Kingfisher Yacht Cyprus

I saw this on  Boaters Resources  which is pretty close to what I am thinking of doing inside Liza: Wood paneling and a couple of trays. I'm not sure what I will do for the roof though. I suspect that all wood inside may make her feel a little heavy (aesthetically not physically). And this trailer… (https://www.adverts.ie/boats/20ft-bilge-keel-yacht/6086255). With something like that I would not need lift out crane each year.

I had a good conversation with Andy Cross at Crusader Sails today. They are making the new sails and lazybag for Liza . So I was checking over the measurement sheet I had sent them. Some years back Paul & Vicky Lees from Crusader Sails had come out to Cyprus to teach me & Tim Price how to measure yachts for new sails, but it's always better to re-confirm everything before the sails are made rather than find they don't fit afterwards! Alongside the measurement sheet, there is also a series of photographs they like to see to show them the various places where the sails interface with the rigging. One of those was the furler and the linkage to the hull. The forestay hadn't looked quite right but I wasn't sure why. The brass shackle was due for replacement whatever happened. Andy had noticed it from the photo and said that as well as the turnbuckle there should be a double jaw toggle… he said that loads of boats are like mine, but it's not right and c...

This is Liza's berth… at the moment. Next to Blue Angel owned by Costas. I sat with him and had frapé, nice to get to know your neighbours! So today I washed the deck, fixed the pin in the mast (that turned out to be a lot more effort than we expected!) fixed the boom, fixed the bimini and did the measuring for the new sails. Still a few things to do before she is sailable again. One of the shrouds got damaged in the move and the outboard is not as reliable as I would like. Fixing the mast proved that I needed to just think about it -- I used one of the winches to put rotational pressure on the mast, then pushed a couple of screwdrivers into the seat to move it round. We had three people trying to rotate the mast (and failing) a few days back when we stepped the mast. What I liked was that I could actually fix the problem alone. I just needed to think about it!

Nothing with boats is ever as easy as it might seem. The low-loader from Pekris Brothers (thanks Joseph and everyone for all your help) could not get in through the main entrance or the back entrance to the marina. So it had to come through the port and in through the port-marina gate, which has separate gates and keys on both sides. Which meant that an official letter from Christos Petrides at the marina had to go to the Cyprus Ports Authority. Which he very helpfully did immediately for me! Once through Liza could be put into the crane and moved into the water! So now she is in her berth. We haven't stepped the mast yet. Later today, hopefully. 

Two coats of Nautix. Now she's ready for going back in the water. Tomorrow… hopefully!

Having finished the sanding down I did the first coat of paint -- a primer because I didn't know what the anti-fouling was before. I'm trying Nautix A3 on Liza. Previously we had used one of the International Paints anti-fouling on King Malu. I am interested to see how well it works. It's significantly cheaper!

You might not believe it but I was wearing a face mask during the process… I spent most of the day cleaning the hull!

I hadn't been able to do a full hull inspection from the outside. So today was really the first time. OK, so there is growth, but the bilge keels are sound (I'd checked the bolts inside and they are fibreglass covered) and it all looks great. Someone said that the Kingfishers were built like tanks and certainly the bilge keels look like that!

Moored other side of the marina. Today I went down to Latchi to pick up the new boat… though I should call her Liza not just 'the new boat' from now on I guess. Mostly went smoothly, the outboard was a little temperamental and getting the mast down longer than I hoped, but overall a good day. She is now in Larnaca, and tomorrow will arrive in her new home in Larnaca Marina. After a couple of problems with the outboard we managed to move bring her over and get the mast down.  First sight of the keels. Not as clean as I might have hoped, but seen a lot worse! Ready to go