the deed is done

On 26.4. I write the first post on my work on Antares' hull. Together with Paul, I had already scraped off a good part of the old antifouling and, after an initial "no, that can't be true", had to admit that it was actually osmosis bubbles grinning at us underneath. I had started with the work on April 24th. On Friday the ninth of June it was time: All work was completed and Antares could return to her element.

But it all worked out in the end. On Thursday evening, I had painted what we call "the Wasserpass" until dusk, this strip that roughly marks the waterline and whose easy-to-clean paint was used, at least in the past, to easily remove the inevitable dirt washed up by the water.
Originally I had considered making the water pass green, because my masking tape was green, and I thought that color offered a nice contrast to the other hues of the boat, but to buy water pass paint is unfortunately only available in red, white and black. So white it is, although black would probably look less dirty.
So I masked off the waterline again from front to back and applied two coats of the waterpass paint, which fortunately went pretty quickly (so about two hours)

Im vergangenen Jahr stand ich bei Marinetechnik Törper, einem Laden, den ich nach anfänglichem Zögen heute gerne besuche, weil man kompetent beraten wird, alles Relevante am Lager ist und die Preise sehr ok sind (zum Teil deutlich günstiger als im Versandhandel). 
Allerdings, und das begründet mein ursprüngliches Zögern, finden sich viele online Bewertungen, die den Menschen bei Törper, um es vorsichtig auszudrücken, eine gewisse Sprödheit im Umgang mit den Kunden attestieren. 
Im vergangenen Jahr also war ich dort und suchte Farbe, ich glaube, damals war es noch das klassische weiche Antifouling. Und wie ich so, zusammen mit der Chefin, durch die Regale sehe, fällt mein Blick auf die Dose im Artikelbild. Als "compulsive reader", sprich: jemand, der geradezu zwanghaft alles liest, was ihm in den Blick gerät, lese ich die Aufschrift. Aber als jemand, der nach der "Ganzheitsmethode" lesen gelernt hat, sind Worte, die mir nicht im Alltag geläufig sind manchmal verwirrends. In diesem Fall hat sich in meinem Kopf ein "s" in die "Wasserpassfarbe" gemogelt und so wurde sie zur "Wasserspassfarbe" - ich fragte amüsiert die Herrin des Ladens was denn bitte Wasserspassfarbe sei und hatte dabei Bilder von fröhlichen Kindern auf Wasserspielzeugen im Kopf. Ich will mal so sagen: Ihr Blick auf meine Frage war sehr kühl und sie fand wohl keine Worte, mir zu antworten :D

On Friday morning the crane appointment was due. I had to "quickly" attach the sacrificial anode to the keel and remove the masking tape on the water pass. With the latter, it became clear that the paint had not yet fully cured. This meant that the slings in which the boat would hang on the crane would at least press into the paint, perhaps smearing it a bit, but I couldn't change that now. The harbormaster was already waiting with his little Deutz tractor that would pull the boat from the parking area to the crane. This tractor is worth a story all its own, because it is almost 70 years old and still performs its services without complaint.

The system of storage racks is quite practical: the boats stand on a steel frame, which has four pick-up points. A trolley is then pushed below the rack and can hydraulically lift the whole package at these four points.

when I see it correctly, the tractor is a Deutz F1L 514/51The single cylinder Diesel engin has all of 1330ccm displacement and puts out a whopping 15HP

When it came to pushing the boat around a tight curve on the trolley, I was always worried that the delicate front wheels might come right off.

So it was down the short distance to the crane where the boat had to be pushed into position. Then the straps came through under the hull, the crane lifted the spreader bar over the boat, and we were able to hook the straps in place. Lifting the boat out of the trestle is always an exciting moment because it shouldn't swing too far forward or back or to one of the sides. We had probably pushed Antares a little too far back so that it came forward a good half meter, but fortunately there was enough room and it didn't hit anywhere. The props in particular have ugly sharp steel edges, depending on which way they're turned, but they were far from the fibreglass.

At 10 everything was done, Antares floated and stayed dry inside. Then I had to pay the bill (I hardly like to talk about the fact that the two weeks including craning in and out were cheaper here than craning one and a half times on the other side) and I was on my way.

I tied up directly under the mast crane, fetched the mast, which I had already prepared to some extent, and then had to pull in a cable, attach the shrouds and stays, sort out the halyard and signal lines, spray a few places with Teflon spray and - then the wind came up. North wind is pretty much the worst possible companion to set the mast, because then you have to pull the mast across the ship against the wind, with a crane that is unfortunately pretty rudimentary. But in the end, three of us managed it and the mast stood securely. In the evening of Friday, we then hoisted the sails and Antares is technically ready for the season.

I say technically because she is still pretty untidy inside and I don't really want to sail like that because then so much stuff rolls around. On Saturday, there was a stiff five to seven bft wind from east-northeast, so from the direction in which I would be heading and along the maximum east-west extension of the Baltic Sea along in a strength that is already unpleasant. To cross there in the second reef against wind and wave is just as uncomfortable as unnecessary, so I first cleaned out the boat and tried to separate what remains on board from waste and things that come home.

On Sunday I connected the rest of the electrical system in the mast (antennas, top and anchor light) and - actually just enjoyed the fact that the boat is back in the water. I have not yet come to sail, but tonight, I think, I transfer the boat to the Passathafen in Travemünde.