Feb. 23, 2007 - Don´t ever buy a boat
Don’t ever buy a boat.
Don't ever buy a boat. Forget all that sunshine and perfect winds taking you to one paradise after another. Pure fiction, the reality is less appealing. Picture a pair of legs sticking out of a space which is actually impossible to get into, but somehow you managed to get in there and now can’t get out again, scraper in one hand and wire brush in the other. Grubby fingernails and skinned knuckles. Picture having to climb up a down a ladder to get in and out of your home and carrying dishes to a tap in the corner of the boatyard in the dark to do the washing up. Picture this and much more and you’ll start to get a little insight into what it’s like living onboard while doing a refit in a boatyard. Don’t ever buy a boat.
Bilge painting this week, probably illegal under some obscure EU regulation. Imagine painting under the floorboards of your house but only being able to lift one board in the centre of the room. Luckily no-one's too bothered about obscure EU regulations here in Portugal so I can still paint my bilges and buy fruit and veg which all look different to each other but taste absolutely delicious. Which is more than can be said about bilge paint. A perfect paint system is the holy grail of steel boat owners and this weeks paint of choice onboard Conachair is POR-15. Initial results very positive (apart from the price!). Single part polyurethane grey stuff which sticks to anything, dries rock hard but is still very flexible, keeping rust at bay by not letting oxygen near the steel. "Don't get it on your skin 'cos it will stay there until the skin falls off" it says on the can. For anyone interested I'll know how long it takes to shed skin hopefully quite soon. Before even starting preparation involves removing 20 odd years of dirt, grime grease, stale engine oil and rust. But I'm 2 coats on and one to go, think I'll let this coat dry overnight and apply final coat tomorrow morning. Then back onto wood. Top of the list of things to do are things which must happen before she goes back in the water:- Painting the hull (boatyard boys are taking care of the outside, I draw short straw of inside but my labour is considerably cheaper so can't complain. But sometimes I still do), teak toe rail had to come off so that needs severe cleaning before getting fitted again. Too far gone for teak cleaner so sanding it is. Which will be on tomorrows list, sounds easy (belt sander then orbital works a treat) but I suspect a fair chunk of the next few days will be spent finding a supplier of belts for a bosch belt sander. Luckily I'm in no great rush and such expeditions usually turn up something of interest. Then engine needs to go back in, probably a bit of rewiring involved there. New jib sheets tracks to be bought and fitted. Seacocks need removing, overhauled and refitted. Mine are blakes bronze ones which are seeping a tiny bit so I’ll need to find some valve grinding paste and try to get them up to spec again. And find some way of testing that they do their job before refitting. And being bronze they need to be electrically isolated from the steel hull which they are fitted to otherwise all sorts of nasty corrosion happens, can’t have that can we. Then that leaves overhauling the aries windvane and getting it refitted. And probably a hundred and one other jobs which I can’t even start to think about right now.
Don’t ever buy a boat.
Of course the real reality is that although I may occasionally utter a rather rude word it is actually fantastic and I love it. Having the luxury of no deadlines but instead a job will take as long as it takes, going for a walk down the beach feeling the warmth of morning sun in your face, a walk to the market to buy some fresh fish & veg for dinner, a glass of cheap red wine in the South Bar at the marina and a chat with some other long distance sailors (“Of course, you don’t have to go through the Panama canal, why not turn left a little and check out Brazil” “Madeira’s beautiful, you gotta go there”…. Wow, am I really one of them? ) .
So don’t ever buy a boat. Unless you want to swap deadlines for freedom, be consistently surprised by how friendly and helpful people can be. Unless you want to feel the heat of the sun and feel the wind carry your home effortlessly across the sea to new places and meet new friends along the way. You aren’t on holiday looking at the perfect view, you live there and you are the view.
Well that’s enough rambling and painting for one day. Must be happy hour by now…..
(Click here for some piccys http://www.flickr.com/photos/58131900@N00/
or here for a bit of video
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Yachtconachair)
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