Preperation is key…
by Tom McMahon – Deckhand aboard Sea Dragon.
Preparation is key, so I’m told. whether this is true or not, we have been working hard to make sure the good ship Sea Dragon is well and truly set for the epic transatlantic voyage coming up.
To start with we lifted the boat with a schedule of work planned and at hand.
This involved help from the nice people at Lanzarote marina and their humongous travel lift, check it out:
With this, we got a free bottom wash!
And for the sake of expediting the bottom painting the mariner dropped us in their keel pit which allowed us better access to speed up the whole process:
With that started the prep work to make sure the fresh clean coat of paint would stick like glue, to make the base for the paint perfect we spent a lot of time grinding back to bare metal and added no less than five coats of primer. While this might seem like a lot of work (and it is) it’s always easier to do these types of things (anything below the water line) with the boat chocked up on the hard.
Alongside the bottom paint being redone the captain went about inspecting and servicing all the underwater parts of the boat. In doing so it was discovered that the seal/bearing for the prop shaft would need replacing. Settling for nothing less than the best the decision was taken to order the original and best parts and have them delivered. This added considerable time to the original schedule. However what with Sea Dragons busy upcoming itinerary (including transatlantic and Pacific legs) it seemed a no-brainer to get everything done right and done once now while the opportunity presents itself.
it’s much easier to solve any niggling issues ahead of time before they develop into a problem miles from land! seems like a better idea to do it safely propped up on land.
They say that good things come to those who wait, Soon (hopefully) I will be able to let you know if our parts arrive. And whilst we do that we have more than enough time to tackle the cosmetic aspects of our maintenance, polishing!
I guess it’s true, you really do get a free manicure with every season.