Woooooooo-hooooooo! The dinghy chaps are finished; Crazy Pony has a coat at last. 'Chaps' is the name given to covers that fit over the tubes of a dinghy to protect them from sun damage. As we're heading for warmer climes then we felt it would be a good idea to make them to prolong the life of the dinghy as we've already noticed a few areas that get sticky in the sun. We heard of other people getting quotes of over €300to have them made, so trying to make our own seemed a good idea especially as the dinghy itself isn't worth much more than that. I reckon making my own has cost well under €100.

Having started the job back in November it has been dragging on a bit, so I was glad to have them done as it's been a bit of a millstone round my neck at times. Delays have been caused by running out of materials (having used them for other jobs), problems with the sewing machine (see below) and just being stuck on how to do certain bits and needing thinking time. Oh and the weather which has got much more rainy this year than the end of last year.

There are things that I will look at every time I'm in the dinghy and think 'that's rubbish' but overall I'm pretty well chuffed with the results of my work. We haven't tested the cover with the dinghy moving at speed yet but as I left the chaps quite high above the dinghy waterline I think it will be ok.



Pearl the Singer was a workhorse, despite the vexation (this is how my 1950's instruction booklet names what I have done) I have caused by being a bit too liberal with the machine oil which has got into the motor workings and caused it to overheat after a while, resulting in smoke and the motor slowing right down. I then have to wait for it to cool down so it's been a stop-start job. Colin gave the motor a good clean out which helped but there is still some oil left in the wrong places and vexation is still being caused. Given the machine was made in 1954 I think it's doing pretty well.



Colin added a couple of fittings to the back board to help attach the cover to but otherwise we've been able to use existing fittings. Colin also made some new handrails as the old ones were a bit scratchy. Awwww Crazy Pony is looking very smart!!!

For anyone who is interested I will write a longer article about how the chaps were made, hopefully it will help others who want to make their own.