Finsihed the Antifoul

Yesterday I finished the antifouling, and today was the first day that the tide was high enough to lift her off.



I took my son, aged 7, with me today. We managed to get her off the blocks just 20 minutes before high tide, so it was a close thing, and we bumped sideways along the blocks to get free. Good job I had the ship's boy as we could balance up the boat to keep it flat as it came off. It was a fantastic feeling as it floated free and smoothly motored out of the harbour for a brief run out into the bay. Sailing rig not ready yet so it was just motor, but my son enjoyed steering.

Mooring up back in the harbour went more smoothly than ever before, as without several pounds of barnacles underneath, the boat drifts forwards quite a long way once the engine is off. (I did manage to drop the boat hook in the water, but only after catching the pickup bouy).

Cant wait to go sailing, but there is a lot still to do on the inside of the cabin. Yesterday I had a major clearout from inside the boat, and threw out a lot of junk. Found the missing keel shoe, and some spray dodgers with the name 'Bewyched' on them. The boats previous ID I presume. Also found a vast array of cleaning products. Should be able to get the topsides looking nice again quite soon. Still covered in harbour mud at the moment from the painting project.

Painting the Bottom - Part I

As you can see from the photo opposite, there is quite an accumulation on the bottom of my boat. Not surprising as the boat hasn't been treated for at least 3 years. I'd scraped the many barnacles off the bits I could reach a few months ago, but the weed had returned. There were still plenty of barnacles between the keels I just couldn't get to.

So, half-term seemed the ideal time to start on Project Anti-foul. Tides were good, HT mid morning, and the weather was looking great.

Saturday and Sunday low tide afternoons were spent scrubbing, sanding and scraping, with my small band of 'helpers' in the form of my three eldest children, aged 4-7, who actually spent much more time flinging black harbour mud at each other.

On Sunday I decided to have a go between the keels, so attached a rope to the mast halyard and pulled hard from behind canting the boat back on it heels, while my children slid a plank under the keels. Worked quite well but still couldn't get to all the barnacles and the boat was sitting in its own little puddle so lying down under it wasn't an option.

I was trying to avoid using the drying pad that I'd book for the day on Monday, as a) I didn't think there would be enough water on it at HT and b) because I was really anxious about moving the boat around in a crowded harbour with an engine that doesn't want to run at slow speeds and a boat I'm not used to handling.

Monday was a great day! I rowed over the drying pad at 10:15am with the dinghy and 'sounded'. Didn't look that deep and HT was only 20 mins away. Also tried the same at the blocks further round where there appeared to be a bit more. (Showing 0.8m on the scale next to the blocks).

If anybody ever wonders whether you can tow a Seawych with a dinghy and oars, I can say 'yes' but I wouldn't recommend it! I'd rigged up the rudder and tried the engine just in case I got into trouble (how much trouble can you get into going THAT slow!). The Seawych slewed all over the place behind the dinghy but I eventually gained control.


I floated her over the blocks and appeared to have about 1ocm clearance on a falling tide. I quickly jumped up the ladder, tied the boat up, every movement on the boat gently bumping the blocks. Tying a rope to either end I pulled it into position. Sadly the blocks are too far apart and the keels don't sit quite right, but what I saw when the water had gone was better than I imagined.

I spent the next couple of hours tending to those regions that never otherwise get accessed. Finally removed all the barnacles, sanded and scrubbed between the keels and the inside surfaces. The freshwater was provided by a stream running down through the harbour at low tide, which needed a tramp through deep harbour-bottom mud for each and every bucketfull.



A pleasant break in the almost-warm sunshine while it dried, and then the painting began. I have to confess at this point that the overriding philosophy this year is to get the boat operational as quickly as possible with as little effort and cost as possible. So, the 'prepared' finish was still pretty rough, but sound. Even so the painted surfaces look pretty good from a distance of about 10 yards.

I still have the bow and stern sections to do. Watch this space. I'm now stuck on the blocks until Sunday at 5pm, due to tides.

Second Window Fitted - Oops!

You can see the full story about the windows at the old blog site:

http://kamala.blog.com/

The second window (port front) was fitted in conditions similar to the first, i.e. freezing cold, easterly wind howling through the harbour entrance straight onto the nose of Kamala.

Everything went really smoothly and seemed to go a lot quicker second time around...a little too quickly. The first time I must have held the window curved to the shape of the boat as I fitted the screws. This time I left it to the screws a little too much as I added them and a tiny crack appeared in the window, which quickly grew. When I left the boat it was about 10cm. Next time I went to the boat it was right the way across the window.