A change of scenery

This morning was spent at the club generally cleaning and tidying for the new season.  I put me old scruffs on, prepared for some good honest manual labour, and ended up cleaning windows, tidying magazines and hoovering,,, they've obviously read this blog and decided that I can't be trusted :~)

Back home and after so much time working inside the boat  I needed a change of scenery,  I decided to start rubbing down the rubbing strakes.  They were in a terrible state.  I started at the front on the starboard side and worked my way back.  In general they were cleaning up alright and looked like I'd get another year out of them

Looking much better

When I got around to the port side the strakes were in a much worse state,  Completely rotten and there is no way I can use them this year. They will have to be replaced, there's not even one piece worth keeping. I guess the budget and launch  date are going to have to be revised.

 I turned my attention to another wee job that had been on my mind.  The tiller sat too low and needed lifting to go over the helmsman's knees.  I needed something to lift it so decided to drill and tap an M6 hole and drop a cheese head machine screw in so that I could adjust the height of the tiller, adding a lock nut to fix it in position.

Tiller now better set and misses my knees.

Other items progressed in the last week are the ply cover panel under the companion way, electrical panel in and working, solar panel connected and charging.  I also bought a PL259 plug for the aerial however the socket on the deck is not of that type.  It's possibly a TNC but I'm not entirely sure.  I'll order one and see what it's like when it arrives.