Maintenance/Repair Details: With Spring upon us it was time to refresh the woodwork on the boat. We started with a good polish & dust of the interior to remove the winter grime, overall the boat is in amazingly good condition after the cold wet winter we had.
Sunday, 30 April 2023
Spring Refresh
Maintenance/Repair Details: With Spring upon us it was time to refresh the woodwork on the boat. We started with a good polish & dust of the interior to remove the winter grime, overall the boat is in amazingly good condition after the cold wet winter we had.
Saturday, 26 November 2022
Mast Replacement
Maintenance/Repair Details: Having had to restore our original mast each year at the end of the season, due to its age and ever degrading state, this year restoration work required is finally beyond my capabilities.
Sunday, 11 September 2022
Wheelhouse Refurbishment (Project)
Maintenance/Repair Details: With the end of the 2022 boating season arriving soon we have turned our attention to refurbishing the woodwork in the wheelhouse, something we touched lightly earlier in the year with the repair of a window frame and darkening of the engine bay side panels. The plan is to now refurbish all the woodwork and roof as there has been a move around of various pieces of equipment leaving areas in need of repair, repaint and filling.
The first job has been to sand down the panels in the wheelhouse that have been re-stained earlier, with a satin base varnish, these have now had 2 coats of gloss yacht varnish to bring out the grain and shine of the wood.
Parts and/or Items Used: Wood Preserver, Wood Stain/Varnish, Yacht Varnish.
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Overview of the wheelhouse after re-varnishing the side panels. |
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Close of side panel. |
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Engine bay side panel work in progress. |
Monday, 8 August 2022
Re-covered Deck Hatches
Maintenance/Repair Details: Having some faux teak decking left over from the renovation of the aft deck we decided to strip off the old paintwork on the forward saloon hatch and the aft gas storage hatch and match them in with the aft deck. Several hours were spent stripping off the old deck grip and paint layers so that we had a solid base to stick the decking too. The original hinges on both hatches were taken home, wire brushes, primed and sprayed with liquid chrome to give them a new lease of life.
Parts and/or Items Used: Remnants of faux teak decking from previous aft deck project. Chrome in a Tin spray paint.
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Work in progress - aft hatch. |
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Forward Hatch Completed |
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Aft Gas Hatch Completed |
Thursday, 14 July 2022
Marine VHF Radio Replacement
Maintenance/Repair Details: Due to the failure of the Navman 5500i chart plotter to find and hold GPS satellites it has been necessary to bring the whole electronic side of navigation up to date. As such both the chart plotter and Navman 7100 radio, both at least 20 years old, have been removed.
Parts and/or Items Used: Cobra VHF FF77 GPS Marine Radio. Supergain Target 530mm Antenna.
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Old electronics removed with the new radio in position. Replacement and repositioning of the antenna cable still to do. |
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New whip antenna in place. |
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Dash top panel recovered before fitting. |
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
Replacement Battery
Category: Electrical
Thursday, 24 March 2022
Aft Deck Covering
Parts and/or Items Used: Paint Stripper, 3 x Rolls of Faux EV Decking, Gelcoat Filler, Paint & Sealant.
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Third day of deck preparation.![]() |
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Decking Laid. |
Thursday, 17 February 2022
Winter Work - Rubbing Band
Work in progress on rubbing band. |
Old varnish removed & applying weather shield. |
One of the 4 new protection plates installed at the fender points. |
Anti-foul applied. |
Monday, 20 December 2021
Winter Work - Wheelhouse Woodwork
Monday, 13 December 2021
Winter Work - Raw Water Pumps (continued)
Parts and/or Items Used: Reconditioned raw water pump.
Thursday, 9 December 2021
Winter Work - Raw Water Pumps (continued)
Category: Engines (updated as work progresses):
Commenced re-installation of both raw water pumps by installing the new pump on the port engine. What was thought to be a straightforward job turned into a 6 hour nightmare. Having struggled to install the new pump and reconnect the water pipes I realised that our engineer had fitted the pulley wheel the wrong way around. That meant dismantling all the work done to date, removing the pump, pulling the wheel off the shaft reversing it and refitting. Then the whole act of reinstalling was repeated. Having installed the pump the last thing to do was refit the alternator, easier said than done. With little room to get my hand underneath the the alternator fitting the retaining bolts was a drawn out process resulting in frequent stretching under the engine to retrieve dropped bolts, nuts or washers.
Will return and test both raw water pump and alternator in a few days time, need a couple of days off!
11th December - Raw water pump tested O.K so antifreeze pumped through the port engine cooling system, alternator function O.K. Stern gland greaser refilled. Work on the port engine now complete.
p.s have already insured the stbd pump pulley wheel is the right way around.
Parts and/or Items Used: Raw water pump.
New pump installed on port side engine.
Wednesday, 17 November 2021
Winter Work - Raw Water Pumps
Friday, 29 October 2021
Winter Work - Starboard Engine Maintenance & Raw Water Pumps
Parts and/or Items Used: Oil Filters, Drive Belt, Impeller, Replacement parts, Sound Proofing.
Exposed stbd engine (Willis). |
Stbd raw water pump & drive belt. |
Fire resistant sound proofing installed. |
Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Lift Out, Oil Change & Winterise
First task was to fix the soft area on the fore deck by drilling into the deck area from within the saloon and injecting expanding foam between the deck layers which solved the problem. Refilled and repainted the saloon roof as good as new.
Carried out oil change on both engines (oil filters arrived today but will not be replaced until both engines are fully exposed due to location of filters).
Winter canopy fitted.
The Freeman sisters. |
Saturday, 7 August 2021
7th August 2021 - Replacement Of Fridge
Maintenance/Repair Details: Replacement of fridge - following some concerns with the old Domestic RM4200 3 way fridge it was decided to finally replace the whole unit rather than pay from a reconditioning service, removal proved the right decision had been made! A few preparation had to be sorted first, selection of replacement, type of fridge, size & cost. We selected an Isotherm Elegance 65L 12/240v model so first job was to remove and blank off the old gas pipe. 240v power point was already in situ so the next job was to run 12v power from battery bay to fridge location.
Come change over day and removal of the old fridge we found the old unit was well past sell by date with extensive corrosion around the gas burner flame unit. It was obvious the right decision had been made.
The new fridge slid into place beautifully with a little bit of cosmetic work around the front edges, powered up on 240v and ran a treat. 12v wiring installed and tested, switched between power sources easily. Job complete.
Parts and/or Items Used: Replacement Fridge, Wood Preserver, Other
Sunday, 27 June 2021
26th June 2021 - Construction Of New Storage Box
Caterogy: Fixtures & Fittings
Maintenance/Repair Details: Lifejacket Locker - removed, rebuilt and replaced the old heavy locker with a new lighter more spacious version.
Parts and/or Items Used: Wood, Wood Preserver, Other