Storey so far

After sailing TRINCULO from Hamble to Fleetwood Barrie took her out on a number of weekends and was well pleased with her. I also had the opportunity to join him for a few weekends plus the voyage to Scotland and the IOM.
She proved to be an excellent yacht in all respects, but was lacking a lot of the equipment we would consider highly desirable, if not essential, for our style of sailing.
We therefore produced a long list of improvements and equipment requirements for her, and on Monday the 9th. October 2006 lifted her out of the water onto the hard at Wardleys Marine Yacht Club to commence work.
She had then recorded 4671.04 sea mls. and 1299 engine hours since she was commissioned.

THE FIRST LAYUP over 2006/7

The first piece of new equipment to be acquired was a Avon 310 RIB tender with Marina 5 outboard.
We then got a pair of second hand model 6 Simpson Davits, and fitted these to carry the tender, with a frame between them to carry the life raft

The life raft, a Beaufort ‘Swiftsure’ 6 person was purchased, using e-bay. It looked good but it seemed a good idea to have a full service. This was carried out by Norwest Marine, Liverpool.. I saw it inflated during the service. It looked, and was declared to be, in excellent condition.

These were purchases made soon after we had moved Trinculo north. On laying-up at Wardleys Yacht Club, the first major task was the fitting of a Vetus 55 kgf Bow Thruster.
This required a tunnel glassed into the forward part of the hull. For power a Hella 125 amp/hr, 720 amp. max output, battery was mounted alongside in the forward locker. This battery is charged from the main system, via an ignition switch controlled split charge relay, and has been wired to also support the anchor windlass.
To improve safety we have made this locker, together with the one forward of it, water tight.
The control system wiring was then installed with a ‘joystick’ at the helm.

An Eberspacher diesel fuelled water heater was purchased, again on e-bay and fitted but we had a number of problems getting it to work correctly. It was returned to the supplier, who found a fault, but on refitting we still had problems with the fuel supply. After a number of ‘bleedings’, to get rid of air, we managed to get it to run successfully.
It is installed in series with the engine hot water supply and provides additional domestic hot water, when sailing or at anchor, plus cabin heating, via fan assisted ‘radiators’ in each cabin and a panel radiator in the shower.
The unit can also be used to ‘warm up’ the engine prior to starting.

A relatively easy, but expensive addition, was a Brunton,s variable pitch propeller ‘Autoprop’ and Spurs rope cutter.

For reasons best known to the builder and previous owner, genoa tracks were never fitted on the side decks. We rectified this and improved the mainsail handling by the addition of a gas strut to the boom and clutches for the mainsail controls.

Finally, after antifouling and fitting a new (larger) anode TRINCULO was craned back into the water, and taken down river to a berth in Fleetwood.
Here we continued the work fitting an automatic FM200 fire extinguisher in the engine bay and finally the VHF was replaced with an Icom 505 DSC radio and comandmic in the cockpit, before sailing to France
Following the completion of the work during the first winter layup, we had a reasonably successful season in Brittany. TRINCULO performed extremely well and we leant a lot during the delivery to and from France. We got less sailing in the area than we had hoped for but gained a lot of information for a future visit.

The Winter Lay-up of 2008/2009
This winter, we laid up ashore again because an out of water insurance survey was required.
We have completed the usual maintenance, which this year included the sails having their UV strips replaced, some repairs (inc. replacing the VHF aerial again) and a few more improvements plus antifouling.
   We were suffering from excessive anode depletion and have therefore fitted a Safeshore Marine galvanic isolation system as well as provision for a hanging anode, which we will use when berthed in a marina.
We have also improved the battery charging, from the engine with a Sterling Alternator to battery charging system, and a Rutland 913 Wind Generator.
  The ‘audio entertainment system’ was getting a bit old and worn (chewing tapes!) so it has been replaced with a Kenwood AM/FM Radio,Cassette, multi CD, player.
   The out of water insurance survey was also carried out, by Jonathan Jackson, giving us the all clear for the future insurance..
   At the end of May 2009 we returned to Scotland for a summer season cruising the Western Isles. We had an excellent voyage up to Scotland (see Out of the Mud), relatively poor weather while there and a trip back in September with good weather but virtually no wind.
Prior to leaving we started preparing the mud berth, we have been allocated with a jetty for when Trinculo returned in September, and while away we carried out further work, giving the jetty some decking, so it was usable on the return.

The 2008 summer weather, like the year before, was disappointing. The early part was reasonable when we sailed to Scotland via the Isle of Man and Strangford loch in Northern Ireland. After that it was a case of using the best bits. We had a tour of Loch Fyne and the Clyde, over a number of weeks and weekends, before returning to Glasson marina in early September by way of Girvan, Portpatrick and Whitehaven

Continuing the work 2007/2008

Trinculo was laid up for the winter in a mud berth at Wardley’s MarineYacht Club. In the Spring she was moved to Glasson Dock Marina, where the mast was unstepped.
We found the cause of our VHF radio problems; the aerial had disappeared from the mast head. This was replaced, but to include a ‘windex’. While the mast was down we completed the mast steps, and also fitted a LED combined Tricolour/anchor light, a ‘Sea Me’ active RADAR transponder, and TV aerial at the masthead. Further down a Raymarine RADAR scanner, horn loudspeakers for the hailer/fog horn, renewed the masthead/deck flood light and the main and foresail halyards.
For the control and presentation of the RADAR a Raymarine E120 RADAR display/Chart plotter was installed at the Navigation station with a Raymarine GPS receiver.

We had decided the best way to support Trinculo when out of the water was to use ‘Yacht Legs’, and a set were found for sale on Ebay They were second hand but were a full set, including instructions, and had never been used. However, for the first winter we added some additional timber supports, to be on the safe side. This precaution was ‘well proven’,as at the end of January with record breaking winds hitting the yard, Trinculo stood firm throughout.
The only modification on the boat for the legs was a small lug to accept the upper support. We carry the legs with us and they have proved useful to dry out. The first time was to check and replace the propeller anode, which we did in Strangford Loch.

When rewiring the anchor windlass, we found it required a complete overhaul. This was completed and the windlass refitted, including an Overload Protection Unit
While doing this work we also protected the engine start battery from discharge, with a Voltage Controlled relay between it and the services battery. Subsequently, we have revised this with a modified charging system. (See the Winter lay-up 2008/9 below)

    2009/2010
  That winter very little work was carried out, or required. Mainly maintenance and repair, principally replacing the fresh water pump. In the summer 2010 we decided to go south to Milford Haven for the summer, returning to the Wardley’s berth for the winter
      2010/2011
   Again that winter there was not a lot of work to be carried out. Some small tasks preparing for the planned sail south We fitted AIS to the navigation system and modified the VHF for ATIS.
  We then moved TRINCULO to Glasson Basin marina, To investigate the leak that had been troubling us all winter, anti -fowl and replaced the anodes.
    The leak was difficult to identify and repair but we eventually succeeded and departed for a voyage south to Plymouth.

  At Plymouth I sold out my half share to Barrie.
After a cruise to the Channel Islands and a stay in the IOM. He has now returned TRINCULO to her berth at Wardley’s for the winter.

During the installation of the heater we ‘revised’ the domestic water system. This included the addition of a pressure accumulator and a mixing valve at the outlet from the calorifier. Previously the water used to get extremely hot from the engine heating. Unfortunately it still does

A small repair was required to the lower leading edge of the keel. This was carried out with the addition of a stainless steel ‘shoe’, to help prevent it happening again

   In between jobs were to fit an electric bilge pump and bilge alarm and to revise the battery management, , plus small improvements, such as additional 12 volt and 230 volt sockets in all cabins, gauging the fuel tank and a gas alarm in the galley.

   A 1500 watt Inverter was also installed and is operational together with a 1.9 kva diesel generator, fitted in the cockpit locker. Wiring complete with a change-over switch; Shore power/Inverter/Generator, has been carried out, and we have installed a fuel pump to ‘top up’ the generator header tank from the mail fuel tank.