Once Trouper was back afloat with a working propeller I was keen to get her off the mooring and to actually start to make use of her this year.
Before we could leave on the Saturday there was a chunk of last minute work to be done that I’ve described in Last minute maintenance and New Displays.
That filled most of Saturday but we did manage to creep out into the Harbour on the evening tide after dinner and spend the night at anchor in Thorney Channel – one of my favourite spots in the harbour.
On Sunday we left in the morning, after stopping for a chat with our friend Graham who’d anchored his Swan 36 at East Head for the night. We then drifted and motored to the Beaulieu river when we picked up a mooring, put up the sun awning and set about testing the theory that RCC members get upto three nights free on a visitors buoy. In the morning the harbour master turned up in his dory and confirmed that it was true. Overnight this guy hauled out next to us – and snored quite badly.
We left the Beaulieu River late Monday morning and popped round the corner to Universal Marina on the Hamble where we left Trouper for the rest of the week with Nautor Swan for them to finish the rig work from the previous winter. They fitted the new burgee crane allowing us to fly our RCC burgee from the truck (see Overengineering a pig stick for more on this) and their sub contractor replaced the underlength D1s and V1s from last winter. Whilst she was there we agreed to switch out the new dyneema backstay for a rod one. It’s a long story but in the end we all agreed that rod was a better option and they’ve been very good about the cost. We also agreed to revert to the wire babystay, and the refund for that and the backstay covers almost all the cost of the rod backstay. I might swap out the babystay myself later, as a more flexible material would help with stowing it when it is not in use. They’ll fit the new backstay whilst the boat on its berth at Birdham. Overall they’ve been very good to deal with.
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