Here's the yearly roundup of costs, which this time are pretty pathetic. I can count the number of time I visited the boat to less than double figures. Covid, Tiers, lockdowns, restrictions on transport and the rest put paid to the Sailing Season.
As usual first are the basic expenses.£145 Mooring Fee
£160 Insurance.
Now the expenses for 2020:
£17.76 Tarpaulin
£4.39 Plastic Project Box
£21.00 Clipper Duet
£13.14 Stainless Nuts
£10.99 Twin Wire
£18.50 Connector for Rear Nav Light
£30.00 Oak Sleeper (including Delivery)
£25.00 Dinghy Trolley
£2.29 Cable P-Clips
£0.99 Faulty Clipper Duet Number 2
£0.00 Garmin Chartplotter. (Gifted).
£0.00 (Birthday Present) AIS Wireless Receiver (Quark QK-A024)
£20.00 Quark QK-AS03 NMEA Bridge
£65.00 Mainsail
£20.15 AIS antenna
Total for the Year: £554.21 or thereabouts.
2020 Review:
A bit more than last year, but considering the amount of stuff bought, it's pretty bloody good.
This year was of course dominated by the pandemic. I had to visit the boat a couple of times to bail out, but that was it over the original lockdown. All that good weather over the lockdown period was a real kick in the teeth to most boaters.
Once the lockdown had ended, we sadly saw a sinking in Langstone Harbour.
New Stuff included a few electronics, mainly to integrate with the Garmin Chart Plotter I was given earlier in the year. Thanks Mick!
So the Year started off with the Tarp to cover the cockpit, that I didn't get round to fitting until this winter. Then I noticed the Battery wasn't being charged by the Solar Panel: the connections on the back had corroded, so I bought a Box to seal the connections.
I noticed someone had removed a couple of Nuts from the Outboard bracket and I needed a few more fastenings on the boat, so I spent a bit on Stainless nuts and bolts. But not a lot.
I had to buy a couple of Clipper Duets to make a working one. Still worked out cheaper than most working ones on eBay.
I also finally got round to fitting the LED Nav Light to the stern of the boat. I had to buy a new connector as part of the fitting as well as some more twin core wire and p-clips to support the wire.
With good intentions to do major stuff on the boat this year, I found a cheap source of Oak. I found Oak sleepers available on eBay for delivery. Only £30 delivered and the wood has spent most of the year drying out in my outhouse.
I saw some cheap dinghy wheels going on eBay. I've yet to use them in anger as all of the visits to the boat have happened close to high tide and it's just easier to drag the dinghy up the few feet to tie up. Maybe once I start going on the boat at lower tides and I have to drag it further, I'll sort out and use the wheels.
Towards the end of the year I spent quite a bit of money of a replacement mainsail. The dimensions are good and it's in decent condition. More hopefully about that when I fit it to the boat. The old mainsail is baggy, dragging and is stretched so much I can't haul it tight on the mast even at full height on the main sheet and with the downhaul pulled tight as can be. The new sail is a little shorter, newer, stiffer... just hopefully it will drive the boat better.
The big news of the year was electronics. The Clipper Duet was one thing, but then one of the guys that works in the unit next door and has a yacht gifted a Garmin Chartplotter to me. He knows I'm always short of cash and I've helped him with some engine issues. So when another chap in his Marina was asking if he wanted a chartplotter, he grabbed it and passed it on to me. Thanks Mick.
Then I wanted the GPS data to be used by the VHF and also by my Mobile phone. I bought the Quark AIS unit to do two jobs. The first was to transmit the NMEA information on WiFi, and also to receive AIS information and promote it on the network(s). That way the Chartplotter gets AIS info and the GPS and AIS info get transmitted on WiFi so my tablet or phone can grab the data an display it on the Navionics Software.
The Quark AIS unit was a Birthday Present. But I bought the unit to convert it's NMEA output to the Garmin NMEA standard. Finally I bought an antenna for receiving AIS over the Christmas period.
The start of the year should hopefully see me wiring all the bits together and getting them to talk to each other. I have all the units at home to try it out before wiring it all up in the boat. Expect a post with pictures of boat electronics strewn over the dining table.
So, lots of changes in store for the Good Ship Sprite 2. If Covid and the weather allow visits for long enough.
If everything eases, I even have enough money now to put her on the hard for a week so I can scrape the bottom and get a coat of antifoul on her. I'd love to get the mast beam and the windows sorted at the same time too. But the antifoul has been waiting 4 years, so who knows!
