WeatherWitch has been in the water for 18 months as we’ve wanted to be able to take advantage of a great sailing day whenever in the year. This has resulted in many great days out on the water, but also has given the Hamble algae, shellfish and seaweed plenty of opportunity to give our copper coat a test… and we’ve been feeling a little bit slow recently, particularly when motoring.
Time for a lift out and scrub!
Cowes boatyard in Medina Yard were able to accommodate us at short notice (because we’re currently so good at this forward planning thing!)
We are very impressed with the copper coat – we had expected the see far more growth on WeatherWitch’s hull than we found. Instead, the very green beard was just that, though we did find mussels had moved in on any area not covered in copper coat…which included our speed log impeller (see below).
The next unexpected issue quickly came to light when we looked at the prop…where the propeller anode should be there was nothing except a single bolt!
Turns out we should have replaced the anode a little bit sooner! Luckily we could see minimal damage to the prop itself and the shaft anodes were still there and doing their job. The yard guys were amazing and not only sourced new bolts for us, but then cut them to size too – fantastic service 🙂
After a quick grease of the prop we’re now all good to go for another year – bring on the sailing!
