Launched and ready to go.

Daislebee is in the water, looking good.

First drive behind the new car was a breeze, hardly knew she was there. O.k it was only 1/2 a mile round from other side of the marina but it did encourage me to look at travelling further afield.

Before towing her round I applied the clear Rhino tape. It comes with a stiff clear backing and, unknown to me, a thin clear front sheet. Top tip, don't follow the advice of some web sites or You tube films - I did and wore gloves - the glue ripped them to pieces and never mind avoiding finger marks, I had to spend time removing bits of vinyl glove. On a good note, the soapy water spray made the vinyl easy to apply and position and the squeegee smoothed out the bubbles quite easily.. Once I was happy with it I used a spray of water with a little drop of alcohol (surgical spirit) that activates the glue.
The only area I had difficulty with was round the bend of the chine where it didn't seem to want to take. I did consider cutting it level with the edge but decided to leave it and see how it went - good job too - as the glue started to work the vinyl seemed to pull into the surface - the result, the following day was that the whole sheet was very hard to see - it made the area of the hull look great.
Now to see if it withstands the knocks and bumps of the season - if it does I will seriously consider doing the whole length of the top chine.

I also installed my crockery tidy, made for me by Glenys Cowie. Basically it is a sheet of canvas with pockets sewn into it to take plates, knives, forks etc. I've fixed it to the bulkhead in the cabin and it seems to be doing the job well. It's certainly  freed up quite a lot of room in a storage box that should mean one less box of clutter in the cabin. Thanks GC.

I has trouble starting the engine after servicing it, in spite of getting fuel up to the top filter - a mechanic from a local company came out and showed me two additional bleed points that apparently are features of the Yamnar GM10 - two minutes and the engine was running sweetly - a good £10 tip. I'll post a more detailed account of this soon, together with pictures that might help people in the future - yes I know no pictures of boat engine, Rhino tape - just too bust and too many sticking fingers to work the iphone camera - but I will next time ...promise

Already for the season now - now to get some more time off to go and play.