A bit of an overhaul

Isosceles as she looks today, after several weeks work out of the water

Back in September I ended up sailing back to Suffolk Yacht Harbour, ending in an eventful passage up from Ramsgate.

EDIT: This was actually written last November. Unfortunately real life got in the way and the post slipped my mind. I'm putting it out now as I start to get ready for another years sailing.

It had started off as a short cruise in company to end the summer. Unfortunately circumstances didn't pan out, and I ended up setting off towards Brighton on my own. Having a bit more time to spare than anticipated I kept going from there. I didn't blog about my trip from the south coast back to Suffolk as I felt I was going over old ground, quite literally. I stopped at all the same places I had before (there aren't many choices for a medium to large boat along that stretch of coast) and continued to get used to sailing on my own.

Heading north across the Thames estuary there had been an engine issue, with a severe lack of "get up and go" from the boat, which developed into an intermittent running problem that felt very like fuel starvation at the engine, but I couldn't see how one would develop into the other.

This all culminated as I entered Felixstowe harbour, one of the busiest container ports in Europe, and a ferry port too just to add to the congestion. I was sailing in, but with the engine running in idle as I didn't trust it to restart by this point. Just as I was passing the narrowest part of the entrance, with a ship just leaving the docks in the harbour and a ferry coming in behind me, the engine decided to die. Of course this was closely followed by the wind all but disappearing. I was drifting in the lightest of breeze trying to keep away from the rather large ships. The harbour pilots took pity on me, or more likely they wanted me out of the way of their ships!

So, I ended up back in Suffolk Yacht Harbour for the second time this year. 

My engine issues turned out to be two separate issues, neither of which were so severe. With a sheet of plastic limiting the engine propulsion, and air getting into the fuel lines after I'd replaced the fuel filters while I was back on the hamble. At least it wasn't one serious issue getting worse.

The boat had to be taken out of the water to confirm and solve the plastic issue, and as boats go one job would need to another. I was likely to be here for the winter now so I may as well move my birth to here for the winter.

One job leads to another ...

Being as the boat was out of the water, and likely to stay there until November due to berthing availability, I decided to give Isosceles a face life also. A couple of years ago the old and faded vinyl stripes along the side of the boat had been rubbed and damaged in a storm. It was time to get rid of them completely, I had a plan for replacing them.

Removing the old vinyl stripes is a painstaking job, especially when they are baked on

Removing the old vinyl that has been coated in sea water and baked in the sun is a nightmare of a job. It took a good 10 days to get them off and cleaned up, it would have been quicker if the weather had cooperated, but isn't that always the case.

Once the vinyl was removed I could clean the hull sides properly

Painting in the replacement stripe is still a good idea in my view, but because of the temperature it was going to take 2 days between each coat, and at least 3 coats, plus prep and undercoating/primer. I didn't want to have to re do this too soon, but that turned it into a 10 day job, plus a bit extra added on for the incessant storms that seemed to be blowing through at the time.

Painting the new stripes proved to be equally painstaking, not least
because of the extended drying times in the cold weather

Pulling the boat out of the water also meant cleaning and antifouling the bottom of the boat, if I was going to do all these jobs I may as well do things properly and have her all set up for next summer as well as some winter sailing.

The finished article, all ready to go back into the water

Bringing everything up to date

Just as everyone almost else is getting their boats out of the water and wrapping them up for a long cold winter, I'm finally putting Isosceles back into the water at the beginning of November. Hopefully there'll be plenty of winter sailing days ahead.

Looking sharp, all safely tied up in her berth for the next five months

With the recent storms, living on a boat out of water and held up by a bunch of scaffolding has been a little unnerving at times. It feels so much better with the sound of water against the hull and the gentle movement of the boat in the marina.

After all the work I could enjoy a sunset beer