It's Starting To Come Together Again

It's difficult to be immune from feeling the ups and downs that are inevitable with a restoration project like this, especially as this is now month 6 of what was intended to be a six month project. Fortunately there's no desperate need to get her into commission on a set date and things are steadily coming together. It's just that that phrase "everything takes four times longer than you think" keeps echoing in my head. 

Progress on the electrics, which is the more interesting part of the project, has had to be put on the back burner while other things like making her watertight take priority. With the work on the bottom largely complete we've got to be ready for a move outside which would be less than ideal without any windows in place. We've been screwed up by screw sizes; the windows were shipped with ones that were never going to fit, much too short. The problem is that the inner fibreglass liner has sprung away from the deck moulding in places so some quite long screws are needed to pull them together, at least on a temporary basis. I ordered some A4 quality screws on the internet that were great price wise, arrived promptly but were the wrong length; fortunately ABC Marine next door had plenty in stock, I should have tried them earlier. Naturally, putting in windows is a two handed job, and my first offer of help had to be cut short due to the screw problems. Fortunately a good friend, Clive, jumped in at short notice and together we were able to make a really good job of installing them. I'll be very surprised if any water gets in after the care we took to get a really good layer of sealant in place all round all eight windows.

The next priority has to be finishing off the engine compartment which also means fitting and commissioning the heating system. Once all this is done we can get the engine back in and put her back in the water. With time running out I left the engine clean up to Dale, the resident engineer who's been particularly helpful. Now that it's all cleaned up, repainted, serviced, and fitted out with new piping, it looks very different and ready to be the centre piece of the rebuilt engine bay.
Even though we only let Z-Spars know some of the final specifications a week or two ago the mast has now arrived all neatly wrapped in polythene and looks very good too. With new rigging and halyards it's going to make the Contessa look much smarter and, hopefully, will mean that we don't have any maintenance problems. Even better Richard has found a buyer for the old mast, it may not be much but saves the effort of chopping it up with an angle grinder and putting it in as skip! It does set another priority though, stripping off the winch and furling gear that we plan to re-use.

The one thing that we're totally dependent upon for the success of the project is the efficient operation of the burger van which provides delicious bacon baps at lunchtime that are indispensable to us all. Can you imagine the consternation when, just at the busy time, 1pm, the power failed and the hotplate went cold?  We stared disaster right in the face. The burger lady was despondent as it was after 12 and she assumed that the workshop where the power was controlled would be locked up. Fortunately we're working in the workshop and even have some spare fuses; everyone has a moment of fame and that was mine, the day was saved and a smile came back on the burger lady's face!