Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure

[Matt]

Well Paris is certainly no Gosport so that figures.

[Giles]

Exactly.....

[Giles]

Teak cleaning.

Before:

After:

We’ll be doing it again tomorrow, and, and, and…

There is a shit ton……

[goosehd]

@Giles looks good and hope you two are keeping your joints lubricated. Hydration is essential for overall muscle and joint health…

[Giles]

Yep...

[goosehd]

@Giles ️

[Giles]

And we have moved SAKURA to her new berth. 3 mins walk from our house. and 4 mins from the office......

Suitable protection in the background....

[Chap]

@Giles and closer to the brewery

[Giles]

Oh yes, had not thought about that

[Giles]

Paula and I like to have fixed pontoon mooring warps on our home berth. We usually moor the boat with just the two of us managing the operation, often because it is just the two of us on board, but actually, we really know what we are doing and sometimes "help" from others, is not actually help So to make things easier on Paula, who manages the lines, having permanent warps in the right place and of the right length, makes her job so much easier. Of course, now we have moved marina's, the pontoon cleats and bollards (did not have bollards at the last place) are in totally different positions relative to the cleats on the boat. So I essentially have to make new ones, and/or modify sections of the old ones.

First up is the stern warp. this is the first one that Paula attaches to the boat when we come in. Once that is on, we are attached to land and all should be good, then we can be a bit more relaxed about sorting out the rest. If I need to, I can put the port engine on slow ahead (we moor starboard-to) and we are pinned to the pontoon, which I sometimes do if we are being blown off the pontoon hard.

As a general principle, I like to have Dyneema attached to the cleats on the boat. Dyneema does not stretch, so we do not get annoying squeaking as the boat rocks about on the pontoon (waves, wakes, currents, wind etc), as there is no rope to metal movement in the cleats, but we need a stretchy rope for the main warp. This reduces the shock load on the cleats if the wind is strong and gusty.

Here is the start of the new stern warp. I use 21 or 26mm Polyester double braid for this part of the warp.

I have reused the Dyneema part of the old warp. It is faded, but is showing zero signs of wear, and sewing the leather chafe guard on was a bitch, so I'm happy not to have to do it again.

I spliced an eye in some new 26mm double braid and cow-hitched the Dyneema portion to it. I'm now going to pop down to the boat and work out what total length I need, and what size eye to splice on the pontoon-end part of the warp. The pontoon-end will go over a bollard, so I want the spliced eye to be a tight fit over the bollard head, to minimise the risk of it bouncing off. I think the chances of that tends to zero, as we are very protected where we are berthed, but no harm in belts and bracing.....