Sailing dinghy

Here is the little dinghy with Daisy G's mizzen n place.I think it might just work. saves having to carry a seperate sailing rig for her. The mast heel needs to be sorted out, it is quite loose.

Portuguese baby is finished

My little project is finished. I have just fitted a length of Daisy Grace's old main sheet around the gunwales as a fender. I'm am quite pleased with the way she looks, although the deck looks a bit like it was just dropped on top (which it was). I need to get a set of roof bars for my car before I can get her anywhere near water. We live on top of a limestone hill and there isn't a drop of free standing water around here.

I must cut back on junk on board

I have just spent the evening unloading everything from Daisy G and as always it horrifies me how much stuff I carry on board. Each year I promise not to do it. But it has all come out, all of the lockers are open and there are just some ropes left to remove which are shackled on (sheets and kicking strap.) At the weekend I hope to push her outside to give her a good scrub down before I start on any repairs and alterations. I enjoy the off season almost as much as the on saeson.

Daisy G back in her shed with the new baby, ready for winter tinkering

Building room is a bit tighter but not too bad. It smells like a dockyard with sea weed and mud. The first thing will be to get everything stripped out and to give the boat a good scrub. This will be the first winter that I have had Daisy G at home and under cover, so it will be fun to be able to work properly on her.

The lighting board fell off on the way back, again, and shorted out half my lights. I am abandoning using the trailer to hold the board. I will mount it on the boat itself from now on.

Daisy Grace is out of the water (7nm 393nm total)

Daisy G is back home. The weather was so glorious  (25C) that I motored over to Redhorn Quay for lunch before I hauled out at Baiter. The water ballast again came into its own. I was able to haul her onto her trailer with only one wheel partly in the water and just the tyre on the other. Everyone else was having to fully submerge their trailers on this horribly shallow pitched slipway. No problem towing home apart form the lighting board falling off and shorting out half my lights. I am going to fit it to the boat itself in the future. The low slung arms at the back of the trailer have given me nothing but trouble.

This just about shows the growth on the Coppercoat after six months on a mooring in Poole Harbour, which is a highly fouling area. There are some barnacles and some slime. I think it is remarkably clean. I shall leave them to dry of for a while at home and then they just brush off.

Now for all the winter jobs, including fixing that crack in the topside.