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
