Some progress with Sona

For the last couple of weeks I've been stressing over a piece of formal coursework and wondering what on earth I was doing studying again.  It was finally submitted on Wednesday and I had booked a couple of days off work to relax but frustratingly got called in on the mornings. So here's a quick summary of what I did manage to get done.

One of the first jobs was to give the Sona a good scrub. There was a lot of grime and a worrying amount of mould and mildew which can be tough to shift. Stuart was happy to lend a hand and the first scrub was with Bilgex and some sort of liquid detergent we found in a locker. 

It was freezing with the occasional flurry of snow and, despite some good progress, we didn't stick at it for long.
 

So it was back into the cabin where I ripped out the corroded gas stove and temporarily fitted the stove from the Heron.

Ahh, heat! and a working kettle!

Inside is also needing a bit of a clean where some standing water must have collected. This was sprayed with some mildew remover from the local pound-shop with little effect. I'll need to get something a bit stronger for cleaning (bleach and oxalic acid) and I also need to get the sails out of the boat and properly folded.

And whilst I am on the subject of sails, we opened up the spinnaker bag to find this. Hmmm...you can make up your own mind about the colour scheme.

Back in the workshop, and I have cleaned up the mast foot and freed off the halyard blocks. I reset the m6  stainless studs but the aft stud had stripped so I tapped an m8 thread into the back of the alloy casting.

After re-threading the halyards, the whole assembly fitted back into the mast. The 50mm sq plates that I'd carefully engineered (bent in the vice with an m10 bolt for a former) look like they will be just the right size and I now have to make the decision to rivet it all together or to use screws.

 If I rivet it and something doesn't work, then it will be a real pain to strip down. However if I use screws, there is a risk of them catching the halyards inside the mast. I still have to fit the narrower alloy plates fore and aft on the mast so there is no rush.

Busy busy, but the sun is getting a little higher in the sky each day which means longer daylight hours and hopefully some warmth, but also means that I'm another week closer to launch!