It’s the height of the summer, and days of sunshine make work on the yard hot and difficult but on the river creates warmth and perfect sailing weather.

40′ Degroot ‘Ocean Stream’ continued her spuce up in our workshop last month she was shotblasted and prepared for new paintwork.  She has now had a paint job all over including topsides and has returned to her regular berth in our marina.

70ft Dutch Barge ‘Ganges’ came out for grit blast and painting.  Too large to go in our workshop she sat on our quay making her large presence felt for a couple of weeks; she was admired by our many passes by who inquired about her origins. ‘Ganges’ is based at Woodbridge dock and and has been a houseboat for sometime.

It’s been a month for barge work.  As soon as ‘Ganges’ was launched,we took out a 60ft widebeam canal barge on the same tide. She came in for a blast from the decks downwards.  Topsides and hull received five coats of epoxy paint before anti-fouling the hull and finishing the topsides in gloss black. New annodes were fitted and she was launched; she headed back to Martlesham Creek with her new owner.

The end of August brought typical English weather: wind, rain and sunshine – often all in the same day. ‘Lady Cate’ a classic 1970s classic motor boat was lifted out for topside repaint, antifoul, new shaft bearings, new anodes and relaunch but with both workshops full, weather played havoc with this job which had to be completed outside.  It was either too windy, or too hot or too wet to get the job done but eventually everything came together, the job was finished and she returned to her berth in our marina.