We hauled out at the Tamar Yacht Club this morning, on the high tide. I had negotiated reciprocal rights with the Commodore, based on our membership with the CYCT. So we got really good rates for our time here, with a great low daily rate.
They had a bit of trouble getting the cradle down for us, it got stuck partway down. We nosed in and put a loop around one of the post, and went into hard reverse. That pulled the cradle out okay!
Another circle around to line up and we got in all lined up. They have neat system here which has a remote on the winch control. This allows the guy on the winch to be down by the boat as she comes out of the water, ready to stop or reverse her back in. Much better than being stationed up in a noisy winch room.
We got here out and used a rented (from Kennards, they have smaller industrial gear at a good price) 1750psi pressure washer to clean the hull off. It’s not as grunty as some I have used, and it didn’t get all the mud off either. However, they had a 4000psi one here earlier, and that kept blowing the hose off the tap or shorting the circuit breaker…
The boys enjoyed using the pressure washer, and we gave each other a bit of blast (at a safe long range!) to cool off too!
After we got her cleaned off, I “recruited” three strapping Launceston College lads to help the Bosun and I push 12 tonnes of ERIK around on the rail trolleys. I’m glad I found those boys, because it was bloody hard work!
Once she was chocked into place, we did an onboard paint inventory; A mostly full 4 liter can of Jotuns Super Tropic antifoul, one half empty can of underwater primer, a little bit of undercoat, boot topping paint, rub rail paint, new tin of topside paint (BR22 industrial gloss enamel from Wattyl). Deks Olie #1 & #2 for the brightwork… All good! We have rollers, paintbrushes, thinners, containers, rags and roller trays. Don’t you love a boat with storage space?
I spent the afternoon redoing the marker paint (spray can of bright yellow killrust) on the anchor chain. We carry 120m of 5/8″ short link chain, so it’s important to know how much you have out…
We use the following system, in case anyone is curious:
1 short mark for each 10m (2 at 20, 3 at 30, etc). A long mark for 50. Short marks again till 100m, then two long marks, then a long mark plus the appropriate number of short marks after that.
Lis went around the boat with chalk to mark up parts of the hull that need attention. She’s in surprisingly good shape down below, so we decided we’d re-putty some of her seams this time around…
Why not give her a bit of a birthday, seeing as she has looked after us so well!