Opportunity

October 4, 2024

Nearly 11 months since I last updated these pages - fortunately we haven’t run out of budget or enthusiasm, but it is fair to say that the focus has been on improving sailing skills. I joined Papercourt Sailing Club on May 1st and was lucky to find that they had a Wanderer previously used for club training for sale. The lake at Papercourt being a lot closer to home than Paloma at Shamrock Quays and the dinghy being offered at a rock bottom price, it seemed fortuitous and too good an opportunity to pass up. The 12’ Wanderer is a smaller boat based on the famous Wayfarer dinghy designed by Ian Proctor in 1957 and sailed to Norway from Scotland by Frank Dye and a friend in July 1964. The club boat that I bought was made in 1994 and has stood up well to a fair amount of abuse - the gelcoat needs patching and the mainsail needs replacing but I’ve been out as often as I can on Wednesday evenings to get a feel for single handed dinghy handling…

The time consuming jobs on Paloma were mostly undertaken during the four weeks that she was out of the water on the hard at Shamrock Quays, covered up with a plastic tarp to keep the sun and rain off me whilst I worked on the deck fittings and the electronics. I can’t say when the latter will be finished off, I’ve been acquiring new instruments piecemeal and wiring up the mast lighting, Windex and VHF ariel, organising new through-deck fittings where needed, and removing the interior headlining where the grey campervan felt glued to the inside of the boat gets in the way of new lighting tracks. The lighting is going to be provided by LED strips, some running all the way around the saloon, powered off the new lithium battery. I’ve had to make some tough decisions on mounting bus bars, isolators, and the fuse panel so that they are not in the way when sitting on the two berths, but are easily reached when needed. I’ve also collected a Whale manual bilge pump and hoses from the chandlery which need to be plumbed in to empty the bilges.

The site for the pump handle needs to take into consideration continuous use if we spring a leak, and pumping when Paloma is heeling. We’ve decided not to fit a gas bottle and stove on the boat, cooking will be done on a meths-fuelled Trangia on a gimballed mount in the galley. The forepeak is to be used exclusively for sail storage and wet gear, so we’ve fitted the saloon out with better matresses for the bunks and soft furnishings. We also have an electric fan heater - a small one with a cut-off if it is knocked over - and shore-powered lighting. And I’ve given the interior a deeper clean and disposed of the unwanted items in the paint locker. Next step is probably going to be mounting the displays for the instruments and deciding whether or not we need a more sophisticated set-up with AIS and a chart plotter.