September was fantastic, sunshine and blue skies. I had a few days off towards the end of the month and thought it would be a great opportunity to take the coachroof windows, which are fairly badly cracked, grazed and leaking, out and replace them. I knew getting the old bolts that hold the windows in place out would be difficult but man what a job that turned out to be. I'm now the proud owner of an impact driver and a dab hand with it too, suffice to say I'm in no rush to repeat that job.
So there I was all happy with myself thinking I had got the main part of the job boxed off. How wrong could I have been. I thought my chipping and painting days were a thing of the past but I've found that owing a steel boat has given me the opportunity to put those skills I spent many hours as a cadet perfecting into practice once again. At least I have Laani there to lend a hand too.
As if the job wasn't bad enough (and expensive, turns out the windows are polycarbonate not perspex) then the weather gods decided they would have a go too. Bring on the worst dust storm Sydney has seen in living memory followed by a couple of weeks of gale force winds rounded off by a return to winter tempatures and bucketing down rain storms. Ahh all in all perfect conditions for getting a bit of work done.
So the boat is covered in a tarp that is doing a comendable job of keeping most of the elements out. Nothing could have kept out this weeks 60 knot driving rain but apart from some water kadoona survived intact. Now if only the warm weather and sunshine would return so I can crack on with the important business of putting the new windows back in place.
So there I was all happy with myself thinking I had got the main part of the job boxed off. How wrong could I have been. I thought my chipping and painting days were a thing of the past but I've found that owing a steel boat has given me the opportunity to put those skills I spent many hours as a cadet perfecting into practice once again. At least I have Laani there to lend a hand too.
As if the job wasn't bad enough (and expensive, turns out the windows are polycarbonate not perspex) then the weather gods decided they would have a go too. Bring on the worst dust storm Sydney has seen in living memory followed by a couple of weeks of gale force winds rounded off by a return to winter tempatures and bucketing down rain storms. Ahh all in all perfect conditions for getting a bit of work done.
So the boat is covered in a tarp that is doing a comendable job of keeping most of the elements out. Nothing could have kept out this weeks 60 knot driving rain but apart from some water kadoona survived intact. Now if only the warm weather and sunshine would return so I can crack on with the important business of putting the new windows back in place.