Refitting

VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Sun 24 Feb 2013 18:00
Our sojourn in the Yard here is becoming much longer than originally envisaged. We are letting our hull dry out in the lovely NZ summer, but we have exacerbated the issue by deciding to fit a new stainless steel arch on the stern to replace the hideous and ungainly radar pole that was there. The arch will carry a wind generator, two huge solar panels and nine aerials, plus davits for our nice new aluminium RIB. It's taken us ages to make our minds up (including one expensive and nearly disastrous false start, and more ages to build and fit. But we've just got to the stage of a dry run to test shape etc prior to finishing off.
 
Here it is:
 
 
Shipwright Noel Barrott on the left (he's circumnavigated twice in boats he built himself, the first time with no engine nor electrics of any sort), me in the centre and Tony the stainless man who actually built it on the right
 
Fine adjustment of the legs requires a person's body weight on it; as heaviest present I was elected. Tony is marking the bottom of the leading leg with a Sharpie pen prior to grinding a bit off.
 
And here it is from the side:
 
 
We think it's going to look very smart when finally finished. But that's not for some time yet as we're off on holiday to South Island for a few weeks, back here at Easter.