Musings

When you are refitting vintage grp boat, built in the time of the transition from wood to grp, you occasionally come across bits where you can see the boat yard workers attempts to find solutions by putting their traditional skills into the new technology of the day.  The simple example I came across today was a piece of teak trim between the saloon cabin sole and the saloon seats/berth mouldings.

The curved cabin sole of a Kingfisher 30 is supported on formed reinforcing ribs about an inch deep,(the only bilge facility) which follow the hull shape up to where it meets the berth moulding. The angles and shaping at the join is quite complex as the berth moulding flares away from the deck at an angle that allows for a reasonable width of the saloon berths whilst providing maximum sole width at the base when heeled over.

Internal moulding technology these days would probably make this as an all in one mould allowing for to the constant flexing of the hull by using modern jointing materials to avoid stress between internal moulding and the hull. Hence, the often seen stress crazing on some of the turns and hard spots in the flimsy budget build boats for today’s charter market.  

The solution the Westfield Engineering boat yard employed, 50 years ago, was to fix the berth mouldings to the bulkheads either end and finely shape 2x 6ft triangular piece of teak to sit between hull ribs and berth moulding and fix them with bronze screws (long since perished and replaced with stainless steel circa 1988) to the moulding with a piece of teak backing.  This allows for the base to move over the sole moulding. A simple solution you’d think; except even the smallest amount of water in the bilge slops over the top of the cabin sole as soon as you get into any kind of seaway.

This piece of trim has been looking sad for some time and the thought had passed my mind that I would replace it. However on removing it and holding it in my hands, the appreciation that these pieces of teak had been hand crafted to fit, by an unknown craftsman some 50 years ago demanded my respect, notwithstanding the amount of time effort and skill required to replicate it. The timber itself is still solid albeit stained and full of screw holes where they have corroded and been replaced. So; with a little sanding, filling, varnishing and re-bedding in modern sealant adhesive mastic job done and cheers to a craftsman of yesteryear will take them forward for perhaps another 50 years’ service and hopefully stop the bilge water slopping over the cabin sole. 

 

Personal Preparation...

Part of the preparation is not only the boat, journey planning and fundraising, it’s also about personal and mental preparation which is equally if not most important. For this journey to be successful I’ve had to look at how my mind and body works and what are my competences, strengths and weaknesses.

Motivation and Attitude

Perhaps at my age I should accept the person I am, warts and all, and just go for it.  After all isn’t retirement about doing all the things you have dreamed about during you working life- a bucket list to tick off?  If that is the case I’ll need a small fortune and another lifetime to complete them. Anyway, I tend to see that way of thinking as a kind of cabin fever approach to aging which doesn’t fit my personality. I’m a worker and need to be working I don’t want to give that up just because I’ve reached a certain age.

I get great enjoyment from seeing tasks achieved and fulfil an overall aim. I can get very engrossed in a project and need lots of thinking time to ensure I know all the tasks involved and in what order they need to be completed. This can be the selfish side of my personality. Sometimes I find I’ve been just staring for what seems like hours without actually seeing or absorbing what I’m looking at. My mind is turning over all options for a particular task and placing them in order trying to identify snags. The things I detest most and try to avoid is wasted effort and unnecessary double handling because of mistakes or lack of thinking. I’m happiest when I can see a clear, ordered and logical route forward. Also I like projects to achieve a multiple purpose.  When all the ducks are in a row, enthusiasm kicks in and I’m ready to roll my sleeves up and get going. There are many projects in my head that never reach this point and are cast to the back burner. This is where the sailing around the British coast had been quietly bubbling way for some time. Perhaps these are my of bucket list?

   

Sometimes when talking to someone about an idea, I reflect on how it could fit in with one of my backburner projects if there is a synergy it reignites my interest. So it was with the idea to sail around Britain.

Talking with Rika one evening about the effects of cancer, on our outlook on life; we both agreed it made us grateful for the opportunities left to enjoy in life and the importance of not to let opportunities and dreams  slip away or make excuses for not doing things. Rika and I have never lived in each other’s pockets and are quite happy to let each other follow our interests. Rika is not a sailing fan but does like driving and camping; we do however, both enjoy visiting new places together.  We both feel we haven’t really seen all this wonderful country has to offer, and the conversation moved on to replacing my old VW transporter with a motor home. My problem with the sailing cruise project had been that it had no other purpose than to satisfy a personal desire to do it.  It occurred to me that this offered the chance to kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately Rika is a WASPI and has been done very badly by changes in the pension age. It was always the intention that we would both retire at the same time and enjoy retirement together. Although we could probably manage OK without her state pension Rika feels it’s prudent to continue working part time.  This shouldn’t prevent her from coming and joining me at various coastal locations and we can then explore lots of local/regional beauty spots and places of interest in between her work commitments.

I have recently stood down as a trustee for a charity and have been looking for something else worthwhile to help with. It wasn’t much of a leap of imagination to think Macmillan Cancer Support as a worthy organisation that could benefit if I also used this as a fundraising event to maximise the outcome of the effort involved.

It’s been sometime since I first envisaged this voyage and at the time my competence was sharp and my physical fitness and mental faculties were in a reasonable state.  Now, having reignited the plan and it is becoming a reality I have thought I’d better conduct a personal health and competence audit and action plan. The following is hopefully an honest appraisal:

Physical and Health
Topic	Condition	Action Required	Time Scale	Achieved/Progress
Body Mass Index	Bordering Obese	Lose two stone	Half Stone before June  Remainder reduced during the cruise	½ Stone achieved and still reducing
Muscle Strength	Reasonable for age	Physical work preparing boat and during sailing adequate to maintain strength. Room for improvement. Will follow Air Force 5BX	Ongoing	To reach 5BX target
Joints and flexibility	Legs and feet OK Back OK but a bit stiff on waking Neck and Shoulders OK but	Will follow Air Force 5BX plan see appendix 1	Ongoing	To reach 5BX target
Internal Bits and pieces	All well as far as I’m aware, liver may be in need of assistance	Diet to be reviewed and intake of alcohol to be reduced	Keep under review
Eye sight	Not bad with glasses	Make sure glasses are on a neck cord. Take long sight lens out of spare pair for use when rain and spray cause a problem.
Hearing	WHAT?	Check-up might be a good idea
Mental Health
Unhealthy level of stress	Hold ups in boat preparation work starting to become stressful	Keep focus but accept not all tasks will or need to be completed before departure. Keep reminding myself this is supposed to be enjoyable.	Time scale has over run this weekend. Needs to be reset
Competence
Paper and observation method of navigation	A bit rusty	Revision at bedtime and in the loo reading	All main topics by departure	Position fixing OK Course plotting OK Tides, secondary port calculation needs more study.
Electronic Navigation	Technology moving a bit fast for me.	Read manuals and get up to date with basics,  as journey progresses	Competent  to operate basic  functions  by departure
Radio Communications	VHF licence needs to be updated	Enrol on VHF/DCS Course	Before departure	Completed

Having done the audit, it’s clear how my personality can be my biggest problem, I can become stressed when my planning gets disrupted by outside influences and conditions. Maybe my years as a chef have had a bigger effect on my thought processes than I ever believed they could. I certainly retain the short temper when things don’t go smoothly, although these days I mostly keep this within myself, not hollering at people Gordon Ramsey style as I did in the restaurant days. I’ll leave this for others to judge as the voyage progresses.

We are getting closer!

Summary of Preparation Progress Update May 2017

....and the work continues, the main push this month has been external painting, standing and running rigging, all dependent on weather and home commitments. Internal improvements like final trim finish of cupboards and laminate have been slotted in when the weather hasn’t been suitable for outside work. On days that I have been home I have managed to take bits and pieces back to finish in my shed or as in the case of laminate sheeting on the lounge floor when Rika has been at work.

External painting whilst rigging work is also being undertaken is not generally a good idea, however painting and to a certain extent rigging, being  weather dependent requires getting this done in the short windows of opportunity that present themselves. The downside of living in the temperate weather zone! This has, on occasions, involved people having to do work at strange angles, a bit like the 1970s game Twister, to avoid getting in each other’s way. Apologies and curses for putting hand and feet on wet and tacky paint being a frequent occurrence.

Supporters Help and Achievements

Following on from the last blog a mixed team, Mary and two other Westonian’s who wish to remain anonymous have managed to prepare and undercoat the deck paintwork and two thirds of the gloss coat before the weather turned. In addition nonslip deck paint has been applied to the fore-deck, coach roof and cockpit. This leaves just a small area of the side decks and aft section to be glossed and deck paint to be applied to tick this task off the list.

Mary is a very busy Girl Friday during the week and has many family commitments evenings and weekends, nevertheless she was willing to expand her repertoire of skills to include boat painting and came down from Weston Super Mare by train to lend a hand. Part of her normal daily routine is to complete one hour fitness workout at 5 am.  I think she found the body contortions required to paint the boat of equal value. She spent one night in our new camper van and said she’d had the best night sleep in ages. I’m not sure if it is the fresh Solent air, the snugness of the camper van or my being a hard task manager. It is a great relief to know the bulk of the paintwork has been completed and is looking very smart.

My two Westonian friends also contributed to the painting and completed some internal trim finishing work to hide many of my small errors fitting out the heads. A fabulous effort and very much appreciated! Well done Mary, Chrissie, A & N for all your contributions to this very difficult task.

This month the standing rigging’s been tuned by Advanced Rigging of Hamble, they’ve done a great job at short notice and were also kind enough to do this at cost price in support of my efforts to get going on the Macmillan fundraising during the cruise. A big thank you to them!!

Realising time is getting short I have had the bottom scrubbed by divers rather than a lift out and power hose. It’s quite a strange sensation feeling the boat being pushed around beneath you whilst they set to work. I asked them to look at the heads inlet as there seemed to be a blockage. It turned out to be mussel growth inside the perforated inlet filter guard. I wonder how big they would have grown, left to their own devices?

Steve one of my oldest and dearest friends from the All-Aboard Water Sport Charity came down with me to help me set up the running rigging.  I really value Steve’s help and advice as he has spent many, many years repairing, building and refitting boats through the Rocking the Boat project. I asked Steve to give his honest assessment of progress so far and give a view on completing by the end of May. He judged it would be very demanding to complete all tasks in time to depart by the end of the month, unless I had a straight run with no interruptions and favourable weather.  As Steve, a group of other friends and I have a long standing plan to spend a week at a traditional sailing and boating event in France between 21^st and 29^th May it’s clear I should re-schedule the start date once again.

Steve knows me very well, and reminded me that this is supposed to be an enjoyable enterprise not a stressful race to a deadline. Point taken, I have revised my leaving date to week commencing 18^th June.  The plan now is to have the essential work completed by the end of May by paying for professional help with the electrical and electronic work and finding a rigger to install and set up all the necessary deck pulley systems and controls back to the cockpit whilst I’m away and recharging my batteries..

Adrian, one of my sons, has devised an ingenious method of getting the running rigging lines up over the doghouse from the mast foot without creating friction inducing sets of blocks. I’m always impressed by Adrian’s quiet lateral thinking.  There have been many occasions when my mind has been taxed, exploring and coming up against dead ends and I find Adrian has taken in the problem and come up with the solution without any apparent effort.  He’s my rigging expert and hero.

Adrian works for Selden at their Gosport factory. Selden is an internationally renowned Swedish company specialising in making high quality sailing mast, and sailing hardware. Having inside knowledge of the quality and robustness of their products it no surprise that Selden is the equipment of choice when replacing Sea Ventures IV equipment.

Rika and her sister Eva came down from Sunninghill  to offer support on Sunday. It was great to be spoilt with delicious sausages and onions in buns, fresh fruit and pastry treats whilst working. Friends Kevin and Debbie also came down from Sunninghill . Kevin offered his help with bolting through deck fitting so I bit his hand off (actually I drilled through his finger nail) very sorry Kev. Hope it is healing OK. Debbie offered her help and was promptly given the task of putting a protective resin coat over the gas bottle holder. She claimed to be in working clothes but she looked well dressed to me. All in all a large number of tasks were completed. Thanks very much!

Toby, my youngest son, has been the guardian of Sea Ventures IV for a number of years. He lived on it for a while and was gradually re-fitting it to sell as family interest has waned.  I’m so pleased he moved in with Lindsey, his partner, followed quickly by fatherhood, not just because I have another wonderful grandson, Lucas, but it slowed his progress in preparing her for sale, I’m now in a position to take on the guardianship once again, whilst I still have some of the summer wine left to use up. Toby has done a great job in that time, updating electronics, installing a water system and many internal improvements.  Hopefully, this cruise will stimulate more family interest so on return there will be more and younger enthusiasm to share the burden of boat ownership. It would be a great shame after all the many years of love, work and money put into her to see her not sailed or in the yacht broker’s window for a pittance.