You have to start somewhere (first post but not the start of the story).
So this is my very first blog post about restoring and sailing a fiberglass sailing boat built in 1973 and now named Rathenice. Although I am by no means qualified or even experienced in any of this boat restoration game, hopefully readers will find inspiration from my personal journey through marine engineering, electrical work, painting,… Continue reading You have to start somewhere (first post but not the start of the story).
Safety first – Skin fittings, seacocks and roller reefing.
Somehow the simplest of things seem to take a long time when working on a boat. I was only just starting to realise that with the discovery that almost all of the hull skin fittings were fitted with inadequate gate valves which seem to be conventional domestic plumbing versions so are likely to corrode and… Continue reading Safety first – Skin fittings, seacocks and roller reefing.
Boat cleaning and the start of task finding.
This all runs alongside the trailer fixing work but I thought we needed to keep them separate to avoid everything getting too confusing. Much of the boat restoration work also happened in parallel with working on two of Matthew’s projects – Restoration of a VW camper van that was living inside the gates of our… Continue reading Boat cleaning and the start of task finding.
Fixing the trailer.
In reality for the first month there were two lines of work going on in parallel but this post will summarize the upgrading of the trailer. Obviously that started as soon as the trailer was on our drive with an investigation into what was happening. By the start of day 3 it was clear that… Continue reading Fixing the trailer.
A boat owner again -25th August 2016.
Booked the day off work because Dave has finally managed to get the crane people organised enough to make it worth going to Hoo to look at the boat. Slight snag that it coincides with younger daughter Bethany being able to talk to the school about her AS results so we didn’t get started… Continue reading A boat owner again -25th August 2016.