3rd Nov: End of season jobs

This year I took the sails off Seatern for the winter on 23rd October. It seemed early but there were various factors. The chief reason was worry about the aft deck.  When I was cleaning the decks on 12th October there was a crack and the aft deck started to feel flexible underfoot.  I’ve contacted Matt Newland at Swallow Yachts and he has suggested repairing the joint and sent me some glass fibre tape. Until I do it I’ve taped the crack to keep it dry. I also need to do a repair up near the anchor locker.

The wisdom of calling an end to the season was confirmed on the 26th October when, emerging from the cabin after an early morning reading session (Robin Knox-Johnstone “A World of my Own”) I noticed that a seam was parting on the sprayhood. With strong winds forecast I removed the sprayhood that morning and started looking for a repairer since my sewing machine is not strong enough for that sort of task. I chose Jerry Pascoe on Kemps’ recommendation (he works out of unit 8b at Kemps) and he went over all the seems at a very reasonable price.

Seatern looked different without the sprayhood; more sleek! It is almost always down when I’m sailing Seatern but it still forms quite an obstruction on the cabin top. On the other hand when Seatern is at the jetty it really does provide shelter for opening and closing the companionway.