Eeek! That sinking feeling!

Once we got the Sabb running I filled the cooling system, once filled, I suspected a possible leak from the skin tank balance pipe.

Next morning as Glenda was heading off to work she said :-

"Don't go poking around, finding more problems that we don't need"

Ten minutes later I found some water in the cabin bilge next to the engine 'ole bulkhead. As I started to suck it out with the wet & dry, a bit of rust got sucked up and a jet of water shot up from the baseplate! 

"Oh! Fiddlesticks" (or similar) I exclaimed!

Luckily there was a roofing screw nearby, which I screwed into the hole, reducing the flow to a trickle. This I then replaced with a new roofing screw, a tap washer and some silicone, stopping the leak.

We slept onboard that night and arranged to haul Freyja out the next morning.

Even though the Sabb had no coolant, throttle, engine stop or gearchange I decided to take Freyja around under her own steam.

I set the throttle to tick over, used a parasol pole for a gearchange (holding it in gear with my foot).

I was very happy that it pulled like a train.

Water seems to have collected in this spot overthe years, we knew the shower was emptying into the cabin bilge and had fixed this and dried the bilge out, But it had obviously caused the skin tanks or the balance pipe to rust through and start to leak.

The roofing screw and tap washer stopping us from sinking!

The Sabb performed well, bringing Freyja around to the pump-out pontoon, ready to haul her up the slipway.

Here, I think Glenda is signalling that this is the second time we've had Freyja out recently.

Here Glenda is multi-tasking, showing me what she thinks of my ability to find leaks as she removes mussels etc. from the baseplate.

Thirteen 8 foot x 4 foot 6 mm sheets being laid out and prepared to be welded together into one big plate. The trailer will then be reversed down the slipway and Freyja positioned on top of the plate.

The first two sheets chamferred ready to be welded together. Once Freyja is in position Bruce will weld around the edge and flame-cut off the excess metal.