7) An unpleasant surprise and some photos

It’s been an interesting afternoon. The stem fairing was going quite well until I saw what I thought was a loose bit of paint about two inches along from the stem. I put my thumbnail under it and a big lump of filler came away from the “plank” and the stem. One of those hurried Saturday boatyard repairs - they’d bodged the filler in on top of greasy dirt and green algae without even roughening the surface of the GRP. There was no adhesion at all. I had to fill it with a mix of chopped mat and resin, then fair it with more filler when that had gone off. Now, last week it was so cold that the epoxy glue (setting time 3 hours) was taking 12 to 24 hours to go off. Today, with temperatures in the low twenties celsius, the bloody filler was going off in about five minutes. There was no time to get a finish - just bosh it in and sand when hard. And that’s despite only using about a quarter of the catalyst recommended. (Car body repairers will know what I’m talking about.) Here’s a picture of another bodged repair I found - when I raked out the loose filler this hole was about half an inch deep in a quarter inch thick hull. Yes, they’d filled it on the outside and whapped some chopped mat and resin on the inside. It’s looking better now, I promise.



So loads of sanding tomorrow. Never mind, it’s going to be a good day for weather again. In between the filling and sanding I managed to make a new stern post/rudder mounting and glue and screw it in place on the transom. Here’s a photo of the old and new mountings side by side.



Don’t know what’s been chewing the old one, but the new one’s oak, and epoxy coated, so any wood eating worms are going to have blunt teeth, I hope. Here's a shot of the new stern rudder mounting in place on the transom.



Also, while I’m posting, here are some old photos I’ve dug out. The top two show my first boat “Fram”, a seventeen foot marine ply sailing boat with two berths and a gunter rig; the design was called a Lysander, a favourite for home boatbuilders in the sixties and seventies. The first is anchored off Brighton, the second is in Shoreham Harbour.





The next two show “Two Brothers”, my 22 foot clinker sailing cruiser, a Kestrel class, built in Essex about 1964. The first is moored up in front of Horning Sailing Club in 1998, the second is snugged down for the winter on my mooring near Horning. I had Fram from 1976 to 1979, and then Two Brothers from 1979 until 2001.





The final photo shows a magical moment from the Three Rivers Race, an event held every year in June on the Norfolk Broads. This was the 1998 race, and I was on rescue boat duty at Thurne Mouth for the 24 hours of the race. I woke up at 4.30 in the morning in the Dory, looked up, and saw this. No wind, the moon in the west, and the sun just coming up behind me. One of the visual memories I’ll carry with me to the end.