Bringing the boat into Brixham harbour where it will dry out at low tide, and I can clean off the algae and barnacles and give it a new coat of antifoul paint. There's no engine on the catamaran, so we are moving it by tying the dinghy alongside. It's OK when we have a bit of speed on, so that the catamaran's rudder(s) can steer, but it is difficult at low speed, and stopping and starting. At the moment I have just one rudder fitted! Harbour crowded, and a bit of wind....
But we got to the harbour wall without a drama. An anchor out to the side allowed us to dry out a few feet away from the wall, so that I could work on all sides of the boat.
The deck it green with algae. It was like this when I bought the boat. Scrubbing the deck didn't help much, so I left it, thinking sea water would eventually kill the algae and the spray would wash it off. But we've never really had any sea water on the deck, and the algae has thrived!
I hired a powerful jet wash. There wasn't a lot of time before the water would come back - two hulls to clean off a thick layer of algae and a few colonies of barnacles, and then to paint it all.
Last year I added a couple of laminated oak mini-keels to the hulls, just to allow drying out in places like this. Much cheaper and quicker than getting craned out for this kind of work!
It's not exactly tidy, but it is clean. I had time, just, to get the antifoul on with enough time for the paint to dry before the water came back.
Clean and shiny boat, off back to the mooring, powered by the dinghy strapped to the side.
Thanks Fred! :)
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