Despite all of the challenges, work has progressed steadily over in Spain. Phil and his team have done some great work, and Dan has produced a wonderful looking new bimini. The bimini has been designed both for the Valent cockpit, but also to take the 2 x 200W Solar panels. All got ready for the end of July and the proposed relaunch and sea trials.
The new Bimini looking very smart, with the panels ready for installation.
Phil then got everything organised, finished all the jobs that had to be done under the waterline and everything was ready for the launch and my trip out. The change in travel restrictions scuppered my trip out, caused the cancellation of sea trials, but Valent did go back into the water.
Valent goes back into the water – she floats and no leaks!
Over August the last few jobs were finished and the new electronics all installed. Due to the difficulty in travelling between countries in the current climate I outsourced an inspection of works to the Marine Surveyor. David has a wonderful eye for detail and did the original purchase survey so was able to check the completed works against his original survey. Currently Phil is doing a few snagging items and she will be ready to go in early Oct. I am currently planning to get Valent delivered back to Haslar Marina before the end of Oct and working with PYD to make it happen. So all looking quite positive this week, and all being well, Valent will be in the UK before the clocks go back.
Farewell Dogmatix – so after nearly 10 years Dogmatix has passed into new ownership. I am hopeful that she will go onto have many more adventures, and even be raced by someone who understands sail trim and weight balance a lot better than I ever did. At least we had a wonderful final sail, to Osborne Bay and back in under 2 hours (and with the small headsail). Dogmatix has given us many happy memories, but now it is time to move on. Hopefully soon we will be able to post pictures of us sailing on Valent, even enjoying a drink on her would be a bonus.
For those wondering how far we had actually got in our planning and preparation for 2 years away sailing…
All things Christmas for 2 years!
More like: In the Bleak Mid-Winter -19,
In the bleak mid-winter
COVID made us moan,
Earth stood devoid of travel,
Planes like a stone;
Germs had fallen, germs on germs,
Germs on Germs,
In the bleak mid-winter
(Not so) long ago.
The germs, Earth cannot stop them
Nor our World contain,
Kings & Queens shall flee away
When COVID comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A hospital place was rare,
In the bleak mid-winter
Not so long ago.
Enough for COVID, who other bugs
Worship night and day,
A nasty cough and sneeze
sends the bugs away.
Enough for COVID, who other bugs
Adoration yearn,
The flu, the cold and SARs
Can only watch and learn.
Professors and the learned
May have gathered here
What have they achieved
Except to spread some fear.
But only some were able
To brighten up this war
All hail the total hero
Captain Colonel Tom Moore
What are we to do about it
Simple on these lands?
If I were a clever man
I would wash my hands.
If I were a kind man,
I would help some others
But what I can I will do
Wear my face covers.
We were so near and yet so far. The Valent project plan was well on track and I was due to fly out on Tue 17th Mar for the relaunch. Phil and the guys had done a great job and completed all of the work on the underwater sections by the close of play on Mon 16th. Sea trials and snagging were lined up for 21/22 Mar – and the weather forecast was glorious. Just one unpredicted pandemic, the viral mugger – and the big lock down started on the night of the 16th with the closure of Spain, followed, as you know, shortly afterwards by the UK.
Beautiful new coppercoat antifouling
Finished bow thruster
As you can see above, the underneath was looking good. The sails had been laundered, repaired and ready to put back on. The construction of the new bimini was underway and the solar panels were purchased. Even the replacement kicker had been fitted.
One of the new 200W Solar panels. 2 of these will eventually be fixed to the canvas roof on the bimini.
The new gas sprung kicker
Then came the lockdown and everything shuddered to a halt. To the best of my knowledge Valent was shut up and the boatyard secured. Hopefully at some point soon the guys in Spain will be able to return to work and some progress will be made. But I see no prospect of us being able to visit Valent or indeed use her in the foreseeable future. Until some form of freedom of movement is permitted between the UK, Spain and France we will not be visiting or progressing the refit of Valent.
With that in mind I cannot see any prospect of the Collins family being in a position to depart on a trans-Atlantic voyage in 2020. Even if we could get to the boat in 6 months time she would not be ready, we would not be prepared and certainly not safe to go and sail in an ocean 1000 miles away from any land based assistance. At the moment we have put our dream on hold and are working on the premise of a 12 month postponement. Fingers crossed that within 12 months we will be able to travel between France and Spain again.
So here’s to Aug 2021 and hopefully a more stable global situation.
Work continues to progress well. Phil and Marcos have continued to make great progress and Valent is starting to come back together now and look like the boat that is going to become our home for 2 years. The new deck is now down and finished, the bowthruster installation is just about complete and work has started on getting the bottom ready for the new copper coat treatment. Inside, the electronics are being installed along with an general update of the wiring.
The great looking new deck
New deck and new anchor chain
The chartplotter is in and Marcos and his team have made a smart new backboard to house the displays. In the afternoon we got the power on and inserted the new chip – and hey presto it all looks to work. Not only that, but I successfully linked the chartplotter to the ipad and sat on deck viewing and controlling the plotter. It was a wonderful sensation to get technology working correctly without too many wrong turns (i.e. once I stopped messing around with Bluetooth and set up a wifi connection it was all great). The radar will get added in once Valent is back in the water. We have also got the pedestal refitted with the new instrument displays.
From this
to this
A fully working chartplotter
The new house batteries arrived safely from the UK via Landrover courier transport (thanks to Alan) along with the Nav lights, life jackets and some safety electronics.
During the afternoon we managed to erect the old bimini, and whilst it was in better condition than we expected, the fittings are not robust and the structure feels as if it would collapse in a decent breeze, let alone 2 years sailing around the world. So the decision has been taken to replace the bimini and supporting structure rather than repair the existing. This will enable the new canvas to be made to accommodate the solar panels rather than trying to fit the panels into the existing structure. I have had a chat with the Jim at Sailfish Marine and the new 200W panels sound great.
The old bimini. You can see the lack of stell supports and the need for string to hold it up. Also, note the pedestal (with steering wheel) back in place.
So after all this great progress, we started talking dates…and we are looking to relaunch Valent on Tue 17 March and then carry out sea trials on the weekend of 21/22 March. The big jobs that need tp be completed before then are finishing prepping the bottom and then redoing the Coppercoat, receiving the new electronic winches and fitting and finishing the electrics. Loads more little jobs, oh, I forgot to mention the new kicker that we have also found we need. Lots to do, but she is definitely starting to look more like the boat we envisaged.
