Bilge keel at end of 2011 season

As usual its a rushed job again with lift-in booked for April 7 (Easter Saturday) and too many other distractions ashore.  Thankfully the  paint job on the underwater metalwork seems to have worked relatively successful in 2011 so not too much prep work required to do the essential underwater tasks – which are all we are likely to achieve before the crane comes.

In 2010 we fitted extra anodes to the bilge keels and rudder with apparently disastrous results. The paint just fell off as if the metal was fizzing with too much galvanic action.

Rudder at end of 2011 season

After stripping it all back in Spring 2011, treating with Fertan rust converter and five coats of International Primocon and the usual Cruiser antifouling, the paint on the steelwork looked almost pristine after a wash down in November. More gory details here. 

The Beta’s diesel engine’s heat exchanger was long overdue for a clean out  – the rubber pump  impeller having shed a couple of rubber blades which disappeared into it and the engine anode completely dissolved – or rather turned into white sludge clogging up the tubes in the copper exchanger stack.  And of course the oil and filter needed changing and the impeller checking.

Heat exchanger stack and end caps full of grot and remains of the disintegrating water pump impeller and expended anode

Heat exchanger body with stack and end caps removed

The prop shaft anode just about lasted the seven months Lottie was afloat last year but will need renewing before launching.  Fortunately we got some at giveaway prices on e-bay  last year though one is a 25mm rather than 1″ and may need a little persuading to fit the shaft.

And giving the prop a bit of a scrape and scrub from the dinghy  in July meant it remained clean for the rest of the year, unlike in previous seasons.

Propellor and shaft moments after being lifted out in November 2011

Lottie’s winter cover seems to have survived and done its job through all the gales and storms.