2016 already!

Wow, how time flies! At the end of March it will be two years that we have had Jorvik Rose and it seems that for most of that time she has been out of the water having work done...

Well, that is now gradually coming to an end and we have taken what was a fantastic yacht and given her a lot of tender loving care to ensure that she will look after us for the next 25 years. We are looking forward to wrapping up the major refit work in the next couple of months so that we can have her on the water and really start to get to know her over the summer.

Berthon are nearly finished with the deck - the last piece was glued down today and we took the new windscreen down this morning so that it can be fitted in due course. Once she is finished, the topsides will look fantastic and she will be nice and watertight - an important consideration for an ocean going yacht but something that is not always the case!

The blue tape lines are the joints in the cork from manufacture that will be caulked and the weights at the back are there to hold down the last section to be glued while the adhesive cures.

We have also been busy teaching ourselves ropework skills, something that no sailor should be without and we are now able to tackle a number of different rope projects - I have spent several evenings making traditional rope fenders which is quite a skill but actually looks more complicated than it really is. Unfortuanately they are more suited to canal boats or steel hulled boats so we won't be using them on Jorvik Rose, however eBay should help us to find good homes for them!

Jen has been learning more intricate knots and is making small keyrings which may be a bit more useful to us, although any extras will end up on eBay.

Next week the new handrailling should be completed and installed and a lot of the deck fittings refitted. Once this is done, the electrician can come back and complete the installation of the new battery management and inverter system and then it will soon be time for Jorvik Rose to go back outside to the yard where we can then get on with our side of things - the headlining, new diesel heater, lighting and navigation systems. We'll be busy!