To lezardrieux backward

After a couple of lovely days in Treguier having caught the Wednesday market it was time to head down river at 06:10 to go further West the weather was of course Westerly. Before slipping out we had to negotiate a German Dragonfly Trimaran that had moored behind Seascape locking us in, almost! With a bit of ginger slacking of lines and a gentle prod from a boathook we slipped without waking our slumbering German neighbours who had sailed the previous day from Falmouth to Treguier. We also departed without casting them adrift.

East Cardinal off Lezardrieux un peu choppy

 The weather gods were now distinctly not playing the game with a view that the wind was due to back to SW I took a leap of faith and sailed out into the channel to be met with big grey lumps and a wind against tide to make the Solent proud. This was not going to be fun beating into heavy chop with grey green water slopping over the bow. Trebeurden was discussed and quickly disposed of with a preference instead for Lezardrieux which was even further East! What the hell at least we could sail downwind and I was decidedly happier to pop in to the Lezardrieux river and either anchor or moor up. A good decision as against forecast the wind rose again to 33k across the deck. Not fun!  

Quiet anchorage

It was simple to pick up a mooring in the river and enjoy a quiet and picturesque night well downstream of Lezardrieux with ready access to the channel for another go. So now we had another twenty miles added to our journey having gone east further than Treguier......doh

Prize Surprise

The phone rang the other day with good news! We're we aware we had won a spinnaker courtesy of the Cruising Association and Rolly Tasker Sails, well to be honest we could not remember entering any competition, apparently as new members of the CA or at least rejoining members we were eligible and selected as prize winners to win the aforesaid sail for a boat up to 40 feet.

Kiwi kite

How nice, so today we welcomed the UK distributor Annabel Shove,husband Alastair, Oliver and Henry on board for some publicity photographs which was lovely. Apparently we can expect our spinnaker in the Autumn, in the meantime we were given a rather nice bag and hat to be going on with. Here are a few pictures from our generous benefactors website 

The loft

  Let's hear it for  Rolly Tasker And of course the CA Cruising association web site

Sea trials

Saturday was summer this year! It was also our day for hanking on sails and testing the engine and propeller and it was a bright and warm one, bright sunshine and a lovely 15knot sea breeze. These days come less frequently than we hope and so it had to be used to its full advantage.   

Rigged n ready

We motored rather gingerly out of the river whilst we got the feel of the boat and the new propeller. Out into the Solent and then hoisted the sails for the first time including the staysail and wow, Seascape was off like a rocket with indicated log readings ranging from 7 to 8 knots and a supreme feeling of stability and lack of concern as the wind topped 19 knots even though we were fully canvassed.  A delight to be out on the water after months of hard work, almost everything worked perfectly except the fridge which is a disappointing beer cooler and needs a regas and the radar which is just a disappointment as it decides when it wants to work. All in all a lovely start  Well done Seascape, well done crew!   Thanks also to Peter and Ros for their splendid canvas work which is shown off in the photo above, Bimini, wheel cover and stackpack are beautiful, a rhapsody in blue!

Splash down

So the lift in day arrived and a few walks around the hull were required to make absolutely sure that nothing had been forgotten while the hull was still dry! Phil had confided that he had been having nightmares for the last week about Seascape sliding off the lift as the slings separated, he was clearly worried about all of the ensuing GRP work. Recent events at the yard had wound up both our concerns, my nightmare was based on being leant on by Seascape squishing me between her and a container wall! Reminder to eat less cheese. On her way despite nearly taking out the fishmongers super truck on the way down the hill we got there safely, lift out had been the 26th February and lift in was the 13th July four and a half months of work had gone into her and it certainly shows. What was even better is that the launch occurred on a beautiful day weather wise and at the bottom of the tide in slack water so manoeuvring was completed without huge anxiety, this was the first time out with the new prop and only the second ever movement with me in charge so best not to ding it!  

 

Splendid

 

Art and design

So the saga of the sail drive is reaching its conclusion Having found the Volvo fixed prop to be worn out and the strong recommendation from the Volvo shop not to replace it with another I did some research and settled on a Featherstream propeller from uk company Darglow. With a two week lead time it was I hope worth the wait, so as you might gather , life does not always run so smoothly. Despite the propeller being delivered by the courier to the marina it was taken away again, the reason! Because the scanner did not work and the courier could not sign it off. It then got taken to and rejected by another business on site and despite being marked as signed for on the system it was eventually put back in the van and taken away.  Shit happens as they say and yet again it happens on my power train, lucky me! After another 36 hour delay the "delivered" prop turned up again and I got a phone call from the marina office saying they had captured it. In the interim of course I had been chasing it on the inter web, by phone (my thanks to Trish at Darglow for her patience in helping me track the prop) what a rigmarole - thanks NOT to DPD for misleading, lying, bullsh@@@ to us all, very professional. Anyway the prop is now on and it looks Fantastic

Shiny

Oh and I also fitted the signage on the bow to finish off the ship properly, pretty lovely too  

Bow signage

   

Blow by blow

Today was a mix of chores , finish servicing the engine, continue fitting the SSB and get to test the wiring for the radar. The SSB was too deep for the navigators cabinet and was going to protrude from the face of the panel by at least a couple of inches and so a frame needed to be made.

Panel

The challenge is compounded by the fact that the ply panel is a very tight fit in the headlining and bulkhead and its removal requires it to be dropped an inch or so before withdrawing. Of course putting a 15kg radio in a slot can have adverse consequences. The next challenge given the lack of depth is how to connect up the cables at the back given the fact that the panel is sealed  it looks like it will be necessary to cut an access hatch in the back of the galley cabinet to connect up the cables. My next job was to fit the diesel filter/separator in the engine bay which is designed to filter the fuel going into the engine and remove any condensing water before it gets to the injectors. This required an early trip to the hydraulic shop for fittings to connect to the fuel pipes, in addition the water filter had to be wriggled a bit to make some space. Thee diesel filter was topped up from a can, the fuel tank then turned on and using the diesel lift pump the fuel was pumped through the system until a little tell tale spurt appeared at the injector! Job done.

Filter

Two other things were urgently required to finish the engine service, emptying the old oil using a pump to extract the 10litres or so of 15W40 oil and to find out why the cooling water was leaking and filling the sump with bright green antifreeze laden water, After much pumping the oil was sucked out into the Pela pump amounting to almost 9 litres, not bad for a beginner! The water leak was traced to the radiator / exchanger where a connector on top was wobbling with an old and dodgy seal. A trip to RK marine and fifteen quid would get me a new seal and what the engineers call a "titty" that covered the access tube for oil extraction and would discourage the oil from slopping out into the bilges. On the way to the Volvo dealer in the car I turned the corner to be confronted with the following sight which took my breath away!

Ouch

Car crusher

Nobody injured

Absolute chaos when a large yacht being brought ashore had decided that it was to slide off the mobile cradle, selecting a couple of cars to rest upon. Luckily the mast missed the offices by a few feet, the hull missed the poor fella who was doing a dent repair on the car next to his, which was crushed (irony) the fella was able to escape injury and the yard hands all rushed to assist. First inspection seems to point to a bolt on the cradle arm shearing under lad, releasing the hull Not a good thing to happen, I am sure a serious review will take place and any consequential lessons will be learned. In the meantime thank heavens that no one was injured. My sympathy and best wishes have to go to the owners though who watched the whole shenanigans, next week this could have been Seascape!!    

Vinyl tap and wrap

Hull stripe and boot top

With great admiration and appreciation for Phil of Grapefruit Graphics and his attention to detail the boat is benefitting from his skill  After a full day's work on fitting the wide hull stripe, cove line in gold and the boot top in blue,  she has been renamed to Seascape, there is still a short length of the wide stripe to do, because muffins here mis measured the width by 5mm and Phil as a professional OCD practitioner refused to spoil the job!

Seascape of Southampton

Way to go - thanks Phil

   

There's the rub

So after a day's sanding with 600 grit on the electric sander, the starboard topsides were ready for the wet n dry treatment So Phil and I cracked on. Note the difference in styles! Phil and I agreed to do half each, question is where is half way! We never even did agree, but the shine was equally spectacular.  

 

Shineeeeee

  So now to get the vinyl sorted, booked in for the 29th so let's hope it's neither windy nor wet!  

It's all behind you

Using my new found education from Phil I was further delegated to polish the starboard quarter using the approved process - 600 grit, 1200 then 2000 followed by cutting compound and wax polish which I duly did although my shoulders were groaning after wet and drying the length each time. I don't know how Phil does it day in, day out! After the quarter I wanted to nominate myself  for a project and picked the transom, after all the Grapefruit boys and girls had told me that the order of vinyl for the sign writing and lettering was ready. So I did and had to deal with the detailing around the various skin fittings and stainless struts for the bathing platform. I had earlier removed the timbers and cleaned them with teak renovator and cleaner but they were still very rough surfaced with exposed fibres of teak which although good for non slip, were not particularly attractive. So with a generous response from Universal I borrowed their thicknesser, just before it was wheeled from their shed prior to refurbishment. With a bit of sanding I was able to get the teak back to a nicer condition and with shorter screws purchased that did not stand proud of the upper surface it was all put back together followed by a good coat of teak wax, Anyway this is how the transom looked beforehand:-

Before

Platform stripped off     So after much elbow grease and two goes as I was not entirely happy with the first go, I put the bathing platform back together after polishin the transom prior to the graphics being applied.

Not too bad

Quite like all this shining GRP

Shaving mirror

  Not bad for a beginner, thanks to Phil for his patience and mentoring, onwards and upwards, the graphics are all on my car that is the signage for the transom, the hull and the striping which can only be applied once we have finished restoring the topsides .    

You can easily see the now ubiquitous yellow staining and the dull oxidised finish to the glass fibre.

How many Inches in forty feet?

The task for the weekend set by Phil is to key up the blue stripe rubbing down scuffs and scratches and also to remove the Cove line or Covita line as Phil has come to call it. So a morning well spent on the blue stripe on the port side

Removing scuffs and rekeying

Then after coffee I turned to the cove line on the starboard side. Using a heat gun I found that I was able to lift a tag to pull, however when peeling the gold cove line back it would lift for an inch or so and then tear off! It was going to be a long afternoon

Inch worm

  After a while I learned that by using a lolly stick I could fit the semi circular valley and by heating consistently raise the edge, pull back the tape while not burning fingers, after much effort I was able to achieve a record of pulling off 8 inches in one go! Removing the adhesive required copious amounts of acetone and rubbing with an old cloth. So 2 hours later that was one side done and just enought time to warm the Warrior 40 logo and remove it gently with a sharp scraper and much acetone

Logo removal

Just before 18:00 after a long afternoon and slightly burned finger tips, the cove line and logo were both removed.

Huffin and buffin

An awful lot of labour has gone into Seascape's top sides following an infinite number of bumps and grazes, some of that labour was unfortunately not always of the highest standard. 

Phil has spent some time surveying the crazes and cracks along the topsides, probing and grinding them back to find all sorts of fillers have been used to fill the dinks.  

Dink discovery

Nothing escapes the eagle eyed Phil, he can glance at a hull and homes in on the unusual ripple and talks of laminate "grinning" through the gelcoat and can see a colour change in the gel from a thousand yards. Consequently every inch of the topsides is being checked, and like a surgeon , where there is infection the wound is cleaned , debrided and repaired properly using laminations of glass fibre and epoxy followed by layers of gelcoat. Layers and layers of gelcoat are applied to create a basis for rubbing them all down.  

Layers on layers of gelcoat

The rubbing down of gelcoat follows a well practiced protocol, the hors d'ouvre being 280 grit wet n dry which is used to thoroughly cut back and fair the hull often with a long board to smooth out the dents and bulges left by less concerned repeairers of the past historic and returning the hull to it's designed curves. Following the heavy cutting comes the start of the main course of finessing the gel by smoothing it using 400 and 600 grit which is held in the hand and rhythmically guided along the hull in a specific and well rehearsed fore and aft motion using the palm of the hand to hold the paper, never the fingers because they leave imperfect ridges which can be seen from afar with a trained eye. The application of soapy water acts as a lubricant as long sweeps of the hand horizontally are timed and spaced to never leave a gap, each sweep of the hand is followed by a tweaking dance of the opposite arm crossing the body in an exercise that is aerobic and burns calories as fast as any gym. We are not done yet as we continue to remove the ridges caused by the cutting by rubbing down with ever finer papers as we traverse 1200 grit and finally finish off with 2000 grit, again used wet and with the same tweaking motion carried out while balanced precariously on a scaffold blank some 5ft in the air! At this point the hull starts to provide payback and a shine starts to appear, but we are not done yet, 2000 grit is followed by cutting compound courtesy of 3m applied by rag and then driven in lazy figure of eights by a lambs wool bonnet on an electric buffer. Finally we apply polish with a cloth, wait for it to dry and then wipe off leaving a lustre like you have never seen on anything less than Bentley.    It's a labour of love but the results are stunning.  

Shines like a diamond

   

Polish

Comparing the old yellowed finish to the repaired and repolished leaves a stunning impression, on the next photo you can see the unpolished starboard side in the left and the polished and repaired hull on the right.  

Dull yellow vs shiny white

Next job is for me to start work on the upper blue stripe which is cracked and bruised in a few places, this needs to go through the 400 grade part of the process in order that it can be covered with vinyl wrap, this will take a bit of time but cleanliness is next to godliness as the wrap is only a few microns thick and any blemishes on the surface to which it is applied are I am assured , going to be visible. So get the elbow grease revved up, here I come .  

Quarter shined up too, beam still to cut back once cured

Today I turned up late to the boat after a morning at the house project, Phil had been at the boat since 06:30 and his back was aching and I felt very bad, but he was on the final 2000 grit polish of the hull, prior to compound and polish and it already looked amazing.   So I helped him with the compounding and polishing and promised to remove the remaining cove line and here is the result.    

It's a stick up!

It's been a week of fairly active work, apart from the house project the mast has been lifted and in preparation there has been much to do.

Mast n string

  The stay for the stay sail has been enhanced with a furler (upper left) which was splendid and then we realised that there was no where to put the boom so we had to swap it back quickly for a simple original stay and put the new furler into storage while a solution is found. I also mounted the new radar scanner and reeves the new halliards, put on the new lazy jacks and sorted the mass of cables, ropes and string into a sensible order so that when the crane came along we could lift her without everything getting tangled.

Spreaders, large, small and just right

New lights and TV aerial

 

Saildrive saga

Well the saildrive saga continues of course. No straight lines in this game, I went to visit the marine engineers to see what progress had been made in sourcing the special tool that was apparently broken. On further investigation it appears that it is more likely that the tools was lost as when I suggested I get another one made they could not find the broken bits! In fact Volvo were quoting at least 6 weeks to source a replacement and meanwhile the engineers were left scratching their "ears" So after looking at the instructions for the tool and getting hold of my saildrive and a bearing I established that what was required was a bearing puller with a long shaft and specific diameter. Now I know a very talented engineer in Netley Abbey who can make anything out of metal and so I drove to meet him, sat in his engineers's office surrounded by specs and projects that were in progress and together we drew out the tool, the specs and the process and off Ted went to draft it. I have the greatest confidence in Ted of Abbey Engineers in Netley Abbey and we will see if together we can show these multinationals how to solve a problem.  Excited and again on the long march forwards.....   Update Thursday 26th may Saildrive bearing removal tool mk1 has been manufactured by Ted and has been picked up and taken to RK marine so that they can put in the bearings with it. I should be able to pick up the saildrive, the tools etc tomorrow.  

Saildrive bearing puller

 So the tool has been built, tested and delivered to RK marine and they have installed the drive bearings so I have brought the saildrive leg back to TS marine at Universal, they will now be able to reinstall the leg in the boat , Hurray!   Trouble with Sagas! They go on and on, good news here is my installed saildrive

Saildrive

Bad news was that when I went to pick up the anode from Ambassador I was given some sage advice which was to make sure that there was a gap between the prop boss and the prop so that the washer could spin. This is because the propeller has a rubber insert as a shock absorber in it, which is encased in an inner cyclinder which is supposed to sit proud of the prop at the boss end in order that the boss is not spun off by reversing the prop suddenly. If it is not proud enough or in my case is actually sunken then the prop is going to I spin the thread holding itself on and farewell my lovely! As you can see from the above the two are firmly touching, which means that the propeller is knackered and if left the prop is likely to spin off the shaft leaving a nasty mess! So the prop has to come off, worse news is that the spare is as bad, so the boat cannot be launched until a replacement is found.

Boss

I am going MAD with frustration, this whole saga is jinxed     

Copper bottomed

C day arrived and thanks to Owen, Dean and Aga the hull of Seascape was coated multiple times with Coppercoat resulting in a shiny, smooth bottom that truly looks the part and demonstrated a great stride forwards

A lotta Coppa

 

2 coats in

3 coats in

And finally after 5 coats a lovely job 

From astern

 

Keel    

Check the colour

In the meantime it is time to start planning for replacing the hull striping and the coving line. We determined that the current colour of the blue line is RAL 5011 which is Steel Blue So quotations are requested for the wrap to be done in vinyl. Tick, tick, tick......

Now just to spend a few days curing as the water based epoxy needs to harden before the hull is "shuffled" that is moved on the cradle so that the supportive patches can be painted to complete the job. In the meantime a bit of top sides cutting back will commence and next week the mast is going back on   hooray!

The build

Building the boat when she was commissioned as Ocean Flame III

Built at Trident Marine located at Wicor near Porchester, Hampshire in 1996

Ocean Flame III was sail number 109

 

Filmed by Alan Philpott and presented to the committee of the Association as an update, the boat can be seen alongside another of her class slightly more complete. 

 

When we later see the drying process it becomes easier to understand how the large structures supporting the engine and the bulkhead are immense enough to take a while to dry out.

 

It is also interesting to see the moulding for the deck lying alongside ready to be craned on top of the hull.

Thanks to the Go Sailing Association for putting it on 

Youtube

 

Spring?

Spring is sprung, the weather has hit high teens with sunshine and increasingly the itch to get on the water is becoming irresistible. Having monitored hull moisture for the last three weeks we have decided that dry's'abone ain't going to happen any time soon but most of the hull is now dry enough to coat with Coppercoat so Monday is C Day! It is still the engine bearers and large frames that are not giving up their water although this is unsurprising as they are foam filled with non closed cell foam, a feature of the time when she was built. The hull itself is in fine condition and so we hope that the moisture evaporates into the internal space rather than pushing out into the epoxy paint.

tminus the weekend

The Coppercoat painting will take a team a day and curing will then take a week or so before the "Shuffle" when the boat is moved again to paint the diddly bits where the cradle is supporting the hull. Then it's outside to cut and polish the topsides and put the mast back onboard so we can measure up for canvas work which was postponed since February In the meantime the final plumbing of the watermaker and the waiting to get the saildrive back keeps us busy, notwithstanding that there is a whole other project on the house going on separately 

Almost there

  Hey ho

Baby it's cold outside

While the spring weather continues to oscillate between almost mild and freezing cold, Seascape remains in the shed in  Universal with the heat lamps on her trying to wick out the damp in her bones ready for Coppercoating which requires a low level of humidity and mild temperatures to properly cure. So after a number of weeks of playing cook it, measure it, cook it again the moisture is coming out of most places except for the engine bearers and a bulkhead in the heads. Inside the boat is a heater and dehumidifier which is moved around and can so times fill up the extracted water to a point where it safely cuts out overnight. The bilges were also emptied to the point of using some nappies to extract the last drops.

Bottom warmer

Each blue spot on the hull is a piece of masking tape labelled with the moisture readings which are taken by a hand held meter with range set to GRP this device measures levels of moisture into the hull and can reach in a few cm to spot issues such as Chains in lockers! Bilge water in keel Mooring legs and water tanks Propellers in lockers   Nuff said! Next time I need to remove these items before measuring spurious results

Rudder always moist but epoxied and faired

 

Mystery of the skin fitting

Whist admiring the coppercoat the other day I noticed this fitting

      Now this beauty is a bit odd, because it is not bronze like the others and it appears to have an external filter fitting missing, when one looks inside it there is a corrugated metal inside disappearing internally.     Now if there wasn't a bloody great engine on the saloon floor, an easy follow up would have been possible

A bit in the way!

Anyway after some googling I managed to identify a close match with an Isotherm fridge cooler, a clever device that uses sea water as a heat sink. Apparently it can have an anode attached although the jury is out on whether it is really necessary . The hell with it with the boat out of the water I would be foolish not to replace it just in case. I would not want a corroded fitting without a seacock.come to think of it I would not want any fitting without a seacock! Add that to the job list first mate.

 

Taking water, making water

Well the drying of the hull continues and so in the meantime I have taken to starting work on fitting the Watermaker which will osmotically extract clean drinking water from the sea. The kit arrived in big stainless frames which although they make a nice modular kit, do not do much for fitting small spaces.

Framed up water maker

As tempting as it is for an easy life to just use multiple lockers, I feel that frugal space saving will pay later and so I have dismantled the pump units and built a temporary jig to fit them into the bulkhead. When the pipe work had been sorted I will make up better looking mounting frames and re optimise the space again

Temporary fit

In the meantime, just to be careful I am taking photos of the wiring as the manual is pretty thin on detail 

Photo of wiring

So now I have to order more plumbing fittings to connect up the kit over longer distances and also to complement the fittings that the manufacturer did not supply to complete the install. They arrive tomorrow so we will see how we get on Here is progress today with more BIG plumbing

Plumbed in