This summer's plans

CA May Day rally at the Royal Harwich

As I write this I'm actually sitting on the boat in Vlissingen in the pouring rain trying to catch up with blog posts. But for now let's go back a bit. 

I had every intention of spending hours and hours working on the boat over the winter but as ever, I never got around to doing all the things I planned. 

First, a couple of expensive replacements. At some point over the winter my three-year-old Victron charger and shore power unit went a bit mad and started charging all three batteries to 18V or more. (Normally the most you should ever see is 14V). The two domestic batteries had been replaced in Ramsgate in 2019 and the start battery I think even a year before that, so they didn't owe me anything. Fortunately I asked Olly the slightly unreliable electrician to take a look before I just bought new batteries and he found the problem with the charger. He suggested changing to  a lithium set-up but that's just too big an investment when I might sell the boat, so I have three new conventional lead acid batteries and a new Victron unit. plan a new solar controller for good measure.

I was also on the boat when I realised my wine was not getting cold. The fridge compressor had failed. This time I called Paul the reliable refrigeration engineer, who fitted a new compressor and new cooling plate for about the same as it would cost me to have a big American-style fridge freezer for my kitchen. Plus the new plate is wider so there is less room in the fridge. But it is now reliably very cold!

I fitted the new winch myself, which took ages of course. It is a secondhand  Karver compact self-tailer, with one very low and one very high gear. Brand new they cost around £1800 and this was secondhand from a CA member so a bargain at £650. The worst bit of the whole exercise was, of course, putting back waht is left of the headlining. Iand also replaced the galley tap which split and started shooting water all over the saloon - that one cost me a Screwfix tap for £35 plus a couple of fittings from Fox's, and only a relatively modest amount of time, so a better investment in many ways!

Apart from that it was generally clean, polish and varnish, change the prop anode which had degraded hugely and do all the usual stuff.

Over the May Day weekend I repeated last year's shakedown cruise, all the way to the Royal Harwich (three miles upriver) for the CA Suffolk spring rally. After weeks of hot sun and light winds I had two nights of gusty NW winds crashing me about on the hammerhead and getting me into the mood for the rest of the summer. The rally was thoroughly enjoyable although I think in the end only three or four boats sailed there.

The June plan was to join the Westerly Owners' East Coast rally to the Netherlands, by way of the WOA Kent cruise which would join the Little Ship Club dinner at Calais and then trot on up the coast to the main meet at Blankenberge. I was lucky to be put in touch with Janet, a Centaur owner snd WOA member who wanted to join the rally but not take her Centaur all the way. So with fingers firmly crossed for the weather, it looked like being an enjoyable few weeks.

Failed tap

Failed battery charger