On the Hard
29 April 2009
Big event for us. Tonight we had to climb a ladder to get to the boat, instead of stepping down to it at the dock.
When you own a boat, and especially when that boat is also your home, it's always a certain degree of excitement involved when it's time to launch or going up on land.
All went well, and we are enjoying the opportunity to use a sturdy trailer to let the boat sit on for the next few weeks while we'll work on it.
The bottom looked fine, with just a little bit of growth. Barnacles and some slime consisting of algae. Not bad at all considering that it's three years ago since I launched Röde Orm. I guess that my regular diving and scraping exercise has been a vital factor here.
One bad surprise was that the propeller was damaged. Apparently it had gotten entangled in some fishing gear or similar at some point, and one of the blades had a part missing, a little bit bigger than my thumb nail.
So, added to all the costly repairs and refits to the engine, a new prop is now also on the list. At least we can take the opportunity to get one with an appropriate pitch. The old prop never quite let the engine reach it's maximum RPMs- This equals running your car uphill constantly. engines donä't like that, simply put.