New compass

I bought a compass on eBay the other day and as I stepped out of the house this morning I nearly tripped over it, the postie had left it on the doorstep.
I am well pleased with it... £30 inc p&p it is a Heath marine 'bosun' compass. It's in perfect condition, no bubbles or scratches and still with it's original box and packaging.

I'll have to see how I get on with this type of compass. The downsides apparently are that, unlike a bulkhead compass, you have to look down to check your course. The benefits seem to be that:

• The rotating grid can be set to a particular course.
• The whole unit sits on a bracket so can be stored in the cabin when not needed.
• If unhappy with the position it can be relocated without having to fill in a great big hole. In fact I will probably make a second bracket so that I will have a choice of positions depending on number of crew.. Sailing singlehanded makes you selfish so tend to position items with out thinking about being able to see / use them while the cockpit is crowded.

Sail cleaning

I dropped the Genoa off at Concept sails yesterday for them to put a new sacrificial UV strip on it.  It was a little more than I thought it would be at £116 but if that's what it is, that's what it is.  I was going to get the sails laundered at the same time but concept said that in their experience, rust stains tend not to come out and as my budget is taking a battering I decided to have a go myself.

Following some advice from the PBO forum I dragged my inflatable onto the decking, filled it with water, added a bit of Persil non bio and soaked the Main and Jib for 2 or 3 hours. The percieved wisdom was not to agitate them too much as I damages them.   They are now on the line drying so I will see how they look tomorrow.

First impressions

Sunday morning, she looks a bit sorry.

Having Ciao Bella home gave me my first opportunity to assess just what I have taken on, I am under no illusion that she doesn't require a great deal of work but it is only when you have time to clear out all the mess and really get to see the nitty gritty that you can fully appreciate what needs doing.

A first glimpse of Ciao Bella

Lack of care showing on her woodwork and fittings

Rudder pintle is broken and requires some investigation

Sails are all generally quite good and just require a good clean

Genoa requires new UV strip.

Seacocks... what Seacocks!!!

Today was spent sorting out what I have, what's good, what's not.  The Bilges were full of rain water which has been coming in through the broken Mushroom vent and the bolt holes for the pullpit which is not fitted on the starboard side. The storage under the Starboard quarter berth was also full of water which was coming in through the bolt holes for the missing Stantion. As a result most of the wood inside needs replacing or repairing.

The seacocks just arn't there.  The cockpit drains just go straight to skin fittings that's one of the first jobs to do. 

The Sails actually look pretty good.  The Genoa needs a new sacraficial strip, I have no idea how much this will cost but much cheaper than a new sail.. I hope :~)

I cleaned the worst of the muck of her decks and superstructure with a broom and watering can, there seemed to be lot of milky stuff coming off the paint work.  It looks a million time better already.

Roger, another local Hurley 20 owner, popped round to see her.  It's alway interseting to compare and discuss things with other owners. Roger has the mooring next to me so will be great to bring them both back up to scratch and have two Hurley 20's side by side on the water.

She's home!

This weekend was time for Ciao Bella to come home.  As Julies Astra is too light to tow the Hurley 20 I had to enlist the help of my Brother 'Dave' and his wonderful Sharon.  I had to take the trailer up to Bicester, where the previous owner help me drop the mast and  lift Ciao Bella off his trailer and drop it onto mine. 

Dave arrived about 10am and after making some final adjustments and strapping her down we were on our way. 

Hooked up and ready to go.

The farm was up a track with some of the worst pot holes that I have ever seen, Dave did a great job of negotiating these.  I followed in the astra keeping an eye on things, we stopped regularly to check the load but there was no need as it towed beautifully.

We made it home by 2:30pm.  The Boat and trailer weigh in at 1300Kg and at a steady 50 mph the Sharon returned 40mpg... Pretty darned good.



Annoying jobs

Today I have been mostly banging my head off a brick wall..  The wonderful Tohatsu 6HP engine that I bought recently has only run twice, that was with lots of ar*ing around trying to get it started.
I pulled it out of the garage last night, mounted it on a bit of wood and dangled the leg in a bin of water.
I changed the plug for a brand spanking new one and sprayed all the connectors with WD40.  Several pulls on the cord later and it was obvious that it wasn't going to go. I was hugely disappointed as I had assumed that it just needed a new plug.

After trawling the interwebby thing, and realising I didn't understand the information I was being presented with, I put a post on the PBO Forum and within minutes I was getting plenty of help.
The first suggestion was to test for an air gap spark.. I followed the instructions and made this super tool out of wood and nails.. all very industrial revolution looking :)  Well it proved there was little if anything coming down the HT lead.

The next checks centered around the CD Unit which looks like it could be over £150 to replace.  I needed to make a DVA (Direct Voltage Adaptor) for my multi meter to be able to read the peak voltage being generated.  This would have to wait until the morning...
So, This morning I scrabbled around the garage, house and loft looking for long forgotten pieces of electronics. During my searching I found my old Oscilloscope, this should be able to measure any signal being generated.

It seemed to prove that the CD unit is Beggared, and after a fruitless search online I have decided to let the professionals sort it out. My worry is that I will spend a lot on a replacement only to find that it wasn't that that was wrong or worse that it had been blown by something else in the system which will only do the same again.

My other job for today was to examine the trailer bearings.  I had quickly packed them with grease before taking Jelly Bean to Ipswich, I had noticed that there was some staining but as the Fantasie 19 is a relatively light boat so I wasn't too concerned.  Ciao Bella is much heavier so the bearings will have to be perfect. On top of that, my brother will be doing the towing so the trailer needs to be 100%

In short the bearings need replacing, I shall order them on Monday and fit them during the week. I also replaced the tyres as they were starting to perish... I seem to be spending quite a lot at the moment and Ciao Bella hasn't even arrived yet, how much will my wallet hemorrhage once she does ?!?!?
One thing that did make me laugh was this wee fella who'd been living in the barnacles and weed on the bottom of my tender :)