Hi folks,
I retired in 2001 and thought it a good challenge to take up sailing.
We went looking for a yacht at a stretch of
water close to home (water is not an abundant resource in Southern Africa) and being 8 hours driving away from the sea, I would prefer a closer but larger area to open the
sails. The Vaal Dam is 2 hours driving but has a surface area of 320sq km with a shoreline of more than 800km. We visited some of the yacht clubs at the Vaal Dam and found a 8.05m Nimbus launched 1982 for a reasonable
price.
I took up the challenge and waited for an opportunity to get it onto the dry. I did take the
family for a motorized ride a couple of times. Once on a suitable dolly, I started removing the
anti-fouling and discovered
osmosis pimples but luckily no de-lamination. While addressing this, I also noticed an oxidized sail drive. This turned out to be damaged beyond
repair due to
electrolysis. In the meantime, I stripped the woodwork inside the
cabin down & sanded it to remove the dark
wood staining and re-varnish with matt
polyurethane to lighten up the
cabin and bring out the beautiful grain of
wood. I also got the
cushions re-done and made a sun canopy with maritime
canvas and Aluminium piping.
The
project I regard as a process and a big
learning curve until we get the yacht up to standard to start the sailing. I do a lot of reading on the Net to address my various challenges but overcoming each challenge, is very satisfying. Looking forward to hear from other members and sharing their experiences. There is a lot of theory out there but experience, in my opinion, tops it all.
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