I had the boat lifted out of the water today. It was quite good fun. Bob, the harbour master, and his crew of able men, took control of everything, ran Kudu aground under power of man on a rope, then picked her up with the cradle towed behind a tractor. I was still on the boat as we were towed into the yard, then put down softly on some grass.
It’s nice to have the boat out of the water to be honest, because I can inspect under her. She’s surprisingly clean, and there’s no sign of anything untoward. Well, there wasn’t until I gave the stem a good looking at. There’s a crack running the whole way around the bow roller, which is where the forestay is fixed. The whole fitting flexes, opening the crack in the GRP. In short, I could have lost the mast had I not spotted this. It is serious!
I would have been more upset about it, but I am now resigned to the fact that these things are going to happen, and I just have to deal with them. Somebody please remind me I said that next time I’m struggling :p
I asked Bob, the HM, if he knew of anybody locally that can do stainless work. I was advised to look up Steve, of KISS engineering. KISS, of course, being that time honoured acronym, keep it simple, stupid. I liked the sound of this chap before I’d even met him.
I pottered off to see Rob, of Harbour Chandlery, who I was told would know how to get hold of Steve. When I arrived at the shop (slash local yacht club judging by the amount of people I saw drop in for a social today), I was introduced to a guy Rob was chatting to. As luck would have it, he turned out to be the very man I wanted to see.
Steve worked for a good while as chief engineer on super yachts, and after a few stories I was completely convinced that he was passionate about his work. You can just tell, it’s in their eyes when they talk about it, people who love their job are worth their weight in gold. You’re not going to get a half arsed effort because they wanted to be somewhere else when they did it. Whether you’re employing a plasterer, a chippy, an electronics engineer, or a marine engineer, look for that wide eyed passion, and you won’t go wrong. I have a friend like that, one of my oldest and best friends actually. He was a push bike mechanic, but he loved tinkering, and it showed. Anything he turned his hand to was done to an exceptional level, because he took his time over it. This Christmas, for example, his girlfriend asked him what he wanted as a present. His reply was not a standard one. “A big bore cylinder kit for my motorbike”. She, bless her, got it for him, and before the new year arrived he had totally rebuilt his motorbike engine, and without the tools everybody said he must have! He just figured out a way around it, and I might add, this was the first time he’d ever, ever, worked on an engine.
Steve reminded me of my mate. Even more so once I’d told him about my problem. He offered to come and take a look, and within moments he was pointing, and drawing imaginary lines around the problem area to explain the solution. He could fix it for now, but explained that the bow roller wasn’t ideal since it was aluminium and likely to suffer fatigue with the forestay constantly tugging at it, so ideally I should have an entirely new fitting made out of stainless steel. I knew that this sort of complicated fabrication work would be expensive, but with the Jester Challange in mind, I pressed for a quote, for future planning more than anything. I was quite surprised by his answer, and after pointing out some more little things that were bothering me on the boat, we agreed a figure. I decided to get the work done.
Now, this work is going to take a sizeable chunk out of my remaining budget, but for what he’s doing it is remarkebly good value, and ultimately, going to sea in a boat that’s not safe could cost me more than any amount of money I will ever see.
What started off as a failed trip to Grimsby has resulted in, in all likelyhood, saving my boat. What a fortunate set of unfortunate events!
Oh, by the way, check this out, it’s one of his creations, and well worth a click! http://www.kissworks.co.uk/specialprojects1.htm
I wonder what round Britain would be like in that! 
Hi Nathan,
“There’s a crack running the whole way around the bow roller, which is where the forestay is fixed. The whole fitting flexes, opening the crack in the GRP. In short, I could have lost the mast had I not spotted this. It is serious!”
Actually on a Mk1. the forestay should never be attached to the bow roller fitting. There is instead a point to which the forestay should be attached (which is sufficiently reinforced by the correct backing laminated into the original Deck moulding) about 6-8 inches aft of the bow roller on the deck. It is possible that if your particular boat was home-completed from a basic bonded deck/hull mouldings that this was overlooked or may have been modified at a later date?
In any case, you sound like you’re in safe hands and should be back in the water before too-long. Good luck with the repairs.
Niall