Ready to depart from Portimao

As I mentioned in the previous blog post, Ben Walters of Slick Hull Yacht Services took apart the fuel system and cleaned the tank and fuel lines. He later would also sort my electrical system, correcting some of the undersized cables and adding fuses where necessary.

Ben replaced the connections with correct gauge wires for efficiency and fire safety. The system has new fuses and improvements to make it more reliable.

Rigging Portugal serviced my furlers, replaced all standing and running rigging, replaced undersized pins with appropriate ones, added mast steps, a second genoa halyard with its dedicated clutch and larger backing plates for the backstay mounts on deck. They installed a new steaming light with an LED deck light under it, essential for when I may have to work on the foredeck in the dark.

The new combo steaming/deck light will be very effective. Sebastian made sure that the shroud tension was within recommended limits.

Slick Hull completed the hull paint and applied anti fouling under the hull and on the propeller. They were gracious to put in time on weekends to complete these. Just before put in, Vasile took a look at my wooden tiller with its UV damaged varnish, saying give that to me. What I received the morning of put in was a refinished tiller, looking like new.

Slick Hull Yacht Services delivered quality work. S/V CLARA gained her proud composure once more.

There was some water in the bilge under the shaft which I suspected would be the shaft seal. It had been replaced in January 2025 and may have needed tightening. When Vasile descended in the boat for that the day before I was supposed to launch on May 6th, he asked me to turn the shaft in forward and reverse gear to verify for dripping. What he noticed instead was a crack in the inline check valve on the exhaust pipe. This was not one that I would have found on my own as one needed to be down under the deck to see.

When I removed the check valve, I found that it was damaged inside as well which would not have served its purpose to keep sea water out. For that, I had already asked Slick Hull to install a seacock on the exhaust. So with Vasile’s blessing, we opted to replace the exhaust hose without the check valve, solving the problem.

The inline check valve on the exhaust pipe was damaged.

After removing the old exhaust hoses, we opted to install a hose without the check valve. The hose rises up to cockpit seating level then goes down, forming a “gooseneck” discouraging water intrusion. The exhaust has a seacock with the red handle that I can close in storms.

S/V CLARA looks ready. She will receive a new set of sails from OneSails UK when in Lymington.

All those white boats ;)

S/V CLARA is sitting pretty ready for departure tomorrow. Across the river is the historic Forte de São João do Arade.

I will relaunch from Portimão tomorrow on May 12th. I intend a brief stop at Lorient to turn in my Plastimo life raft at their shop. This raft contains a special GGR kit which they need to certify. I will pick up the serviced raft later in the summer. From Lorient, I will continue to Lymington in the UK to get out of the Schengen Zone in which I am only allowed a 90-day total stay every 180 days. In June, I will complete my remaining tasks including installing a rigid waterproof dodger over the companion way and mounting a new Hydrovane drive unit on the transom. I also hope to meet an RYA Examiner there to finalize my Yachtmaster Ocean certification.