In the beginning…..
As purchased:
Winches –
- 2x sheet winches – both inoperable and completely gummed up.
- 3x Mast winches, Mainsail winch – stiff, reefing winch stiff, headsail winch – not yet tested (no halyard clutches fitted, halyard made off on winch)
- Instruments – Radar = inoperable, Plotter = aged mono, just about functional, cockpit Fish finder = OK (later failed), wind instruments = masthead seized, Log = inoperable, echo = inoperable. Compasses = crazed and half empty.
- Manual bilge pumps 4x fitted. Starboard Internal = handle broken, Port internal = OK, Port external (also holding tank pump) = not connected, starboard external = OK
- Electric bilge pumps = OK, manual activation only – Wiring very poor.
- Saloon windows = scratched, cracked = leaking
- Hightop windows = scratched, cracked = leaking
- Galley window = leaking
- Head window = leaking
- Port cabin window = appears ok
- starboard cabin window = appears ok
- Steering cables = ok, but could do with tightening.
- Wiring = an unholy mess of disparate cable types and sizes, endless ‘choc’ blocks, bad connections and insulating tape. I have yest to see worse anywhere.
- Headlining = crumbly foam and sagging headlining all over the place.
I am sure I will come across more issues as we go, but for now the focus is on removing the down right dangerous wiring (water pump supply direct from the starboard start battery – no fuse, no switch!!)
So where are we going and what are we doing?
- Serviced the sheet winches so that we could move the boat from Brighton to Chichester Harbour. A trip of little over 40 miles.
- Ripped out almost all of the wiring – at this stage it is better to have none at all than the mess that was there. I will begin putting things back and documenting shortly.
- Start looking at replacing the windows in the saloon and high top. I am planning to bed on Butyl rather than some form of silicone / sealant. Butyl tape is used in the glazingg industry (amongst others) to provide a long lasting flexible seal. It