Covid 19

Apparently, you guy's have a virus that's going around that has put everyone into a state of lockdown.

With a week to go before I was due to launch, Skipper was working down my port side, you can see the starboard side photo in Maintenance III the previous blog. Not happy with the finish he was getting, believed to be caused by the sun baking the cleaning compound on my Gel coat, he was going to go over it again.

Due to a large Rib being parked between me and my neighbour, Skipper couldn't get the scaffold tower beyond halfway and so this is where he had reached before looking up at me and scratching his head.  So having had the Rib moved out of the way, he started at the stern in the morning when the sun was on my other side and as the sun moved round he reduced his working area, enabling him to remove the cleaner before becoming baked.

He opted to work by hand not using his polishers and managed two 'slots' before being told that the marina was going to close later that day (Tuesday).  Slots are basically just wider than the width of the scaffold tower, so prevent overreaching.  With no hope of cleaning the remaining side in the time available, he opted to concentrate on my twin blue stripes above the waterline.  They, being dark, suffer from more UV damage than say white bits, just look at the older blue-hulled colleagues of mine.  So he spent a bit more time cleaning them and buffing them up, I think next year he's going to do the deeper clean he did on me a few years ago but just to the blue bits, make them shine again.

So currently all cruising idea's, even the usual weekend to Totland Bay are on hold.

Still, he's still got the remaining line tidy in his garage which he may now have time to spray with Gel and Flow coat and get it down to me before I launch.  Everything is on hold for three weeks.

He's also got the plastic surround to the Honda 2.5 outboard to relace after all these years, so he'll not be idle!

My jib being washed on the front lawn

The new J3 in comparison

As the lockdown continues Skipper has been busy by stripping down the Honda 2.5hp air-cooled outboard motor.  The clutch & gearbox has three lugs that sit onto the shaft and this is the mechanical link that enables everything to turn together.  During the dismantling, it was discovered that one of the lugs was cracked, one has snapped off, with the piece large enough that it remained in place and the third broken and missing.

He's taken the shaft to his fabricator to have the cast element 'fixed' before re-assembling.

The whole point of the exercise is to replace the smashed base that occurred many years ago when the outboard belonged on the SB3 Skipper used to own.

         

Engine on                                                            Engine Off