It’s been a while. Why didn’t we write? Well there is one big reason. There has just been one weekend off work until everything has been locked down by you know what. That weekend in February we tested the function of a tool, that turned out to be crucial for further boat work: We proudly present the TERCOO. Directly from hell, this disc does not smear soft coating…. It’s like a million finger nails scrape deep into the steel and take off everything(!). We tried it on the rudder and well… let’s say …. If it would not rust, we would steer the boat with a silver spoon by now. Who would have thought how nice naked steel can look like. But of course we had to protect that baby. First a layer of Owatrol and then (long time later) actual paint.
Then there was corona… and we were trapped in Innsbruck. It was not unpleasant to relax a little and we had time to test some features for the boat, like solar panels and charge controllers. Stuff that you can do while not being at the boat.
After the first wave of corona, the sailing club – where the boat was sitting in the dry – allowed us back to the area and we instantly took on the hull. Delayed by one month, the entire refit process was focused on the following mile stones:
- Entire repainting of the hull
- Get everything sealed up, that the boat does not take on any water, when the crane comes and puts us in the canal for the first time
- And the engine… a story of its own
Me (Max) – still employed at the time – my company…. Actually overrun by work due to corona (IT) – was so kind to give me that super spontaneous holiday and off we were. Hardcore boat work, 14 days straight.
We had help by Stefan – a friend from Berlin who was willing to work with us (every!) day during this time. We could not have done it without him. Great shout out to him for this humble effort. The days itself are not something that one could write a lot about. We got up, drove down to the boat two people in full masks grinding the hull and Benni doing essential work on the boat, mostly on valves, doing some welding etc.
It was a stressful time, not only because the work was hard, but also because until shortly before the crane appointment, it was unclear if the crane ordered by the club was strong enough for our 7-ton mistress. Ordering a huge crane privately just for our boat would have cost maybe as much as we paid for her itself. I don’t want to go too much into detail, but since we have not had the time to properly get to know the people, communication was poor and some thought we would not want to be lifted into the water this spring. Boy have we proven some people wrong.
Here are some pictures of the two weeks… let’s just say it was it was messy and probably poisonous. And man have we been lucky to have ordered the masks in Nov 2019 😀