A hint of spring and the painting can start in earnest

Its been so wet and windy recently that our winter painting has been delayed by weeks. However the sun has finally come out to play for a couple of days and so the brushes have been busy. Our tender has a new combing and cross bench and two coats of topside paint while up on the quayside. She is looking much happier. (She is a 1960's heavy fibreglass racing dinghy, a cross between an Albacore and a Norfolk One-design, with a gunter rig and an outboard, so when we aren't sailing Snark, we can potter on the river under sail)

People wonder why we have a spritsail rig rather than the more conventional gaff rig. Well Snark was originally designed as a cargo ship and the sprit was an essential part of her cargo handling facilities.

Allowing the goods to be unloaded quickly and with minimal manual labour.

I can shifting the 350kg tender on my own with the aid of the sprit (the long diagonal spar) a burton purchase (that's the pulley at the top of the sprit) and in our case a couple of electric winches.

And while she is hanging there it's a good chance to apply a new coat of antifouling to her bottom.