Bonita was designed by William Crossfield and built in his yard at Arnside, Cumbria in 1888. This occasional blog describes some of her adventures - including her 2013 and 2023 circumnavigations of Britain and her Baltic cruise of 2016.
On Monday Bonita was lifted back into the water by the yard crane. Though they handle her very carefully this is always an anxious time. Bonita is close seamed construction - there is no caulking in the hull between the planks. The water is kept out by the close fit of one plank against another. The trouble with this is that if the boat dries out at all, or maybe even with the strain of lifting her by crane, the planks shrink and open up a little. She always leaks a bit after she has been put back in the water - quite a bit, so it can look rather concerning. I set up an electric bilge pump and usually after a few days with the combination of Faversham creek mud and the wood expanding in the wet, the leaks dry up. She has to stay in a mud berth until the bilges are dry though, it wouldnt be a good idea to take her out to her mooring yet.
Any attentive readers may note that I had her lifted out and did a lot of work to fix a small leak, but on putting her back in the water we found we had a larger leak. Yes indeed, but with luck it will all be alright in the end.
The picture shows Bonita sitting in the mud in the yards crane berth. The tides out so thankfully the leaks have stopped for a while. Behind her, under the blue cover is a large classic motor cruiser having an seemingly endless refit, and the sailing barge Orinoco under her polytunnel winter cover. The next day we craned the mast in and generally started getting the boat ready for the new season. I havnt yet seen a Charles III coin so I wasnt able to put one under the mast step for good luck as is traditional. However I'm sure one of the old Queens coins will do the job just as well.
Today is wet and cold with flurries of snow, so not at all tempting for work on the boat. What is needed now is a few days suitable for painting.
As a sort of encouragement I think, my brother Tim gave me a book on sailing round Britain for Christmas. Its 'A voyage round the coast of Great Britain' by William Daniell, who was a writer and an artist. He made this trip in the 1820s, so some of it is a bit dated. On the plus side, there are plenty of gaff rig boats to be seen in every illustration. At the time it was fashionable to admire mountain views and the Lake District, but Daniell wrote the book as he thought that people did not properly appreciate the variety and spectacular scenery to be found in the coastline of the British Isles.
This is one of Daniells pictures. It shows a heavily laden merchant ship approaching a narrow harbour entrance on a rocky lee shore in heavy weather. The port is Portreath in Cornwall whose entrance was so narrow that two ships couldn't pass, and the cargo is probably coal. When flags point above the horizontal its usually about force 7 or more: I dont know what wind strength is required to dislodge a top hat. There seems to be absolutely no margin for error, either in the skippers judgement or in the ships gear. Iron wire had not yet been invented, so both standing and running rigging would be hemp, with flax or canvas sails. Failure of any bit of this gear would be disastrous. Coming into port like this in strong wind on a lee shore under sail is not something that would appeal to most modern yachtsmen who would at the very least like to have the engine ticking over, but when Daniell later talked to the skipper, he thought it was nothing out of the ordinary. What he had that we don't of course, is a lifetime of experience in sailing these waters. And he must have had confidence in his crew too- Portreath was a small and crowded harbour so they must have been pretty slick in getting the sails off her once in the entrance.
I like to think things are beginning to come together as they should as the days get longer and a bit warmer. The scratching noise when turning the rudder wasnt due to barnacles in the rudder trunk as we were rather hoping. The rudder stock which turns the rudder is made of two lengths of copper tube fastened together by a copper band riveted in place, and some of these copper rivets had become loose with the constant twisting of the rudder. Just a simple matter of removing the rudder, taking it home, dismantling the rudder stock, replacing the copper band with a larger one, replacing the rivets, then putting it all back together and into the boat. This is all rather easier said than done, as the rudder is so heavy it is a struggle to lift it on your own. Luckily John and Allan were able to help me lift it back into the boat. With the rudder back in the boat you can't see the riveted joint: it all looks just as it did before, which is perhaps as it should be, but with the satisfaction that the set-up is - or at least should be- stronger than it used to be.
The keel band has been partially renewed: the bit which had totally corroded away has been replaced by a 5ft length of 22mm steel. Maybe the rest can be replaced another year....
There is still plenty of cleaning and painting waiting for warmer weather but I rather hope most of the difficult bits have now been done. I always find it fascinating how many very different things have to come together from so many places to keep an old boat in going condition. We also have a new jib on order, and the liferaft being serviced.
Boat maintenance is all very well, and to some extent brings its own satisfaction but its the thought of summer sailing, fair winds and warm waters, blue skies and sparkling seas that keeps you going and makes it all seem worthwhile.....