That’s a bold choice!

Our boat will be easier to find in the harbour now

We caught a ride this morning to continue on our spring cleaning and preparations. It was beautiful, sunny and a bit windy. The plan was to finish polishing and waxing the other side, as well as replace the rudder bushing that had arrived a few days before.

Well, we got half of that done. The lower bushing seems to need a bit more force to get in, so we will bring back a mallet next time.

The waxing worked pretty well, although despite our blog post last time I only somewhat remembered things like: which rag do I use for the polish? How much and how do I apply which cleaner?

We also decided to try to repair some blemishes in the gel coat; this involved matching the colour of our hull, and then mixing some probably extremely toxic chemicals in very unclear quantities. Did it work? Who knows! It takes several hours to cure, and then we have to finely sand it down to see what the result is. Updates to come!

We also met Cia, the ordförande of the local sailing group. She invited us to a grill at their klubbstugan, where Rikard was berated for not having invited us earlier! :)

Some tips

Washing the sprayhood and kapelle

• Bucket with sponge, 1:20 canvas wash:water. Apply, wait 5 min, scrub in with sponge then rinse off with the hose.

• Let dry.

Impregnering (watertight)

• Wear gloves and a mask, bottle says inhalation can be fatal ☠️

• Spray direct from bottle evenly over canvas, avoiding acrylic windows.

Note that holes are developing in the sprayhood where it’s been drawn over winches - need to tie the hood inside them instead of outside the winches so canvas isn’t running on metal.

Painting the rudder

• The upper rudder is made of wood (maybe the whole thing is?). Get marine paint suitable for wood from Hjertman’s.

• First buy the bright white paint, take it to the boat, realize it’s way too white. Exchange it for a greyer white paint. Take it to the boat, discuss with your Co-captain and agree yellow would be way more fun. Back to Hjertman’s and exchange again for a bright yellow paint.

• Sand using 600 sandpaper on the sanding block - wipe off dust before painting.

• Prop up the top of the rudder on the toolbox so all the painted part will be able to dry.

• Wish the day was less windy (the can did say not to paint on a windy day), bugs and fluff kept blowing onto the fresh paint aaah.

• We still have the paint thinner which is good - needed to remove any stray paint.

Can you see the difference?

Things we didn’t have and should consider getting:

• Mallet to bang in soft plastic bushing

• A second ratchet so you can hold the top and bottom of a bolt at the same time

• A foam pad to kneel on while working on gravel