Oct - Nov 2008 : Some of September and most of October was down time as far I was concerned. I had to "languish" in France for 6 weeks doing a couple of house sits in the Vosges and Bordeaux. Truly, its a hard life.
Whilst I had been away, Paul & Anne had done all the painting of the underneath and we were ready then for the final turn-over. It was the same easy turning over process as before, but now the boat rested on its skeg on thick foam Qtherm insulation pads at floor level.
Prior to final painting and turnover we added two additional 'bilge runners' to protect the bottom board near its junction with the lowest strake. These teak strips (1200mm long x 20mm wide x 25mm deep) were 'topped' with a 12mm half round brass strip. Time will tell if they prove any good or whether they cause too much drag. We had found them indispensible on our previous Shearwaters.
Finally we sikaflexed and screwed on a 3mm stainless steel band to the skeg from the stem u-bolt to the transom.
Now began the last 'painting' phase - we were ready to coat all the oak trim with Deks Olje D1 and D2. After that it would be adding all the fittings.
Some time previously we had come to a final conclusion over the name of the boat. My old boat had been called "The Idler" (possible a reference to my indolence) and Paul & Anne's boat had been called "Fiddler". Anne came up with the simple suggestion of amalgamating the two and so "Idle Fiddler" is the name it will be baptised with. Paul's sister Sarah is carving the name on a piece of oak.
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