- Clean and epoxy the hull
- Reinstall wind generator
- Service the engine
- Clean the sails
- Check all the rigging
- Fit new fuel tank
- Launch the boat
- Shakedown sail
- Fill up with diesel
Andrei doing the scraping
April Dream with bottom scraped back to old Epoxy Coating
April Dream with new epoxy coating applied
On 2nd April the ship was launched at Wicor Marine and she was placed on her mooring and that we thought was that. Ready for the season. A few maintenance jobs still to do before she was fully ready one of which was to re-fit the Loo. I was half way through the job when I found that some new seals were needed so I went home planning to get them the next day to complete the job when in the middle of the night I had a call from the coastguard informing me that April Dream was sinking. Such a shock is something that I hope none of you ever have to receive. It completely overwhelms you and you struggle to know what to do. I raced down to the boat yard to find my boat with about three tons of water inside and probably minutes from going to the bottom of the harbour. The boatyard guys were there along with a Police boat and members of the Fire Brigade who between them managed to pump out the water and once the problem had diagnosed (I had left a sea cock open) and rectified the boat was handed back to me almost wrecked.
As it turned out the damage was covered under our insurance policy and so we passed the boat to the excellent care of Goodacre Boat Repairs and RK Marine engineers who re-commissioned her over a period of 3 months and handed her back to me at the beginning of July.
April Dream being loaded onto boat mover at Port Solent
April Dream on boat moving trailer
On the way to the launch dock
April Dream on her mooring
So we were launched on July 8th and Chris and I spent all weekend reloading all our boating equipment back on the boat and stowing it all ready for the first sail. On the Monday RK Marine came to commission the engine and once they were happy we took back possession of our beloved boat.
The following day we spent re-stowing kit such as life rafts, fuel cans, tool bags, fenders, warps (ropes to non sailors) and every other kind of sailing paraphernalia that you can think of and we thought we were ready. We slipped our moorings on 10th July on our shake down sail to Lymington.
So here we go - off over the horizon. Just as we were about to leave we heard from our friends Tony and Helen Krarup that they were in Lymington on the Solent having just acquired a new boat, a Moody Eclipse 33 which they had sailed from Dartmouth so we arranged to meet up. On arriving there we tied up and spent a lovely afternoon catching up on lost time when a much larger boat that was looking to moor up asked if we would move to allow them to moor on the pontoon and we could go alongside them. This is quite normal when things are busy, one takes the most suitable berth for ones boat. As we motored off to manoeuvre in the river we heard a loud alarm from our engine panel, the engine was overheating. It was only commissioned 24 hours earlier by the Volvo agents and deemed in perfect working order. When I investigated it seemed that our bilge was full of green coolant, the hose leading to a heat exchanger/radiator had not been tightened up and the antifreeze liquid coolant had all leaked out into the bilge of the boat. It was Friday evening and there was no way of contacting the engineer till the following Monday, so the following morning I contacted the agents and explained that there would be a nuclear eruption if they didn't help us out immediately. In the mean time I found a local Volvo dealer who supplied a 5L tin of coolant (Nearly £40) and tightened the leaking hose and refilled the coolant. This appeared to fix the problem. Eventually the engineer who did the work got in contact by mobile and after quizzing me about the problems apologised taking ownership of the fault and since then the engine has behaved perfectly.
No comments:
Post a Comment