25 June 2008
Hilary's Blog - 25 June 2008 (at a reasonable hour!)
After a few hours' sleep, the guys at Berthon Marina kindly lifted the wounded Arty out of the water. Once on dry land we could see what we had dreaded - 3 holes in a line, 2 of which had pierced the carbon. On the plus side Melvin, the Berthmmaster here at Berthon, came round with champagne and wine which lifted everyone's spirits.
Lymington Lions started to appear with wine and lunch at around 11 am and, as their numbers gradually increased, so did the amount of food. They also brought the deputy Mayor with them and then proceeded to "force feed" the crew vast quantities. They have been incredibly understanding about the delays we have faced due to the weather and broken kit.
Simon Rogers, the designer of the boat, had appeared the night before and taken Helen, Jacqi and Paul out on his RIB intending to meet the rest of us as we came in. As it was obvious that we were not going to arrive for a couple of hours, they then went for a "raz" around the bay. He reappeared just after lunch wielding a crutch and a broken leg, to my shock.
It didn't take us long to put him to work fixing Arty, whose wounds he described as "minimal". He had been expecting a hole the size of a football. He was soon joined by the whole of the Rogers design team who diagnosed a broken boom to add to our woes. We had noticed a bend, but a closer look revealed that the aluminium had in fact given way. The gnav - an upside down vang - which allows me to adjust the height of the boom is enormously powerful as it is designed for a much bigger system (there is no such thing as a gnav for a 20 foot boat). Because it had originally been fixed too close to the mast it was able to exert pressure on to the boom, beyond the lowest point where the boom should travel.
Paul took the Land rover off to collect a new boom from VizMarine in Chichester. When he returned he had just managed to squeeze it in diagonally, but it was obviously a close run thing. We were pretty unsympathetic about the problems he had faced as we were all just pleased to see it! Simon Rogers did however manage to affect a fast and good looking repair and we even managed to get some rare photographs of him obviously hugely enjoying the opportunity to get his hands dirty! He was soon joined by his whole family, Rebecca, Hattie (8) and Tom (3). Rebecca sacrificed her hair dryer to speed the drying process and Tom found numerous jobs that needed doing, including starting a drill which had the battery attached. It was lovely to catch up and they all stayed until 8 in the evening at which point Simon was forcibly removed to attend a previous engagement!
Page last updated on 14 July 2008 at 15:03