Staying alive (ah, ha, ha, ha) - bilge pumps

Bilge pumps are essential safety equipment on any seagoing yacht. Frankly, Auriga would have hardly made it as far as Ipswich wihtout. The leaks have since been dealt with; however, the old pump arrangement was not ideal. Firstly, the cockpit pump, accessible from the helming position, was defective, leaving only the pump down below - combined with a malfunctioning self-steering system, this made for an interesting few hours in the following seas off St Katherine's point.

Improved pipework

Solid, accessible, out of the way

Convenient pumping position

Adding an inner forestay - Part 4

The yacht is slowly taking shape, as some of the long-standing projects near completion. We have finally installed the forward bulkhead (see here). After months of preparation work, we have mixed up the largest batch of glass-reinforced epoxy putty yet, and glued the bulkhead solidly to the hull and deck. Then, we added three strips of biaxial cloth of increasing thickness on each side of the bulkhead, continuing the layup down along the stem, as seen in the picture below.

Glassed in place

Flowcoat, sikaflex, bolts

Strongest eye on Auriga?

A Helping Hand

The inner forestay is in the mail, and the structural reinforcements are nearing completion (more on that in a separate post). The only problem? Until a few days ago, we had no staysail to hoist in a real blow, when our storm jib starts looking rather oversized for the job. Meet Richard Fawcett.

Richard comparing boats