Phoenix: Monitor self steering Part 3

Bank Holiday - Monday 1st May

Putting it all back together again is a fiddly business, not achieved here at the first attempt.
There are 18 of these little bleeders in each of 2 races. When we ordered them from the USA they explained that they always supply a few extra as they find their customers have a tendency to donate some to Neptune or the workshop gremlins. Certainly Howard said he wouldn't fancy taking this job on at sea.
You can't use grease to hold them in place as they are designed to remain dry so Howard perfected some trick involving masking tape which he removed once it was assembled. Must hide my best kitchen knives if he has to have it in bits again.

The little ball bearings are nylon and very fiddly

All the practise removing splinters while working on a timber framed house is now paying off

Spares for Neptune and the workshop gremlins

Starting to come together

Tuesday 2nd May

Today is the day for seeing whether it all fits back into place. Clive takes a break from his own fitting out to lend a hand. When it was fitted previously that trim tab on the back of the rudder wasn't there so the question now is to what extent it will foul the self steering (or vice versa)...

It fits - just about - but Howard's knitted brows give away his doubts

Spot also the lovely new white line

The white line had to go on quick before the rain came - for the record twice round Bonify's ample girth with masking tape is equal to almost exactly one roll.


Rubbing strake has its first coat too - the wood is now looking much less thirsty

Altogether a busy day - but still time to chat - it's Martin Hare!!

Comments

Post a Comment

We've set this up so anyone can comment - though we'll see your comment before it's published on the blog - please comment away!

Popular posts from this blog

Inland Schleswig-Holstein

Image
Wednesday 19th July to Thursday 20th July - River Eider inland Reasons to take the River Eider route to the Baltic: 1. It's easier to get to from Heligoland (in the right conditions). 2. You avoid travelling (and crossing) the River Elbe with all its traffic and strong current. 3. You avoid the massive ship lock at Brunsbüttel where we have heard of yachts having to wait as long as 4 hours out in the Elbe before locking in. There are some issues with the locks and they are not all operating. 4. There's no commercial traffic, till you join up with the Kiel Canal 5. Once in, it's more interesting to travel along a river with small towns to visit than 100km of straight ship canal. So, Tönning was our first town with its small harbour a feature in itself overlooked by houses and cafés. When the tide went out overnight we didn't see the mud, we just floated in almost no water.  On Wednesday we moved on to Friedrichstadt, just 10nm further on, a pleasant short trip with withi
Read more

Rigging screws? Hmm...

Image
Sunday 23rd July - guest crew join at Rendsburg. If you believe what you read in Riddle of the Sands (sorry, here we go again) then guest crew joining your yacht in the Baltic can be prevailed upon to bring any number of weird and wonderful items of equipment.  Carruthers brought rigging screws, a prismatic compass, a pound of Raven mixture for Davies's pipe and a No. 3 Rippingille stove.  We thought that a replacement heating system was rather a lot to ask of guests trying to stay within the Ryanair hand baggage limit, and in any case the current heating system is not quite ready to be consigned to the deep. Though Howard does distort its name from Webasto to Webastard sometimes, so it may only be a matter of time. Anyway Pete and Sarah very kindly made room in their bags for our new cockpit cover (now adjusted since its first fitting back in Bergen op Zoom) and a pair of shorts we'd asked for. Pete had also packed a rigging screw which we hadn't asked for, but you can see
Read more

Eider Canal

Image
Friday 21st July - Eider canal The Nordfeld lock which brings us out of tidal waters for the last time (the Baltic Sea doesn't really have tides) is only a couple of miles from Friedrichstadt and once through it we are in the Eider Canal.  Canal it may be but it looks and feels like a river wending its way northwards and eastwards in big sweeping curves for mile upon mile.  Most of the supposed boaty stopping places from now on (marked on our chart there with a yacht symbol) are tiny: just a few posts by the bank with a few small motor boats in and almost no sailing boats. Süderstapel is an exception and is somewhere we might stop another time to have a look round. Our rather ancient pilot book tells us to look out for a colony of storks near the church and we are lucky enough to see one stork fly over as we pass.  Another highlight spotted on the river bank is a pair of musicians: one playing some kind of squeeze box and one a cello. We throttle back to listen but the breeze carri
Read more