Ok, so the time has come, checked the crew is available,spoken to Dave and ordered the new boat, accomodation is sorted, pets booked into kennels and suitably innoculated, kids booked into a holiday camp for the duration, been to Boots to order enough suntan cream and paracetomol to last a week, buckets and spades made ready to build sandcastles and dam the stream on Millbay, found the lighters and matches for the beach BBQ's, there must be something thats been forgotten!


Oh sh(one)t, I haven't sent in an entry form and its got to be there before the 1st December to make sure that I am in the draw for entries, rumour has it that the pile of envelopes waiting to be opened is filling a mailsack....................................

You're not allowed to have BBQ's on the beach...

noooooooooooo - youre not allowed to get caught having a barbe on the beach

No music either....

When do the Envelopes get opened John?!!? when will we see an entry list and when do we find out if we got in!?!!?!?!
Can't wait!

1st December?

Not having done Salcombe for twenty years, what's the process these days?  Some kind of lottery?   Before you just had to be quick to return the form, now demand seems phenomenal!

Are you thinking on entering then ? 
Picked up my boat on monday , freshly painted it looks fantastic very happy the 2 pack finish that they have got, is amazing, looks like a new plastic boat ,Its even got a spanking new cover,  

It spend more time and money with my new toy and the old toy just doesn't understand it, well she never liked boats anyway  

Now just a case on fitting it out , that shouldn't cost a lot should it ?

WFM - who did the refurb?

Fitting out can cost more than the boat, depending on how many strings you have in it, and all that CARBON (drool).

"looks like a new plastic boat" - how can that be a good thing, if she's WOOD? poor old girl....

Well I did most of the work,  the old black handpainted decks needed to go, they were hiding a very stained deck from a bad varnish job a few years ago so no choice we had to paint it. Prep work done with my own fair hand then off for a spray at a paint shop / garage and I think they have given the " soon to be relaunched and re named" old girl a 2006 face lift. I am very happy with the result. 

What do you think ?
WFM

WFM,

Excellent job, well done. She looks really beautiful.

3408 used to be owned by GGGGGGGGG. He would be delighted to see her looking so good give her past state.

Looks wonderful indeed - great job and prety quick too.

Nice work Tony! The poor boat looked in a dreadful state and looks fabulous now! I've done a couple of 14s this way. You can get great results from a friendly car spray shop. They're well equipped and often do a good value job because they're practised at it. Boats can be fiddly, so doing the prep work yourself is a good move. 

Now, the fit-out....!

What a good job, i always thought about getting boats painted at my bodyshop at work (i work in the motortrade).  but never ot round to it as hey are always busy, and i had seen some of the not great jobs they had done on cars!!!

Assuming that your workplace is happy to put a marine 2 pack through the gun then the results will be as WFM's boat. I wouldn't want to use cellulose paint though, very brittle, no good for boats.

These people have never done a boat before, The photos really don't show how great the job is , but against a poor varnish finish which it would of ended up with

I'm really happy with the results, the decks and hull fantastic,inside I'm sure if I had spent more time rubbing down and building it up it would of had a better finish, but as they said to me " we could spend a lot more hours which would of pushed the price up.  The other great thing they did was the centerboard which was looked liked it had been sailed into every submerged object ever to grace the sea bed. They built up the edges and re sprayed this to such a standard when I showed Willy Warren he thought it was a brand new one. 

So just need to fit out and learn to sail oh and rename her

WFM,

Not wishing to be intrusive and a question that should never ask along with a womans age......was it expensive to do?

I was quoted £300 Trade to do my boat (not the inside though) with regards to marine to pack, there is an additive they put in the normall celulose paint that makes it more flexible (they use it for plastic bumpers and wings on cars)

Richard With regards to cost, I don't know as I haven't had the bill yet 
But was quoted £750 decks, hull, inside. they were going to spend 60 hours on it,
If you have been quoted £300 that sound pretty good.

Good price @£12.50/hr for decks, hull and innards. cash in hand of course!!!!

I think WFM was quoted a fair price as well, i of corse work in the motor industry and my bodyshop would do it at cost price plus a litle bit, i wasnt having the inside done and i would of had to do prep work myself as well.  My decks where going to be sprayed in a car laquer type substance bt from what i understand this wont last as long as normal varnish although when it scratchs or goes dull it can be cut back to a shine again.  It did seem a cheap way to get a paintcraft esc finish at a fraction of the price. in the end though i spent time stripping the decks back and varnishing her myself.  i was going to get the hull painted but the new baby meant that the boat had to be sold :,(

Only 32 weeks until Salcombe.... rather excited!

Silver Tiller in April first

So WFM all you need now is a 3 stone crew and Bob's your uncle.

To clarify,

Is Bob his uncle and does he only weigh 3 stone? If so, how old is he?

Is this an April fool about WFM's 3stone Uncle Bob taking part in the ST event in April first.

Or is WFM pulling wool over our eyes and it is HE who is 3 stone?

so that would make him very skinny or a teeny tiny person

Lets just sum this up 

Old boat , expensive paint job and new bits

Willys fat mate clue in the name, over 3 stone but under 16.1 stone, use to sitting in the non steering end of a boat, but I have a book on steering , doesn't look that hard ,

Crew over 10 stone , ( he may have to loose a few pounds )

That is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth 

PS, is winking prawn alive, first posting for a while

I can assure dear readers that WFM is indeed not using a mis-leading epithet. You'd still see him if he was standing behind me! There may be pictures of WFM from the Hayling dinner, anyone?

Is WFM the new AG...?

This is a boat with such a balance of helm and crew that it will have the appearance of being on the plane in a flat (or should I say FAT) calm.

AG ???

AG = Ancient Geek (also the element symbol for silver - is that relevant?)