Suliere's Blog

Actually first the varnishing of the floor – I have given in and handed it over to a pro to do it …. say no more

The Screecher has been looked at and requires a new anti-torsion rope to replace the normal rope used up the luff – this should stop the twisting of the halyard. Also the screecher has a UV cover so we can leave it up.

We are now investigating having a top down furler for the gennaker ….. so all sails can be controlled in the cockpit although you do have to go up front to change from Screecher to gennaker.

Now the only issue is that St Francis have done a deplorable job on fixing pad eyes to hold the Screecher/gennaker bowsprit. One broke by shearing the metal on a weld whilst crossing the Atlantic. Ewe fitted a new pad eye but having seen the latest St Francis 50 having cracks all around the pad eyes and needing to be reinforced we have had the section inspected and yes – new pad eyes and a lot of extra reinforcement is required ,….. yet another job doing what should have been done right in the first place!

Then there is the back water tanks – these are located in the keels and the starboard one fills up every few days without even being used. As this is the keel that was cracked when fitting the replacement stainless steel shoes (one fell off because of lack of glue) we thought there may be a leak into the tank itself. I removed the only inlet pipe to te tank to find it slowly passing water 24/7 hence we had a plumbing problem. We now discover that St Francis have fitted the water pump in the wrong place so that has to be re-plumbed. They managed to fit it in the correct place in both port heads, which is probably why the port tank does not keep filling up!

Another job being done as I type this blog is we are having security film put on the cockpit windows. There is a story behind this. Our Main halyard chaffed and broke when the main was up and the entire main fell into the water alongside the boat – in the massive job of dragging this back onto the boat a batten went through the glass we were told by the boat salesman was bullet proof – a claim they still make today at boat shows! The glass shattered and there were many tiny pieces still managing to get under finger nails over a year later. The only cure was to have a clear film put on the glass. The halyard breaking has happened to 3 recent St Francis 50s’ – ours was caused by the height of the main being too long – we had it shortened and as typical of the builder Dt Francis Marine they would accept no responsibility – so we were charged for the new window from South Africa and for the clear film. Anyway we wanted the film fitted by an expert who does it for a living and that is what is happening as I write this – so now if we have one of those ‘bullet proof’ windows smash again the film should hold the glass together.

We are, we think, nearing te end of what will have been a three year process of re-building our brand new boat so it works. We really love the design and are ending up with a very high spec great boat but boy …… it has been a true slog and I am sure we will still be uncovering small stupid things for a long time to come 🙂