It's my turn. With the crews house taking precedent during the later half of the year leaving me home and dry for 6 months, I'll be home, of sorts, and dry again for another 3 !
Clearly my skipper will be keen to see the state of my new prop having been under water now for almost a year and how the sacrificial anodes have fared with the third 'manual' one having been in use for sometime now. Also the covering of my sail drive with a resin based product, how has that fared. Following negotiations with Marlec the new Rutland 1200 Windcharger has been delivered since the Southampton boat show and is waiting to be assembled in place of the burnt out model. Apparently this is more powerful than the previous model, lets hope it doesn't suffer the same problems and has an overheat cut out switch. My batteries will soon be back up to full strength and it may be a case of leaving a system or two on so as to keep a constant flow of electrical current. This wont be fitted till after I'm back in the water, given what happened last year to the bearings of the old one.
I note that some of the insulated ducting for the Webasto heater has been readied, so hopefully this will be one of those jobs that will actually be completed. The skippers idea is to add an in line fan with a variable speed diode to draw the hot air to my master cabin that's been devoid of heat since I was launched. Despite the reservations of the manufacturers, skip feels that his idea will work and if the in line fan gets anywhere near as hot as the manufacturer suggests then the cabin will have reached a temperature such that the system will be shut down by the crew who will be too hot !
My engine should get a service too, new fuel & oil filters, new oil & antifreeze, new impeller. It's like going to the Hygienist at the dentist, you don't notice any plaque build up, it's a messy job, but you can feel the difference once its done.
I'm not sure if my sails will be sent for servicing & cleaning this year, they've not seen much use.
So I'll let you know how things are going but for now here's a picture of the crews other project, compare this against the one I posted earlier, there's a huge difference and no wonder it took time.
Check the previous - see the difference
