Ready for launch

Here she is sitting there ready for the water. The black hull with the grey looks very smart.

I went down twice today to try and find Alexi to arrange the crane lift for overnight Tuesday/Wednesday, but couldn't find her either time. Tim said there was spray painted mobile number on the shed... I just thought it was graphiti!

The weather for Wednesday is currently showing a 80% chance of rain at 9am.

Final weekend before launch

Yesterday and today were our final two full days of work before the launch on Wednesday. That meant not only did we have to get all hull work finished but we had to check things like fenders and mooring ropes. We will have eight cylinder fenders and two tear drop fenders to protect the hull. On the stern deck there is space for 6 cylinder fenders. Temporarily we will lash the extra two behind, but we will look for extra wire frame sometime in the future.

We also managed to fit the block to heighten the windlass. The windlass has been an ongoing saga. First, we tried to get the old windlass to work (with no avail). Then we bought a new one. But it didn't fit where the old one was. So... we build a wood block for it to rest on... but that was not high enough so this week I bought some plastic blocks as spacers to raise the wood block.

Then we talked to Costas from Raymarine who sold us the windlass and he advised that the plastic blocks would create stress points in the wood which would eventually damage the wood and was therefore not a good idea. As a result Tim and I decided it was not a good idea to raise it on spacers.

So we epoxied it in with the wood block direct to the deck - it will be a little lower than we hoped for, but should work fine. Having epoxy glued it in place on Saturday then on Sunday we coated it with epoxy and then with gelcoat.  Gelcoating to epoxy takes better than gelcoating to wood. We need another coat of gelcoat, sand it down and then we can mount the windlass permanently.

Mark joined us for the weekend. He has been a tremendous help with the refit. Yesterday and today he was sanding the deck ready for painting next weekend.

He has also learnt how to whip ropes and how to do a reef knot. Tim leant him a book about yachtmaster so he is now keen to learn the ropes.

There were a couple of jobs we had been putting off. But today we could not provarocate any longer so had to do them.

The first job was checking the stern gland. The Arabs say 'nobody is perfect... except God' and we have found the one imperfection from the Camper and Nicholson design of the boat. And that is the hanging locker in the stern cabin. It's through the floor of this locker that you access the stern gland.

The bottom of the door is approx 40cm off the floor, which means you have to lean your stomach on this and fall headlong into the locker to get at the stern gland. Now... if the hanging locker had only gone down to the floor or near the floor this would be a trivial job!

Anyhow, what we had to do was check and adjust the stern gland. That has to be done upside down with a spanner and vernier guage. The vernier guage is because it's very important that both of the nuts are equal.

The other 'put off' job was retouching the grey paint on the port side of the hull. The masking tape for the black strip had not worked and so I hand painted/retouched the grey where the black had bled under the tape. A painful detail oriented task that I had kept putting off.

Deck prep for painting

We want to get all the power sanding done before we put the boat in the water [which happens in 7 days time] so today was a prep day for the deck.

Tim sanded the teak rubbing strip and the teak stern handrail. We have decided to varnish the 'rubbing strip' and the handrail as both are not areas that need to be non-slip and will definitely look much prettier varnished. The stern handrail looked amazing when Tim had finished so I think they will both enhance the look of the boat a lot. Tonight I must order some cellulose sanding filler as the teak is quite weathered and needs that before varnishing.

I spent the day cleaning off the areas to be painted prior to hand sanding. The main area that took a lot of time was the toe rail. When we had ground off the old treadmaster there were bits of glue/gunge everywhere and some of those little spots went high on the toe rail and then stuck fast. So I gentle scraped them off with a wood chisel. The toe rails will need hand sanding as they need painting. In fact there are a few chips that will probably need filling too.

The other thing we did was to cut the rubbish bit off the old anchor chain leaving us with about 12 metres of good chain. That we stowed in the secondary chain locker so that it will be on the boat when it is put into the water.

It was a strange sort of day - we both worked hard and the teak looks like it will be great when its varnished and the white toe rails etc look clean now, but I prefer the putting together rather than the prep/taking apart.

Final DMS inspection & delivery of the cooker

This morning I was up early and down at the marina by 8:15. The inspector from the Department of Merchant Shipping (DMS) was due at 8:30 do to the final inspection. He had to check that we had painted the name of the boat correctly on each bow and the stern, that we had the port of registry (Limassol) painted correctly on the stern and that across the centre joist of the boat we had an engraving of the ships name, port of registry, registered number and tonnage. Obviously this was a very quick and simple check. He then took the paperwork away to the office and when its dealt with we will be legally registered and... the legal owners of King Malu.

After he left I did a quick bit of filling of the gelcoat when the dings were, so that tomorrow they can be sanded. As I was coming out of the cabin with the gelcoat Tim was coming back up the ladder... he wanted to show me another boat. It had two solar panels on outriggers from the stern exactly as we intend to put on King Malu.

This afternoon there was a phone call from Tim, the goods from Mailspeed Marine had arrived and the delivery man said it was too heavy to bring up so Tim suggested putting straight in the back of my car.

What had arrived was the new Smev cooker. It looked great. Also some blocks and what we need for next week... fender ropes.

Bilge pumps working

Last night I was up late and did some scouring around and found two things, a workshop manual for the Ford York Diesel engine and a new replacement water pump. Both on ebay. I like ebay. I enjoy searching around and trying to find deals. The water pump was about 25% of the cost of a new shop item. Hopefully the workshop manual will make removing and reinstalling parts easier.

On the way to the boat Tim went past all the chandlers and other electrical shops. All closed... bar one... so he bought two new one way valves, which are much better sized for the bilge pumps and make it look much neater.

This morning we returned to making the bilge pumps work. We built a new cable loom of marinized cable, mounted a new terminal block and rewired everything. And yes... it all worked correctly.

Taught me that we do want to use marinized cable [multi-strand with all strands tinned] for all wiring despite the cost and pain. And... all ends should be soldered to seal them and make good connection to the terminal block/appliance.

Then we fitted a new light into the engine room. The original had been a 12V 1 metre fluorescent tube, which you kept banging your head on and then eventually it stops working. Not surprising really. So we replaced it with a waterproof/fireproof fitting and a 12V low energy bulb, which was a 12V version of the ones you have in houses. Worked really well. We have a second unit to fit in the sail locker.

Then we measured the sail covers to send the details to Lee Sail Covers who are making replacement covers for us. Glad we did, rather than taking the measurements from the sails as we suddenly noticed that since we have mast steps there are holes needed for the bottom step in the main and mizzen sail covers.

Water pumps and fuel pumps

Friday being New Years Day was a public holiday and thus an extra day to work on King Malu. We achieved a lot, but it was frustrating work. Tim and I had planned to get the bilge water pumps working and Ken came down to remove the fuel injector pump.

We have a Fork York marinised engine. It's the same engine as the original diesel engine in Ford Transit vans and minibuses. But... with a different fuel injector pump. It looked an easy job to remove a few bolts and it would slide out. No way... it was a task and a half to remove the injector pump. When removed we then took off the back end of the water pump to see if that would make it easier when it came to put it back in. Sludge. Light brown sludge. And the bearings on the water pump were lax, so we need to remove and replace the water pump.

When I say water pump I mean the primary water pump. There are two water pumps for the engine - one for the primary system and one for the secondary. The engine is cooled by normal tap water with anti-freeze, which we call the primary circuit. There is there a heat exchanger rather like the radiator in a car which is connected not to air but to sea water, which we call the secondary circuit.

Now the water pump was fitted to the engine with a number of bolts. Undo them and it will slide off easily. No way... one of the bolts was cross threaded and into an almost inaccessible mounting hole. That took another hour to remove.

With those two tasks complete Ken took off and Tim and I returned to connecting up the bilge pumps. Aiii... one of the brand new non-return valves had stuck and it didn't flow water at all so the first bilge pump we tested failed totally.

The cable we were using [the old cable from the bilge pumps] was bad and unreliable so we left for the night a bit frustrated but determined that tomorrow we would win with the bilge pumps.

Odd jobs

Last couple of days we have been catching up with odd jobs, but not finishing any of them.

The priority is the bilge pumps since we don't want to go into the water without them working automatically. We cut out the hole for the pump control panel and fitted all the pumps and float switches, 3 of each. We have two bilge pumps, excluding the manual one. A small one that is the normal bilge pump and is left on auto all the time running from a float switch. The second is a much bigger one that can be either auto or manual. We tested the small one and it kept pace with the hose running into the bilges so we are pleased with that. The third pump/float switch combination is for the grey water holding tank.

I also sanded the cockpit ready for painting and Tim put Sikaflex between the deck rubbing strip and the hull. In the process he found a small part where the hull is delaminating which we will have to fix.

We have also been making the block to support the new winch to allow the chain to fall properly into the chain locker. We put all the chain in the locker too.

Ooops... nearly forgot the main news. We have a launch date! Wednesday January 13th at 9am. So we have to get all fixed by then.

Bilge pumps and polishing

Today we started the morning with me working on the bilge pumps and Tim working on polishing the topsides. Neither of us finished our task!

However... the starboard side looks pretty amazing from the polishing. We had been sold some colour restorer and polish by Harris at Ocean Marine and to be honest I was skeptical. But the results were amazing. No it doesn't look like a freshly spray painted hull, but it does not shine and the water runs off much quicker.

The bilge pumps took a lot of work and we ended up going to see Costantinos at Comar Marine for some more plumbing pipe, clips and one way valves. We installed and tested the grey water holding tank and installed both bilge pumps and tested the smaller one. The float switch for the large one still needs fixing... another day.

Sanding topsides

Tim spent most of the day sanding the topsides of the hull. We'd tried a small part of the hull - sanding and polishing and thought it would be a quick job. It wasn't. It took him most of the day just to sand it to get the gell coat to look pristine again. He then washed it down ready for polishing.

We noticed too that there was a gap between the rubbing strip and the hull. We'll fill this with Sikaflex.

Tim also finished all the preparation work for the Treadmaster. We still need to prepare the white paintwork since that has to be done before gluing the Treadmaster... but she's getting ready for launch.

Awlgrip anti-fouling

Anti-fouling is really rotten stuff, so Jacob was wearing hat, gloves, mask and protective glasses for painting the hull with me today. And it was a good job he was too... there were paint splatters on the hat, mask and eye glasses, and significant quantity on the gloves.

Because the paint dries so fast, Jacob and I were painting in shifts, so that the roller wouldn't dry out. I was doing the high bits and...

...Jacob was doing the low bits.

I must say King Malu did look smart by the time we had finished.

We also spent some time filling the ding on the port side a small problem at the port stern and some little gell coat holes at the bow all with gell coat.

Gell goat is horrid stuff to work with, at least that's what I find. It doesn't work like a filler, more like an over thick lumpy glue/paint that refuses to be smoothed and has to be filed smooth after it sets.

Hopefully tomorrow it will be hard enough to sand off and get smooth.

I also touched up the black line on the starboard side. The masking tape had not masked completely and there was a crinkly edge to it. So I hand painted the grey edge between the black and the grey.

Acid bath and exhaust

Notable happenings today were Ken's extraction of the exhaust pipe... which had holes in multiple places. Unwrapping the bandage from it showed just how big they were!

The shape of the exhaust meant Ken was somewhat concerned about how a new one could be manufactured.

Another of the activities was to give the propeller an acid bath to clean it up. We painted the propeller four times and then washed off.  We used concentrated sulfuric acid, which was what was recommended, and it seemed to do a very good job.

It doesn't look like new, but it is totally clean brass now. 

Epoxy hull guard

Today Jacob and I painted two coats of Awlgrip expoxy hull guard on King Malu. It was very tiring work. The hull guard paint is quite difficult to roller evenly.

But the final result leaves a protective coat over the entire hull below the water line and so definitely worth it.

Fixing the ding!

Very early this morning... well... very early for me that is... I went down to King Malu and painted a second grey coat on the band around the stern. Then back to the office for staff meeting.

This afternoon I came back to the boat to fix the ding on the starboard side. First of all I ground out as far back as the cracks in the gel coat went so that there could be no water penetration through the cracks. Then chamfered the edges to that the new gel coat would take. Ahh... just asked Sue how to spell chamfered and she had never heard the word. It means to grind down the edge, like a bevel so that its not a hard edge. 

Then I mixed up Epidermix 372 epoxy and layered Epidermix and glass-fibre matting into the hole. I then used the remaining Epidermix to fill other little holes below the water line.

When I got back to the office Tim came round and was slightly concerned that the Epidermix might run since I had layered it into quite a deep hole. We went down to the boat again and found that it looked fine not drooping at all. Epidermix is, I think, a South African epoxy and takes 7 days to cure fully. But hopefully will be solid enough not to droop over night.

Engine working and more!

Last week Tim felt we had turned the corner on getting King Malu ready, and this morning I was not so sure.

When I arrived at the boat Tim was already there and suggested that while Ken works on the engine we replace the stern gland packing. The 'stern gland packing' is some waxy/greasy rope that goes around the drive shaft to stop the water coming in. If a boat is left out of the water for too long [as King Malu has been] then the rope becomes brittle and doesn't block the water any longer.

Access to the stern gland is through the hanging locker in the rear cabin. And I think we have found the only design failure in the boat. The design failure? Well... the hanging locker doesn't go right to the floor and stops about 30-40cm from the floor. So, to access the stern gland you have to put towels on the the wood between the floor and the locker and then bend over with your tummy on the towels and hang down into the bilge area upside down! Not a comfortable position and one that you can only maintain for a few minutes before you black out!

So I started and removed the nuts from the stern gland and then removed the stern gland. I then tried and failed to remove the packing and so Tim took over. He opened the stern cabin hatch so that if he did black out we could get in and drag him out as he was effectively blocking the door into the stern cabin!

With some effort he managed to remove the old packing and we went off in search of new packing. None of the chandlers had it, one had gland packing, but the wrong size. However, in the way of Cyprus, Andreou Brothers, a hardware store had it. They sold it by weight and the cost of 60cm of gland packing? A 1 euro outlay.

Back at the boat Ken was ready to try restarting the engine. No luck. We tried a number of times. We were using ether to try to start the engine as the glow-plug was missing. No joy. Then... ooops... the top came off the ether aerosol spray. Where did the top go? It was only a serious loss if the top had gone down the air intake into the engine. So we were desperate to find it to ensure that it hadn't. Eventually Ken and Tim took off part of the air intake and checked it was not about to go into the engine. We never did find it.

Lunch and a welcome break. All sorts of theories were put about as to what to do with the engine. The most serious of which was to remove the top and bottom of the engine, remove the pistons, regrind and refix everything - basically totally recondition the entire engine... should only cost around 5,000 euros. No, we don't want to believe that!

Back from lunch and Tim repacked the stern gland and the the sun came out and I dashed out to paint the grey topcoat at the stern. Ken checked out the engine and we decided to have another go. She ran! We let the throttle go back to idle and she ran at idle. We stoped the engine and then restarted without ether. She ran beautifully at idle.

Just as we were congratulating Ken the phone rang. It was Steph with some more ideas about the engine. Tim put him on speaker phone and then after Steph had suggested all his ideas, Tim interrupted to tell him the good news. Absolute silence from the other end of the line. Eventually Steph found his voice and asked how it happened. With a totally straight face [or straight voice] Tim said 'Ken laid hands on the engine, Richard prayed it it came to life'. Steph found difficulty in believing this and Tim admitted that it was true that the engine was working but left the truth of anything else ambiguous.

Final task was to check out the running rigging [that's the ropes for the non-sailors reading this blog]. Some of the ropes were fine, some needed replacing. Surprisingly it was the old [possibly original] ropes that were fine and the newer braid-on-twisted that needed replacing. There is one rope that is possibly OK, but could do with replacing. Its the genoa halyard, which is a 6mm wire connected to a 12mm braid rope. Not a nice rope to replace. I think Dan may be able to do wire to rope splices so we will wait till he comes in April and ask him then.

Then check out the list of purchases. Measure the size of the cooker to replace that, check horseshoe, check the blocks/rope needed for the mainsheet... and a few other items.

Tim and I were feeling on a high, what with the engine running, most of the ropes not needing replacing and enough dry/sun to be able to get a coat of paint on the stern grey band, this had been a good day.

Weather report?

I had taken three days off which looked like the first two would be fine and the third one would fine for the morning. This morning I got up and at 8am checked weather.com and was thrilled to see the forecast to show fine all day. So I went down to the boat. Tim was already there doing some fine sanding on the deck. The weather looked great.

We cleaned up the deck and then I started doing the second top coat for the grey band, grey stripe and the stern. It was much better with Tim there as he moved the trestles we had borrowed from another boat and I kept painting.

At 11:00 it became overcast. About 11:30 it started to spit with rain. Oh no... but then it stopped and I finished the painting. While I was doing that Tim looked at the 'ding' on the starboard side that the previous owner had claimed was superficial. It is superficial, but not as superficial as he had claimed. We will have to dig out the bad, refill with glass-fibre and epoxy and then overfill with gel-coat.

Tim covered the hole with plastic sheet and then taped it all round to stop water getting into the hull.

Tim went back to the office and I cleaned up and went home for an early lunch. It rained. I looked at the weather forecast again... it now showed showers all day. Bad news.

I went back to the boat after lunch. It seemed that the polyurethane paint had set sufficiently that I could remove the blue masking tape. She looked great.

I then remembered that I had intended hand painting the stern grey stripe so returned home to get an artist brush for that.

Just as I was starting that, Tim came down and admired the new paintwork. She really is getting to look great. He suggested getting a signwriter to re-do the name and port information as if we use adhesive lettering it would not fully cover the old and not look as good as signwriting over the old.

I was not liking the hand painting the grey stripe at the stern. I had tried using masking tape but could not get it to follow the line. Tim got the masking tape and with added pressure persuaded the tape to follow the line. I painted the grey stripe [undercoat]. Great team - almost every time something I cannot do Tim does and vice versa.

Next is to lightly sand and polish the hull and then paint the anti-fouling. All we need is four days of no rain.

Painting

Last weekend Tim and I felt we had turned a corner with King Malu, no longer taking apart, but putting back together. That doesn't mean there isn't more to take apart or that there isn't a lot to do, but that we had changed mode so to speak.

Today I spent painting. Yesterday I did the undercoat on the grey band and the stern and today I put the first topcoat on.

This was my first time with multi-part epoxy and multi-part polyurethane paints. I must say the epoxy undercoat did feel a little like painting with glue at times.

It was quite tricky to ensure that the polyurethane top coat covered evenly and didn't run. I think I did manage it though as there are no runs on the band. When Tim arrived and saw it he thought again about painting the entire hull. Not this year!

It says you can re-coat without sanding, but to get a better result then sand with very fine sandpaper. I think we might try that - sanding with 1000 grit sandpaper.

We also spent a little time cleaning up the deck ready for undercoating that. We didn't get that finished... but did quite a lot. When I say 'we' I mean Jacob and me. Jacob came down for the whole day and was a tremendous help.

Later in the afternoon he went to see one of our near neighbours arriving. They have been lifting out boats continually every day for the last few days. Aren't you glad boat lifts only stay within the marina. Imagine meeting this traveling at 4 mph on a busy street.

The sound of power washing after lift out echoes across the marina. When it stops the silence is refreshing... till us or someone else starts grinding away with a power orbital sander or similar!

I'm really looking forward to seeing King Malu in the boat lift on her way back to the water. Hopefully before Christmas.

Every spot on the hard looks like it will be taken with a boat. Many are being repaired or maintained for the new season, but a fair number have 'For Sale' signs up.

The sailing boat next to us is up for sale and we see people coming to view on a few occasions. The reason for sale is that the cabin is too low for the current owner who has to stoop to get around the cabin. It's a fair sized yacht - similar to King Malu - but obviously with a lower deck. Fortunately King Malu has a high deck which means Tim, who is taller than me, can stand and walk everywhere without bending... even though he has to remember to duck through the cabin doorways or he would crack his head.

Water, water everywhere...

I'm generally the owl and Tim generally the lark. So for him to find me at the boat by 7am this morning was a shock to the system. He and Mark arrived a few minutes after me... having bet each other that I would not be there before them. Had they actually bet, Mark would have been the richer.

Why so early? Well, the weather this weekend has been terrible. Rain, rain, thunder, lightening, rain and more rain... the forecast for today was that the best of the weather would be before 11am. And the forecast was correct.

The good news is that all the grinding off the old ant-fouling is complete. Tim has had his last hot red shower. Yes, you did read that right, not a red hot shower, but a hot red shower... the old Jotun anti-fouling was red and got everywhere. Even wearing a mask and goggles it in most places. Now that is complete.

We also completed the grinding off of the old Treadmaster glue. There is a little work to do sanding round the edges, but that is all gone. We vacuumed and cleaned off what we could but lets hope the rain washes it away, since the glue becomes a solid cement like substance when it gets wet, dries and is hardened by the sun.

I also managed to sand down the grey band along both sides of the hull ready for painting. The intention had been to do the first two coats Monday and Tuesday, and third coat Friday. But the rain is set for Monday and Friday so I hope to do them Tuesday through Thursday. But... we found an extra task to add the the list and the order will have to be changed both because of the rain. How come? Well, having removed the grab handles and toast racks we had put gaffer tape over the holes. But this didn't stop the water coming through!

Not only there, but there were drips from somewhere else on the cabin roof. This is our first time with rain and King Malu. We removed more of the ceiling panels and discovered a rotting panel under the main hatch. Putting a screwdriver through this rooting marine ply panel was like opening a tap! Ahhh... the boat has settled slightly for'ard over eight years and so any water from the cockpit seating runs into the runners for the main hatch. Because it has settled for'ard the water then runs into the space above the main hatch and sits there as a pond on this marine ply board. Over eight years the wood has rotted.

Today before we left we put up a plastic tent over the boom to try to reduce the amount of water running into this space and thence into the saloon.

So apart from all the grinding, what else has happened this week? We had two deliveries of supplies. One from Limassol and one from the UK. I had a meeting this week in Limassol so collected all the paints from Ocean Marine and brought them back to Larnaka.

The second from the UK came from MailSpeedMarine.com and they certainly lived up to their name, for speed that is. They have an amazing deal on at the moment for a 2.7 metre inflatable dinghy as a tender for yachts. It's only 299 GBP. They said they could arrange delivery to Cyprus included within that price. To both Tim's and my amazement that was delivery overnight by UPS. They have won a customer, with service like that we will buy from them again.

The engine... well that was not so good news sadly. Ken came down on Saturday morning with new injector valves and spent a couple of hours fitting them and sorting everything out for a test run. This happened about mid day. The engine turned over, coughed, spluttered and died. Quite a few times. There was fuel leaking from the injector pump, but that probably didn't cause it to not run, so Ken has gone away to think.

However, with all the grinding off finished, we feel we have turned the corner. From dismantling and grinding to rebuilding and painting. A step forward.

Travel and Express?

I was sent some of the special rollers, some extra paint and instructions for the Awlgrip paint by Ocean Marine in Limassol. Rather than using Akis Express they used Travel and Express. My first time in 12 years with Travel and Express for parcels... Harris from Ocean Marine apparently sends the parcel off at 2pm so I am sitting waiting for a call. None comes all afternoon. Eventually at 5:15 I call Harris.

Harris says, 'I definitely sent it at 2pm, Travel and Express don't call you just go down there, it will be waiting... I don't know exactly where they are but they are near the marina...'

I remember seeing Travel and Express when going to get parts from Andreou Brothers. So off I go as fast as allowed... get to Travel and Express and they say, 'No this is not Travel and Express parcel office, that is the other one... you need to go to the end of the road, turn left, at the lights straight on... 800 metres it is there in front of you... quick you have five minutes they shut at 5:30'

As I come out of that Travel and Express office the heavens open and I am soaked!

I run to the car.

I follow their instructions and cannot find it. Retrace my steps, try again. No luck. Go to Akis Express wondering if the two are linked somehow. No, they are not. Get new instructions: 'Turn left at the lights, down the road then left and right and it is on the corner...' I am parked wrong side of the road at 5:30pm... navigate out through the traffic, follow their instructions. No joy.

Try again, wondering which left after the right they meant as the second left does go down to the marina and would be close to the Marina as Harris said. At the end of that road there is another taxi company. No, they are not Travel and Express they are Akropolis Taxis. Stop and ask them. 'Turn left, go to the first lights, straight on, at the bakery turn left, it is on the corner...' I follow these instructions, but they take me to the first Travel and Express office which had redirected me to the second.

OK, let's try again with their instructions: 'You need to go to the end of the road, turn left, at the lights straight on... 800 metres it is there in front of you...' I turn left at the end of the road, and get to the lights. At the lights I spot a Travel and Express transit van. As soon as the lights change I chase it... and find, yes, the Travel and Express parcel office.

The cashier is closed, but a helpful man gives me the parcel and takes the money [because I have the right change] and tapes it to the signed receipt.  Now we have the rollers and brushes and instructions for the painting tomorrow!

Grab handles and toast rack...

In order to fit the Treadmaster we have to remove all the deck fittings, especially the grab handles and toast racks. So this morning before work I went down to the boat to start that. Before I arrived Tim had been there removing more anti-fouling. If all goes to plan he will remove the last of it on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.

So... to remove the grab handles and toast racks on the foredeck you have to remove all the ceiling panels. That is an art in itself. In the for'ard heads you could not get at the nuts because there is a medicine cabinet there. So that had to come off. I don't think I had ever felt such a heavy and sturdy medicine cabinet anywhere.

Some of the nuts were difficult to shift but eventually all came off. In taking off the ceiling panels I saw that where the front vent comes through the deck from the dorade the previous owner had not sealed the deck panels so the balsa wood sandwich was exposed. That's another task for later - seal the balsa to stop damp penetration.

Having removed all the bolts I then set to to remove the grab handles and toast rack. Toast rack? These are the upright stainless steel rails around the masts that look like toast racks but are there to lean against when you adjust the sails. The toast racks were well and truly fixed solidly. I couldn't even move them 1 millimetre! The grab handles I chipped out the glue/Treadmaster under each bolt with a screw driver and then used it to lever them up. All except one. I exerted myself on that, twisted my back slightly and bent the extremely strong screw driver!

After work in the evening I came back with Tim. With his strength he moved the grab handle and with a heavy piece of wood dislodged and removed the toast racks. Well we know one thing now - when they are fixed in place they are good and solid to grab or lean against!

When is a 13A socket not a 13A socket?

I'm sitting here at the end of the day wondering where it all went... I know that I worked all day, but what did I achieve?

We had seen there were a flew blemishes in the below water line epoxy surface. So I spent some time grinding them out down a couple of millimetres ready for re-filling with new epoxy. There are not many and they are very small. They are not like the bubbles you get from osmosis, more like little chips in the surface that just need to be repaired. I have a small rounded grind stone on my battery operated drill and use that.

I went to put the battery on charge [its getting old and doesn't hold much charge these days] only to find that I had left the 220 volt system in the middle of a task. I wanted to connect up the two 13A sockets above the navigation table [only one was connected] and when I opened it up to connect the second one I had found that one was corroded and the wires could not be undone. So I bought two new sockets to replace them both and make them match.

When I removed the sockets to replace them I found that the previous owner had used non-standard 13A sockets and the new ones wouldn't fit. Ahhh... suddenly things elsewhere made sense. There were two sockets [one in the saloon, one in the for'ard cabin] that were not fixed firmly into the wall. The reason was they were the non-standard sockets and the backing plates were standard. So... I removed the non-standard sockets and fitted my new standard size ones, took the two non-standard sockets and used those in the non-standard backing plate above the nav table! A five minute task had become a one hour task. We find this a lot on the boat.

I spend some time sanding by hand the top and back of the rudder - places that the orbital sander cannot reach. I used some of the old sanding disks which I folded over on the blade of a paint scraper and painstakingly removed all the anti-fouling [and a few barnacles] from the gaps.

Final job was to trim the Sikaflex around the speed log hole. It looked very neat.

This weekend felt like we had moved forward a lot.