Ah well, you could be forgiven for thinking that I'd given up or won the lottery or been abducted. The truth is I'm not clever enough to know when to give up, lucky enough to win the lottery or desirable enough to abduct so I guess my absence can only of been down to the weather, which has kept me well and truely pinned down.
Shortly after putting the tarp over Ciao Bella we had the gales so that had to come down, the rain has been both persistent and horizontal. With a break in the weather on Sunday afternoon I went for a nose around. On lifting the cabin sole I was greeted by two inches of rain water, no mystery here; it had been blown between the hatch and the washboards.
I picked on a job that I could do quickly, the rudder pintle repair that I did last year on the beach needed some adjustment.
I had somehow measured incorrectly and when it came to fitting it between tides I'd had to make a hurried bodge job. As you can see in the picture above, the stainless straps don't project far enough past the skeg. I'd had to drill through the bottom plate and attach the Plastic bush with a vertical bolt. This was a bit wobbly in use and didn't inspire me with confidence when it was hauled out at the end of the season.
My solution was to move the fitting back and redrill the skeg. The bush is now held with a horizontal bolt which will keep it in position in the SS channel. When the temp picks up I will need to remove it again to epoxy fill the original holes but it feels like a step forward.
I had also had trouble with Antifoul adhesion last year. I think I had used some silicon based cleaning products and hadn't prepared the areas to be painted well enough. While it was still dry and light I went around and scraped the effected areas back to the gel coat. I will ensure it is properly keys this year.
