Pachuca's hull had not been anti-fouled since her relaunch in May 2019 and she was due for hull maintenance in May 2021 because her anti-fouling was rated for two years. Nevertheless I had managed to get 28 months out of the antifouling with the hull still looking respectable with the help of two hull cleans by a diver along the way, so I could not complain.
After several delays due weather and booking issues Bruce Diggins (Albatross Marine) and I ferried Pachuca for her liftout on 20 September. The plan was for Bruce to perform the maintenance and other work partly because as a water pollution reduction measure the club had instigated a new policy of dry sanding of old antifouling instead of the traditional method of scraping and washing down, partly because I wanted to have a more professional job done and partly because, well, at the age of 77 I did not want to finish maintenance days covered in blue after hours of hard overhead work sanding the hull.
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| Out She Comes |
I had done some preparation. The growing number of cray (lobster) pots all along the coast, found in the most unexpected places with many of the floats painted red or black rendering them much more difficult to see particularly at night, had led me to consider installing a rope cutter on the propeller shaft. Given that the damage of a cray pot rope wrapped around the propeller shaft can range from a dive overboard with a knife to a bent propeller shaft to - one case I heard of - the engine ripped from its mountings, I figured that a rope cutter would be a good investment. About 6 weeks before liftout I asked Bruce to investigate a good rope cutter for my 1 1/4" propeller shaft and he came up with a French made Macour at what I thought was a reasonable price of $519. Its material was stainless steel grade 316L and its blades were razor sharp, making us very careful about not touching them with our fingers. The rope cutter would be installed between the cutlass bearing the propeller, with the requirement that there be enough gap between the rope cutter and the cutlass bearing to allow water flow for cooling of the bearing. I calculated that required a gap of at least 25mm to make the installation feasible, which would be easy enough to measure once the boat was out of the water but in this day of pandemic related shipping delays it would be too risky to place an order once the boat was on the hardstand. Fortunately I found a photo of that area and used the fact that the shaft diameter is 1 1/4" or 31.75 mm in diameter to estimate the length of the gap by using a ruler to measure diameter of the shaft on the photo and transferring the result to the gap in the photo. The result looked good and I asked Bruce to order the rope cutter.
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| Propeller and Shaft Clean and Taped Ready for Coating |
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| Propeller and Shaft Coated with Propspeed |
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| Closeup of Rope Cutter |
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| Raw Water Filter Reversed |
The hull came out amazingly clean after being pressure washed immediately after the liftout and Bruce then spent several days preparing the hull for the spraying of the antifouling. Then there were delays to the spray painting due to rain and a staffing problem, but there was a break in the weather and the antifouling was sprayed on the hull on 5 October. Ten litres of International Micron AP, blue were purchased for the job and I wound up with about 1 liter which will be used next time.
Bruce engaged Diverse Engineering to remove the propeller and install the rope cutter and what a wise choice it was. The mechanic was not happy with the looseness of the "propeller-nut" anode that was to be removed from the end of the shaft to allow the propeller to be extracted in order to install the rope cutter. The mechanic identified the problem as probably a worn thread on the nut holding the anode in place. The "probably" worried me because the alternative was a worn thread on the propeller shaft itself, requiring its removal (gulp!) at serious expense. Either way, both men figured that I had been lucky not to have lost the propeller during one of my outings. Fortunately a complete anode (i.e. anode and supporting frame) was found ("The last one on the shelf") and the result was a good solid fit. Also, the diameter of Pachuca's shaft calls for a size D propeller-nut anode and all of these years I've been replacing with larger size E anodes because that was what had been installed during my refit in Mexico. Now the boat is fitted with a smaller but proper size D anode.
Dynaplate for the HF Radio Clean and Definitely Not Coated
The application of Propspeed is the only way to go with protecting shafts and propellers from marine growth, and that process is a lot more complicated than simply a quick clean followed by a couple of coats of one material. Bruce cleaned the propeller and shaft back to "as new" condition then described the several coats of different material that must be brushed on.
Bruce also attended to other unexpected issues.
He noticed that for some reason the grate fitted to the hull used as a rough filter for the sea water entering the engine heat exchange had been installed backwards, so that the water scooping was optimized for movement of the boat in reverse rather than forward. Correcting this involved drilling new screw holes and filling the old ones on the hull.
He expressed unhappiness with incipient corrosion in the stainless steel thru-hull fitting servicing the wash basin in the head. To him it looked like the result of galvanic action, and I pointed out that Greg Hansen had installed and electrolysis blocker on the boat during its refit and besides and I no longer leave the boat permanently connected to shore power. The only other possibility that we could think of is that the grade 316 stainless steel thru-hull fitting installed during the refit 5 or 6 years ago along with all of the other ones was simply a flawed one. Whether or not to replace it was one of those 50-50 decisions, but given that we were in the moment with the boat out of the water and Bruce on the job as well as the consequences were the fitting to start leaking before the next haul-out I said "Let's change it."
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Bow View
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Pachuca was put back in the water on 15 October after a 26 days on the hardstand, but that almost didn't happen. Before the arrival of the boat lifter at 8.30am I prepared the boat for sea by removing the binnacle and instrument covers, switching on the instrumentation, getting the boat hook ready, etc. I turned on the main electrical switch for the engine then at the cockpit hit the "on" button of the engine control panel and nothing happened. I then went over everything that I had done then checked the cabling below and everything was in order. The starter battery was well charged at more that 13 volts. I then turned the main switch off and on then went back into the cockpit and held down the "on" button of the engine control for about 5 seconds several times and still nothing happened. By then the lifter was in position and I rushed down and told Glen the driver about my problem just as the straps were being fitted under the boat. I apologized for the delay and he replied that it was better to learn now than when the boat was in the water. Bruce soon got back and after going over the problem he went topside while I remained below and I soon heard the double beep that meant that the control panel was active and the system had checked out OK. I then returned to the cockpit and turned the panel on and off several times with no problem then left it on to make sure that we could start the engine when we were in the water.
And just as well I left the panel on because yesterday I visited the boat to check the pen lines in anticipation of heavy winds on Tuesday and before leaving I tried to activate the panel and it was dead again. The original panel had lasted from the installation of the engine in Mexico in 2010 through the at times very rough passages back to Australia until about two years ago when it failed and I replaced it with the current one that appears to have also failed. Very disappointing, but that's boating. I'll probably buy a new panel on spec and ask Greg to fit it. If it turns out that the panel was not the problem it will be useful to have a spare on board.
Back Into the Water
After the boat was safely back in her pen Bruce and I had a discussion about the future over a cup of coffee. He agreed with my idea of hardstanding the boat in about April rather than spring when the weather is generally clear, the temperatures mild, and there is less demand on the hardstanding facilities. That means that the next hull maintenance will be in April 2023, 18 months from now and six months short of the life of the antifouling. However, I think that it is worth that cost because the plan brings the prospects of more certainty and fewer delays and frustrations, not to mention a pleasant time of year for that sort of work. Yes, there is good sailing to be missed in April, but Bruce agrees that I should have the boat back in the water in well under 10 days.
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