This photo-page covers our nautical activities for 2025.
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Narrative accompanying our 2025 pictures above - Starting at the top left-hand corner...
The winter 2024/25 was the second one that Ngahue IV spent 'inside' with Aqualift in Nieuwpoort. The two other HR53s, (Sophia and Anna II, formerly Mr Chr. Rassy's Bamsen) decided to respectively stay in the water and move to another Aqualift facility. Thus Ngahue IV was surrounded by a pair of Brooms (no, not the cleaning implement, but a UK brand of solid motor boats). Again, a fair amount of work was spent on looking after the teak deck and cleaning up the interiour and renewing essential safety equipment for which multiple parcels arrived from HR Parts and George Kniest in the Netherlands. And starting in January the lengthy and precise task of correcting Ngahue's 150-plus British Admiralty charts started. Admittedly downloading (but paying for) a new electronic chart for one's plotter is a lot easier!
Early January is New Year reception time: we decided to attend the HRC reception in Rotterdam, thereby foregoing our own marina's New Year reception, or the one held by our local mayor! We also managed to find time to go to BOOT Düsseldorf 2025 and saw Magnus Rassy on his magnificent HR69! But play needs to be alternated with hard work and by the beginning of February nearly the whole winter maintenance programme for the inside of the boat had been for the largest part done. My winterprogramme covers 8 pages of closely typed text with things to be done!!! After Düsseldorf, a new trip was planned to Aachen in Germany to collect a new gasbottle from DIY store OBI; for this the gaslocker was cleaned out and new security lines fitted to hold the gasbottles in place should the boat be rolled. Some new charts were ordered and the last set of local charts corrected to March 2025. February and March were also the months for the "chilly" work to be done outside -> maintenance of the mast (which was outside) and of the boom (under the boat). A lot of attention was also paid to looking after the boat's steering system! All excessive play has now been removed and it is quiet again as when the boat was launched.
After several years of ownership and a bit of sailing in the tropics, some of the woodwork in the cockpit area clearly required revarnishing. In fact, because of UV the cockpit charttables need regular attention -> the simplest solution, I've found, is to replace their base plate altogether and to revarnish the solid outer ledge (made of good 1990s wood from HR. The cockpit table was completely removed and dismantled - thoroughly sanded down, and treated to 5 layers of Epifanes varnish. The external woodwork on the Hardtop will need to be sanded down and varnished too; but at a later stage, when the outside temperature is conducive to outside varnishing. Unfortunately it isn't possible to remove these pieces of wood and take them home for varnishing in the garage. This is possible with the various cockpite tables; our home garage is an excellent environment for home painting...
March 2025 saw several sunny and warm days (temperatures around 17°C) to undertake essential maintenance on the mast. Only one out of four winches was properly accessible; but all other components could be cleaned and oiled for the 2025 sailing season. Even the RR aerial could be straightened and the top bracket of the radar reflector riveted back. Both had probably been hit when the mast came off the boat in September last year. The good days also warmed up the inside of the boat hall storage area, so that work on the windlass (here freshly re-chromed) and the hull could be done. Pictured here is the bowthruster tunnel, ready to be antifouled. After that the two propellors and anodes can be refitted...
Ngahue IV needed to be ready for launching in late April 2025 in order to attend two appointments abroad...
... this page will be added to throughout the course of 2025
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