Time passes by so fast and its ages since I posted here. A few things have happened since my last post. Firstly, I treated Margherita to some new sails. The two headsails were pretty rough after 11 years out in the weather so I asked Peter Sanders of Lymington to quote for new ones. I ended up thinking I may as well replace the mainsail too. With a slightly longer bowsprit as well, the overall result is much better headsail separation and a boat that points better and is faster in a given wind (below and up to hull speed).
The second thing that happened in 2019 was that I met a man called Bob Aylott at the Solent Gaffers Yarmouth Rally in May. He operates a web site called "My Classic Boat" on which he posts short videos of people talking about their boats. He interviewed me at Yarmouth and later in the year came down to Poole to shoot some scenes of me sailing around in the shallows of Whitley Lake. The result can be found here....
The third thing was that I finally had enough of crawling under the boat on her trailer sanding down antifoul and putting on new. It kills me these days. In any case, 10 years worth of self-eroding was starting to come off in lumps and I could not face stripping it back. This, coupled with worrying corrosion on the steel centre plate led me to book her into Traditional Shipwright Services in Poole. She will get a new Bronze centre plate, a copper coated hull and a full paint and varnish job. I re-do the varnish regularly, but the paintwork has lasted since 2008 and is now showing signs of fade and failure on corners. The bill is rather eye-watering, but everything should now last me out I think. To keep costs down a bit, I stripped her bare before delivery. Should look smart in 2020!
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| Weird linear corrosion. The guttering is some 2mm deep now |
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| Margherita stripped bare - inside and out |
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| Tucked into a crowded boatshed at TSSS Poole |
