As it has been nearly four years since Patience last had her hull painted, we decided to have her taken out of the water to repaint everything up to the level of the gunwales. She was lifted out on 11th November, cleaned down and put under cover by the very capable crew at Oundle Marina. After a thorough cleaning, the hull was found to be generally in very good order, but they wire brushed, treated and primed some areas of rust adjacent to the rubbing strakes. They then repainted her hull sides with two coats of bitumen, with an extra one for good measure immediately above and below the waterline. We then tackled the red and white bands around the stern, the red tiller, the inside of the weed hatch and the dark green sides of the hull immediately above the bitumen. Four new sacrificial anodes were attached, two at the bow and two at the stern. The old ones that still had some life left in them were left in position.
The quality of all the work done by the marina staff was excellent and they were very helpful in giving us access to her to do our own painting. After five weeks on dry land, she is due to be craned back into the water on 16th December and we hope that, after such a thorough job, her hull will be good for at least another four years.
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| Stern before work started |
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| After cleaning and rust treatment |
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| Ready to go back in the water |
