The weather forecast for this afternoon was both good and bad. The good part was the wind. Force 2 gusting 4 from the West and therefore a great sailing wind, at least for Naiad. The bad bit? Rain. Light becoming heavy. Drat!

But I wanted to spend some time on the boat, so I went down anyway, put up the cockpit tent as the forecast was correct and then made cup of tea and just pottered.

I suppose that at times like this, Naiad is my other “shed”.

Last Winter the spreaders for the cockpit tent were broken due to high winds causing the tarpaulin to press hard against the spreaders. so much so that the legs snapped. At that time I made two spreader bars to hold the spreaders apart but never finished them and certainly did not fit them. But today I tried them out.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that they did not fit. The aft one was too long the forward one too short. Here is the aft one in place...

...but look at the bend in the upright!

So I made a cup of tea and sat and thought about it. Then I noticed that the leg on both sides was in the outside of the top bar. I took the spreaders out, turned them the other way up and this time the bar fitted.

There is still a little slant on the leg but no bend.

Now the forward bar fitted as well...

...as you can see here.

The cockpit tent is going to need a back since a the moment the wind just blows the rain in.

You can see that the poop deck is wet all the way to the end and I could feel a few drop of rain falling on my feet as I sat in the cockpit.

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Whilst I was out sailing last Sunday I mounted the camera on a clamp thing which I fixed to one of the hatch rails.

It worked but it was a little bit precarious. Now I don't know about you, but personally I don't want to hear the word precarious used when referring to my camera so I decided to get a screw clamp that would be a lot more secure.

Well I search for hours and couldn't find what I wanted so in the end I decided that I would have to build one. Today I brought along some cardboard and while I sat in the cockpit with my tea I also cut out the shape I needed to make this clamp.

And here it is. The outside shape is not important, it is the inside shape that gives the thing its stability.

It hooks over the rail and under the coachroof. The screw part will push a piece of wood up against the roof and pull the top of the clamp down against the rail.

Here you can see the "hook" part over the rail. When clamped in place this will stop it from being able to slide off.

Once I have this made from a suitable piece of plywood, then I can make something that will attach to the clamp to hold the camera.