Winter List

Sorry for not keeping in touch a lot has been going on although time has seemed to pass very quickly.

A few major points to make, in that my jib managed to become unfurled during high winds whilst I was on the pontoon and it trashed it. The metal horseshoe snapped in half and tore the bottom third of the sail and leaving it looking more like dreadlocks than a sail.

I have been back on the hard at the Yacht Haven since the first week in December.

On returning from my last trip, the skipper decided to leave off the jib sheet, which he did to make the fore deck clearer and safer to work on and tied it up with a sail tie. Unusually he didn't pop down to me prior to the expectation of high winds and double up or even re-attach the jib sheet as I was going nowhere for a while.  If there is a, fortunately, then it is the fact that nothing else sustained any damage, the nearby stantions, the deck nor the bow, all appeared clear of the flailing sail and metal horseshoe.

Anyway following a call from the Harbour Master, skipper arrived and removed it from my cockpit where it had been taken down in the high winds and stored.  He folded it, bagged it and took it to the sail loft in the Yacht Haven to see what could be done.  Due to the age of the Dacron, a new to old joint wouldn't work and so it was written off and so he's been seeking quotes.  Today (4th January 2019), they've just returned from the sail loft in Lymington that made Thor Junior (Code 0) and have paid the deposit for a new jib made out of a slightly stronger material called Velcron.  Skip also discussed the top down furler system to Thor Junior and the J3 staysail that he's been planning.  He came across a local the other day who's a welder by trade and has finally had the bracket made.  This is on his winter list to fit and he's been looking at how to fit it to the underside of my deck whilst making the least disturbance to the ceiling of the master cabin as possible.

Meanwhile, it has been very mild to date and whilst skip is working away at the moment during the week, he's managed to rejuvenate the two lower blue stripes near the water line that suffers from oxidisation and clean and polish the whole of the port side already.  The anchor chain has been washed down and is stored on the floor enabling the chain locker to be cleaned out, items like an old broom head and sponge were found in there, together with other hard items of debris now removed.

Water that is occasionally found below the companionway in the bilge became more apparent and this turned out to be a fault with the outlet of the pump housing.  Turned out that the jubilee clip had been over-tightened, likely when first fitted and the plastic has gone brittle with age with the result that the outlet failed, allowing the water that is on the downstream side of the non-return valve to leak.  This has been removed and the whole assembly cleaned up including the bilge itself, enabling the plate the pump is secured to, to be re-glued down.  The glue also failing as the unit was being pulled about to unscrew.

Skip has also been cleaning up and filling and dings that have appeared in the bow and stern as well as cleaning out some stress cracks at the stern.  He's taken possession of a new spray gun and clear as well as a white flow coat to enable him to rejuvenate the panels that hide my sheets and halyards that run from the bottom of the mast to the cockpit.  This new gear will enable him to spray a Gelcoat, (flowcoat), a white hard shiny surface and finish it off with a clear coat to give a deep shine and add another protective layer.  Other areas of my bodywork could receive the same treatment if all goes well, such as the altercation with Poly Agatha's anchor, years ago.  Whilst that damage was repaired straight away, the surface needs to be finished off properly, also any 'tired' surfaces can be rubbed back and a new one applied to give me a new shine.