Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure
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@Giles mans got 6 tugs. can't be that bad.
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@goosehd said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:
@Giles …so you’re saying that the sea is a moody mistress who can be a lot of fun when she’s in a great mood, but if you let your guard down can kill you?
Yeah, sort of
The sea scares me, floating on it, diving under it, at times standing next to it. I treat it with great respect, everything is fun until it isn't..... -
@goosehd said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:
how small and insignificant we really are
You talking about me
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There are many schools of thought as to how you should treat a boats running gear (props, rudders, shafts, brackets etc). SAKURA came from the factory with it all anti-fouled, last time we anti-fouled the hull, we slapped another coat onto the running gear. It does protect those parts, but it gets gnarly with time. So I have decided, that because we use the boat a lot, protection is less important than have clean polished surfaces. I'm persuaded that nice polished surfaces will improve fuel consumption and performance. So todays job is to remove all the old shit. It is going to be a long, nasty job
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@Giles Crikey, someone's gonna have achey arms this evening! Good Luck!
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@Alex I guess now that it's out of the water, it's different. but I thought that these stuff were preventive maintenance that is usually done time to time in the water?
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We can swap anodes and clean the hull, when she is in the water. But stripping, grinding, painting, putting in or modifying through-hull fittings etc etc , she needs to be out.
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Loads of shit....
Most of the flat faces I can do with a flap disc on an angle grinder. Then the difficult bit to get to, various steel and brass wire brushes, manual and cordless drill.
The shaft I did with long lengths of #120 sand paper roll wrapped around the shaft and back and forthed....
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@Giles said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:
The shaft I did with long lengths of #120 sand paper roll wrapped around the shaft and back and forthed....
Sounds like a different version of Karate Kid. It would make Mr Miyagi blush.
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do most boat owners just pay to have this done @Giles? or do they do it themselves less frequently? Does the marina require boats to be taken out and maintained a number of times per year? or do you simply not have a choice if you want your boat operational?
maybe it's like getting a vehicle serviced. every 6 months you have to take her out and give it a once over?
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I think that it is very variable. Most people who own boats I know take them out of the water once every 6 months or year (but then I'm in an echo chamber). At the very least you should check the anodes and jet wash the hull. You can do a "lift and hold" to do that, but this time I wanted to cut, wax and polish, check and top up anti-foul and sort out a warranty issue with one of the trim tabs, which required replacing a "hull-thru". I've taken the decision to pull her out again in October, because I want to check how my new anode regime is working, probably re anti-foul her and see how my bare metal running gear is holding up. I will get all sorts of deals on the lift out and trades in October, so I'm thinking of making that my annual pull-out. The yard was horrendously busy this time and there were only 2 slots all week for them to put us back in the water.
Having said all that, there are some extremely sad boats in the Marinas and on swinging moorings. People have fallen out of love with sailing, run out of money, inherited a boat, but aren't interested, bought. one and scared themselves shitless the first and only time they have taken her out etc etc.
Brighton Marina is a graveyard of rotting boats, the mooring fee's are very low, so you get loads of people who cant afford to live in a house living on a boat, but clearly money is still a struggle. The same too in Gibraltar, but that is more about broken dreams, people who wanted to sail the Med, round the world, across the Atlantic, but got as far as Gibraltar and then gave up, the Marinas are full of basically floating wrecks. I call it the Sea of Broken Dreams....
