I have been ticked off today by my middle child for getting Anne Marie’s age wrong.
Ladies are known ( as are some men) for being sensitive of their age. So when I started this blog and said it was about the renovation of a 42 year old yacht I should have checked my maths.
Anne Marie was built in 1977 so she is 40. Oops.
So not only am I guilty of publishing a woman’s age, I actually got it wrong and in the wrong direction. Let’s hope she forgives me.
I want to increase the number of followers on the http://www.savinganneMarie.com website. I challenge each person who was gets a copy of this to forward it to 6 of their friends and asked them to follow the story.
There are various ways to do this but simplest is to go to the web site and tick ‘follow’. The next is to become a friend of Anne Marie onFacebook. She isn’t too fussy and you can recognise her by her obviously unique profile picture.
What’s in it for you? The pleasure of seeing the rebirth and saving of a wonderful sailing yacht.
So please help. More the merrier.
Having finished the deck ‘proper’ of Anne Marie we have now turned our attention to the deck above the main cabin.
The cabin is a GRP moulding formed and then lowered onto the side ledge of the hull. Some months ago we spent some time levering the two pieces apart and filling them with sealant before bolting them back together again and covering them with a plywood deck.
Anyway the surface above the cabin is in very poor condition. It is a real source of leaks as there are numerous fittings which bolt through allowing water to enter. This has been one of the major causes of the water leaking into the boat. 
In the past people have tried to cure this by putting fibreglass resin over the whole thing which gave it it’s white colour. This has crazed and split making the whole thing even worse.
The deck is actually made up of three parts. The fibreglass moulding which is then covered with plywood and then strips of teak have been put on top. This teak layer has had the fibreglass put on it because the teak was moving. This by the way was the wrong thing to have done. The more the water got in the more the plywood core has rotted away.
We started to remove the planking at the weekend and found that the plywood was so poor that we could hoover it with our trusty vacuum cleaner. There was almost a half inch gap (12 mm to the millenniums amongst you) between the teak and the fibreglass because the plywood has rotted away. What is more instead of sealing each plank with a flexible compound someone used epoxy resin which has cracked and let even more water through.
Time for a complete rethink and so first things first remove the lot down to the GRP.
So two days of wandering around the boat show have moved us on nicely. Thanks to Marine Superstore and Stuart at Dometic we have bought a Dometic Starlight two burner cooker, grill and oven and a CRX65D drawer based fridge/freezer. Hot food plus cold Champagne (without having to hang the bottle overboard). Luxury!
We have also bought:
* A gas powered pedestal, from Marine Teak, for our new saloon table which lowers to create a double berth. Actually the new table is an up-cycle of an oak refectory table we bought 20 years ago from Maidstone Girls Grammar School complete with 100 year old chewing gum – such refined girls went there.
* 6 large sized inflatable fenders with ropes and the valve kit from Compass Marine (Dartmouth).
* A lovely shiny two unit galley sink with taps and wastes plus a shower and taps set for the heads from Penguin.
What’s more today (Thursday) the cooker turned up!
Here at Rye in East Sussex we occasionally get visits from wildlife. Mostly it is Oyster Catchers, gulls, various waders. Today it is a local seal.
We are planning to be inshore friendly by fitting a holding tank for all the cr*p that exudes from the crew while in harbour or near the shore.
Basically marine toilets have always been pumped directly overboard wherever you are. People are beginning to realise that this is adding some unsavoury elements to the seas in areas where people may be affected. By pumping into a holding tank you can either have the tank pumped out on shore or go sailing and pump out in deep water away from the crowds.
Designing a tank is not easy as the hull curves in three dimensions and our tank is therefore not a simple cube. The tank will go on the outside wall/hull below the window.
We are putting a proper shower int Anne Marie as well as the toilet so planning out the heads is an important step. This includes deciding where the inlet and outlets will go.
A drawing will appear later.
Finished for today. The deck is laid on glue. The whole has been carefully trimmed, masked and sealed around the edges. A few small air bubbles were found and sorted – hence the weights holding the deck down in spots.
In a couple of days someone will come back and remove the tape and weights and will sand down the edges. Then all complete.
Shot, the guy that made it, said it took about a week to manufacture.
It looks great. Now to work on the rest of the outside.
The team from MCP Marine arrives and within ten minutes has the pre-formed deck down – but not fixed. 
Last minute touch ups and front deck hatch work. Everything is sanded and vacuumed. 9.00 am kick off.
Well actually no tape but this is hopefully one of the last bonfires of Anne Marie’s rotten interior.
Saving Anne Marie 