Monday 11 Oct, re-launch 2021, HHN day 12: New bike tyres, new coax fittings on the mast, and glassing up some holes in the rudder.
It’s a dull day today, and for the first time we struggle to get out of bed at the 7am alarm. Well, I did. Oana was wide awake. After completing the thru-hull project yesterday, the next big job is preparing the mast, ready to raise back up again.
First job of the morning is fitting new tyres on my bike. I don’t think, even as a child, I actually wore out a pair of bicycle tyres before now. On the other hand, I didn’t ride my bikes endlessly on sharp yacht-yard gravel. Not only are they bald but the fabric is starting to show through. I don’t want to have a blowout whilst high-speed cycling around the yard, now do I? 😊
While doing this I see Dark’n’Stormy, Mike and Rececca’s HR53, on the travel lift heading to be launched. They have both worked extremely hard to meet this launch deadline and we are happy for them to get back living on their boat again.
After the GoCycle upgrade to chunky off-road tyres, I’m onto the rudder, sanding down filled holes. When I dropped the rudder back in the spring, I suspected that water may have got into it, via galvanic corrosion where the stock joins the fibre glass of the rudder blade. So, over the summer I had asked Ray to drill holes top and bottom. Bottom to drain any water out and top to allow some kind of air circulation in the summer heat, to dry it out. Ray had duly drilled the holes and reported the inside of the rudder looked bone-dry.
2 days ago I re-filled them with spare epoxy that I had mixed up for the backing plates. I was just sanding that down this morning when Ray passed by and advised that I should actually grind the area a bit deeper and resin-in some glass fiber mat. He said he has known such epoxied hole-fills to “pop” their plugs. So it’s out with the grinder, and backfilling with epoxy and fiber matt. Hmmm, no job is simple if you want to do it properly.
But our rudder situation pales to nothing as Mike walks back up the yard to say they launched, but have a leak in Dark’n’Stormy. They will have to come back out the water again. Apparently, they have water coming in around the rudder tube. Not through the tube but actually around it; where the tube should be firmly bonded into the hull. Mike is devastated and I don’t blame him. I would be the same. They have a new-born baby and a 1-year-old to cope with, and they were longing to settle back into normal life afloat …. and now this. Poor them.
Mid afternoon, 2 technicians arrive from MTS. They have come to re-new the coax connectors at the top of the mast. There was nothing apparently wrong with the original ones, but I thought it wise to re-new while we have the mast down. Coax-connectors are technique sensitive to install, so I leave that to the professionals.
Now here is a classic example of why I don’t like other people doing work on Cloudy Bay. I had previously warned them NOT to mix up the 2 different connector types on the 2 coax cables. So, what did they do? Cut them both off and took them to the office without noting which one went on which cable. And now they come to me asking for antenna wiring diagram and to see the boat-end of the cables to try to piece together clues of which coax fitting type should go on which cable at the top of the mast. Aaargh! These are probably the same type of electricians who blatantly screw stainless steel screws into aluminum masts without the slightest thought of later corrosion.
Anyway, eventually, they work it out. But it will be interesting to see what they charge me. If should have been just a 30 minute job for a professional. Especially for an eye-watering hourly rate of $120!
Then, finally, I get myself to start on the mast. It does seem that when I finish one big job (the thru-hulls in this case) it takes me a day or so to force myself to start the next big job. Then once into that one, there is no stopping me again. Must be something in my genes!
First task on the mast is to re-thread all the halyards, pole controls, pole lifts, topping line etc. Basically, all the ropes that run inside the mast. I can see with my endoscope that some have previously been re-run and have taken the wrong path through the mast. Therefore, I am also sure some are twisted around each other too.
To start this task, I join together and thread one very long mainsail batten right through the mast. And I’m just at the stage to pull all the mouse lines out when it starts raining ☹
And that ends the working day for me. Well, it was already close to darkness and the mosquitos were starting to nibble my ankles. It was a good time to stop anyway. The rest of the evening is a trip to Walmart and then relaxing a little. Relaxing? Ha! There is a new one!