Sometimes it is necessary to do a spot of maintenance on the dinghy. On the whole this tends to be done during the April to June period in between ensuring that Whimbrel is more or less up to scratch. But due to the possibility that I might not be feeling ‘on top of the world’ in the spring, what with brachiotherapy and radio treatments going on I thought that due to weather conditions – either a lack of wind or too much, I’d get on with it…
On the way down the Thames in August I ripped off the forward keel runner on the dinghy – ‘we’ were dragging it above the tide line on the hard at Greenhithe. The problem was that a couple of the screws had suffered wear … and one last pull caused it to bend back. Fortunately I was able to remove the section without tools! Upon reaching our home berth some days later it was temporarily fixed…
Refastening the forward keel runner.
Part of my problem was that when I did this job some many years ago I didn’t have a bench drill to drill the piece of stainless steel properly I’d purchased to face the strip of timber bonded to boat’s keel. Hard concrete and shingle hards soon took their toll on the glass fibre. The dinghy is now twenty-five years old. When purchased, it has proved to have been the finest £1200 pounds spent. She has given umpteen hours of joy when away cruising and when being sailed around my local area of saltings. Many of Whimbrel’s crews have shared those joys too.
Preparing to refasten the aft section.
The hole on both lengths were re-drilled with deeper countersinking to take slightly larger screws.
Job nearing completion…
The sail was removed from its boom and gaff and washed in the washing machine at low temperature using a hand wash soap … it seems to have come out looking much better … softer after the removal of salt!
The washed sail…
Sail dried and folded awaiting an airing afloat…
In the meantime the boom, gaff and tiller were all sanded and varnished. The two spars were in need of stripping back in fairly large areas … the re-coating is still on going. Mena while the house is suffering from ‘fumes’ and I’m sure many a boater has done these jobs in the warmth of a conservatory. I’ve know bedrooms and kitchens to be used too!
Spars prepped for varnishing…
My next job is to strip the floor board system’s central timber. The floor boards I tend to leave as ‘bare’ wood – they’re made from larch. Following this I am ‘programmed’ to sand the dinghy’s interior and give it a coat of grey bilge paint. It is flaking a little in places.
Meanwhile, the winds are about to pop up to the 50+ mph level, again, so I’ve time enough to get these jobs finished…
I’m sure the summer-time crews who sail aboard Whimbrel will appreciate Twitch (The dinghy’s name) being prettily dressed for them in 2019!