Sunday Update
Spindrift
David Hersey
Sun 4 Nov 2007 11:36
first thing he did was to chop out the top of my bunk to get access. You
can see in the picture the big athwart ship beam that the Skeg's T-bar is
bolted and bonded to. He will have to expose the t-bar connection to
determine if its still intact. There are two t-bars standing-by in
Plymouth, one as per the original and another stronger one. Steve and
Sotiris are stripping out the steering quadrant in the lazerette. Mr
Princess needs as much access as possible.
What is worrying--and something I hadn't fully understood until
yesterday--is that there is no water barrier between the lazarette and
the rest of the boat. You can see the large hole (on the left) where the
steering rod passes through what should be a watertight bulkhead. Sealing
the various pipes and tubes on the right is no problem. Making a flexible
gaitor of some sort for the steering rod is more difficult but I believe
possible and absolutely necessary. Jimmy Cornell has pointed out that the
Rudder Area is one of the most vulnerable parts of a boat and over the
years the ARC has lost 5 yachts due to rudder failure. With the current
arrangement, should there be a rudder disaster---admittedly it's unlikely
to actually drop off---the boat would sink within minutes.
By end of play on Tuesday we are hoping to have a more accurate idea of
how long it will take to complete the repair. Meanwhile I'm going for a
very long walk.
