Late Autumn trips

 

red track, 7th October, 5.8nm; yellow track, 19th October 7.7nm

These were the final tracks from the 2025 season.  Soon after the final one, the weather took a turn for the worse and 'named' Autumn storms started to increase in number.  Just before one of them, the boatyard took pity on Daisy IV and hoisted her ashore, despite me not asking for this.  Whilst it brought a rather abrupt end to the season, I wasn't overly concerned since it saved me the bother.  I brought her back home for some cleaning before taking her back down to the yard and covering her up for the winter.

Lots of Spring jobs in mind...

Late August and September tracks, and dinghy repairs

As ever, the weather has cycled through various events, some of which were conducive to sailing, others not.  However, I have managed four brief sails over the past five weeks.

A blustery sail up to Ipswich Docks, where the weather did its worst…

28th August, white track, 2.8nm; 8th Sept, red track, 4.4nm; 23rd Sept, green track, 8.5nm; 27th Sept, yellow track, 8.5nm.

In the meantime, I was able to do some repairs to the tender which I picked up in a bit of a hurry early this season, and which spends its year at the boatyard at Pin Mill.  Chief amongst the issues were a damaged keelband and two 'watertight' buoyancy tanks, fore and aft, which were decidedly not watertight!  So this was a good opportunity to practise some fibreglass repair work.  Herewith, some pictures of the process:

Practising calligraphy…(badly!)

The keel area just forward of the rear 'skeg' of the keelband was badly damaged.  As per this picture, I was able to grind this back to the original wood and epoxy a number of layers of fibreglass repair tape, which can just be seen in the picture and which seem to be holding up well.

The bit right at the end of the skeg needs some reinforcement and tidying up but it looks basically watertight, despite appearances so can wait till late in the year.

Here's the bow buoyancy chamber.  I had to remove and the the reseal the white watertight inspection hatch, using sikaflex.  I then dug out the loose and cracked bonding between the bottom edge of the thwart and the inside hull, epoxied a layer of fibreglass repair tape right across the join and then painted the whole section in grey Danboline bilge paint.  I could have made much more of this, and tarted-up the whole interior, and indeed the exterior but don't want to get too carried away and make the dinghy to be too attractive to anyone looking to 'borrow' this fine ship for any extended period of time…!

Similar repairs done with the stern chamber.

While I was at it, a few dings and scrapes were mended on the hull, which I decided at this point not to paint again for security reasons.

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

Ipswich Docks

 A pleasant afternoon sailing up to Ipswich Docks.  I hadn’t been up here for a number of years!

Sally managed to catch a few distant snaps of me from the shoreline just upstream from Pin Mill!

11.4nm

Family Sail with five aboard

 A lovely afternoon sail with family.  Five adults aboard.  It was interesting to see the boat's ability to handle such a heavy load under sail.  She pointed less well but this was possibly due to light winds.  When gusts came over, as ever, she was up to the task and quickly built up speed!

Daisy IV now has a new sail bag to protect sails and spars while she is on the mooring, and also a fine new bumpkin following the unfortunate snappage at the end of Morbihan!.

5nm

Sailing with the spaniels

 We moved to Chelmondiston in late March, but it has taken until today to enjoy a first sail with the two dogs.  This we managed over high water this afternoon!

4.7nm

More sailing in company, May 16

 Following yesterday’s sail, we were joined by Rita May for more sailing in company.  Winds were northerly and quite unforgiving, gusting F5/6 at times, and the Orwell was plenty bumpy enough for us not to consider going elsewhere.  So we worked our way upstream and had a pleasant lunch stop on the shore opposite Freston.  It wasn’t really filming weather but we managed a few snaps of the four boats at lunch!

10.5nm

Jimbo and Amazon come to play!

 Jimbo and Amazon came over to Suffolk Yacht Harbour for a few days of sailing.  I popped down to help them launch and enjoy a short sail with Amazon.  

Winds were a little gusty at times and Daisy IV had a modest double reef in the main, which still helped her pootle along at some speed - up to 5 knots against the tide and well over 6 knots with the tide.

Hopefully, some more sailing tomorrow.

9.9nm

New season, new location

…although, actually not so new.  Daisy IV is now on a mooring at Pin Mill, which is where Daisy II spent many a happy season about 10 years ago.  The difference is that we now live just up the hill in Chelmondiston - a short walk rather than a 90 minute road trip!

Daisy IV at Pin Mill

Daisy IV thus far has indulged in short trips up and down the River Orwell.  This post is just a 'catch-up' to place those on the record.

1.0nm, launch on 29th March

9.0nm, 12th April

7.3nm, 20th April

3.1nm, 24th April

8.6nm, 2nd May

10nm, 9th May