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Ravensdale's troublesome trim tabs |
Ravensdale’s relaunch has moved a step closer thanks to the
perseverance of the engineering firm that is trying to mend her trim tabs.
It was beginning to look as though Forth Engineering of
Maryport wouldn’t be able to source the parts needed because the company that
made the motor had gone out of business, but after much calling around, they
tell us they have ordered the parts, which should arrive early next week.
And they’re hoping to come and fit them on Tuesday.
It will then remain to be seen whether the rams on the trim
tabs are working, but hopefully that will be less difficult to sort if they
need to be serviced or replaced.
Trim tabs are movable flat plates connected to the stern of a
boat, used to control the angle of the boat in the water without the need for
constant manual adjustment of the controls.
When we bought the boat they were both set at different
angles. We questioned this and were told that they were set for the boat and didn’t
need changing and rather naively we accepted this explanation.
However, when we got Ravensdale out of the water at the end
of March for antifouling, cleaning and a few minor (or so we thought) repairs,
we discovered that they didn’t work at all.
The port trim tab moved when the controls on the console were
operated, but the starboard one refused to budge.
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Phil checking the hydraulics on the trim tabs through an inspection panel under our bed |
Initially, Phil was trying to sort them himself, but we eventually
decided to get them serviced and asked Forth Engineering to take a look.
Meanwhile the marina’s boat hoist has been out of action after
a problem occurred while it was lifting a large concrete boat out of the water
at the start of this month.
The hoist lifts up to 25 tonne and the vessel weighed less than
20 tonnes so it should have been easily able to take its weight. Hydraulic
experts decided it may have an “intermittent fault with a winch valve” so the
relevant parts had to be changed before it could be used for large vessels
again.
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Ravensdale in the hoist when she was lifted out of the water |
However this has now been fixed so as soon as Ravensdale is
ready they will be able to put her back in the water.
We decided to use the extra time out on the hard standing to
do lots of jobs that we had intended to leave until we were back in the water.
And we've had some beautiful weather for getting the
outside tasks done. We had about a week of wall-to-wall sunshine, albeit with
some pretty chilly wind, but the rain arrived yesterday.
In fact, it was more comfortable outdoors than in as all the
windows around the main saloon behave rather like a greenhouse. One day when we
left the windows closed while out shopping we returned to find the temperature
inside the boat had gone up to 32C with the heating switched off.
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Polishing one of the aft deck lockers in the sunshine |
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The new anchor connector |
My outdoor jobs have included using rubbing compound on the
lockers on the aft deck before polishing and waxing them and cleaning the
chrome guardrails and stanchions.
And Phil has fitted a new anchor connector to allow smooth
launching and retrieval of the anchor.
He has also been working on the frame finishing trim around
the windows. Just about every window had gaps where the trim was too short so
he has been using the existing trim to fill the gaps and we've ordered new
trim to fill in the missing sections.
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Removing the old frame finishing trim |
Phil has also fixed “Lift here” stickers at the points where
the boat slings should be located during lifting operations and “Do not lift
here” stickers above the new transducer and paddle wheel for the log to save them
from damage.
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One of the new "Lift here" stickers |
One strange thing about living on a boat is not having a shed
or workshop to work in, which means we have to find other places to carry out
jobs that would normally have been done in the shed.
Below is a photo of Phil using the worktop in the galley for
a spot of soldering.
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The galley worktop becomes an indoor work bench |
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The worktop being used for its proper purpose |
Yesterday we decided to take a complete break from working
on the boat and headed off to the Lake District for the first day of Windermere
Boat Show at Ferry Nab Jetties at Bowness on Windermere.
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Visitors to Windermere Boat Show |
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A quiet start to the show |
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Phil admires a new boat that at £312,866 is well out of our league |
It was fairly quiet while we were there, but the event is
only in its second year and we were told that Friday was also the quietest day
last year.
It was interesting to look at some of the new boats on show
even though we would never be able to afford them.
But more interesting to us were the stalls manned by
companies providing services to boat owners, such as canopies and upholstery, electronic
gadgets and electrical rewiring, new and used tenders and local marinas.
While we were at the boat show the new ropes we had ordered
for our fenders arrived so it looks as though my next job will be practising my
newly acquired whipping skills once Phil has cut them to length with our new
rope seal hot knife.
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Seagulls nesting on a nearby cruiser |
In the meantime, it seems that a pair of seagulls have built
a nest on the flybridge of one of the other cruisers on the hard standing here.
