Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Tuesday 22 February 2011

...not Arwen....but Stacey

Although this blog is about Arwen, Angharad and things nautical...occasionally we let other things slip in.......like ‘Stacey’....our renovation of a 1967 motovespa super 125. Don’t ask me why she’s called ‘Stacey’ – that’s the name my 15 yr old son has bestowed upon her and I have no idea how he thinks! Nor do I want to!


‘Stacey’ occasionally sneaks in because I think anyone who builds boats or restores them or even those who enjoy dinghy sailing will also appreciate anyone who restores other things. It is a skill, a calling, a great responsibility. The philosophy behind building a dinghy or creating something are really the same. I appreciate the time, effort, commitment, thought, worry, contentment etc that goes into building a piece of furniture, doing a piece of art or restoring a vespa!

When you last saw ‘Stacey’ she was like this.

we are hoping that she will be returned to like this


Well, now she looks like this.

this is the chassis


We have stripped her right down into her component pieces. It took some work to sort out, especially all the cables. We took loads of photographs which I hope will help us reassemble it without any hassle.


a very old speedo

The trickiest bit was dropping the front fork. We discovered after much hammering and some cursing that some clown had spot welded in the bearing races – now who would do something as stupid as that?


the somewhat troublesome front fork and drum brake

Anyway, ‘Stacey’ is now at the sand blasters G and T finishes, here in Plymouth. They have been very impressive – their finish after sand blasting and powder coating is excellent. The owner has talked to my son about colour schemes, options, different types of coatings etc. He’s looking at a candy apple red (medium) colour with satin black underneath all frames etc; white walled tyres and silver rims; chrome trimmings. It will look very smart.

We need to replace lots of bits and pieces and we are about to strip the engine – which will tax us to the full but we have some people who can step in and support us if need be.

We’ll let you know how ‘Stacey’ looks when we get her back in a few weeks time.
Steve

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