The Rusty Stem Plate

Although the "The Rusty Stem Plate" conjures up ideas of English beer, this, in fact, is not so enjoyable.   Cape Dory, in their 1970's wisdom decided to use a lot of mild steel backing plates in their boats.  This is fine if it doesn't get wet which, invariably it does.  When we bought the boat 4 years ago it was pointed out that the stem plate was rusting so we decided to remove with when we got chance and replace it with something better.







I have read lots on the forums and blog sites about this; phrases like; impossible, many hours over several days and a great job if you are a midget miner.  Let my tell you it was tough and after it was out 10 hours one day 1 and a half another, I was sore all over.  Just for those of you that don't know boats it's in the very pointy bit at the front inside in a small cupboard called the chain locker.

We'll feel much more secure with it replaced that's for sure.  There's also nothing like the satisfaction of "do it yourself", and I keep reminding myself of that.  As for my body it looks like a fell into a rotating gorse bush!

New Adventures

Well it's not really a travelling adventure but an adventure all the same.  We have for a while been wanting to refurbish out boat.  Our boat is a Cape Dory 30C (C = cutter).  She's a lovely boat and we have had some great adventures on her.  However she's getting a bit rusty in places so we decided it was time to fix her up.
Working in the boatyard is bothersome it's a 30 minute drive and you never have what you need right there so we decided to move her to our house where she fits down the side of the garage just nicely.  Prior to that though we had some preparations to make.




Firstly the rudder had to come off.  The day after returning from the UK we started work.  We uncovered her and then emptied out everything we could.  Then we removed as much of the steering gear as possible and then got the yard to lift her so we could drop the rudder out.  To get the rudder of I had to first grind out the bottom bearing and support and remove that - now we are committed!!!

Sally finds it all very exciting especially having sandwiches in the back of the truck.