E22 New Toppling Lift
Molia’s mast always had the top sheave and lower opening for a topping lift, but one was not threaded. Also, with the spinnaker control lines led aft, there is no jamming cleat for one (starboard side).

With the mast down, we have taken the opportunity to thread a new 8mm rope to make a topping lift. Its the gold fleck pictured here.
2025 Season Jobs
We are planning some maintenance and upgrades for the 2025 season. Some of these will be done before Molia goes back into the water; and others after.
E23 Replacement Anchor Lamp
E24 Boom Maintenance
E25 Reconfigure the Backstay Tensioner
V54 – Out of the Water 2024
E21 Replace Ventilator Cowls
Our ventilator cowls are dull, scratched and dirty. After several tries at cleaning them, with various products, I decided to replace them. It seems not that much more expensive than buying an array of cleaning products! Anyway the starboard-side ventilator drips when it rains really hard, so I think the sealant may need attention.
Removed the ventilator cover. Everything in here is a bit mouldy!
Giving it all a good clean with boat cleaner and water.

Refitted the ventilator mechanism with a good layer of new sealant. You can just see it around the edges.
Sealant applied to the cowl’s screw holes as well.

New covers for the ventilators on our boat are the ‘Plastimo Streamline Dorade Cover Only for P51637 P51654 51654’ supplied by Chas Newens Marine.
V53 Top of the Tide

We drifted up to the bridge and back with Catherine, on one of the hottest days so far this year.
V52 The Bridge with Wendy
V51-20 Swansea to Portishead
We will use the tide to make the passage from Swansea to Portishead in one go.
The wind was light and the sea smooth for our last leg this year.
With many thanks to our crew guests this year:
And to the engineers who kept us going:
Nick Smith, independent marine engineer, Falmouth
Jerry at Falmouth Yacht Brokers
Mitch at Advance Marine, Portishead
V51- 19 Padstow to Swansea
Our ‘no anchoring at Padstow’ policy meant that we had to leave Padstow harbour at 0300! We made our way down the river Camel slowly and then loitered in the bay until there was enough light to see lobster pots.
With little wind, we motored against the tide towards Hartland Point and Lundy. We picked up the tide on approach to Hartland, and then made good progress across the channel. We arrived at Swansea in good time.
There was some good dolphin entertainment in Swansea bay.
V51-18 Newlyn to Padstow
Our aim is to get to Padstow and go straight in without anchoring – the wind and waves are not right for anchoring anyway.
We started at 0600 from Newlyn to get the other side of Lands End with the tide, and pick up the tide going up the north Cornish coast. Positive tide did not run out until well past St Ives. This gave us a problem later as we approached Padstow too quickly! With high water at midnight in Padstow, our earliest approach up the Camel was 2130. In then end we hove to a couple of times around Trevose Head and delayed our entry to Padstow Bay until 2100.
This gave us the best dolphin sighting of the trip. A whole pod crossed our path