Headlining

I had previously bought some light grey foam backed vinyl for the the heads when it arrived it was more of a blown vinyl which was not what I was really looking for however I decided to go ahead and use it. The first operation was to cover the sides of the coach roof this is only a small area although on the starboard side it meant removing the concealed lighting. Once this was complete I could fit the panel above the lockers on the port side I had made this and covered it some time ago. I had already made some new panels for the roof lining these just needed to be covered and screwed into place.

Port side

Starboard side

I have been searching through the pile of hardwood trim pieces that I have which came with the boat to try and find the original pieces for this area so far I have discovered the pieces that run fore and aft above the windows varnishing these will be this weekends homework job. I am not particularly happy with the headlining it shows every finger indentation into the foam backing clearly not memory foam but I will keep it for the time being.

I put the mainsail up for the first time today I was pleasantly surprised how easily it went up only needed the halyard winch to finally tighten it up, it came down just as easily. While the cover was off I cut down a spare batten to replace the missing lower batten.

Mainsail up for the first time

The sail itself is quite old and is a bit on the baggy side inviting some comparison with my grannies bloomers, it is probably going to need replacing in the foreseeable future but I think that it will have to do for the rest of this season possibly see what sort of offers I can get at the Southampton boat show. There is a bit of a coincidence here as my previous boat Shuda, a Bowmwn 26, was also sail number 17 although the hull number was 12.

To finish off today I re tensioned the engine alternator belt and did a bit more investigation into the electrical problem I had on launch day as previously mentioned I thought that the alternator diodes had blown but on checking it was still charging the battery so I turned my attention to the engine preheater relay but again this seems to be working correctly in fact I can find no reason for the smell of burning electrical insulation further investigation is obviously required.