Owens L'ill Slice of the Web

I got the keel of Coppelia painted yesterday, two coats of ‘POR-15‘, she needs a final topcoat today (a nice blue to match the rudder) and she’s ready to go back in. Another huge job, hopefully I’ll be doing that later this week

The keel weighs 110 kilo (240lbs) and is made of a single piece of cast iron, it was very rusty when I took it out and has needed quite a lot of cleaning, the paint I used is a specialist rust covering/proofing coating that should protect her for some time. To do the painting I needed to hang the keel by it’s mounting points from the roof of the EHDC clubhouse, this let me paint all of it, but makes me nervous as hell. Despite my best efforts I could not really smooth it off, although it is good enough for cruising. Maybe that is a job for the future; ideally it should be fibreglass clad.

I got a load of other minor things done, the new keel winch is in place, I have now baseplates on the sheet winches so that they can be fitted to the existing holes in the hull, rather then creating new ones. All that is left are the toe straps, painting the cockpit floor and then rigging her. Which will be fun, all the rigging was stored in the dry and looks good, but new halyards and lines will need to be brought. The sails are good, but maybe a bit baggy and I think ther eis a rip in the spinnaker. If she sails OK with the existing rig I might try to get a roller-furling setup for the front and a new mainsail.