Where did 6 months go?
We’re back to reality from our travels so it was time to take the big tarpaulin off Perdita. She had been covered up since mid November 2017 and we got back over to her early May. So a good 5 months of winter hibernation. We were shitting ourselves on what we’d find, but although the weather had apparently been cold, the tarp had held up pretty well. Here’s me taking the tarp off, much easier than putting it on! (a bloody awkward 12m x 8m tarp)
The tarp had managed to collect a small swimming pool of water, mainly down to my crap skills covering her up. Only a small amount of water had got through the tarp and most things were dry. Here’s the deck after I’d finished letting all the rain water drain off and with the tarp completely removed.
The big tarp tucked away, we got inside and pulled out the bits of plywood that had been affected by winter damp to let everything dry out.
The next pictures are mostly interior and galley work we’ve been doing. Here’s a ‘before’ photo from way back in 2016 when I bought the boat. The biggest job back then was the freeboard. A little galley sink had been added, we knew we needed something much bigger.
Here’s a before and after of the work in that area. There’s so much done its difficult to list all the tiny jobs, and there’s still so much to do.
The space between the cupboards above is where the little under counter fridge will sit. The cupboards either side are storage. The original sink we’ve plumbed back in and should have hot and cold water.
The seating throughout will have new cushions made, so the plank and plywood will all be hidden under comfy damp proof cushions.
The other job has been to continue with repairs to the berth/bulk head wall that had been affected by rotten tongue and groove timber. Here’s a before from progress in early 2017.
The above picture is from last weekend, the wall is now all repaired with epoxy/new timber. The windows and door will dress the berth and provide a bit of privacy.
Below is another photo of the work toward the stern of the saloon. We made a galley top out of some old exterior timber which has turned out pretty well. There’s a new hanging locker/storage on the port side that’ll be trimmed up and finished soon.
Here’s a look at the new hanging locker and the seating area / berth windows. Again the plank will be covered with new seating and cushion backs soon.
There’s been a couple of little exterior jobs started, although there are loads more. The rudder has been laying around the floor for months, so it was time to put it back up to see what really needs doing. Some of the cast steel work needs fixing up, but the first job was just to give it a paint. I’m hesitate to fill all the gaps and cracks with epoxy as I’m unsure how much the rudder will swell when it gets wet again. So for now, its just paint.
The grey bit of the paint is started, the white will be done later.
Here’s a look at what we did with the galley top. We’d originally planned to put in an ikea style top, but they’re not cheap and the damp would have probably killed it after a while anyway. This one cost about £10 and some stainer.
Here’s version 1 of the finished article.
The next jobs on the list are the rubbing strakes on the starboard side and port side. I’ve also got to reseat some of the stanchions that have a lean on. There are some deck repairs to do up there too.
Over the next few weeks
- we’ll be painting the cabin roof (there’s a simple solar install up there now topping up the batteries)
- adding a new floor for the berth
- some forward bilge area clean up and inspection, some minor repairs
- starting to go over the exterior hull for any obvious fibre glass repairs
- picking up on the prop work/seal work
- beginning work on the toilet/shower. Mainly fitting a sink/storage unit and repositioning the toilet
- cleaning up the electrics and adding some new fancy switch gear
- working to pay for it all