Petestack Blog

Tarps on boats typically cause as many problems as they solve. They obstruct access, rattle in the wind, risk rubbing the boat if in contact with (or lashed to) the hull, and don’t shed snow unless carefully framed to do so. So while Fly was necessarily under full tarp cover for a while, I didn’t really like the arrangement… and hated it when those Alkathene hoops buckled under the snow they couldn’t shed and loaded up the tarp over squashed tarp frame!

So I don’t normally like tarps on boats, but what I built this week is good (to allow work with the main hatch open any day and shed snow if I leave it up). Started Monday evening and finished tonight in equally gash, midgey conditions… (more…)

With work (yes, the ‘day job’!) looming on Monday and no chance of a fifth week full-time on Fly, I’m not going to get the forecabin fully stripped this holidays, but it’s getting there… (more…)

So we arrive at a major turning point for Fly, or what would be the turning point but for the late discovery of rot in the bow well. In a nutshell, the long-awaited last of the destruction (bar some new bow well preparation, which should be a much smaller job) before we start constructing again! (more…)

So I spoke too soon when I said on Wednesday ‘who knows where I’m going to find another 100 hours to strip back the forecabin, but at least that’s not holding up any comparable repair work.’ Because yesterday I set about stripping the remaining old linings from heads and forecabin so I could get going on the glue and paint beneath, and was actually quite enjoying that till the unwelcome discovery of rot in the floor and aft wall of the bow well, which are plywood and going to need a similar repair to the main bunk tops. (more…)

Yesterday, as well as ‘finishing’ the paint stripping job in Fly’s main cabin, I took the pressure washer to her decks and topsides… not for a really thorough clean when she keeps getting filthy sitting there long-term (already been cleaned several times during this lay-up period!) and the time for proper cleaning and (where appropriate) polishing is after the winter, but still looking and feeling much the better for it (compare 2015/16’s window aperture and window fitting photos). (more…)

Fly’s plywood main bunk tops were always problematic, and I know I’ve repaired the port one at least four times because I sent an email (subject line ‘Deja vu’) with photos to Twig Olsen and my dad in June 2003 saying ‘This is the fourth time I’ve tried to patch up this bunk top and I swear it’s the last!’ So, despite the discovery of the major water damage that finally finished them off in 2009 being initially devastating, something was going to need doing sometime anyway when they’re part of the boat’s structure. (more…)