Interesting blogs - Keep Turning Left and White Pirate 'Untie the lines'

As you will know I am a fan of Dylan Winter who is 'sailing' slowly around the UK, having started from Bembridge and got up to the Scottish border area on the east coast - it has only taken him 6 years....
He is currently back in Chichester Harbour having renovated a Westerly to make the passage around the top bit. He has posted a number of videos on You Tube,  Keep Turning Left - about this part of his trip, the most recent being a trip from Chichester Harbour to Newtown Creek. He is spending a month exploring the Solent, getting to know his new boat so should be good watching for the locals who sail here.
Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CznRT9vCz5A and other videos he has done.

The other series I have come across involves a young German girl who is  trying to set sail in her aluminium yacht she has bought near Panama - http://www.youtube.com/whitespotpirates - the videos are posted most Fridays and the trials and tribulations she goes through leave you exhausted just watching, but you have to admire her spirit and determination.

Have a look and see what you think.

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.

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

Project for 2014

I like to set myself challenges and I thought next season I'd combine the sailing with a little research.

Ever since I started sailing with the Drascombe crowd there have been a cluster or group of venerable souls who seems to absorb local knowledge and information about the ports and locations we sail to- they know the characteristics of the port, the characters and the history of the area.

I thought next year the challenge would be to try and get some of this knowledge down and combine it with conversations with locals - the harbour master, fisherman etc and try to compile a series of articles on here.

 A sample of the venerable Drascombers

We'll see how it goes but you have been warned - you Drascombe lot - prepare to be downloaded for the greater good.

Contributions to the articles/notes are welcome - our first sailing event is the early May bank holiday  so we'll see where we go and who I can speak to.

End of Season review

Well the season is well and truly over now. The Drascombe dinner at CYC earlier in the month puts the final stamp on it and then it's looking forward to the February dinner and the new season that lies ahead.

Daislebee is put to bed, cushions, batteries, sails etc all safely stored at home, the mast down and her winter cover tied down snugly.

Caroline and our new(ish) dog Suki, came down to help with the winterisation in late October. She was very good, taking the boat out of her berth, around the marina to warm up the engine and then mooring her along side the pontoon where we dealt with the antifreeze. It bodes well for a short trip next season ... we'll see.....

Caroline and Suki

We spent the weekend in Chichester and enjoyed looking around the city once our work at the boat was done.

It is about this time of year I do a review of the season so here it is:-

• In spite of work I managed 26 nights afloat
• I sailed on the East Coast for the first time
• I didn't need to use the heater - so I'll keep it on board for next season
• I used the grill fitting a couple of time with success so I'll keep that as well
• I expanded my recipes for on board cooking
• I saw a RIB dropped form a C-130
• I had some great sails and good times with all concerned.
• My wife came on the boat - didn't hate it and may come for a voyage next year.

So a very good season, blessed with a lot of good weather. I'm looking forward to the next one and planning already.