Restoring a Pandora
➜
quite how long it actually took, but it was
certainly a lengthy process.
The third main chore was to scrape and
sand the hull. The keel required extra
attention to some ugly patches of rust,
which had to be taken back with a scraper
and wire brush and then primed before
rolling on the antifouling. The rudder and
a few flakey patches on the hull were also
scraped back, primed and antifouled.
There were lots of smaller jobs going
on at the same time, like checking the
rigging and electrics. Numerous ropes
went through the wash, and some just
needed drying. I replaced the halyards
and the mainsheet and fitted a mast
support post in an attempt to diminish
the sagging in her deck. I even made
inserts to create a double bunk in the
bows for added comfort!
Weekends on the water
We launched at the end of the summer
and I was pleased to find she sailed
well, her hull shape performing
obligingly upwind although not helped
by the stretched and baggy old main.
(However, this was useful in light winds.)
Unfortunately the redundant toilet outlet
was leaking, but this was fixed fairly
promptly with a good helping of Sikaflex
ABOVE Huge
amounts of
rust in the keel,
particularly where
it met the hullTOP RIGHT The
finished paint
job, very shiny
topcoat and
a crisp boot
top stripEpona completely sanded downwhile propped up on the club pontoon
at low tide. I enjoyed a good handful of
weekends on the water, getting used to
sailing and manoeuvring her: it wasn’t
the best sailing I’d done, but it was a
pleasure to have a boat to call my own
on which I could enjoy exploring the
Solent, often excitedly with friends!
She was back on her cradle for the
winter, and preparation for the following
season was very similar as my plans were
to simply enjoy the extra freedom in the
summer. However, I did sand back the
entire hull then paint with antifouling,
Toplac as a topcoat and even a boot topstrip. In addition to this I refitted and
resealed the windows, which had
continued to leak.
I continued dinghy sailing on the side
and working towards my Dinghy Instructor
(DI) course, although after spending a
considerable amount of time in the water
while trying to race my contender, my
focus did switch predominantly to
working on Epona. We even had a very
unsuccessful race attempt at the club:
it’s the taking part that counts, though!
The real modifications began after I
passed my DI course in September 2014.
To prepare for this I enjoyed two weeks of
dinghy sailing on holiday in Greece, but
had grown envious of the cruisers dipping
in and out of the bays in crystal-clear
water, so I decided I wanted to take my
boat to the Med. After a fair bit of research
and some parental concern about sailing
the Bay of Biscay, I decided my best route
was through the French canals. There
were two main aspects I needed to
address: making single-handed sailing
much easier, safer and more comfortable,
and making Epona fit for the canals.
With a block on the front of each
handrail and a cleat further back onA much cleaner interior. This
shows the structure of my
‘double bunk’
The interior paint job:
Epona was beginning to
feel tidier and homelyRIGHT A very
comfy interior,
complete with
warm LED
ceiling lights