Sabrina 3

The boatbuilding team here at EW are passionate about their craft and always up for an interesting challenge. Every job is different and requires a specific skill set to meet the customers’ expectations.

The Brief:

Bea and Jacob were keen to incorporate modern methods and materials with traditional craftmanship on this project. Sabrina 3 is a traditional Norfolk River cruiser class yacht, built in the 1930s. She had been in the water for 3 full years (including 3 Winters) and the customer’s brief was to; rout out and repair the seams; repair the decking; and repair, sand and re-paint the hull.  

The first task:

Remove the toe rails and rubbing strakes and then rout out the old caulking from the seams. After discussions with Sabrina’s owner, we decided to use a combination of epoxy and filler to replace the old caulking as we have done on our own River Cruiser Bootlegger in the Hire Fleet. The advantage being that this more modern approach is effective in making the seals water-tight and avoids the otherwise inevitable movement and cracking, leading to further maintenance in the near future on the paintwork. Longer term, this avoids rot setting in and for the owner, this means that his investment should last a decade, rather than needing further repairs & repaint in a couple of years as has been the case with the existing paint.

Next:

It was time for repairs to the fibre glass laminate deck, where needed. Then, it was time to sand the hull flush, plug any holes and begin the art of sanding and painting the hull. Using Epoxy shell paint means a waterproof result complementing the work done on the seams that again lasts longer, meaning less ongoing maintenance & cost. It is, however, a labour intensive process, the sanding and preparation being critical to the overall finished result.

And Finally:

With the water-line re-instated, the deck-re-gritted and the toe rails and rubbing strakes varnished and back on, it was time for Sabrina 3 to be returned to her owner. It is always wonderful to get positive feedback from our customers and Sabrina’s owner was no exception – “The attention to detail and thoroughness of this restoration is outstanding with no cutting of corners for a quick fix. I appreciate the time you have taken to preserve and restore where this has been possible.”

Find out more about the work of our boatbuilding team and get in touch here https://www.eastwood-whelpton.co.uk/the-boatyard/

A new keel for Leda!

During 2022 we discovered that Leda had some rot in some of her interior wood work that supports the floor and bulkheads. We carried out some temporary repairs during the season to make sure that it did not get any worse and planned it in for the winter maintenance. As ever, now that we have exposed it, it is inevitably worse than originally thought – this picture shows just how much we have had to remove to get to the offending parts.

In the foreground you can see grey floor bearers going across the boat. The equivalent bearers that were at the base of the varnished bulkheads further forward, were in a very poor condition. In places the base of the cabin bulkheads had also gone – we vacuumed out the remains!

How the rot got in!

Leda is built slightly differently to our other Farrington 30 based yachts. Yes, she is 34ft rather than the standard 30ft, but is based on the same core hull mould with 4ft added to the aft end. She has a bolt on keel rather than the usual moulded keel, which is used on most Farrington 30s. As a result there was no sump in the keel to collect any water that was getting n.

Unlike many modern design boats that are designed to stay completely dry, traditional Broads Cruisers generally still have a cockpit that drains into the bilges rather than being self-draining. (The cockpit floor may well be below the waterline!) When water did get into Leda, it sloshed around the bilges as you sailed and made the bearers and woodwork wet, rather than dropping into the sump and being contained there until pumped out by the bilge pump.

As well as repairing the rotten wood, we are looking to solve the problem and prevent it re-occurring by adding a moulded keel with a sump. While we are at it we can hopefully improve her upwind sailing performance!

Stuck on the Mud…

When Leda came into the hire fleet at EW it was discovered that she went aground a lot with her original keel, so, it was decided that it would be much more hirer friendly if the keel was shortened. On reflection, it has never worked quite as well as the keels on the rest of our fleet. Whilst Leda is fast, she also makes a lot more leeway compared to say Lutra or Windjammer. If both Lutra and Leda started at the top of Barton Broad on a fine reach, by the time they got to the other end of the broad Leda would find herself some way downwind of Lutra. It may be perceived that Leda does not sail as close to the wind when in reality they are similar in that respect, but because of the leeway, Leda has to point higher to achieve the same course. This effect is also particularly noticeable when creeping up the lee bank of the rivers and trying to make use of the Lee Bank Effect. Whereas it works well in Lutra and Windjammer, Leda just drifts gently sideways into the reeds.

As the fleet were being lifted, Nick measured several of the other boats in the fleet to be able to compare the wetted area of the various boats – they are all subtly different. Using the old piece of Leda’s keel that was removed as an initial template piece, he made up a new plug to use as the basis of the new keel. Meanwhile Tony has begun to make up the new bearers and we are also taking the chance to refit her proper rudder that got bent some years ago!

Watch this space for the rest of the story!!

P.S. Please don’t tell the other people/competitors sailing in the Barton Charter Regatta!