Serina spent most of January and February under cover at Quayside Marine again this year. Simon Beaven and I had planned a number of jobs – and got some of them done!

As ever, quite a number of unplanned jobs revealed themselves too – and took precedence over some of the planned ones.

The planned jobs were:

1. Replace the flexible coupling and cutlass bearing on the prop-shaft
2. Address the knocking sound/play on the rudder pintles
3. Take a look at more cracked paint on Serina’s main mast
4. Investigate the feasibility of moving Serina’s ignition switch and gear lever to somewhere less prone to being kicked by me – as I move around the cockpit
5. Polish and Antifouling.

After Simon’s work was finished, I planned to ask RopeWalk to replace Serina’s timing belt. Although her engine hasn’t got anywhere near the belt’s replacement hours, I thought it worth doing anyway after 10+ years as a broken belt would probably mean a new engine.

Needless to say, it didn’t turn out as simple as that!

Relaunching

The engine saga!

It was an eventful and successful Winter’s work. I also managed to fit in a weekend to service Serina’s winches.

Finally I’ve also written a word or two about Nigel Sabin’s work on Hebe‘s new tiller.

Cheers, Hugh