Keel painting

5th March 2015

Some pictures of Elsa's iron keel in various stages of preparation and painting. Firstly, how it looked when she was lifted out late last year - pale blue remnants of old antifouling paint, some rusty patches (not surprising after over 40 years in the sea). Secondly, after a scrub and a few weeks to dry out and then going over with a stiff wire brush to remove as much flaky stuff as I could.



Two coats of underwater primer and then two coats of new dark blue antifouling paint:





I am pleased with this even though it's completely invisible when she's afloat!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cowes weekend 2023

Image
 4 July 2023 With Bay Leaf's new engine running well we set off for the weekend in Cowes for Round the Island. About 12 boats from the club were going this year. Sue was with me and we both had a space arranged on our friend Stuart's boat Moontide for the race, but travelling to and from the island in Bay Leaf. 29 June - Littlehampton to Gosport We met at the boat around 0800 Thursday and loaded all the clobber. High water at 0811 gave us a departure time around 0900. Starting the engine on battery 2 I noticed the red light stayed on, indicating lack of charging, which was a small worry but we had battery 1 if we needed it. Setting that thought aside, leaving harbour at 0905 we set full sail on a starboard beam reach, heading 240 degrees.  On the GPS it looks like there's a direct line to Boulder / Street but Selsey rocks are in the way, and sure enough the Mixon pole came into sight around 1040. Passing it on our starboard side abeam at 1110 we turned east towards the Looe...
Read more

Gosport weekend Sept 2024

Image
Saturday 7th Sept 2024 Club cruise / race Littlehampton to Gosport. I was all set to make this trip single handed in Bay Leaf but David appeared just as I was getting ready and offered to come with me. The race course was from Boulder / Street in the Looe to the Main Passage outside Portsmouth with a dog-leg to Dean Elbow (green) and to Winner (south cardinal) to try and give us all points of sail in the NE breeze. Six boats from the club were setting off, plus one who had already gone 12 hours earlier. With HW Littlehampton at 1425 I knew the tide would be in our favour from 1330 so we got off the berth at 1200, hoisted the mainsail, and motored directly to the Looe making 7 knots over the ground. Bay Leaf's new engine is super-powerful and smooth, easily giving 5.5 knots through the water, with the tide behind us giving us 7 knots total. There was a little light rain on and off. David did most of the helming and I did most of the crewing - sail handling and fenders and stuff.  We...
Read more

New rudder

7th Sept 2013 Keen to put the repaired rudder to the test in the cruiser race today, I met Sarah at the club at 11. Lots of kids were sailing in the river today with many of the Arun grown-ups teaching them. For this and other reasons, many regular cruiser race teams were not around. We need 3 boats as a minimum for a race and by 1115 it was decided that we did indeed have 3, so we set off for a race start at 1200. As an experiment, we hoisted the main in the shelter of the harbour and motor-sailed out through the turbulence of the entrance. I was worried about keeping control with the main up but it was fine. Once outside we shut off the motor, unrolled the genoa and assessed the conditions. As we emerged from the river it was a sunny day with about F3 winds, that'll be fine we thought. After 15 mins or so, and well outside the harbour into the sea, the swell was huge. Must have been 5 or 6 foot high, and the wind suddenly built up to F4 or even F5. Elsa was plunging up a...
Read more