Back in the winter, when I was thinking about taking off all the deck fittings, stripping and recoating the deck and then reseating the fittings, there were a few wild moments when I thought I ought to do it myself – perhaps with a little help. Thank goodness I saw sense. It would have been an unmitigated disaster.

Forget for a moment the stripping and reseating, the recoating of the deck alone has involved intensive preparation, an initial application of epoxy undercoat, extensive sanding and filling, followed by four further applications of epoxy undercoat, time for each coat to cure, followed by another two coats of the gloss and non-slip surface. My patience would have been exhausted long ago. I don’t doubt most people’s ability to learn on the job, but the amateur effort most of us would have put into the early stages would have made the final finish look very poor indeed by comparison with what is emerging now.

Thanks to Richard, Andy and Robbie, the result is highly professional, and Blue Mistress will be a pleasure to sail.

It will be worth the wait – even though April was the warmest since records began.  Boat out of the water – No chance of a sail – How frustrating was that??