When our first boat chose us we didn’t need much of an excuse to go out sailing and sailed throughout the winter. We would be in our wet weather gear with wind and rain lashing down and still having fun. As it dawned on us that we could sail whenever we want and no-one was taking it away from us, this changed somewhat.  With the fitting of a cockpit canopy on our Dufour, which had all round visibility, we still travelled in the winter but the dress code was more relaxed -Maria would be in a onesie or pyjamas.

When we moved aboard Mariadz two years ago, this changed a little more.  One of our rules is that the boat has to be ready to sail within 30 minutes.  Not because we are trying to get away from irate neighbours but because we found if you need a few hours to tidy away the clutter, the urge to go out wains.  That rule has helped us a lot during the summer, especially if we are working from home the next day, since we are able to get out of the marina and down river to anchor.  The world seems a different place then!

This helps us to get out a lot during the season, even if it is just down the river for a short sail and an anchorage for the weekend.  Also because we are liveaboard the weekend gets extended as I have blogged previously… Liveaboard vs Weekend sailing . The cockpit tent on the Moody has also been a godsend, and if the weather is less than perfect, we are safely and cozily tucked up inside, with Maria again in her pyjamas!

However, since becoming liveaboard, when the nights draw in, we rarely venture out in winter. So now, in common with a lot of sailors, we do maintenance at this time.

In the winter, even staying in the marina, the cockpit tent comes into its own.  With two adventurous cats on board, we would be constantly opening the companionway to let them out.  As an alternative, not because we are lazy but we would be doing it every five minutes, we hang a heavy curtain over the opening which they can squeeze past.  However, this would let the biting north wind “squeeze” past too! Our spray hood has a zip in backdrop, which effectively acts as a mini cockpit tent, our porch! The cockpit tent itself also reduces the wind and cold getting to this place so effectively we are “double glazed”.  It means that little cold will get into the boat which is also helped by some additional covered tubes like swimming noodles, that we thought would stop the cats escaping and keep out the cold. They are no good for stopping the cats – clyde just pushes past them!

So that explains the setup so what could possibly go wrong…. We like to keep warm and so the saloon is heated and some of this warm air will escape past the thick curtain into the cockpit tent. The combination of warm air and the cold air from outside causes damp on the inside of the cockpit tent, especially if the waterproofing is not perfect.  This dampness is a perfect breeding ground for black mold.

We noticed this the first few years of having the cockpit tent and spoke to Dolphin Sails who cleaned up the canvas.  But we recognised we needed to be able to sort this out on our own.  Having bought all of the specialist cleaning gear for the weathermax and strataglass, we knew we could do it ourselves.

It is a multi-stage process that takes time and dry weather but it has been very successful for us. Firstly you need to use a mold cleaner to get rid of the black dots.  Don’t be tempted to leave this on too long, most of them contain bleach and we don’t need to change the colour of the thing. Next use the cleaning fluid which will bring up the canvas like new.  The final step is to reapply the waterproofer. A lot of people use Fabsil but Dolphin recommended one that we could only get from Germany but has done an excellent job Holmenkol Protection,  the postage was high but if you bought enough, and it took three cans to do ours inside and out, then it is less of a problem.  So with a cleaned,”de-molded” and waterproofed cockpit tent we are ready for the winter.

There is one other thing we have had to do this year though to get the cockpit tent back to perfect.  A number of cockpit tents use push studs to attach to the cockpit.  Ours is attached by bungee chords which also means that it is adjustable if there is any stretch or as temperatures change.  Unfortunately after a few years the bungee chords are UV damaged and stretched.  Replacing these is easy, and it gave us an opportunity to select what we felt was a better colour match.  This is not an expensive or difficult job. We ordered 6mm Bungee Shock Cord. Getting these to a tension I was happy with took some time but you just move the knots to shorten or lengthen the bungee before trimming and sealing the end (for which we use a gas lighter….gently). Doing sixteen of these meant that everything was as good as new and we are ready for a cold winter.  We still had enough chord left to do this a couple more times so that is all in the spares store on board.

The first of the routine maintenance jobs is done.

This summer has been a summer of metal fabrications for Mariadz with mast pushpits, solar panels and extensions to the pushpit.  All of this work has been done by East Coast Stainless Ltd who have been excellent throughout, adding input into the design process and then building the quality stainless work.

There were a few minor pieces of work that we wanted done and a couple of these were only possible because of the extension of the pushpit.  The safety aspect of the extension is evident but the additional space means that we can mount additional items on the pushpit such as our LotusGrill Barbecue.  We think the lotus is an excellent BBQ for a cruising boat because it uses so little fuel, compared to a normal BBQ.  You use a large cup of fuel and some lighting gel which is generally enough for cooking for two.  Even if you have to refill when doing a whole chicken the amount of fuel used is negligible.  Like all BBQs though there is a problem with grease spitting which gets onto the lovely teak deck! To reduce this we decided to have a BBQ mount on the pushpit which can be deployed on the outside.  This will mean that some of the grease that comes from the food will go overboard instead of onto our teak and it also puts the grill at a good height for cooking.  The design of the frame means that the grill slots into a round aperture which is braced on three sides so that the whole grill is held on the top bar and the bottom bar of the pushpit.  This work is now completed, at the end of October, so not ideal BBQ weather but you know Maria will want to use it straight away 🙂 The frame can be easily removed and folds flat for storage or it can be left attached to the top bar and folds flat.

The second item for the pushpit was a storage system for the Fortress FX-55 anchor that we have purchased to complement the 40kg Stainless Rocna anchor on the bow.   The plan is to use this as a kedge anchor when required but also as a second anchor from the bow when tandem anchoring may be useful.  The design of this was loosely based on a similar setup used by Discovery yachts on their 55s, which use the same anchor.  The anchor should be available quickly after attaching a small length of chain and the anchor rode that is stored in the locker on deck. However, the East Coast Stainless boys took some time to make sure it was designed right and we are very happy with the results. To summarise the bar of the anchor is secured in a rounded part of the base which is attached to the toe rail.  A box like structure at the top is used to hold the shaft of the anchor and the top of the blades.  Hopefully the pictures below explain, although the mirror like quality of the stainless doesn’t help…… the shirt is in place as we wait for the rubber to be fitted which will lock in the top of the anchor.

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The third item was to add some simple “D-rings” to the leading edge of the solar frame.  This gives us anchor points for a washing line for instance and also a point we can attach an aft deck bimini although we will need to be careful to understand how much force we are putting through these since the year can’t be the primary load points for a shade.

Finally, we had noticed when cooking that the wood behind the cooker gets quite greasy.  We do a lot of cooking and I’m sure some of Maria’s recipes will be along shortly…. We already had a small splash panel that we had designed but this wasn’t doing enough and so we have protected the whole of the panel, up to the extractor fan, with an easily wiped clean stainless panel.

I am expecting this to be the last of the stainless work that we need for our travels, having already replaced our anchor, although Maria has already started talking about replacement boarding ladders, ours apparently went swimming a number of years before we took ownership.  To be fair we may need something like this for when we are bows to the dock – it is quite a jump up to the bow in these situations and of course one would want a ladder that matched the shiny, stainless anchor! That will be for another day but we are getting there.

It’s been a little bit quiet on Mariadz over the last few weeks with a number of the big jobs having been completed during the summer and a few last pieces of stainless steel being finalised. I thought it may be worth highlighting some of the minor changes that we have made on Mariadz to modernise her, fix some issues and make her more comfortable.

The first of these was required because of corrosion on the original taps when we got the Moody. We needed to replace all of the taps as part of the initial fit out. We decided to go with good quality domestic taps and found ones for the bathroom that had a “water saving” feature, which was as simple as a stop when the tap was half open! Still every little helps. At the same time we changed the plugs to push in which again stopped any problems with lost plugs or disconnected chains. Unfortunately it was only much later that we discovered that these had been fitted without PTFE tape and we unknowingly had a leak from the sink waste which was responsible for some of the water in our bilges. Now corrected, this area is bone dry and doesn’t contribute any more water below the floorboards.

The water saving theme continued with the shower where we found the Ecocamel Orbit Shower Head, which whilst expensive, sucks air into the showerhead to make the best of the water power. We found a noticeable difference when using this compared to a standard shower head. Apparently the water comes out as bubbles which explode on your skin…..if you believe the marketing. 🙂 but it does seem more powerful than the old basic head.

There was more corrosion on the shower door handle and even with our daily use the mechanism was always stiff. Early in 2017, this had got extreme and the metal bar that connects the handles together sheered! In the short term I had to put some string around this area to act as a door handle, potentially a sub-optimal solution to the problem as Maria very clearly and robustly pointed out. The replacement parts are made by Southco and this is an exact match for the broken part. Originally I tried to order these through EC Smith but due to some confusion and despite almost fortnightly reminders, these still hadn’t been ordered three months after my request. In the end I spoke to a very helpful lady at Zycology who had the part I needed in stock and got it to me within a couple of days. Fitting was easy and it was nice for Maria to be able to have a shower without the risk of being locked in there by the broken door mechanism – not much of a risk but it would have been hilarious for a few seconds before I was punished. You have to get your fun where you can.

Moving into the galley, we bought a new mixer tap with an extendable hose. This took a lot of choosing and in the end we bought it from our friend Richard Davonport at Davonport Kitchens. Definitely a quality product although fitting it was difficult with the limitedx room under the sink. We also had some leaks from this but now I know how to tighten up the pipes if they work loose.

In both the galley and heads (shower rooms), we fitted liquid soap holders. This was another idea we loved from the Moody 49 Mornin’ Gorgeous and I am sure they didn’t mind us stealing it. These are wall mounted and you often see them in pubs and clubs. It means that soap is always available, even when healed, with no soap bars lying in wait on the floor for the unsuspecting to fall over.

We, of course, had to make some changes to the boat to make it cat friendly. I remember Milton Jones, the comedian, telling all cat owners that their homes stink. Hopefully Mariadz isn’t too bad for this. We tried to reduce the cat smell by putting the cat litter in the shower cubicle of the forward heads. This is great but of course the cats are going to struggle to open the shower door to do their business, although I’m sure Maria would love to try and teach Clyde to do this. To overcome the door problem, we fitted a cat flap in the shower. This means that the shower will still work like normal (if the cat litter is removed) but also means that the smell is mostly contained. We do however immediately clear the box if it is used for “number 2s”! We still don’t understand how such a foul smell can come out of such a pretty cat. The last part of this was to allow permanent cat access to the forward heads which was achieved by adding a retaining hook to hold the door open a few inches. This gives the cats access but as an added bonus ventilates the room which could get stale if left closed for a long time.

I have mentioned before that the boat hadn’t been looked after for some time before our ownership and so corrosion both inside and outside has been a major problem. There are numerous blogs on how this has been addressed, particularly on the outside but in the forepeak we have some cupboards with retaining catches. These were either broken or extremely rusted. It was difficult finding where to source these. Our Moody was internally fitted out out by Princess Yachts and having found the shower handle at surmised that other parts may have come from the same manufacturer. They also had the catches. This items were supplied by EC smith from stock. They arrived quickly and I set about fitting them. How difficult can it be to remove one and replace it with a new one…. one of the things I have discovered on boats is that even the simple ten minute jobs can bite you and this was no different. The catches were very different although they did the same thing, in fact the Southco catches are very professional and robust, looking a much more quality part than the original. With these catches, the mechanism fits on the door and there is a bar that it hooks onto on the frame. The bar on the Moody is angled because of the angle of the curved door and the one supplied is a right angle. Hmmm. Let’s just see how they fit together. Reading the instructions, it is clear that the catch is designed for a 90 degree door to frame angle. By trial and error, I work out that the right angled bar is just too long because of the extra angle of our cupboards. If I can file down the protruding part it will still hold the mechanism but when the catch is opened it will clear the bar and the cupboard will open. I discovered this the hard way by closing the cupboard and then being unable to open it, fortunately I had only put a retaining screw in and so I could shift the bar to the side to free up the cupboard. Otherwise, it may have been a case of “sorry dear, I crow-barred the door of the cupboard to get at the contents”. Boat jobs have a habit of catching you out like that. Fortunately, our friends on Valentine had an angle grinder I could use to file down the six retaining bars, otherwise I would have been hand filing the stainless – that would have been fun! With the bars down to half of their size, I fitted them again, and after getting the offsets right on the door and frame, it worked perfectly. Putting on the other five will be a proverbial piece of cake….of course not 😦 . Some of the screws wee so rusted that the screw dissolved when I tried to unscrew them. Fortunately, after much very careful effort, I was able to get all of the old bars off and throw away the rusty screws. Fitting was fine, with some minor adjustments needed to make sure that each catch fitted how it should. And we were done, a ten minute job had taken a shade over two hours! No surprises there then.

I think that brings us pretty much up to date and hopefully gives some suggestions for others.

It is our intention to be insured while we are travelling around the world. However, nearly all insurers require that the rig is replaced every ten years and the rig on Mariadz was last done in 2010.  So we have agreed to get the rig refreshed as one of the last tasks we do prior to leaving.

At the Southampton boat show back in 2015, I had spoken to a rigging company about doing this work.  They claimed to have re-rigged a Moody 54 previously and were able to give me a quote….and it was eye-wateringly expensive.  It made me realise that 10% or 20% off an already inflated price was no bargain! I was also not convinced that I wanted to go to the South Coast to get it done anyway and this helped with the decision.

On the East coast of the UK, there was a rigging company with a good reputation called Rig Magic but they apparently stopped trading late in 2016 and so we needed another alternative.  I spoke to a number of people in the marina at Ipswich Haven and also spoke to the team at Spirit Yachts.  They introduced me to Richard at Evolution Rigging who at the time had rigged several quality yachts in Ipswich and also rigged Spirit Yachts and Oysters!  Maria has always had a view that if something is good enough for Spirit and Oyster then it would be good enough for us!  I was always a bit fearful of the costs of this approach but it has worked out well for us in the past.

I spoke to Richard about our rig and he explained some of the things we would need to consider, ably demonstrating his helpfulness and knowledge.  He also came back with a quote which was much more reasonable than the over-inflated boat show price from one of his competitors.  As part of his offer, he mentioned that there was also an upgrade available that would be 30% stronger than the standard rig for the same weight and size of wire.  This would cost an extra 20% on the quote but would give us more piece of mind.  Can you imagine not going for this option and then losing the rig at some stage!  It was a no-brainer for us.

As a first step he suggested for some of his team to perform a complete rig check, even though we know we will be replacing it in the next year or so.  This would make sure we were safe in the interim.  At the back end of August, this was performed and as expected a few things came up which need rectification but nothing that was a safety issue (so lots of amber and no reds).  The check was very thorough and the written report backed up that we were safe enough for the moment and also identified some of the changes that they would recommend when we go for the full refit.

The other benefit we had here was watching the guys go up the mast.  You can learn a lot from someone who goes up the mast as their day job.  We noticed that the team didn’t lock off the line in the self-tailer but used the electric winch to help with the pull while pulling the line by hand.  This made the process less jerky and uncomfortable for the person in the chair.  A top tip for us, probably adding more comfort for me!

The deck organisers that help run the lines back to the cockpit were an issue.  These had all jammed which caused friction in the use of these lines.  We had noticed that the weren’t running as easy as usual but hadn’t linked this to the deck organisers.  Using Corrosion-X , I was able to unjam these, although I did also need to take the headlining down in the saloon to access the bolts under the organiser, some of which were on a bit tight.  Having freed these, it did make me think that we have more work to do with the rig and we will discuss replacing the clutches and organisers as part of the rig refresh over the next few years.  There were also a number of other easy fixes i could do myself such as tightening up the lines across the gates.  That was also being redone as we extended our pushpit.

We had also noticed that the block for the staysail outhaul was UV damaged and the plastic cover was shattering although the weight bearing metal elements of the block were still ok.  We decided to replace the obsolete Lewmar 72mm ocean block with an upgraded block from the current range and after speaking to Lewmar this was the HLX block.  These are stronger than the old ocean range and I was told to go down a size but, of course, this didn’t work for me because the attachment to the traveller track was 10mm rather than 8mm so I have gone back to the 72mm block which increases the safety margin even more.  At the end of the day, I took the decision to change this and if, after consultation with the rig team, it was decided to upgrade this even further then we have a spare block available.

I have now gone throughout the entire rig, checking all blocks and using corrosion-X to free up any stiffness in the block.  It was surprising how many were seized but also how easy they are to free.  This work included the stanchion blocks that run the headsail and staysail furler lines.  Interestingly, this seemed to have an immediate effect, in conjunction with lubricating the furler itself, and I have found these sails a lot easier to furl since doing this work.

So we now have confidence in our rig and a high level plan for its replacement which we need to finalise with Richard.  I believe as part of this we will replace all of the blocks that we have in the rig.  We also addressed a few things that will help to make it better in the short term and the thorough rig check was not expensive.

Everyone has some things they like and dislike about their boat.  There are probably two things that I can think of on Mariadz. The first is the wheel size compared to the gap in the cockpit.  The only way around the wheel is to go up on the cushions as there is no leg-width gap between the wheel and the seat.  The second is the amount of exterior storage in lockers etc.  This is minimal to the say the least and a lot less than we were used to on our previous Dufour 455.

In fact the outside storage space is the chain locker and the lazerette. We had previously partially addressed this by moving the life raft from its dedicated locker above the aft stateroom to a rail mount.  This gave us some space for the storage of flares, lines etc. Now clearly you cant go around randomly making new lockers on an old boat so we needed to get imaginative or more precisely steal others people’s imaginative ideas. One of these we saw on discovery yachts. A number of these have Fortress anchors as their kedge anchor setup, and after some research I had decided that this sounded the most sensible way for us to have a setup that could work for us with a twenty five tonne boat at cruising weight.  On the discovery boats, the kedge anchor was rail mounted which meant that it was mostly out of the way but also available quickly if needed.  The advantages were offset by the fact that you had a sharp, hard anchor that you could easily fall into but is this much worse than the pushpit rail?

However, the standard Moody 54 doesn’t have much pushpit space with two liferings, a danbuoy and, for us, a life raft already on there.  With the davits also restricting options and two two aft seats taking up more room, it is a little tight to say the least.

Another issue related to safety which was that the pushpit stopped before the clutches for the head sail and staysail. This meant that you were adjacent to the lifelines when you wanted to use these clutches. A more solid barrier would be safer.  Maria and I agreed to extend the pushpit by four feet to the next stanchion which gives us more room and a safer aft area.  This would also provide more rigidity to the pushpit when combined with the reinforcement we put in the stern section previously when we added braces from the davits to the pushpit.  The final item we needed to think about was the repositioning of the ensign required by the new solar panels.  This was also intended to be rail mounted although I was keen to go back to a wooden pole rather than the stainless one we had previously.

Once again, East Coast Stainless were asked to do this wotk and once again this needed to be fitted in amongst a lot of other work that they have.  I guess that is the problem when you are good and reasonably priced.  We are happy to wait and very pleased with the result.

Unfortunately, the work was a bit more than moving an angled stanchion and joining in a couple of tubes.  This was because we found some old damage on the stanchion itself which had a large dent.  This wouldnt be easily repaired and we knew that we would always notice the damage if we had just tried to repair it.  To be fair the cost of shaping a longer piece of metal rather than joining to the existing curved stanchion was reasonably similar anyway.  The finished job looks like it has always been there, just waiting for safety lines to be adjusted so that we can finish this part of the job.  The best part is you cant see the join between the new and old elements of the pushpit, very happy with the workmanship again!

So what will we do with all the space created? We already need to attach the ensign and putting it on the toe rail would probably cause issues with the lines running to the stern cleat so this is mounted to the pushpit.  We also have the anchor setup for the fortress and finally we have agreed, read Maria has decided (!), to add a holder for our Lotus grill so that it can be rail mounted.  This will be an adjustable mount that will allow us to stow it and then fix it for when we are having a BBQ.  More pictures to follow as these get fitted.

In early 2016, we discovered a hydraulic leak from the rams that deploy and stow the swim platform.  After a time, this stopped the swim platform working and we knew we would need to do some work to get it fixed, as a long term fix rather than a short term bodge.  Immediately after it happened we thought we wouldn’t be able to use the swim platform and this meant that on one occasion I abseiled down the stern on the passerelle line to get to the rib, and back up again when we returned.  Shortly after this we discovered that you could open the swim platform and close it by hand, which is difficult because it is heavy but not impossible – D’oh!  You do have to remember to open the valve in the hydraulics, or you cant do it at all, and reduce the resistance, or it is incredibly difficult.

For the next year, we opened the swim platform by hand when it was required while I worked out how to fix it.  I had searched the internet and spoke to the manufacturers of the original hydraulic rams, Bennetts in America.  After sending various pictures and measurements, they were able to find the rams I needed (HL12CDA).  I then had to wait for the next available transport to the UK, unless of course I wanted it delivered airmail which would be double the cost the of the rams themselves!  I waited.  The rams arrived and were ready for fitting and then I discussed with Lindsay when we could go about fitting them and getting the system working again.  In the interim, Matt, a marine engineer and very good friend of ours, was visiting and I picked his brain.  He persuaded me to do the ram swap myself and actually this transpired to be a lot easier than I imagined. I then needed to add hydraulic fluid (automatic transmission fluid) into the reservoir and bleed the system by using it and adjusting the flow to eliminate any air left in the system.

Unfortunately this uncovered another slight issue.  When the steering binnacle electrics had been changed, we couldn’t test the swim platform switching due to the failed rams and it seems that no matter which direction the switch was pressed the platform moved in the same direction.  However, you wouldn’t have thought that would be too hard to overcome!

Shortly afterwards though I was forced to recall my fathers advice – never put a new engine into an old car.  The stress of the super efficient new parts causes other items to fail further down the drive train – gearbox, clutch etc.  We were having similar problems with the hydraulic pipes after they had been re-bled with the new rams.  Most of the pipes are metal sheaved flexible pipes but there is one copper pipe and unfortunately the (olive) joint was faulty and hydraulic fluid was squirting out of it and making pretty patterns in my lazerette.  I took a look at this with Lindsay at Seapower and we discussed how to resolve the problem. The sensible decision was to replace the copper pipe with a new stainless steel flexible pipe. I went to the local specialists, Pirtek.  After one false start, when i pressurised the system and the new joint failed spraying hydraulic fluids everywhere, we were able to pressure test the remade pipe and get the hydraulics sorted.  I was back to being able to lift the platform but not drop it.  Most importantly, after nipping up a couple of joints, we don’t leak even a drop of hydraulic fluid.

In the interim, Maria and I had been speaking about how we can deploy the swim platform and had decided that a remote “garage door entry” would be useful for security when we are at anchor. We had also discussed about how to get on to the boat in the dark and although the spreader lights provide excellent light, we had decided to add lighting for the swim platform and the aft section onto the solar panel gantry. Again the courtesy lighting for the swim platform would be controlled remotely so that we could stay safe and secure, as much as possible.  The remote control was linked to some lighting work we were having done at the stern.  This meant a four button remote and a little bit of clever electronics since we also wanted to be able to switch these manually using buttons on the davits, similar to the ones that control the davits themselves.  Ollie was booked to fix the switch wiring and also to fit the remote.  Step one was identifying that two of the wires were incorrect at the switch and a quick swap around and these tested fine.  The remote was also a little more complex since we wanted it as additional to the switches.  We chose a bright LED light similar to our spreader lights for the swim platform and a softer light for the aft deck and we were in business.  We can now approach the boat, lower the platform and switch on lighting remotely.

So in the space of a week all of these issues were addressed.  It just took eighteen months to get to that week!

post blog note: I am outraged….I have been conned….betrayed by the woman I hold dearest!

Let me explain, Maria once mentioned that she would quite fancy underwater lights for Mariadz, similar to some of the larger motor boats.  I refused. We are talking another hole in the hull (there are already 20!) and I don’t think it is a good idea anyway.  Little did I realise that when Maria ordered her spot light on the stern it had a dual purpose. Firstly it provides a light to help you get back onto the swim platform. However, Maria suggested that we could “see what the light looks like if the swim platform is up…it will light up the water…..just like I wanted….” the sneaky so and so has got her own way (again!) 🙂

One of the final jobs of our lift out was to clean up the hull, superstructure and deck.  As part of this we identified a few things that needed to be addressed.  Although cosmetic, this work adds some finishing touches and makes Mariadz look even prettier 🙂

The hull polish went very well and is a quick job because the surface is mostly flat. She came up beautifully.  The gold vinyl stripe, which we intend to change next year to a painted stripe, is looking fine despite having been in place for over four years. So we can survive another year of that without doing anything major.

The superstructure needed some work and in fact we had some areas that needed a lot of work.  Particularly on the aft deck where the raised “sun-bed” area, meets the deck. The GRP at this point was “crazing”.  We were concerned that this would need a new layer of gelcoat to resolve but speaking to our local GRP specialist, Terry Clarke, we discovered that this needed very fine sanding with 400 and then 1000 wet and dry sand paper…… very gently!  The dark crazing was removed and, after polishing, this area looked like new which was refreshing considering this had been a bugbear of ours for a few years.

The final job was the teak which was cleaned and brightened to give it the brown look that Maria loves, lets see how long that lasts!  Unfortunately, as we went round the boat we discovered that the teak seating in the cockpit area is 0.5mm thick in places.  Although it would be possible to do some minor patching and fix the caulking, this would only be short term.  So we have decided that we need to do this properly and will replace the teak in the cockpit.  I spoke to Watts and Sons in Northampton to get a quote which didn’t seem unreasonable so we haven’t repaired the cockpit and will do the job properly when we have the chance.

In between the polishing and the teak work, we had a weekend and went sailing to Osea Island.  I got into trouble on my return for not cleaning down the hull well enough and leaving a layer of salt on the beautifully polished hull.  Sorry Terry, I promise it won’t happen again 😦 and Maria now has her watchful eye on me to make sure I don’t fail again :). The final point is how do we keep her looking good….. regular washing with a car shampoo will be our technique, definitely no using Fairy liquid which would strip the wax off very quickly and make her dull.  Hopefully that will help Mariadz stay pretty for another year.

Coinciding with our annual holiday to Italy, we decided to take Mariadz out of the water to have some essential work done.  There were a number of things on our list.  Firstly, earlier in the year we had a valve for a throughhull fail and we were concerned about certain others.  With our long term plans in mind, we decided to replace all throughhulls although we thought we may salvage some of them.  With air conditioning, deck drains, engine, generator, water maker and toilets, there are twenty through hulls below the water line on Mariadz. One of these had already been done!  In addition, the keel coolers for the fridge and freezer, built in to two of the through hulls had also failed and were depressurizing our system.  So these needed to be replaced too.  While we were out it was also time to rekey the coppercoat, refresh the antifoul on key spots, check anodes, service the prop and polish the topsides.  In addition we wanted the teak to be cleaned and some internal work.  A fair amount of work to get done in three weeks.  For most of our boat owning life we have used Watercraft UK, Steve Pike, to do these jobs and we had spoken to him about doing this earlier in the year because we know how busy he gets and wanted to be sure it would get done.  Having ordered the through hulls, I spoke to Stevie to discuss the work that needed doing a few weeks before the lift out.  He was even busier than we expected and he mentioned that the through hulls would get done but that the other work would need to be “prioritised” and some of it done when the boat was back in the water and we were back from holiday.  Maria and I discussed our options and decided, on this occasion, we couldn’t afford there to be delays and issues with the work.  We spoke to Terry Clarke (Terryclarkegrp@gmail.com), a very experienced “boatie” who does a lot of work in Ipswich and has an excellent reputation.  Terry went through the list with us and agreed to pick up the work. I just had to break the news to Stevie!  That done we were ready to take Mariadz out of the water.  Maria was going to be busy working so I asked Phil and the team to take Mariadz out of her berth which was done professionally and carefully. As she came out, there were quite a few barnacles and weed on her.  We also checked the prop since we had quite a bit of vibration from the prop which you could hear in the aft stateroom when under power.  There were a number of barnacles on the prop which could have caused the blades to not fully deploy and hence result in vibration, so the servicing of the prop is very important and something we need to check after its service.  As part of the lift out service, Mariadz is pressure washed which cleans nearly everything off the hull and then she is put in her place for the next three weeks, as we move onto the motorhome.

The biggest and hardest job is the through hull replacement and Terry and Ben get started on this first. We quickly find that the hope that we would be able to keep some through hulls or even salvage some of the existing ones.  Very quickly this became a pipe dream, as the through hulls started to come out.  Some of them were wobbling in place, some were becoming pink inside (a definite sign that they need changing) and some of the valves would not close properly which of course is a big issue if you needed to close these in an emergency.  The replacement goes really well despite some access issues and all of the through hulls are now changed.  The two in the galley which also acted as keel coolers for the refrigeration are replaced with standard large through hulls and the keel coolers are moved slightly.  These are changed from the vented coils to two porous blocks, with their own anodes, that soak up the water and cool the fridges.  Apparently this is a new design which cannot be blocked by weeds etc. so we are hopeful that our fridge and freezer issues are finally solved for the last time.  Also with the removal of the temporary fan solution, the noise in the galley has also reduced.  The rekeying of the coppercoat is done with a light sandpaper after I have gone round and removed the last remnants of any barnacles on the hull.  The hull anode which was replaced earlier in the year was also reasonably worn, but with some life left in it, but we decided to change this at the same time.  The hull had been well polished and is looking fantastic.

Mariadz has three air conditioning units and for the last year we have had several issues with the unit in the forepeak.  In the end this was traced to a new control board unit and I had to order this from HFL in Germany, in German!  Thankfully, google translate was my friend and it was all achieved via email.  While Mariadz was out, we replaced the PCB so one of the jobs when we get back into the water is find out whether this has finally solved our aircon issue in the forepeak.

One of the final jobs was to refresh the antifoul on the keel, P bracket that holds the shaft, a part of the rudder mechanism and finally the bow thruster tunnel.  This was all done in the last few days prior to the lift back into the water.

With all of this done, we were ready to go back into the water and this was scheduled, a little later than hoped on the Wednesday following our return from holiday.  I guess it gave me an opportunity to do some of the jobs myself which will be useful in future years.

The lift back in is uneventful but before we can get back on our berth we need to check for leaks and that the through hulls are seated correctly.  Terry is on board and checks all of the through hulls.  As he comes back on deck, he is pleased that out of nineteen through hulls, none of them leak.  I’m not sure I’m 100% happy with the hint of surprise in his voice….only joking, they have done a fantastic, meticulous job and it is not surprising at all. We have some minor problems with the old pipes connecting to the new through hulls but these are all addressed and there is no water coming into the boat. Interestingly, we were told that when the one through hull was done earlier in the year, the boat had to be relifted because the new one leaked which makes us even happier with our decision to use Terry!

Mariadz is returned to her berth and I can start to get the boat ready for Maria’s return.  The first job is to check that the air conditioning unit is working.  We bleed the pumps and switch them all on, after we have double checked that the though hulls are open of course! I also have a similar issue with the electric toilet where there is an air pocket in the pump and this needs to be bled.  Cleaning, putting the carpet back down and making beds before Mariadz is ship shape.