River Orwell rally and East Coast cruise, August 2026

 

Exiting the Walton Backwaters

72.4nm

The story here is that I had to end my involvement in the cruise a couple of days early.  The O-bolt, by which the lower block on the mainsheet connects with the hull, pulled out of its housing.  I rigged a temporary set up in light airs to get me back to Pin Mill.  The fix was to source a new bolt, nut and associated washers, reach down and along through the bilge with a nut and washer and connect with the new o-bolt going through the hole, and then tighten.  That’s the theory.  The practice was devilishly fiddly, but I somehow managed to get there in the end.

Mended, with new bolt and penny washers included both on top and on the underside.  The worrying thing is that no nut was found in the bilges from the previous fitting.  So I have no idea how it has taken this long to break.  This component copes with considerable forces.

Early trips and repairs…

 I ran a little behind with the maintenance of this blog, so have lumped together various trips into one post, which I'll backdate to May.

Six sails happened during this period, prior to the boat coming back off the mooring for some mid-season maintenance, and preparation for a few trailer trips which will feature on subsequent posts.

Between the first and second trips, I had to indulge in some unexpected maintenance.  The mooring strop became tangled around my centreplate and the centreplate uphaul snapped.  To cut a long story short, the boatyard helped me run the boat onto the Hard, they then winched her up onto one of their slings and I had a weekend to put things right.

Centreplate woes.  Daisy IV hanging ready for necessary repair work!

At this point, a new strop has been fitted, but the plate is incorrectly positioned - the plate shouldn’t hang down vertically like this since this impacts negatively on performance.  I needed to haul up on the strop so that the black bead just disappears up into the case, at which point the plate is angled at around 70 degrees to the horizontal.  To get this positionally correct, single handed, required some patience, but I managed in the end!

Which subsequently happened, although it wasn’t an easy job.  If I find the time and the patience, I might get round to writing it all up in due course!  The important thing is that, for the most part, the repair has worked, although later in the season I have had to change the rope I used for the uphaul, since the initial one was too stiff and wouldn’t spool around the wheel effectively.

The following video was from my trip on 18 April:

I also took some footage when I dry-recovered the boat back onto the trailer.  Which means I've now launched and recovered the boat onto the Hard at Pin Mill.  Who needs expensive slipways!?

Finally, a list of the trips, with colour links to the ensuing map:

20th March: White track, 4.3nm

2nd April: yellow track, 6.7nm

6th April: red track, 8.2nm

18th April, green track, 8.7nm

3rd May, orange track, 5.7nm

25th May, pink track, 0.4nm (!)

Total length of tracks: 34.0nm

Fitting out, 2026

 

Daisy IV hibernating!

It has been a busy Spring.  Daisy IV had been rather neglected at the start of last season due to us moving to the coast, and having so many other things to do.  I never really caught up with the various things that needed doing.  So, late in February this year, I brought her, from her winter hibernation at the boatyard, back to the house to do a number of much needed pre-season jobs.

One was to replace, once again, the auto bilge pump.  The bilge pump is an absolute necessity since, unlike previous boats, the boats design means that the bulk of any rainwater, when n her mooring, generally doesn’t drain out through the scuppers, but rather gathers in the bilge.   The one I purchased last year, a Whale Supersub, was frankly next to useless.  The auto function never really worked properly and either didn't come on when required or, when it did work, forgot how to suck out the bilge water and, having sparked into life, refused to turn off...  So, this season, I purchased a new manual Rule pump and linked it up to a 'Waterwitch' float switch, and this finally seems to have worked well.

Waterwitch float switch

 Time will, of course, bear true testimony to this claim…  

Meanwhile, I am trying to regenerate a cover which came with the boat and might potentially be useful in diverting rain away from the bilges.  More on that in due course…

Whilst working on the bilge pump, I took the opportunity to overhaul the modest electrical wiring in the boat, building and installing a wooden mounted box housing the fuse box, so that all the wiring is now hopefully kept better organised and safe from any accidental problems - such as aforementioned water gathering in the bilge!

I also spent some time working on the centreplate downhaul which, when removing the cover for inspection, turned out to be showing alarming signs of wear.  This will be covered in a separate post since the saga continued post-launch.

The next thing was to fill an alarming number of deck holes which had been deliberately, one might say recklessly created by the previous owner, with his various mad projects.  So, making use of a fibreglass repair kit, these were made good albeit that I have erred on the side of functionality rather than cosmetic finishing - the looks of it all can wait for another day - but I couldn't wait until the start of the new season.

The final thing was to fit a brand new sprayhood and tent.  Unfortunately this hasn't been quite so successful as hoped since the tent Anglia Yacht Brokerage had ordered for me was incorrectly fitted, and so has had to go back for some important changes.  I remain ever hopeful that this will return in time to get some serious usage later in the summer.

And then there was the usual wood treatment, cleaning and polishing, prior to the first launch date which is due to take place on 20th March, well within my notional target to be afloat before All Fools Day.

Launch day!

Mast issues and repair

The excitement of the past week has been a breakage in the rigging system.  One of the eye bolts which run through the top of the mast sheared open, and the mainsail and yard came crashing down on the leeward deck.  Sally and the dogs had been aboard at the time and, in quite spicy conditions, I had only moments earlier asked her to come and join me on the windward side, thus avoiding any injury...

Sheared Eye bolt at the masthead which previously held a block facilitating the yard uphaul.

Fortunately, the unstayed mast stayed firmly in place.  Nevertheless, the mast had to be transported home for some repair work.

Carbon fibre damage, mainly caused due to the incorrect mounting of the eyebolts - some penny washers might have helped...

Closer inspection showed that the previous owner hadn't mounted the M8 bolts correctly, neglecting to use penny washers and meaning that the underlying carbon fibre had been compromised.

The advice from Alex at AYB was to remove any carbon splinters, glass round a section of fibre tape.  I did this both inside and out for good measure.  I then redrilled the holes.  

I'd never previously used glass fibre tape, but had used epoxy.  Having previously watched plenty of videos only, the repair was managed with ease and I'm quite pleased with the strength of the repair.  For good measure, I put fibre tape both inside and outside the masthead.

Finally, a job which certainly needed doing, the mast was clothed top to foot in shrink wrap - lucky I had a heat gun to complete this job.  This not only enhances the look of the mast, but offers some really helpful UV protection for the carbon fibre - hopefully significantly adding to its longevity.

It's necessary to leave the bottom section unsheathed since this is the bit that goes down into the deck.

I sourced this through Hilltop Products.  5m of 101.6mm Inner Diameter tubing (before shrinking), with a 2:1 shrinking capability - more than sufficient for this 80mm diameter mast.

I sourced some brand new M8 through bolts from s3i online - two were required - since the originals had been bent.  I also sourced appropriate penny washers at Fox's which will hopefully prevent further damage to the mast - at least spreading the stress across a wider area.  I also took the opportunity to epoxy the top bung, which is now rather more firmly wedged in place.

The repair was tested out yesterday with a gentle sail from Pin Mill.  

I also took the opportunity to change a few aspects of the rigging, most notably a piece of cord which is designed to hold the boom to the mast and catch it when it falls.  I have now copied the rigging from a few other boats to see if it improves matters.

Daisy IV at the jetty at Pin Mill.  Repaired mast fully rigged and tested.

Sail up - it all works...!

Red track 3.7nm - this was from August 9th, when the rigging broke.
Yellow track from August 14th - 4.7nm - a successful test of the repaired rigging

Deep down in the darkest recesses…

 Deep down in the darkest recesses of any boat lies a place that few dare to venture.  It's an unforgiving space, full of rancid smells, foul gunge and, all too often associated with things which, at best, haven’t been operating as should well be the case.  Anyone who finds themselves here is visiting the boat's bilges. 

I had reason to poke around here over the past few days since the bilge pump, which is necessary for pumping out water that habitually accumulates here, wasn’t working properly.  If there is a weakness in the Deben Lugger design it is the fact that much of the rainwater doesn’t run off through the scuppers, and finds its way into the bilge.  A decent rainstorm, whilst on the mooring, will lead to a significant accumulation of water which, if left unchecked, could eventually lead to the hull being submerged.

Following this week's storms, Daisy IV found herself  many litres of water in the bilges, and reaching over the floorboards.  A subsequent inspection of the hull revealed a Rule bilge pump connected to a Rule-a-matic float valve.  Previously this has only been used in its 'manual' mode of operation, since the thing wouldn’t switch off once the hull was emptied, as it is intended to do.

The problem seems to be with the float valve which was incorrectly installed at a level which was little higher than the bilge pump, so that the water level could never quite reach the depth required for the float valve to sit sufficiently low to switch off the electricity supply.

Eventually I managed to remove the float valve, and have now added a centimetre of supporting wood so that it sits high enough to operate as intended.  So, we shall await with interest the outcomes of the next deluge…

Following this piece of maintenance, it seemed the only sensible thing to go for a little sail.  The tide was in its early ebb, so it was good to beat upstream against a F3 NWW breeze, before a run downstream as the wind increased to F4.

9.4nm