Rutland Water and gunwale maintenance

'Twas branded a birthday sail this, since the skipper has one such event on Monday.  Hence, Daisy II was once again graced with crew.  In fact, five filled the cockpit and there seemed to be space for us all.  Rutland Water was the venue, for my first time this season in a Drascombe.

Winds were generally exceptionally light so we were never going to trouble any distance records.  In fact, it made better sense to stick around the Whitwell Creek area just in case we had to row back - there being no private outboards permitted on this reservoir.

What follows is nothing more than a set of family snaps.  But, they do confirm once again that happy sailors are Drascombe sailors!

5.2nm

Ongoing maintenance

The other weekend activity has been a complete rethink on the wooden capping on the gunwales.  Previously, I've been an advocate of Sadolin which has served well whilst the boat is on a mooring since it maintains its colour throughout the season, is tough and durable.  However, it is just brown paint, at the end of the day, and the wood probably deserves better than this. Now I'm keeping her at home, a more aesthetically pleasing solution is called for.  So far, I've used a mixture of Nitromors and general scraping to bring the stern end back to bare wood.  Fortunately, it's been a remarkably straight forward job thus far.  Watch this space!