Finally there’s a break in the weather. Since we were lifted out of two water onto the hard Quay we’ve had day after day, week after week of rain and high winds preventing any serious work on the hull. But we have three days of fine weather this weekend. The guys at Desty Marine Services have worked the weekend and completed the tutti pink primer, and fruitti yellow tie coat and two coats of black Hemel Silic One antifoul. The temperature has been on the borderline of low, 10C is the lowest requirement to apply the mixture and the weather has been between 5C at night and 13C at noon during the low winter sun, although the enclosed tented area of the hulls has retained some increased warmth out of the cool wind.

At the same moment as the team started working on the antifoul, the mechanic rocked up and started his work on both engines and saildrives. He discovered no serious defects apart from 2mm grooves in the port sail drive prop shaft which seem to originate from the long term wear of the seals. This could have been a source of water ingress although the engineer has not detected any water in the sail drive. While reassuring we’ve chosen to replace the prop shaft while we are servicing the engines and are out of the water. Rather now than later, but that’s another unexpected £900!

And at the same moment the rigging crew begin their work and the crane hoists someone up to attach a strap 2/3rds up the mast. They struggle to move the outer bolts (?) and resort to some direct heat to free them up. An hour later and the mast begins to rise leaving Giramondo a mere motor boat. Watching the one tonne of 20m aluminium lifted vertically and lowered to a horizontal is unnerving. The next step is to dismantle the mast elements to begin the refurb before rehoist.

After the mast was dropped we had a good opportunity to inspect it more closely. We knew there was surface corrosion from electrolysis between the steel bolts and the aluminium structure around the mast foot, and we could see some corrosion further up, but with the mast at ground level we can now see the extent of corrosion around the spreader fittings too. The rigger was not concerned and has already removed the massive cable shrouds and we talked through how to rectify the water in the deck lights obviously fitted after manufacture which have let water into the spreaders and caused the deck light to turn red, now that makes sense.

We could also see a strange pitting around the top of the mast, which looks like impact from a heavy object, it can’t be the main sheet block as that’s only raised with the main sail and then would not rotate around to the front, so we are both puzzled as to what could have caused the series of impacts. Maybe an old loose halyard with a shackle? Anyway, with the fittings being removed we can get under them and check for any structural issues.

All the corrosion on the boom and spreaders has been removed and the aluminium etched with a couple of aircraft grade paint. The guys work inside a ventilated plastic tent inside one of the large sheds to keep dust off the paint but also keep the working temperature above 10C for the paint to cure. It is looking really good, as good as new.

The next job is to bring the mast in and repeat the process.