Below is a photo of Dinah as she looks at the moment. The poor girl is completely naked, having had all her antifoul and hull markings removed.

In the next few weeks a very difficult decision has to be made… What will she look like for 2011? The graphic designers are working away coming up with ideas, and I’m torn between making minimal changes from the look we’re all used to, or doing something drastic and bold.

Either way, work continues making sure her underwater profile is perfectly fair. It’s backbreaking work filling and sanding every little scratch and chip, but strangely rewarding all the same. I justify the aches and pains with the thought that even a 0.01knt increase in boatspeed will have a significant impact over the longer races in the schedule. Time will tell I guess!

Very little of the original boat remains by now. During 2010 it started to become clear that the original seacocks had reached end of life. (Especially when one open/close lever rusted through and came away in hand!) The main project planned for this winter was to fair the hull on the outside after bringing her back to bare gelcoat. It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that the result of fairing the hull would be seriously degraded if we left the original thru-hull fittings in place. They were made of bronze, and protruded significantly outside the hull. One of them even had a straining mechanism sticking out more than 20mm! Not fast… The search began for flush thru-hull fittings that could be faired to the profile of the surrounding hull.

Acky from Galway Maritime didn’t take long to come up with the solution, and a few days later a box full of new fittings arrived on the boat. We would replace the bronze seacocks and thru-hulls with new Forespar Flowtech Performance Valves.

First things first… Last weekend Andy and Bob set about removing the old fittings from the hull. After trying every shape and size of wrench, spanner, and stillson, the boys decided that the best option was to use power tools and brute force. Mr Dremel was promptly fired up and soon the old fittings were lined up neatly, ready to go to a museum.

From left above: thru-hull and elbow to valve for ballast water intake, raw water intake for engine cooling system, galley sink drain, head outlet, and the head raw water inlet.  The flange nuts and washers were cut and levered away to release the fittings from the hull.

Each fitting left a nice neat hole in the hull as can be seen in the picture below. From left to right these are the outlet and inlet for the heads and the speed transducer. The speed and depth transducers will also be remounted using flush mounts once the new mounts have been sourced.

Over the next few weeks, the new thru-hull fittings will be glassed in place and faired on the outside to be perfectly flush with the hull before re-attaching the plumbing. I’ll put up some pics of the finished job before the boat goes back in the water.

Read here to learn how the installation of the Forespar Flowtech valves proceeded.  Lots of pictures!