Barbecues and Maintenance

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Sun 23 Apr 2023 03:07

Alongside Royal Brighton Yacht Club Marina
Wind: calm
Sea: calm Swell: nil
Weather: mostly sunny, mild

Since our return to Melbourne last Tuesday, the week has been taken up with the continuous cycle of maintenance on old Sylph, as well as helping brother Mark purchase and put together his family birthday present, a new Weber barbecue.

In addition to the little rust spots that always need attention, the major maintenance task has been a second attempt at refurbishing the old Muir Hercules manual anchor windlass. Unfortunately my last attempt was not very successful with the ratchet mechanism working erratically. So just last week I managed to purchase a secondhand windlass of the same make and model, which has proven hard to come by. I have now stripped down both windlasses, stripped the paint off the body of the 'new' windlass and started re-painting it. Once that is completed, I will then use the best bits from both windlasses to hopefully make one that works properly.

And on the barbecue front, Mark and I purchased the new Weber on Thursday, managed to fit it in the back of his old Porsche, got it back to his place, put it together in the afternoon, and gave it a trial run that evening. It got the thumbs up from all concerned, including, most importantly, Issy and Archer. Its formal commissioning ceremony will take place when the family celebrates Mark's birthday next month.

All is well.