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.
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