Winter work

Most of September and October has been spent waiting for services to actually do jobs as agreed meaning we had to leave Silhouette on her berth "on the off chance someone might turn up"! The standing rigging has now been finished, so one of the last big jobs ticked off. The bespoke arch however hasn't been finished despite giving the fabricator 7 weeks...... not impressed at all, and a promise of completion next weekend.

As we approached the travel hoist we were waved straight into the slings which although very efficient, Silhouette did take the foreman by surprise as she was one of the beamiest yacht they'd lifted and only had another 6 inches available on the hoist.

Once in the cradle we took a look at the cutless bearing and noticed a little bit of play so will replace it, and there's movement in the bottom bearing on the rudder which is fairly common with 473's. Generally the bearing itself is fine but the copper sleeve around it needs replacing. We hope to be able to do this without dropping the rudder out completely as we'd need to be relifted..... at a cost! Our cannister liferaft needs mounting on the transom, polish and antifoul to complete too.

We have 10 weeks to get everything done as we must relaunch on the 13th January to avoid extra charges and an upset yard foreman. Sounds like more than enough time but it'll go by in a flash.

To keep us focused, when we relaunch it'll be 14 months until we're off !!!