Jim's blog

Well the year has gone by really quickly in the chocolate shop.



Jo has added some new flavours - seasonal fruit adds some real interest I think - and is ramping up her plans for Xmas. She has some neat gift boxes with chocolate themes including a hot-chocolate mix with a neat cup and a chocoholic cooks kitset with mixing bowl and some top grade chocolate and recipes.

No not that sort of stripping Fred....

I spent last Saturday afternoon and most of yesterday stripping anti-fouling from Dovekie's hull. I am using the Nanoshield Anti-Foul Off product. I expected that it would work a bit like domestic paint stripper I have used in the past. It doesn't. It is quite effective but extremely messy. The end result after painting it on, leaving for a bit, stirring up using a scraper and then scraping off with a paint scraper and then a sharp carbide tipped blade did a reasonable job given the thickness of the coating. In places the anti-foul was straight on to the wood and that came off easily. Where it was undercoated it was harder and the undercoats didn't come off the same. I have a patchy result but I figure that as long as what I have is a good well-adhered layer it doesn't have to be clean wood.

I also spent a little time with my friend Nick's Fein Multimaster tool cutting around my patch of rot. I like it but the small areas to work on make it a bit tricky. As did the wood blade hitting brass screws!

The topside paint is appears to be very hard - possibly an epoxy paint. It is well stuck on for the most part but there are some cracks along plank edges so I'll be needing to sort those out. I don't want to use epoxy paint but it may be all that will go on top. Some research needed there.
I haven't had a closer look into the paint cracks around the stem yet. I'll need to strip those right back to see what the situation is there. Hopefully not too drastic.

Dovekie finally was hoisted on to dry land late yesterday afternoon.

She was booked in to be hoisted out at 12pm but due to a mechanical problem with the hoist in the morning, and having to wait for 3 boats to be put back in the water and another pulled out and cleaned down first it was nearly 4pm before we got started. I had hoped to have someone handy to help walk her round from the breastworks but there was only Neil, the lift driver, to help. Thank goodness for Neil.

To get the anchor warp in position to walk Dovekie around I had to scramble around the deck of the big gin palace that had been put back in the water yesterday morning and tied up right where I had been sitting. Fortunately the wind helped a bit and it wasn't a big drama. It took a little effort on Neil's part to get everything lined up for the travel lift but this is what she looked like once out - before and after cleaning down.

And after.

I found a few spots where the anti-fouling had lifted off - possibly due to poor preparation last time round but no evidence of rot at all. Its blowing a gale and raining today so no work. I enjoyed looking after Sammy J instead.

Dovekie is now sitting quietly against the breastwork in front of the Mana Cruising Club. Gavin from Kapiti Propeller towed me there this morning. With a light southerly wind there was no drama at all - not like most of the rest of the week. We are booked to come out of the water tomorrow at 12:00.

I plan to water-blast from the waterline down before getting to the cradle and then will get a good look at the state of the hull. Time to organise quotes for the new motor now that they will be able to see the whole of the drive train from propeller forward.

I noticed a small hole in the the mizzen sail where it has been rubbing on a shackle under teh sail cover so will pull that off to have a good look at too.

I was scheduled for hauling Dovekie onto the hard on Saturday. When I got down to the marina it was blowing about 40 knots and rising. With the engine having no compression and not even firing I had arranged with Gavin from Kapiti Propeller to help with a tow to the slip. There was no way we were going to try that given the wind so rescheduled for Monday. Sunday was cold and raw - straight from Antarctica. It was slightly better on Monday although the regular squalls with hail and strong winds still prevented us from trying the tow. Hopefully Wednesday!
Gordon came down to lend me a hand and we ended up trying to determine the limits of the little rot patch at the top of the companionway. It looks as though a poorly fitted piece of trim across the forward end of the cockpit allowed water in that over time started some rot. Fortunately it doesn't appear to have reached the cockpit floor planking or deck beam. I need to cut out a section of the framing on one side of the companionway and replace it, and a couple of other smaller pieces forward of the deck beam.
We spent some time figuring out the running rigging too.
I now have found a photo of another H28 with mizzen stay sail set so I have an idea of how to rig the one that I have - it also confirms what the halyard on the forward side of the mizzen mast is for.