Lift out

As the new season approaches, it's time to get Ty Dewi out of the water for some major inspection and repainting, since it should be the last time she's ashore for a couple of years.

First job is to lift out the rig. Not trivial, as they say, being 60+ feet, 350kg. But the team at Woolverstone are used to this and do a very slick, professional job. Not sure I'd want to be the chap who goes up on the hook to attach the lifting strop though.









After about half an hour of removing all the supporting rigging, the guys were able to lift the mast clear and lay it on supports ashore. There's quite a bit of work to do on the rig, so it's good to have a chance to look at it in detail. We've already found what I suspected, that some fittings have early signs of stress cracking and should be replaced, so this is one job I'm glad we've done.
Having taken the mast out, our boat is too heavy to be craned out at Woolverstone, so they arranged for us to go up the river to Ipswich, where the yard can lift almost anything. We were hoisted gently from the water by their 70 tonne travelhoist, which then trundled through the yard to put ty Dewi down carefully in one fo the few remaining spaces.
Securely propped up, and by coincidence just one boat away from Chieftan, our neighbour from Woolverstone marina, Ty Dewi shows that she is badly in need of new coat of antifouling and a polish to the hull. Otherwise, everything seems in pretty good condition so we go on with the endless list of jobs and hopefully back in the water at the end of March.

Come sailing with us then!