Last weekend I wanted to go sailing on the Jeanneau to profit from a couple of windy days. As I stepped on board I saw a bird escape from under the sail cover!

I took a look. It was a real mess under there and I prepared to clean it all up. As I looked a little better I saw a very active nest with 2 (very recent) newborns and 3 eggs!

I decided to postpone my sailing plans and give this nest a fighting chance instead. I hope mother (or father) returns to the nest …..

Back to finishing the dinghy. Putting Kiwgrip on the floors and seats did not take much time.

Still to do: a rub rail. I intend to use a simple PVC hose and I’m testing different glues.

It took a remarkable large amount of paint to (more or less) cover the two halves of the dinghy inside and out: almost 4 litres.

And I didn’t even paint the floors! I will probably use some leftover Kiwigrip for those.

The new primer I ordered has arrived. Unfortunately that also means sanding (and a little fairing) in preparation for paint ….. Making a fibreglass axis for the wheels was a more satisfying job.

In the process of putting primer on the dinghy but I got distracted by two old wheels. And I ran out of primer half way through the job …..

I drilled an oversized hole in the rudder stock to attach the tiller. To protect the core of the rudder stock (wood), I still have to glue in a GRP tube. Or fill the entire hole with epoxy and silica or something similar.

In order to be able to fill the bearing sleeves with resin (from the top), I first had to put the rudder in a vertical position. It’s a bit of a beast but I managed to do it on my own without dropping it.

The next picture shows the (top) bearing sleeve completely filled with resin. If I ever have to remove the sleeves I’m in a lot of trouble ….

I also worked on the bottom side of the new carbon tiller.

This is how it all worked out. Note that I mounted the tiller the wrong way round!

Bonus picture of the ventilators after putting some epoxy paint (left over from painting the rudder) on them.