N1183 Tessa

[Tim Gatti]

After many more hours in the workshop Tessa now has six coats of Deks Olje on her hull , neatly fitted mini Anderson self-bailers and secure straps and fixings to hold her buoyancy bags in place. 
Another mod I've found useful to do on the ribbies is to rake out the joint between the bottom edge of the centreboard case side and the keel and refill with a fillet of epoxy. Not an easy job as the joint is inside the centreboard slot about 45mm up from the keel band. With a steel plate, the slot itself is only about 20mm wide so there's not a lot of room for manoeuvre.  I've made a couple of small, cranked, raking out tools from an old ss wall tie and use a syringe with a fine tube attached to lay the thickened epoxy fillet into place along the length of the slot joint, then tipping the boat onto the opposite gunn'l the next day to do the joint on the other side.  It's a fiddly job but has a dramatic effect on reducing leakage, so it's well worth the effort.  You can see with the mention of Andersons and epoxy that I'm a firm believer in mixing the old with the new.
I'm just sorting the rigging and fittings on a very old Proctor mast of 1950's era which has both diamonds on fixed spreaders and shrouds and then Tessa will be ready for her re-launch in time for the next Ribby Event at Yeadon on 19 July

[Tim Gatti]

A couple more photos

[Tim Gatti]

Tessa was relaunched at Yeadon Tarn on July 1st with a distinct absence of fanfares, bunting and champagne but plenty of interested passers-by.  She handled well in a near non-existent breeze and, as anticipated, leaked a little due to her being out of the water for at least the last 30-40 years.  She's wearing a modern suit of sails in the pics attached and is now ready to join the fray on 19th July when five ribbies will take to the water for another round of close racing. I'm hoping a good dosing with a hosepipe and a thick layer of wet newspaper inside her hull to retain the moisture for a few days before her next outing, will help her planks to swell!

[Tim Gatti]

'Tessa' under sail at the Ribby Sailing event at Yeadon Tarn July 19th '09, with Ian and Margaret Purkis in charge.
Photo by Jennie Clark