Marmaris - Cockpit Work

Blue Velvet is being looked after for us whilst we have returned home for a short while. She's in good hands and we are taking the opportunity to get some work completed on her.

Before we set off we had got BV’s old layers of antifouling slurry blasted off and a hard copper antifouling layer applied. That has proved to be a good decision but the guys that did the work were not meticulous enough about removing the old antifouling along the waterline. The result has been an untidy waterline where some of the copper coating has not stuck properly. We did do a patch job back in 2012 but some of that was badly scratched in a storm by a buoy we were moored to off Sark plus, in hindsight, we probably should have scraped off the whole waterline completely and then reapplied the coating rather than patching. With BV out of the water we were able to arrange for that work to be done properly. The photo on the left shows the areas that have been scraped back primed and prepared ready for the copper coating to be applied.

Whilst the photo above shows the new coating being applied. It is rollered on in several thin layers with each layer being applied when the previous one dries to the correct tackiness. Much better done in the warmer Turkish winter climate than in a cold boatyard in England!

The other important work being done is in the cockpit. The cockpit is a busy place when we are on board whether sailing or at anchor and so the sailing season is never a good time to work on the teak there. Replacing the odd teak plug or two whilst living on board is easy but we wanted some more comprehensive work doing.

Specifically we are getting the caulking between the teak planks replaced so that there is a good watertight seal. Ideally that needs the old caulking removed, the gaps tidied up and machined to the correct depth and then new caulking injected into the seams.

At the same time we are also getting some of the planks replaced where they have cracked. Perhaps a little pedantic but the Mediterranean climate does dry out and shrink the teak during the hot summer months and it does seem silly to re-seal the joins between the planks but not address the odd crack or two in the wood.

Replacing the caulking is a messy business and when applied the new sticky black caulking really needs to be left for a month to properly harden before its sanded level with the teak. Ideal work to be done when we are not living on board.

We'll continue our sailing adventures a little later in the year but for now we are busy starting to renovate the house we bought last winter. However, time is flying by and it won't be long before we are back out to Marmaris to sort BV out ready for the 2015 sailing season.