London Dinghy Show

About 25 members of the sailing club travelled to Alexandra Palace in North London to support the club as we had been shortlisted for thre RYA sailing club of the year award. As well as keeping an eye out for a bargain or two!

It was all very exciting, Swanage Sailing club had made it to the last five in the country to receive the award. We didn't win but it was a great honour to be up there amongst the finalists. Top honours went to Gurnard Sailing Club on the Isle of Wight. We were secretly relieved as once we saw the the size of the trophy we realised we would have to have a new trophy cabinet!!!

The floor finished

Well thats it done but in hindsight maybe we should have hired a cement mixer. Luke and I both have backache now.

Next onto fitting the doors, door furniture and refitting the alarm.

We are off to the dinghy show tomorrow, Swanage Sailing Club are in the top five shortlist for club of the year. There's a good contingent of us going so should be a good day out.

Luke hard at work, leveling the floor

30 years of not throwing stuff away!

All the bits and bobs that were banished to the garage are now piled up in half a garage. Theres no room to move. I will miss having the space to do stuff here. It's been a garage, a car repair shop, I've built a rowing boat in here, built furniture, mended bikes. Why am I selling it again?

The floor

Project Studio

With Luke now wanting to extend his music publishing capabilities further, we have gone into project mode and are extending his studio. This involves refurbishing the garage which has been in a state of disrepair for some years. The end and side walls of this end of the garage were cracked and ready to fall down. So after propping the roof up, I helped it on it's way. You can just see the bow in the side wall thats being held in place by bracing.






Then you rebuild it, adding a brand new door.

Yes I know the courses are not level but I felt more important to be able to "stitch" the bond into the side wall when the time came.

Once the walls had been built and the room was all cosy we put up 4" of acoustic lagging followed by two layers of 12mm plasterboard. The room became a lot quieter almost as soon as the last piece was up.



A hole was sawn through into the mixing room and a frame put in and sealed with caulking. This frame was later triple glazed.







Then the whole room was dry walled using the direct bonding method




Then we added the electrics all surface mounted

Next the floor!!!

Haven't even thought about the blog for months. As I have started a diary I suppose the next thing is to resurrect this. We have been away to guernsey, Watanga's longest journey to date and certainly the longest time away from home.

Guernsey was great, we went for the Regatta which had all sorts of things going on, Races concour's de elegance, sea shanties, sail pasts. Plus a host of evening entertainment. Survived the channel crossings, but found them a bit boring.

The Islands were a fun place to sail around with lots of pilotage challenges. That in lay terms means there were rocks everywhere and you had to be on your toes with the navigation.

Happy Christmas everyone, I hope you all had a great time, we were certainly busy, as is custom we hosted the whole family on Christmas day. That was 10 of us. I had the dinner preparations worked out like a military operation. Happy to say I nailed it spot on. Never been so happy with the way everything went. We were all so stuffed we didn't have tea and only a very light supper.

Boxing day was a funny one for me I got up went for a bath jumped out to find Nicky going out the door. Where you off to, I asked. To meet the relee's at Brentford was the reply. It was at this point I realised it was the middle of the afternoon, not 10 o clock or so that I thought it was. Should have asked for a watch this xmas.

Of to Swanage today sometime. Get ready for all the Parties. Well three anyway, should be fun
I'll try to get some stuff done on the boat as well.

Four Days to Xmas. Tommorow is shopping day for all but the perishables. I must make a list. The house is a tip the seond bedroom has two more walls to plaster and then decorate. I ain't going to make it. Never mind it was a good try.

Just saw the secret millionaire on TV. What a great tv idea, and what a nice thing for well to do people to get involved in. Sadly what a terribly put together program. Yes we get the drift from the title that the millionaire may be undercover but do we have to be reminded by the narrator every 5 minutes?

The more I work the more it piles up. After watching the floor fitter work laying my new laminate flooring, I was inspired to be more efficient and positive in my DIY work, and to be honest it's working. Having taken 6 -- 8 weeks to finish off the back bedroom, I have steamed ahead on the front bedroom. I have to replace the lighting wiring with modern stuff then skim the walls with plaster and it's ready for decoration, 5 days and counting. This may have to be postponed a while whilst Xmas preparations take over. It is a worry as I haven't planned the food and we've 10 people sitting down to the table oo-er. I don't mind the cooking it's keeping it warm and ready for serving that the problem.

Must buy some presents too.

It was meant to be a quick trip to Swanage for a meeting on tuesday and take the living room carpet up on wednesday. Things as usual took longer than expected and I didn't get back until Friday.

It was great to catch up with the guys from the MES department (a bit of a reunion) We went to the orange tree in Richmond. Graham, Paul, Mark. Julian, Elaine, Matt, Clare, Lucy, Ruth, Roger and myself.

What a windy week! Can't help but worry about the boats and if they are safe and standing up to the conditions, It's going to be blowing like this for the next week at least.

Meanwhile the Back bedroom is now almost finished. The doors has to be hung, also the curtain rail. bits of fitting and painting to do then we can move in and go on to the next room.

Xmas finish for the project is not going to happen. There are too may other things to do. Now wishing I hadn't gone into the trimaran syndicate. Another drain on my time is the membership secretaries job., I have no idea how much time that is going to take. Must organise my time better and not waste so much time with idle browsing on the internet.

What a busy weekend that was. Even so it was also relaxing. The Dinner and Dance was a great success this year with good venue, good food, and a great band. Little too much to drink but that is just par for the course. The AGM was much as it always is with no great changes and the usual turnout of regulars. The rest of saturday was watching sport on the telly. New Zealand demolished the welsh and South Africa beat the English.

Sunday in the active sailors meeting saw Greg take over as sailing secretary but little else changes. Tougher rules on winter berthing. Well no, thats not quite true, the rules have always been there, we have just been lax in applying them.

More interesting was the possibility of becoming a part owner of a 42 ft trimaran, We picked it up and moved it on Monday. It has seen better days and although it is very tatty it is basically sound. First job is to beef up the repaired rudder and then see how well she sails. Then it's a matter of deciding weather she is a white elephant or a worthwhile proposition.

Yippee we're off to Swanage tommorow. A busy weekend ahead with Club Dinner dance Friday, AGM Saturday, and active sailors meeting Sunday. The back bedroom is nearly complete now. Jobs to do are New Door to fit, doors on the fiited cupboards, carpet, curtains then move in.

Nuff of the boring stuff, what's all this about supernannies for out of control kids and their families. Presumably on the National health. and imposed by the courts. What is missing is a lack of control to start with and this is missing because the government pass laws that prevent us from smacking, prevent police from disciplining and generally let the younger generation get away with just about anything. Now I only had occasion to smack my kids a couple of times when they were young (they're both bigger than me now). By the time they had pushed the limits of misbehavior too far and they had been adequately warned they received the punishment. They then knew the boundary and the consequences. I believe that this is why they never had to be smacked again.

Why is it so many teachers get assaulted by kids nowadays ( I never once heard of it when I was at school). Because there is no retribution, they can get away with it, and from a very young age they know that and play on it. I was caned at school which was not at all painful, it was the wait outside the headmasters office was the worst bit. what can the head do now? Warn repeatedly then expel. Derrrr that what they want ... not to go to school!


Enough ranting. I have two fine sons who have grown up God fearing and well behaved, I hope I played some part in that, but for the most part I think it's luck.

At last things seem to be progressing on the decorating front. You work all day, each day and nothing seems to change. The room still looks a mess and it's hard to keep focused, still they say it's all in the preparation. But now the paint (undercoat) is on and I'm on to building the cupboards, suddenly the room looks brighter. No more plaster dust to breathe for a while. Things are not being helped by a cold I've caught which along with the weather is making me feel lousy.

Must start to do some work on my various websites, Nicky has suggested some modifications to the Watanga site, to make it more readable. The Swanage Sailing Club site is up for it's annual revamp. Over the years it has got messy, (structurally that is) and has become a mixture of old and new styles. Average screen resolutions have gone up over the years so it's time to take advantage of that and fit more on the page.

After I've finished this room.........

Phew it's Friday, well Saturday already. Have been in Swanage since Tuesday, decided it was time to take a break from house renovating and get on with winterising Watanga. Now thats easier said than done as I've never been in this position before and apart from not knowing what to do, when you find out it's what do you do first. When presented with the list of items that need checking they all seem to want to be done first.

I decided that the engine being the most expensive replaceable item ought to come first. Changed the anode and extracted a couple of impeller vanes from the heat exchanger. To warm the oil I led a feed from the galley tap to a bucket (large) removed the raw water inlet pipe from the sea cock put that in the bucket and fired her up. at 1400 rpm she had run the tank dry so a quick tank swop and emptied the other as well. Just before it ran out I mixed antifreeze in the bucket and let that draw through. Used a pump to empty the engine oil, replaced the filter and refilled with fresh oil. Taped up the exhaust.

Need To Do Check / clean air filter. change fuel filter, change impeller.

Serviced the sonic leg

to do reseal lower bearing block with instant gasket send prop to be repaired.

Emptied and blew out all water pipes with air pump

discovered and fixed water leak

How to test the RCD on your consumer unit

It was the classic laurel and hardy scene. I was on a stool painting the wall with a PVA glue solution. I step sideways onto a trestle, the trestle wobbles, I panic jump to the floor, the pot of glue solution (about a pint of) goes over the wall, my shoulder, my arm and the window. expletives follow. Then I watch as almost in slow motion, the solution runs down the wall into the electrical socket and all goes quiet, well until there are a few more expletives.

Then a voice from downstairs says...... you can guess

Meanwhile I'm trying to disconnect the socket to flush the glue out, clear up the mess and stop my shirt becoming part of my arm. -

yes of course I realise the TV's not working!!!!!

Oh and by the way the RCD on the consumer unit works fine.

The Fireworks are cancelled. At a time when the government are pushing for safety on bonfire night and that, rather than let fireworks off yourself , you should go to an organised display. What do Hounslow council do, they cancel the well established firework display in Lampton park. Why? Due to lack of funds apparently, the council now feel that bonfire night is not cost effective. I hope residents of Hounslow remember this on election day.

Meanwhile diy continues apace, spent Thursday stripping all the wallpaper from walls and ceiling, Friday cutting out all the live plaster and refilling with bonding. Saturday continued with finish plastering. I am not the worlds fastest plasterer but I'm starting to be pleased with the results. I must be getting better at it. Downside of the plastering is the tennis elbow has flared up bigtime, I've still got three walls and maybe the ceiling to do!!

All this work is making me look forward to my next visit to Swanage.

The sudden cold snap is making me panic. Last night it went down to about 3 degrees and tonight it is already 2 degree and falling. After all this warm weather i took a chance and didn't drain the water systems on the boat. I just hope that there is no damage. The engine should be OK as it has antifreeze but the various pumps and the water heater are a different matter, it could be a costly mistake on my part.

Back here in London, Reg went for his cataract operation today and seems to have fared quite well, Nicky is staying in with him tonight. His follow up appointment is next friday week. Nicky says she will ask if he wants to come to Swanage for a few days to rest.



Refurbishments coming along. Framework to hide cylinder now in place, started stripping the walls and ceiling, there will be quite a lot of plastering to do soon as the old stuff is pretty naff.

Never was much good at writing diaries, as you will note I have now missed 3 days on the trot, mainly cos I've been too busy. Swanage on friday via chandlery to order new part for the windlass. Evening busy making lists and familiarising myself with the stuff I want to do on the boat on Saturday.

Sat

Get various bits together for working on the boat, then off to Watanga.
The leak that has been manifesting itself as pools of water under the bed mattress and mould on the cupboard door I have traced to the baby forestay mount. Had to cut the headlining to get to the nuts of the deck fitting. Only a minimal amount of sealant found and lots of water, and the backing plate going rusty. The complete headlining is soaked. Reseal with large helping of sikaflex ( may never be able to remove backing plate now) Set up heater in forward cabin to try and drive water out from headlining.

Serviced the windlass ready for new part when it comes in. Removed several gallons of water from rear lazerettes. Think this is rainwater entering through rudder lift mechanisms( there has been a lot of rain).

The racing season ends tommorrow, so spent the evening at the sailing club, the last race party. Bangers and mash, Jim Etherington singing and too much beer. A good night.

Sun

Take part in the last race, not much wind, excellent start first over line at start, but fell foul of the avarage lap curse. I was far enough ahead to have to do an extra lap, then wind died. So go from possibly first to last in one foul swoop. (This will only make sense to you if you understand how average lap racing works.)

Lousy journey back to London, very heavy traffic, I guess it's the half termers going home.

Today

The clocks going back have messed with the body time as usual, Woke quite refreshed at 7:30 today. I don't normally see much before 9:00 as a rule.

Made some good progress with the jobs list. Mended reg's taps, fitted some isolators, and fixed the outside security light. Put up the false wall in back bedroom to hide the fireplace.