Spring 2019, slow it is

In the early spring, the enthusiasm and plan to get a boat and maybe even both launched into the water went down at the latest when I generated for myself approx. two-week US trip in May.

So Johanna and Ariadne had to wait a couple of critical weeks in May without any changes to their condition and when the twins who were still studying in the UK were also graduating in June it meant a couple of weeks in the UK in June and that meant only one boat would be launched. And that was Ariadne. I had been planning the launch also of Johanna before Midsummer and I even got the sides sanded but time ran out. The idea originally was that the boat should not be sold on dry land.

No holes were found at the bottom of Ariadne, despite a light search, but the part above the waterline needed quite a bit of care. A pack a few millimeters thick, which has been on the side since the beginning, apparently does not like Finnish frosts and expressed it by splitting off the hull. The same thing happened in the spring of last year so the situation was by no means surprising. Admittedly, there were many more splitting places than the previous spring.

The epoxy pack above the waterline eventually took just over five pounds. After sanding the places and painting the places, I sanded the whole side and painted it completely and the result was satisfactory. Luckily the paint was Epifanes, and not the previous year used Hempel which covers the color differences really miserably. One layer of Epiphanes was perfect. There were no other big jobs unless the seawater pump replacement, which had become an eternity project, was counted as such. And, of course, it remained unchanged. And then there was the engine gearbox ….