Out Of The Water

Actually Sunday, 21st October

It took a while to find the little Contessa this weekend, she'd been hauled out and left in a rather remote part of the yard, at least it was peaceful there. Naturally the ladder I'd brought with me was just a bit too short to safely get on deck, fortunately I was able to find a friendly neighbour  let me use his one to get on board; all in all a rather delayed start to the day.

Seeing the hull for the first time was "interesting", the copper coat certainly had seen better days and the patches put on by the previous owner looked less than adequate, good job it was all going to be stripped off.  With the configuration of the rudder and keel visible it was clear why I'd had difficulties in manoeuvring, they are quite close together and not that different from the long keel that Alize, our last yacht ( A Tradewind 35), had. Quite different from a modern spade rudder right back on the stern like Meltem (our Storm 33) that enabled her to turn on a sixpence.  At least the propeller was well shielded by a solid skeg which should help ward off problems if we have any more close encounters with unwelcome lobster pots.

No time for admiring her lines with a weekend of varnish stripping ahead of me, it's proving to be a slow old job. There seem to be countless layers needing repeated application or very tough patches where the stripper makes little impression. It does come off eventually and leaves a reasonable surface behind provided I don't rush the sanding down. By the time I've had enough after the weekends work I've used up 6 litres of Nitromors and am only about half way though the interior. So much for my estimates of the time required, I'd got that seriously wrong!

Welcome respite from the scraping came when a friend and former yacht broker dropped by to have a look around. I was pleased that after lots of prodding and poking he made the pronouncement that she was a sound example of the design and should come up well after the work I'd planned. Much the same conclusion as the surveyor although he thought all Contessa's were over priced. Given that there clearly is a market for quality Contessa 32's I began to realise that cutting corners wasn't going to be the best option. Somehow we would have to work out how to factor in sorting out things like the interior woodwork properly and to a high standard if we were to get the result we were seeking not to waste time and money. 

On the way in over the bridge to Hayling Island I had thought something had change and on the way home realised what it was, all the yachts moored between the bridge and the old railway supports had disappeared in a single week! It would be interesting to find out why, was it a harbour bye-law or was there a special deal at the local yard?