Refit Week Three - putting things back together
Where Next?
Bob Williams
Sun 18 Oct 2026 05:42
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On the hard at Dockland 5 Marina, Whangarei
Weather: mostly sunny, warm
The weather on Sunday turned out fine and I am very pleased to report that all the holes I had cut into Sylph are now welded up. Lee, the welder, worked hard from the time he arrived at 0900 until he finished up at 1730 and I am very happy with the quality
of his workmanship. So, while the project has worked out significantly more expensive than I was hoping, in the long run it has probably worked out for the best.
Now that all the welding is done, I have started cleaning up, painting the bare steel, and fairing the hull. I have also started on another refit job, namely overhauling the anchor windlass. It is now in pieces on a tarpaulin under
Sylph’s hull. As I suspected, one of the springs in the mechanism had broken which, unsurprisingly, was causing the mechanism to behave erratically. The winch body needs repainting so that will take several days before I can replace the broken spring
and start putting the winch back together again. (Photos below to give an idea of progress to date.)
Yesterday I caught up with an old friend, Natasha, who lives in Whangarei with her two sons. We originally met in Antigua in 2004 when she and her (now ex) husband were running a charter fishing boat. We spent the evening at her place watching the Bledisloe
Cup, the All Blacks once again giving the Wallabies a hiding. Fortunately, the Aussies played much better in the second half, scoring several tries and successfully neutralising the New Zealand attack, so it wasn't a complete embarrassment. In all it was a
pleasant evening.
All is well.
Foredeck:
  
More photos follow (data problems!)
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