Friends of Seaventures

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.