Progress

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The restoration continues at a slower pace currently however we have made some progress. I have the fresh water pump working although there appears to be a lot of sediment in the water tank. I have tidied up and repainted the galley area and which a full refurbish will be needed in the long run a tart up is sufficient for the time being. I have also fitted my new (new to me) 150% Genoa from North Sails. Its a beaut and had only been used once previously inland and was found to be too heavy and swapped out for a lighter one. My luck as it needed to be slightly shortened but fits 100% and looks great. I have also looked at and rerouted the control and reefing lines which were a mess.

I have noticed an issue with the batteries and suspect at least one of them is knackered and all of them went flat very quickly recently. I now have a smart charger as well as my car charger on the  boat and have the batteries charged and will monitor their performance. Unfortunately they are both sealed so no way to check the specific gravity of either battery to tell if they are salvageable and I hate the prospect of being stuck with a flat battery at sea,

The next big job will be to tackle the heads. It looks terrible and hasn’t been touched in ages. At least its a Baby Blake so Im hope with a bit of effort i can get it up and running. Have to admit I dont like working in the heads as it seems to be designed for very short people to work on and I can never get my 6″4″ frame in anywhere to fit the pipes…..

 

 

New windows

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The new Port side polycarbonate windows complete with the outside covering still intact and fully sika’ed in. I started with the replacement of all eight windows last week. I totally underestimated that piece of work. Of the eight windows only two came out in a single piece and the rest had to be chiseled out piece by piece. That meant that I only had two templates to cut and shape the new windows from. As was true to form each side was slightly different so a common template couldn’t be used. That would make things far too easy. However I did visit a local craft shop and get some large sheets of brown light card and used this to copy the outline of the windows as well as the screw holes. This enabled me to make a template onto the sheet of new polycarbonate and shape trim and pre drill all of the holes for mounting. Once I had the new window ready I dry fitted it to ensure that all of the holes lined up, which some didnt and had to also allow for some screws which had broken off buried in the coach house. Once this was completed I had to strip off the old silk (with a large Chisel, Thanks roger0 and prepare the surface for the fresh Sika and the window mounting. Prior to the fitting I taped off the area around the window with the expensive blue masking tape, liberally applied the Sika and attached the window with two screws at either end of the windows to get some sort of alignment. I  then started to put in each screw loosely as there was some jiggling of the windows to get as many screws as possible to fit. Once all of the screws were in I started to tighten them down. After that I applied some more Sika to the end and shaped it to meet the edge of the coach roof. Once all of the Sika had dried up I removed the excess with a stanley knife and tidied up the seams. I am quite happy with the result however now the coachroof looks shocking. Think I”ll try some spirit of salt to tidy it up.

 

 

 

A drop of Scotch

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I have managed to acquire my Muira last week and have spent the last few days working hard on her getting her sea worthy. She has an interesting name and is currently called “Scotch Mist”. Now as an Irish man I have an affinity with the Scottish people but my plan is to change her name to “Saoirse” which means Freedom in Gaelic. I did briefly toy with the idea of Irish Mist or Celtic Mist but felt that they have been done already and wanted something fresh.

I have started working on the cockpit as that is where several years of badly peeling varnish was but coming off the cockpit seats and the hatch and surrounds. It took a few days to sand down these areas and I decided to go with Teak Oil rather than varnishing them. area came

The hatch area came up very well however the bench stripes were a bit of a mixed bag. The teak stripes are very thin and hard sanding was almost making them transparent however I have removed all of the old varnish and teak oiled them so they will be ok in the short term. Longer term I may have to consider removing them and making do with fibreglass seats or perhaps renewing the teak slats.

Other activities that I have undertaken are the removal of a water tank and brackets which was right above the sink and a unsightly appendage. I have also replaced the battery switch as that was only working on battery 1. I am having the engine serviced today by a local specialist Chris who will I’m sure give me a run down on it. As he checked it out before I bought it I dont expect anything significant to come out from it. I have asked him to look at making a dipstick arrangement for the diesel tank as currently there is no way (except tapping the tank) to determine how much diesel is actually in it.

I have also had the hull cleaned and the anodes checked yesterday. The anti-fouling is pretty thin and I will need to plan to get her hauled out and anti-fouled shortly.

The yacht has perspex windows which have all cracked and leak so today I have had a full set of replacement windows from polycarbonate which I will shape drill and fit.

I have also done some tidying in the galley area and have repainted the cool box and will need to do some work on the area underneath the stove as the ply wood has rotten there and looks froit.

My next plan will cover in no particular order;

  • Looking at the navigation lights which are falling off the rail at the pulpit
  • Polish all of the stainless steel including the Bar b Que
  • Fit a windex
  • Get the VHF radio working
  • Getting the water system working again
  • Replace the back stay adjustment mechanism
  • Reseal the sink area with sikka

 

 

Progress 22-Oct-2012

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Hello, we I am making progress on acquiring my new yachting project. I am buying a 31foot South African designed yacht called a Muira. They were designed for the harsh South African environment and are really strong. I am just waiting for the OTP (Offer to purchase) and the inventory list as the price has been agreed in principal. Once I get these and transfer the money across to the broker, I will take a series of photos of the yacht as she is currently and as I address the issues involved in the restoration I will post a comparison photo to show what she looks like after the work has been completed.