Adventures in boat maintenance

Our adventures have been close to home of late. The fact that it's so nice to be by the water during an Australian summer, in our home town, combined with the sorry state of both house and boat (requiring extreme maintenance) necessitated efforts on the home front. We were also needing a survey for boat insurance purposes so time was of the essence- just to add extra pressure!

For those of you familiar with larger boats, you'd understand that annual anti-fouling is a must. It's a yucky job; requiring slipping, cleaning, sanding, preparing, re painting and attaching new anodes amongst other dirty jobs. Getting her onto the slip was a bit of a challenge to begin with, due to her size (45 feet), the shape of her hull- semi-planing and the cradle posts being a bit sticky or scratchy. She kept slipping down on the starboard side. It took almost a full hour filled with more than a few nervous moments, and ended with the small work boat being sent out and four men jumping up and down on the port side of the stern. Chris was one happy fellow when she was safely on dry land. (Last time she was slipped, she dropped down and required extensive/expensive repairs.)

 She kept snagging on the port side.

 Help was at hand- thanks to the harbour hands!

And a very bored little explorer... she was building sandcastles on the pier and collecting shells.

 

 Showing off Princess Ariel.

Here's a photo of what we encountered when we first slipped the Kerry Dee...

We had a big job on our hands. Just arranging all the scaffolding took over three hours, four men and one woman.

Here's how she came up after many hours of sanding, prepping and painting...

 The painting/ rolling of anti-foul is a yucky job- very messy. Chris was responsible for under the waterline and Tara responsible for above and topsides. In the above photo Chris is reapplying the anodes.

 at the end of a long weekend!

 About to be re-floated! All went smoothly.

Special thanks to the lovely Nanna and Aunty Denise with whom Amelia was able to stay while Chris and I worked non-stop all weekend. Amelia loved her sleepover so much she didn't want to come home! Thanks to cousin Kat as well for taking Amelia swimming.

We were delighted to get the job done, boat surveyed, approved and back in the pen... all done for another year! Now to get fishing...