Fishing Boats can be an expensive hobby as we found out to our cost last year with our Quicksilver 630 Stern Drive when its engine failed and blew two pistons. It was following that experience that we traded it in for our current boat an Ocqueteau 645 originally named Straight Laced. This was in the middle of last season so we knew we would have to spend some time with her out of the water this spring.

We had booked Stephenson Marine to service the Nanni engine for the Tuesday so that took out the first day and we knew we had as priority to remove the old name and replace it with proper signs for Blue Marlin III her new given name.

When we purchased her we were assured she had been out of the water and anti fouled that season. Well we soon discovered a mountain of weed glued to her bottom and barnacles and ring worm encrusted around her rudder and prop. The bottom was then pressure washed and the true extent of the work could be seen. Despite being a stailess steel rudder it was amazing the growth and muck on it.

Once out of the water and sprayed off she was put into a cradle and driven around to the back of the yard where she was put on wooden props for us to work on.

After considering the best way to clean the rudder and propeller it was decided to use a power option. You can now purchase flap discs for angle grinders and a new 4.5" flap wheel (consists of segments of emery paper) was secured. By use of pressure the barnacles and tube skeletons were swiftly removed without any damage to the rudder. Very impressive abrasive wheel which at the end of cleaning both the propeller and rudder showed no sign of wear, so they are very durable.

The anodes seemed to be in good condition but looking for the anode to protect the propeller shaft it couldn't be seen!  Just then Rob came to the boat and said there should be one on the bronze propeller and sure enough there was a taper and threaded hole but no anode. Rob soon sourced the correct anode bit Mike had to clean the threads with a tap, before securing the bolt this time with some stud lock.

Whilst Mike was out with his power tools it was old fashioned elbow grease for me. The hull above the water line was encrusted with weed. The only way to remove this easily was to give it a scrub with methalyted Spirits followed by a vigourous polish with a fibre glass rubbing compound. I use Starbrite  Rubbing Compond which works well.

This process although laborious removed the engrained slime from the hull. At various points above the water line further stains that were stubborn eventually yeilded to the same method. Once the hull was completed it was necessary to attack the upper structures. While all this was going on Karen had kindly volunteered to clean out the inside of the cabin. So it was a hive of activity with Mike on his back under the boat sanding off the prop, Karen in the cabin scrubbing the innards amd me outside polishing the hull. Oh and I forgot Rolfe (German Shepherd Pup) who was tied up on a long rope at the rear who's main contributionwas to attempt to demolish the yard and pull the boat off its wooden props. Mike also carefully removed the old name on the bows by gentle application of heat via a hot air gun.

After the first full day we had made a big impression on the work. Mike had now turned the essential running gear into shining works of art and Karen had made the cabin a no go area for fear of bringing in any dirt, whilst the hull was shining like new!

Day two started with Mike and I attacking the remaining jobs. I kept at the polishing and Mike bought and fitted the new name signs. These were supplied from a local sign ( John Henfrey Signs‎ of Brixham) maker to fit the dimensions taken earlier. The sign maker asked for a colour and Mike said he wanted blue. "What blue" came the reply and a technical 'dark' was the response. When picking the signs up advice was given on how to fit them and a line was drawn immediately under the base of the lower letters. Next the centre of the text was marked on. These markings were crucial to lining up the signs. The letters themselves are sandwiched between two protective sheets, so you remove one slowly when placing the sign. Once rubbed down the top sheet is carefully removed and heh presto, the individual letters are in place (hopefully not upside down!) and the blue was a perfect match to the decals already on the boat. Almost as if it was planned!

Following the rubbing down it was then necessay to add a good qulaity gloss polish to the hull. We choose to use MER as it has worked very well for the past 3 seasons on our other boat and gave a long lasting protective coating.

We buy a lot of our equipment through ebay and some examples can be seen below

As this boat was new to us we emptied the anchor locker and laid out all the anchor line and chain. It was a good 300 feet long but had mysteriously been tied in a bundle part way through. It was necessary to replace all the corroded shackles with stainless steel ones and then the fun task of restowing the line and chain. We fitted a slightly smaller Bruce Anchor as the one on the boat was 7.5 Kg which we felt a bit heavy for the size of our vessel.

Once the anchor lines were secured Mike took to shortening and splicing some mooring lines whilst I tackled the tricky business of scrubbing and inflating our bouys. We had decided to get some help to do the anti foul and it was just as well or we would have run out of time. We choose Blakes Tiger Extra in dark blue as that gave us the best results last year after trying several others previously.
We buy a lot of our equipment through ebay and some examples can be seen below

By the end of Thursday afternoon she looked a different boat. New name signs and a shiny hull, she looked a picture.

It was back to Noss Marina early Friday ready for her lift back in. This was achieved relatively easily and after checking for leaks whilst still in the crane harness we were soon on our way back to our mooring. The work was still not done as the previous owner had removed his compass and Mike had bought us a great replacement compass for a very reasonable £39 on ebay. Once moored on our berth work commenced again as the compass was fitted by Mike and I sorted out all the locker space and equipment.

Once done inside the last job was to clean the deck surfaces with a quick hose off and hey presto the job was done. Three days of frantic activity and a ton of money and Blue Marlin III was all set and ready to go for another season.

We have grown to like our Ocqueteau 645 and would recommend it as an ideal fishing and family boat to anyone.

Below are a selection of images from the weeks efforts.