Despite the cancellation of the RANSA Winter Wednesday race due to the windy conditions I had a most productive day.
En route to the sailing I fitted in couple of jobs for the Greenwich Flying Squadron including checking my repairs to the club dinghy and picking up a new pump for the inflatable. A couple of other tasks for GFS were progressed by a lucky coincidence of the right people being at Joe Walsh Rigging when I was following up Joe’s sponsorship at GFS. On board Passion Kevin and I topped up the diesel fuel while waiting for word of the race and I was able to tidy up Passion from the category 7 and 4 audits conducted last weekend.
Back home by 3 pm I was able to have a little play with the new build in the back yard. Undaunted by the prospect of rain I have fitted and glued into place half or the backbone. Now the backbone of 250 mm by 30 mm meranti backbone is locked into the transom with a couple of large stainless steel screws into a solid knee that is routed into both the keel and the transom. The first scarf join is completed in situ as the whole backbone would be too heavy to handle. The preparation included a final fairing of the scarf join surfaces in preparation for the joining with West System epoxy resin.
It all seems too easy after the days of struggling with the frame set up the center line of the backbone is landing perfectly on the center line of the frames. I have covered the backbone with a tarp in case of rain before the glue sets and to ensure the gluing surfaces will be dry tomorrow. If it is fine I should be able to finish the backbone and stem and start on the gunwhales.
As far as progress on the new build goes I feel like I have won back a whole day and with a couple of more good days will be back on schedule. Not that I am admitting to any schedule.
Finally thanks to the loyal crew who turned up knowing full well that the race might be cancelled. We are coming third overall in the series and a windy race might have moved us up the ladder ahead of Rainbow. There are still two races to go so we need wind but not as much as today.