marine.digital

I suspect Ainvar had older instruments when built as the holes still exist in the mounting panel. At some point they were replaced with three separate ST40 Wind, Depth, and Speed instruments. The ST40's have been connected in parallel using terminal blocks, works but not the best way, but far less expensive than using the branded connector blocks and cables.
You may see, to the right of the instruments is another SeaTalk connector. This is for the Auto Pilot control head, which was mounted on a chunky wooden panel which was removed when fixing the white cockpit faring.
I've been waiting for a ST40 Bi-Data display, so I can refit this panel, and have just purchased one on Wallapop.


So the plan is:
1. Replace the back panel with something more suitable. Painted for protection.
2. Fit the wind instrument top left, and the replacement Depth/Speed bi-data bottom left. With the Auto pilot control head on the right.
3. Re-varnish the surrounding wood after sealing the panel

The heel gauge, besides being in the wrong place, is broken so shall be ditched. The SeaTalk wiring will be tidied up, as it's a real mess currently.

Whilst waiting for crew in Almeria I had the time for a proper rig inspection, and to replace the damaged VHF arial. So the local rigger jumped at the opportunity and disappeared up the mast.

He was very conscientious, looking at everything and taking plenty of photos. He fitted a Scout (Stubby) VHF arial which seems to work well, and gave me his report.

There was a crack in the top cap where the back stay bracket was welded on. The mast will need to come down and the weld repaired.

You can see the bus crosses in the photo.

Also the topmost "mini-spreader" bolt seemed to be bent, but otherwise everything was OK.

Great, let's get the work done. Not so fast Chris, this is Spain, anything can happen, or nothing in my case. After a month of chasing the local rigger, I sailed around the corner to Almerimar where the yard did the work the next day, excellent.

The cost was very reasonable for mast down, welding, new back-stay, new spreader bolt, step and tune-up, about 400 euros less than it would have cost me in Barcelona.


My task was to remove the sails and boom, that's where I found the first example of age wear, the gooseneck bolt.

I think I have a Seldon mast, ant the gooseneck fittings are very strong. They use nylon top hat washers where the boom yoke connects to the gooseneck. Unfortunately these hadn't been checked or replaced so the stainless steel bolt had warn the softer aluminium casting.

As none of the riggers I have spoken to in Spain know anything about these washers I suspect this is a common fault. So I will get a local engineering company to create a new pair in nylon, with a larger diameter than the originals so the elongated holes in the castings can be "reamed out".

As this was my first boom removal, I learnt a lot.

I purchased Ainvar a few days after the the Covid lockdown was lifted in Spain.

As I have worked on new build and refits on all sorts of motor and sailing vessels up to 100m, I have a very good knowledge of what to look for in a survey, the amount of work required to fix, and costs. As Ainvar was very inexpensive for an Aluminium yacht the purchase was fairly good value if I did a lot of the work myself.

So the first step, delivery to Barcelona.

What was not obvious at the time was the reluctance of crew to leave their health authority area. In Spain each area has its own health authority and it's not easy to switch between them, you need the EU Health Insurance card. The consequence was the previous owner and his crew only went as far as Almaria, as they thought it would take too long to complete the journey, and they didn't want to get stuck someplace if another lockdown was required.

There are a few crew finder apps, so I joined up and advertised. Most of the replies were people many hundreds of miles away asking me to pay for their travel to Spain. Obviously this wasn't going to happen, where were all the local sailors?

Next I found a delivery crew out of Gibralter. They were two people in their 20's who took one look at the boat and walked away, even though they already had been informed of the condition and photos sent. So back to searching.

Eventually I found two guys from Palma who loved sailing and were enthusiastic about the trip. So I paid there flights and a daily rate.

But, mast problems.

The Mediterranean Sea can be a fantastic place to sail.

On this occasion just of Malaga we encounter a pod of dolphins who swam along with us for half an hour.
Please ignore the whistling, it wasn't me