Mooring Joys and Woes

I finally got 'legal' with my Seawych and registered her with Jersey Harbours. I pleaded to be allowed to keep my mooring, and was told that I was 38th on the waiting list or around 3 years, so there was no way. So I booked a swinging mooring outside the harbour, of which there are several spare.

So far, I've been down to have a look for the ground works of this mooring but there's nothing there above the sand. Next time I'll have to go down with a spade.

I was concerned about what to do in the winter, as the mooring outside the harbour can only be used between 1st May and the end of Sept.

Then, the weekend just gone, I joined with other SOBOA (St Aubins Boat Owners Assoc.) members to clean up the harbour:

http://saboa.webs.com/index.htm

I was there on the Saturday morning and helped move surprising quantities of old chain, rope, matting, wood etc.

Then, out of the blue on the Sunday, I got a call from Harbours saying I was 1st on the waiting list, would I like a mooring?

Possible reasons:

1) The harbour clear-up team checked the harbour for vacant/unused moorings. So many became available that there was enough even for no. 38 on the list.
2) The some angel, human or otherwise, looked favourably on my hard work on Saturday morning and granted my wishes by way of reward.
3) It's a total coincidence, unrelated to the harbour clear-up, and in keeping with the seemingly random nature of allocation of mooring berths. (A friend of mine was told she was first on the waiting list. When she rang a week later, she was 7th)

I'll leave you to ponder that one. I haven't moved my boat to its new berth yet, as there is less water under it and I was told I could keep it where it is until the end of April. All the lines are there ready though. Once the harbour has been dredged later this year there should be less difference between mooring depths.

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.

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.

Kamala's Blog Moved to Blogger

Kamala is a Seawych 19 sailboat.

I have moved the kamala blog to blogger.

You can see the first posts here:

http://kamala.blog.com/

but was a bit clunky to work on. I may move the old posts over here. One Day.

Jason
SW614
Kamala