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23 April 2008

Every year I promise myself that I will put the halyards back inside the mast in March rather than leaving it to the last minute. Every year I end up doing it over the last weekend before launching.

One thing about boats is that when you put them in the water, large parts of them become inaccessible. They divide into two areas, those under the waterline such as the prop, rudder and skin fittings. These are the valves (sometimes called seacocks) that allow things to pass through the hull. This includes the inlet for the engine cooling water and the heads and the outlets for the sink, basin and ...heads. The other area that's difficult to reach once the boat's afloat is everything that's up the mast. You can climb it to replace the masthead light bulb but it's much easier to do when the mast is lying down. This is particularly true this year because there's just been a recall on the type of bosun's chair I have. Apparently the stitching is coming undone and if that happens when you're at the top of the mast it can be embarrassing.

Anyway, I digress. Every autumn I remove the halyards from the mast and take them home for a good wash and warm, dry winter storage. They run inside the mast which is a 13 m long hollow aluminium tube and in order to replace them you need to leave a length of string, known as a mouse, in their place. When it's time to replace them, simply tie the halyard on to the mouse and pull it back into the mast - simple.

Unfortunately, as every electrician who has used the same technique to pull cables will tell you, things often get stuck. Worst of all, the mouse can break or part company from the halyard leaving you in big trouble. It doesn't often go wrong, it's just that if it does, the consequences are fairly dramatic and usually involve some money. It's one of those jobs for which I can never decide if it's better to have help or to do it alone. It's definitely easier with someone at either end of the mast, but you really do have to trust them not to pull on the wrong piece of string and cause the mouse to slip merrily down its hole and into the mast.

Everything went fine this year with the exception of the main halyard. For some reason it got halfway in and then stuck. I just could not work out what it was sticking on because in theory there should be no obstructions in the middle of the mast. It went in eventually but I still don't know why. No doubt I'll find out later in the season when the halyard breaks during a gale.

Launching is not a particularly dignified operation. They pick Snow Goose up in a big sling and then drive her down to the crane quay.

Then when the tide is right she's hoisted up and lowered into the water. The first thing that happens is an almighty scramble as someone gets down into the cabin to check that there are no holes left open to the sea. There have been cases of people removing a skin fitting in the autumn in order to repair or replace it and then completely forgetting to put it back before launching. It's considered bad form to have a boat sink next to the crane quay.

Once afloat, the mast follows, being lowered down by the crane and guided into its step by the riggers waiting on the deck. With the base firmly located in the tabernacle the various bits of wire that keep it upright are attached and tightened. Snow Goose has what's called a 'fractional rig' and the mast is kept up by the forestay which stops it falling over backwards and then two sets of shrouds that stop it falling sideways or forwards. The backstay, which on some rigs prevents the mast from falling forwards, is there to allow the correct amount of curvature to be introduced to the mast. Once that's all tightened up, we're ready to go.

8 April 2008

Last weekend was meant to see me complete the spring ritual of every boat owner - antifouling. If you leave a boat in the sea with just a bare hull, within a few weeks it will have grown a rich variety of marine life including weed, barnacles corals and anything else that thinks it can increase drag and slow you down. The Orwell is a particularly 'dirty' river in the sense that it is very fertile and by the autumn, the underwater parts of the boat would resemble the hanging gardens of Babylon if it wasn't for antifouling paint.

This paint must be applied every spring and it then wears away during the summer so that anything that has attached itself falls off with it. It's known as eroding antifouling. It also has numerous nasty things in it that animals and weed don't much like in the first place. I should have got it done by now but as you can see from the photo the weather had other ideas.

One serious decision has been made and that involves the engine. A thorough inspection last autumn showed that one of the two cylinders had given up completely. This meant either a complete rebuild or a new engine. I have eventually bitten the bullet and gone for the latter. The price difference is not colossal and the new engine comes with a new alternator, gearbox and controls. I hope it will give far better performance and peace of mind. Teething problems? What are they?

Of course you can't do something like this without Sod's Law coming into action. The new engine turns the propeller shaft the other way meaning I also need a new propeller. I did wonder about leaving on the old one and trying to remember that I had to pull the lever back to go forward and forward to go back. However, I'm fairly sure that at some moment of high drama I'd forget and ram something hard and spikey so a new prop it is. It should have been delivered some time ago and I'm assured it will arrive soon. I'm not at all nervous - there's a whole two weeks before Snow Goose goes into the water. Lots of time... no really.

March 2008

Snow Goose spends the winter months on dry land tucked up under a cover and there's no denying that she's a mess at the moment. The winter is always a time for repairs and other work and it leaves things messy and untidy. I've taken all the windows out because I need to replace the perspex which had crazed so badly in the sunlight that you could barely see through them. They are also badly weakened and it's just possible some large lumps of water will be hitting them and I would rather keep them on the outside. The engine also needs a considerable amount of work on it with a tricky decision about whether to replace or recondition.

The boat is capable of swallowing the most amazing amount of gear and supplies and I try to take it all out when she's laid up in the autumn. Otherwise it sits there damp and sweaty throughout the winter and has usually seized up by the following spring.