Re-Masted and Re-Launched

Finally the winter repairs are finished. There is still a lot of cleaning-up and preparation to do, but that can be done once Mekicevica is in the water.
I prepared all the rigging, including new lower shrouds, and waited for the guys from Van Swaay to give me a hand raising the mast. This turned-out to be a five-minute job: one person lifted the mast from a raised platform, a second guided the mast and I attached the forestay. Done! They didn't even charged for the work, which I found really nice of them.
Then on to the water and to Mekicevica's new berth. This is in a corner, moored bow into a pontoon and with another pontoon on the port side. Really handy to get in and out with gear, without having to balance on a finger pontoon as was the case before. The disadvantage of the new berth only became apparent once I was in the water manoeuvring in: it is a really tight manoeuvre when there is a large yacht moored under the crane. By now I am pretty confident in my ability to manoeuvre Mekicevica, so I was sure I was able to do it. I didn't count that this was the first time I was doing it in seven months. I overestimated how much the wind would help turning the bow around and head-butted the wooden post. The only damage was a big dent in my pride, as the boat yard people moved the yacht a bit to allow me more space for the manoeuvre.

Oh, well! I'll do it better next time...

Beefing-Up Mekicevica's Chain-Plates

Step-by-step I am making Mekicevica a stronger boat. After having encased the keel in a rust-proof coating and changed the mast and boom, it was the turn of the chain-plates. I tend to keep the rigging rather tight, which allows us to sail efficiently in windy conditions. Last season hair-cracks started to form around the chain-plates, especially the port-side where there was some damage when we bought her.

Hair-cracks around the chain-plates. Superficial or danger of catastrophic rig failure?

The first step was to sand the gel-coat down to the polyester. This turned-out to be in good condition, albeit a bit thinner than I would like.

Sanded down to sound polyester.

The polyester was beefed-up with countless layers of epoxy strengthened with three layers of the sturdiest, woven fibreglass I could find. And the same again from the inside for good measure. Since the polyester looked in good nick on starboard I strengthened from the  inside only.

Beefed-up with several layers of epoxy strengthened with a total of six layers of woven fibreglass.

Than the whole thing was covered with epoxy fairing mix...

Covered in fairing mix. It looks a bit messy at this stage. 

...and sanded until it looked just rough enough to hint it was not professional work.

Faired and just rough enough to show it was an amateur's job.

This was followed by two layers of primer and two layers of topsides paint.

Primed and painted.

New, stronger chain plates were installed (8 mm rather than 6 mm) with generous amounts of polysulfide sealant.

The new, beefier chain-plates.

Inside, the plates for the mast-top shrouds were backed-up by braces made of epoxied wood. These also transfer part of the load to the hull.

Braces and belt: epoxied wood braces transfer the load to the hull.

Now, bring-on those gales!

More Small Jobs Done

Re-launching day is approaching fast and the biggest job of this winter is not done yet: re-enforcing the chain-plates. For this I need to lower the mast but the sail makers, who turned-out to be time-wasters, keep saying they will measure the rig next week. It was a big mistake to select the unprofessional, unreliable guys of Van de Werf to make the sail.
In the meanwhile two more items in the to-do list have been ticked off. The first was a new stern locker to keep a jerrycan of fuel.

There is a gap at the bottom for the draining of the cockpit, while the scuppers act as vents for gasoline fumes. Much better than the bucket in the port-side locker. It also looks good.
As does the new winch and cleat to handle the genoa furling line.

This was a request of First-Mate who usually has the job of furling the genoa. Even with the main blanketing the genoa it is much more convenient to use a winch, and on starboard-tack the genoa sheet is taking the existing winch.
This weekend the mast is coming down and hopefully we will re-launch the week after Easter.