Recycling a Seawych

In the course of the last few weeks I have got to know a local family, through teaching guitar to the eldest son. By chance this family also sail, and by even more freakish chance, they too have bought a seawych. ('OG' - see pic from an earlier post). So there has been a lot of seawych chat in between guitar sessions. A friend of theirs also owns a 'wych, which had been rolled on its mooring on the east of the island. Having been moved to the car park near by, it was to be scrapped.

Not ones to miss such an opportunity, the owners of OG and myself spent a happy few hours stripping anything that wasn't bolted down, and many things that were. The haul includes:

Kettle, crockery, boom, anchor and chain, mooring rope, winches, main mooring cleat, wooden locker covers, rudder, autohelm, megaphone, compass, and plenty more.

No doubt there are 'wych owners who read this who wish we'd taken off the metal pupit and the stern rails,and probably lots more besides but time was limited and it was raining and getting dark.

I've been trying to get down to the boat for an hour or so after work on a Friday. Most of the time has been spent cleaning up the topsides. I used cif and a green pan scrubber for the worst bits. The wooden grab rails were covered in lichen, which scrubbed off easily with the pan scrubber. The whole lot looks a bit more loved now, with a shiny white top and a clean blue bottom. The red hull paint is really poor quality though. Suspect it is a one coat and the preparation was poor.


I managed to get out for a very short sail this weekend with my two boys. We didn't have long as there wasn't much water under the keels and we were more or less at HW. As we set off we ran aground on the sand bard at the harbour mouth. (This has since been dredged). The motor pulled it off without problem.

After about a minute the motor cut and stuck in gear so wouldn't restart. We resorted to the genoa and sailed pretty well, even slightly to windward under genoa alone. I lifted the motor and it decided to go into neutral so we were safe to get back.

Turning back, the sailing was still good. An attempt to sail onto the mooring narrowly failed but the motor was in the water ready.



Since last writing I have purchased a hard dinghy to leave at the harbour pontoon. You can just see it in the pic. Now I don't have to take my inflatable each time I go down to the boat. Only cost £100 but does have a small leak in the bow. I will add a pic.