Season beckons

Cover off, mast up and a good polish - the outside is looking good. Thursday should be able to get down and put the batteries and electronics on board and get her in the water to service the engine.

I meant to take some pictures today as she came out of her green cocoon, but needed to get on and left the phone in the car.

I have decided that I may buy an ugly boat - not that I mind but it was very hard to get going on many task with people stopping for a chat - if everyone who sad they had thought of buying a Shrimper actually did they would be taking over the world..........

New for this season.... what with rafting up and leaving her on her berth in the marina I do suffer from fender rub taking it's toll on the gel coat. I've tried hanging a backing sheet behind the main mid ships fender which helps a bit but this year I am going to try something different

Picture courtesy of Union Mart UK

This is also called helicopter tape and I understand was used to protect the rotor blades so it must be tough. The plan is to use it along the top strake of the hull from the stern to the chain plate - it comes as a 30 com width which will just overlap the chine. It sticks on without damaging the surface below and is easy to remove - apparently it is use on canoes so is quite suitable for the water environment but I suspect it would not like total immersion.

Its also used to prevent stone chips to the front of cars so it is an experiment to see how it copes with fenders and boats alongside. I'll let you know how it goes - anyone else tried it?

Update of progress made on Thursday will follow