Big Step Forward

The coppercoating is mostly done. We still have to get her moved in the cradle so we can do the bits behind the props but the majority is done and she is looking very good. The photo at the top is of course what she looked like back in January when Symblast did their work. The picture below is how she looks now.

It was a bit of a rollercoaster weekend as Saturday was much worse than forecast with persistent heavy fine rain that contrived to get in everywhere. I spent the majority of it fighting with the zinc anode or rather than studs which had become horrendously rusty. There was no way I could get the nuts inside undone so eventually I scrounged an angle grinder from Gary on the boat next door and ground it off. It is a bit nervewracking to be wielding a fast spinning disk millimeters away from the edge of your hull but it did the job in the end and I was able to start fitting the new studs. The log book pencil did duty to line the hole with sikaflex and then I built up a circle round the hole on the outside. Finally, when it was in the process of going off I inserted the new studs and left them to get stuck properly over night.

All the time it was raining (well, sometimes it stopped but not very much) and all the grovelling in the port side cockpit locker gave me several aches and bumps as well as a soaking wet backside. In the end, I pushed off to Marine Superstore and consoled myself with a French and Portuguese courtessy flag as well as a bargain on an offshore flare pack.

Matthew and Audrey turned up for the evening and we had an interesting Thai meal in the pub.


Sunday was forecast to be better and it certainly was. We started work at around nine and by dint of steady work we were finished by about four. The rain held off and I am hopeful that it will not rain till Monday evening by which time it should all have cured enough to be water proof.

Hopefully the weather gods will continue to look on us favourably for next weekend and I can finish the job then.