Upgrades and fixes

Taking advantage of spending some time on my home mooring I'm once again working on the boat. Between repairing damage, making improvements and managing ongoing wear and tear, boat work is never ending. 

A few years ago when I moved the boat from Poole back to the river Hamble some person managed to put their foot through the screen of the spray hood which goes over the hatch into the boat. It was an accident admittedly, but I’ve been going through life with a patched up screen for the last couple of years. With the constant use of the boat this year my repairs finally decided to give way, and to add to that the plastic screen had become so brittle with age that almost any touch resulted in another split in the screen. It was definitely in need of some TLC.

After a lot of scrubbing to get it clean it is now away at the sailmakers to get the screen replaced, along with having a bit of a modification done. I should have it back in place later in July, because sailing is much more comfortable with it when the waves pick up. Yes, even a boat of my size can kick up some spray, especially when the motorboat hoards are out in force.

The array of solar panels along each side of the boat allows me to run
the boat without a need for mains power

I’m finally finishing up my solar panel installation, including a couple of removable / foldable solar panels for when the system needs an extra boost. This electric boat idea is working really well. Admittedly I didn’t cook on electric last night (I do love a BBQ, even if it’s a gas one), but I have been using the electric today to charge the laptop and boil the kettle, and my lithium batteries are still at 90% plus at the moment. If I don’t use electricity soon then I’ll have to put the immersion heater on just to keep the batteries in check. For those that don’t know, Lithium batteries shouldn’t be stored at full charge for long, though a full charge every now and again does do them some good. It actually shortens the life of the battery to leave them at full charge and the charge source still attached, that’s probably why my mobile phone dies so often.

The diagonal "Rod Kicker" that supports the boom when the sail isn't in use
and holds the boom down when the sail is in use

When I was sailing back along the south coast with the spray hood down I noticed quite a bit of movement in the base of the solid kicker (that’s the diagonal bit that holds the boom up). Having taken it apart it appears that the hole taking the pivot bolt has worn over the last 35 or so years. This needs to come off and go off to an engineer to be drilled out and have a bearing collar pressed into the hole to tighten up the fitting again. Unfortunately while I was doing this I noticed that the point that attaches the boom to the mast, which uses exactly the same fitting, has exactly the same problem. I wonder if I can get a two for one deal?

The fitting that holds the Rod Kicker to the mast, movement can be
seen in the pivot bolt

There’s no rush for this, it isn’t about to fail, but it needs doing sooner rather than later. My sailing plans for the remainder of this year are not that grand so I’ll come back to this at the end of the season.

Still on deck, I’ve started putting netting around the forward section of the boat. I’ve always been in two minds about this, however when I had to take the huge foresail down before I could safely get into Eastbourne, I decided if I ever had to do something similar again it would be advantageous to have the netting there to catch the sail and stop it going into the sea.

Moving inside the boat I have an issue on the engine battery charging to sort out. The whole Lithium hybrid battery setup was working perfectly up until I got to Portsmouth on my way back to the Solent. Unfortunately the magic gizmo that manages the power from the Alternator to the three separate banks of batteries gave up the ghost at this point. I suspect that it didn’t like the higher charging current that the Lithium batteries take, the device wasn’t intended for use on Lithium systems so no complaints. Luckily the sun is out and I don’t need the engine for charging the batteries at the moment.

As usual when maintenance is happening, especially when I’m looking at several jobs at once, the boat is a mess of tools and such. But I’ll have things sorted soon in order to get some more sailing in before the end of the season. I've been making plans with sailing buddies from the Isle of Wight and Poole for a short cruise in company later in August / September. Also hopefully in late July / early August I will be out on the water too, but that is the silly season of school holidays and this whole area is quite naturally busy at these times.

So there's still time for some sailing this year, but Isosceles will be in better shape for the revised plans for round Britain next year and further afield after that, fingers crossed.