blacking update

Third coat of Rylard premium on today, neatly finishing the 2nd tin. I'll do a fourth coat of normal bitumen on top tomorrow, and that's the blacking done, bar a couple of bits over the...

...welding; more repairs to the front rubbing strakes, and also a small bulkhead in the engine room to separate out bilge water & engine drips; the previous arrangements have always been pretty non-existent (two loose trays sitting up the engine must have been all that got the boat through the BSC last time). This will mean the boat is out of the water for another week, but I'm keen to get things like this done now, and properly.

Dan Holland has the prop shaft and everything between it and the gear box out on his bench at the moment; it's all a bit worn & loose, and hopefully it'll be refurbished/replaced with a better solution, including a more conventional stern gland that doesn't require a complete shaft strip down to repack. I've also taken the opportunity to clean out the strange trough under the prop shaft of years of junk & grease - I now need to work out how to stop it getting full of rubbish again, especially the rear section which is behind the stern gland, the prop shaft runs in a tube and I'm even thinking about filling it with expanding foam...

It's quite fun being in the yard, I get to see all the comings & goings - I'm not saying the staff aren't attentive to all, but a young female in a Morris 1000 got very good service. ;-) Over the past few days I've met all sorts of people, too, including Linda who lives on the 'strange purple boat' just past Warwick Avenue bridge at Little Venice. She's a designer, which will come as no surprise for anyone who remembers seeing the boat, as I did.

Forgot to add - a trip over to Marine Engine Services in the industrial estate on the other side of the canal in search of an oil filter (Crossland 418, from memory) turned in seconds into a discussion of Linux with Chris there, albeit prompted by him battling the database (running on windows) to see if he had one in stock...