The refit (part ten)

Image: title image, paint pots and tools in background, white words across bottom 'the refit (part ten)

There is lots happening on the boat at the moment, the slow slog is showing results as some big things have been done.

image: black dog lying in sun on deck, supervising humans working

The biggest thing was the removing of the masts. These needed to be taken off so that all the standing rigging (the wires holding the masts up) can be replaced. Tarquilla is a ketch which means she has two masts of which the back one is shorter than the front one. The chain plates (metal bits that the back stays are attached to) were worrying us and there was some soft wood underneath that the skipper is replacing. The masts themselves seem to be OK but need a freshen up and new tape. We do intend to sort out the aerials and radar bits that live at the top. Hopefully things will be less cluttered up there when it all goes back up. 

Image: 6 pictures of masts being removed by crane. Grey sky in the background

Taking them down involved two cranes and a large team of people. We stood watching, clutching our coffee mugs in the drizzle. All the photos look like they are black and white because of the weather. It was a really grey day. The riggers and the yard team were really good, putting up one mast and taking down four in a morning (well 5 because we have two). The masts themselves are now on racks in the yard. We were pleased to find an old coin in the mast step. This is a tradition that goes back to Roman times and is thought to bring good luck to the ship.

Image: shilling coin amongst debris in mast step

The sanding of the sides is coming along. The skipper has been filling and smoothing as well as repairing patches. This means that some parts just need the old flaky paint removed whilst other bits need the filler corrected to ensure we have a nice smooth finish when the paint goes on. With a forty two foot boat we have one hundred and sixty eight feet of sides to sand and prepare. 

image: woman standing, looking cold, sanding hull of boat

Doing the sides has not been too bad. We have a ladder platform which has been really useful to help reach all of it, especially for those of us that are slightly more vertically challenged as the rub rail (marking the top of the side) is about two and a half metres off the ground. We’ve been very careful to use the vacuum attached to the sander to catch the dust (well as much of it as possible). The hardest bit has been sanding under the bridge deck. This is the bit that goes across the centre of the boat joining up the two hulls and we have to stand underneath working upside down.

image: looking up at man working at height on front deck

Work on the engines is keeping the Skipper busy. He has taken out the sail drive leg and gear box. The hull was then primed inside the hole. He also made a hole in the deck and using a plywood plate with an eye bolt, created a hoist to lift the engine. The hole has now been sealed with a plastic fuel filler so that it can be reused when it is needed again. The dog enjoyed this process, trying to help out and sticking his nose through the hole under the engine to look at the ground underneath us. The sail drive has been separated from the gear box and they are both being cleaned up and painted.   

Image: engine compartment of boat, dog with head in through hole

It's good to be able to actually see some progress and feel like we are really getting somewhere. There is still a lot to do and she looks strange with all her patches and without masts. More sanding, the second engine and lots and lots of painting are likely to be the focus of the near future for all the crew. 

image: boat from side in yard with filler patches and no mast

If you're interested, there are other refit blogs (9 others, obviously as this is number ten!), just click on refit in the word cloud to see what we've done so far.

image: boat from front, blue sky, sea in background

Why the strange image descriptions?

You may have noticed that lately we have started doing our image descriptions very differently. There is a good reason for this. There are a significant number of people using the interweb who have sight issues. By putting image descriptions on the pictures we put into the blog or on our facebook page, the speaking apps that read the page are able to then describe the picture giving a much better idea of what is there than a snappy or cute title caption. In addition to this many people do not have great band width. This is something we are very familiar with, partly from living/staying in rural areas and partly from times when we have been afloat in places with dodgy internet access. As pictures often do not load properly you end up with a blank grey square and a mystery as you have no idea what picture you are missing out on. So that is why you will now see image descriptions on our stuff. Our little contribution to making the internet accessible for all.