Sunday, March 18, 2012

Home this weekend

On Friday night I had to perform a tactical withdrawl from an expedition ... in order to preserve matrimonial harmony shall we say.... so having seen the "Degas to Dali" exhibition at the art gallery (sublime, actually) and had a bite to eat at the cafe there (watercress and bacon soup was damn good too) I felt ready to do something "more blokey". Given that the duck season is not all that far away, I decided to try and make the camo nets for The Booger a little closer to a mangrove shade. This involved an interesting stopping manoeuvre on the Northern motorway right by The Warehouse HQ, so I could snap a shot of mangrove under bright light. Then with the help of a nifty little app from Resene on the iPhone, the colour was revealed as "Crete", an ochre based cowshit sort of colour. A quick trip to the store and away we came with a litre. Back home it was out with the roller and nets and a groundsheet and paint went on. Quite satisfied with Saturday's marriage saving topped with blokey stuff, I retired inside. Then back out to cut the grass....

Today I decided to dedicate to boat maintenance. First and foremost, I wanted to fit the camo nets to the frame. I knew that they would be a bit on the short side, so I needed to know how much to extend them by.




I'll need to add at least 50cm of camo to the bottom of each net, which I'll do with Jute strips. I'll weave more into the netting to break up the boxy look as well.

Having done that, it was time to look at the hubs. Not sure about these Mudgway trailers. I'd just not expect the hubs the rust the way they are in such a short period of time. The hubs on our Voyager are perfect and that trailer must be 15 years old. I think quality is being sacrificed for price at the Mudgway place in Kaikoura.








So, went down to the shop and got some rust remover and a can of CRC Zinc It, removed each wheel, cleaned off rust coating with wire brush and applied the Zinc coat.






Yup a gratuitous CRC shot!

Gave the motor a flush, put wheels back on, cover on, boat away.... maintenance done.

Pretty sure I'd never buy another Mudgway trailer. Bad number plate on light mounting position on a rubber flap thing (had to remount), poor winch placement, cheap bearings, cheap hubs. Not really built for salt water, in my opinion. Now, back to the camo net extensions...............


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