Work carried out on Tamar Lady.
By Chris Tier
She was hauled out of the water towards the end of January. Since then every weekend has entailed the 250-mile round trip to get on with the jobs.
So far I have concentrated on interior jobs, the outside jobs can wait for the warmer weather!
The wheelhouse has now seen a real transformation. The interior sides were previously just painted and had starting to flake in places. I spent two weekends plus a day off work to completely line the sides with carpeting, making it not only feel more comfortable but also add some insulation. It was a slow, fiddly, frustrating job, not helped by the fact that you spend most of your time high as a kite from the glue!!The roof lining was white vinyl coated plywood in two pieces, which were a real pain if you had to remove for rewiring etc. They had started looking tatty anyway so out they came and have been replaced by 5 coated plywood sections. This now means easy access for any rewiring work and the whole thing looks one heck of a lot smarter. The w/screen wiper had seen better days, the motor wasn't really powerful enough. A new heavy-duty one has been purchased and fitted, as with most things, it was nowhere near as straight forward to fit as I thought. I have now fitted a remote operated spot light on the pulpit rail right on the bow, this should avoid the problem of glare from the reflected light. It worked well on my previous boat. This should help enormously in returning the mooring in darkness.
By Dave Samuel
A party of us, Bill Smith and his wife Sharon, myself and my son Matthew plus of course
Chris, went down this week-end to help anti-foul the bottom of Tamar Lady. After scraping
off any flaking paint we went round using anti-foul primer to help bond the new paint to
the hull. When this dried, which was very quick, we then gave the hull two coats of new
anti-foul treatment. Fortunately we were very lucky with the weather and managed to get
the whole job done on the Saturday.
I have to say that the boat does look a picture in its new gleaming paintwork and I must
congratulate Chris in fitting out the boat so well since last year.
After cleaning ourselves up we went to the local pub for a well-earned drink and meal.
By Dave Samuel
Again a number of us went down to help Chris prepare his boat before launching after
the winter lay up. Whilst the weather was very cold on the Saturday it did manage to stay
dry enough for us to give all the wood work a couple of coats of Sadlin and polish up the
paint work.
Chris and Geoff concentrated on re-fitting the loo, after repairs were carried out on the
flushing pump. When completed, Bill then completely repainted the loo area, which made
everyone a bit high on the fumes.
They then had to repair a leak on the fuel tap, which caused a few problems and was
eventually resolved when one of the brass couplings was found to be cracked. This was
replaced and all tested out OK.
The drive belt to the alternator and water pump needed replacing as a number of belts had
failed during last season. After careful measurements it was agreed that the belt needed
to be of a deeper 'V' and longer also a new alternator pulley to match the others was
needed.
The fuel filters were replaced and the fuel was bleed to clear all the air from the system,
to check all was well the engine was started, which fired up very quickly considering it
had been idle for the best part of 5 months.
The rest of us managed to repaint the non-slip sections on the deck and grease all the
parts you can never get to when the boat is afloat.
By the time all this was completed it was time to return to the caravan to get washed and
changed ready for a good hot meal at the local plus a few drinks!
Sunday we all went to the boat jumble at Beaulieu, this was the first time I had been and
apart from the mud, you could get almost anything you wanted. I would highly recommend a
visit next year. There is another chance on Sunday 23rd April Southampton 10am, at
Ocean Village marina on the hardstanding.
Follow signs to Ocean Village Waterfront. Junction 3 M27/M271, or 'Solent Boat Jumble' on
Sunday 7th May , 10am at the Royal Victoria County Park, Netley, Southampton. Junction 8 M27