A BIG, BIG Thank You

 

Arrival

 

Pirates

 

Chandlery

 

Finished

Building, renovating and sailing boats have been rewarding activities for me. ‘Minnow’ was the latest project. She arrived at my front door, all the way from Sweden, looking for a bit of TLC, and I was able to provide for her and nurse her back to health. I knew from the beginning she would require quite a lot doing to her, and that I would have to obtain a road trailer for making her a viable. That was mid September of last year.

Incredibly the autumn and winter were unusually mild and often wet, but spells of sunshine at crucial times helped when I wanted to work on her out-of-doors. After much graft, smoothing irregularities where repairs had been done to her gunwales, I took her outside for painting the exterior with International Toplac 289 (Atlantic Grey). Two coats were applied over two coats of Danboline (Grey 100). Her copper-based epoxy antifouling I left untouched, apart from a few imperfections that I sealed with epoxy, and where there was a minor leak at the bottom of the drain hole to the vent box.

The whole rig required a makeover. I stripped the mast, sanded the spars and painted them in Toplac (Rescue Orange 265). Her single lugsail I had repaired at Jeckells of Wroxham. I was able to save and clean her side windows, but I had to replace the badly stained forward one. While I was about it, I replaced all window nuts and bolts, as the originals had rusted. Inside I removed polystyrene buoyancy that took up a lot of room and posed a fire hazard. Then I painted and varnished the interior before fitting new hinges to her floor lockers.

There were loads of other jobs like adding an outboard bracket, re-hanging the rudder, fitting a battery and building a fold-up gimbal for her single Gaz cooker. I reshaped the yuloh and fitted a support pin.  Six months of enjoyable labour whenever I was free, brought much reward in terms of pleasure and satisfaction. None of it can ever be lost.

If I find myself sailing her again I shall know that what was done was done well, and it should not let me down.

I want to say a BIG, BIG, thank you to all who have followed the story of her renovation by logging in, because you have greatly encouraged me and helped with your suggestions.