Speedwell of Rhu Ship's Log

7 th to 10 th of May 2017 - Back to work

After having not seen Speedwell since we left her on the hard standing back in October we crammed the car full of our belongings and presents for Speedwell. We spent the day driving to Carrigaline, where we had booked into the cheapest hotel we could find. We were trying not to be too hopeful that the engine work had been done. As is often the case with marine engineers they do like to do things at the very last minute. We knew that some of the cosmetic repairs and maintenance had been done since we had been invoiced for these already

On arrival at the boat early on Sunday morning we waited for someone to come and let us into the boatyard. When we got on board it was very difficult to know where to start. However, we were pleased that the engine work had been carried out. Hugh had replaced two pipes for the engine cooling water, he installed an electric pump to make bleeding the engine much easier and allow someone to do it on their own. Finbar of the yard had also repainted our non slip paint and repaired some holes on the coachroof. He also cleaned the decks for us. This was a relief as the jackdaws had enjoyed roosting on our mast and in the autumn and had been feasting on blackberries. You can imagine what the decks were like when we left her. The gash in the topsides had been repaired and painted and Finbar had nearly finished sanding down our copper antifouling.

After moving a few things onboard, Andy made a start on the propellor and anodes outside and I started servicing the 12 seacocks. It was a relief to complete the seacocks as many of them required various contortions to access them and then a struggle not to drop the bits into the bilges. Eventually they were all finished and slow progress was started in putting the lockers back together and stowing stuff we had brought from home. We required ropes and winches to haul up the new sewing machine which weighs a ton. Other than that we had many trips up and down the ladder to get every thing on the boat and bring a few things home with us.

The most important jobs were those below the waterline. The propellor required sanding down and antifouling with a primer and then 3 further coats of the main antifoul paint. All the zinc anodes needed replacing. Two on the prop shaft, one on the propellor, two on the keel cooler for the fridge and the main anode. These degrade instead of important parts of the boat, hence they are called sacrificial. Unfortunately the bolt for the main anode came out of the hull, so this required a good clean, de rust and putting back in with plenty of sealant, so took an extra day.

We have also been having problems with our log impeller. We decided it may be because our forward facing sonar was put too close to the log and has been fouling it. As the sonar no longer works we decided to fill this hole temporarily with a plug made from an old sonar part. This involved cutting it so that it would be flush with the hull and then filling it with epoxy.

Our glass windscreen also needed fixing as some of our Tenax fittings for the spray hood have become badly corroded and one broke off. We had bought new Tenax fittings and Andy bought a pop rivet gun and a few rivets. After a nerve racking time drilling the broken Tenax out of the frame, scarily close to the glass, Andy was able to make adjustments and fitted a new one. This is a very satisfying thing to have done, since the windscreen is in need of some care and attention and getting a yard to do the work could be very costly.

A final few jobs, such as remarking the anchor chain with fluorescent orange paint at the 10m, 20m and 30m points and shopping for food, left us with a day in hand. We were able to visit the coast and, on the way home, visited Blarney Castle before heading for the ferry.

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