Maintenance Hardstanding

 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. 

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. 

Propeller and Shaft Clean and Taped Ready for Coating

Propeller and Shaft Coated with Propspeed

Closeup of Rope Cutter

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."

 

Bow View

Stern View

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.

Day Sail to Garden Island

 On Saturday 20 March 2021 a group of us sailed to Garden Island and hooked up at a Fremantle Sailing Club mooring from which we jumped overboard and swam to the shore to spend time on the beach for several hours of swimming and relaxation.  It was a day of "firsts" for me and Pachuca: (1) I had never before sailed with a total of 8 persons on board, (2) I had never sailed with two young children on board, (3) I had never made a night entry into Pachuca's pen.

On board besides myself was Brenda, her nephew Donald and Niece Heather, Donald's children Ryla (6yo) and Dallan (3yo), and Heather's boyfriend Dan.

Father and Daughter at the Bow

Donald, Children, and Heather

Making their Way to the Beach

 

It was a great day for it with a sunny sky, moderate temperature, and calm sea.  We arrived to find another boat on our mooring so we hooked up to a free one on the understanding that if the owner of our "borrowed" mooring arrived we would have to move to the mooring assigned to us.  Fortunately neither of us were forced to move our boats.

 Young Dallan was at first very reluctant to climb down the ladder and get into the water but when he saw everyone else in the water he simply jumped over the side to join us.

Brenda and Children, Pachuca in Background at Right

The boys were keen to do some brisk sailing and we found the opportunity after clearing the Parmelia Bank on our return to FSC and setting course for the sailing club, which resulted in a moderate breeze off our starboard beam. I  gave the  OK to hoist all sail and soon we were hiking along at a respectable 6-7 knots with a nice heel.  

Pig Trough Anchorage, Pachuca 3rd boat from the right

We  made our entrance after sunset and the boys searched for Pachuca's pen from the bow using a strong spotlight.  Fortunately reflective tapes that I had glued on the pylon fenders years earlier proved to still be reflective enough to clearly show us the entrance to the pen.  I had shown  Donald, Heather and Dan the mooring rope layout before departing and with that inexperienced crew with more than a few drinks under their belts and in the darkness of night we made the best entrance into the pen that I can recall. 

For me it was a successful and enjoyable day that encouraged me to do more of this social sailing in the future.

Bunbury Cruise 2021

Report to FSC Cruising Committee on Bunbury Cruise 2021 This year’s Bunbury Cruise was coordinated by myself and Rob James of HYC, who was indispensible in sharing the planning and execution load of this endeavour and in particular did a superb job in his role as treasurer, which is a surprisingly complex and difficult task. BC2021 almost did not happen due to the sudden covid lockdown during the week of our planned start. We would not countenance a delay of more than one week and alerted the skippers of the likelihood of cancellation of the cruise. However, late on Friday 12 Feb it was announced that the transitional lockdown restrictions were being lifted and as of midnight Sat the 13th we would be allowed to travel outside of the Perth-Peel bubble. This enabled us to reschedule the event by exactly one week and we would sail to MOFSC on Sat/13 and on to KB on Sun/14. Rob James and I were pleased to note that all the skippers were if anything more keen than ever, and the complete fleet of 8 boats participated in the event. The participating boats and crews were: Manta Ray from FSC with Lucinda and Frank Daly Pachuca from FSC with Brenda Newbey, Peter Austin and myself de la mer from HYC with Robert James and Jill Amy Panache from HYC with Geoff and Rita James Sea Gypsy from HYC with Mitchell and Sharon Rogers Libertus from RFBYC with Rick and Kerry Blair Plan Sea from RFBYC with Remi and Miriam Van Baaren Volare from RFBYC with Zac and Anne Armanasco [Note: FSC=Fremantle Sailing Club, HYC=Hillarys Yacht Club, RFBYC=Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club] All boats except Libertus set off for MOFSC on the official starting day Sat/13 and all 8 boats were at Koombana Bay on the target date of Wed/17. The passage to KB had been challenging due to the adverse southerly winds, which necessitated much motor sailing.

On Thu/18 we were at anchor at Koombana Bay and prepared our boats for predicted gale force winds of 35 knots during the night. During the night I noted a wind speed of 36 knots and one skipper reported seeing 40 knots. Three BC boats dragged anchor that night, two of them seriously, requiring use of their engines and several attempts to get their anchors to bite. During the worst of it one of the boats dragged between two other boats, avoiding a collision because of the fortunate timing of the boat’s swings on its rode as it passed by. The third boat dragged about 100 meters and took the matter calmly. (A fourth boat not part of our fleet also dragged anchor. The experience skipper had prepared by repositioning his boat further away from the shore to eliminate the risk either being hit by a dragging boat or hitting another if he dragged.) By dawn all was well with no boats damaged. However, I am sad to report that Lucinda Daly aboard Manta Ray had a fall down a ladder during the night, forcing her to spend one night in the hospital then being unable to re-board the boat. I am very pleased to report that Lucinda is now at home and is recovering well with no permanent damage. On Friday 19 Feb seven boats made the passage from KB to DBYC at Quindalup. Frank took his boat to PGM [Port Geographe Marina in Busselton]where he left it so that he could attend to Lucinda. The stay at DBYC was as good as ever. From there Rick aboard Libertus left the fleet to make his way back to his pen at RFBYC, something not unexpected due to the sudden shift of the cruise by a week due to the covid lockdown. Brenda and I aboard Pachuca exercised the option of visiting Busselton on Day 12 of the cruise and enjoyed the novelty of anchoring off the beach. On Day 13, 25 Feb, five BC boats arrived at PGM. Remi and Miriam aboard Plan Sea had elected to bypass PGM and sail directly to KB. We 11 guests from the five BC boats had a splendid evening at Dennis Gee’s home on the night of our arrival at PGM. On the next night we enjoyed drinks and dinner at the The Deck marina bar and restaurant then on the morning of Sat/27 we set off for KB. We spent the next four days relaxing at KB [Koombana Bay, Bunbury] with sundowners in the evenings, an enjoyable pizza night where we had a lot of fun in front of the club playing the Finnish game Finska introduced to us by Geoff James then ordering the delivery of a stack of pizzas for dinner, and riding our inflatables to lunch at the Parade Hotel. Panache with Geoff and Rita departed from the fleet on 1 March, Day 17 of the cruise, to meet a commitment in Perth. During this time we kept a close watch on the predicted winds and decided that we should leave for MOFSC one day earlier than planned. Accordingly, Rob changed our end-of-cruise restaurant booking at MOFSC from Fri 5 Mar to Thurs 4 Mar. Our reduced fleet of four boats set off for MOFSC early on the morning of Wed 3 Mar, Day 19 of the cruise. The passage was a good one, given the unusual wind conditions, with the winds generally from the east at 9-15 kts. And for once it was the boats further offshore that got significantly better winds than the ones hugging the coast. We had a good end-of-cruise dinner and on the morning of Fri 5 March the fleet departed MOFSC to their respective destinations. I have stated many times that my first and fundamental criterion for a successful cruise is that all boats and crews return safely with no harm. Thus with the injury to Lucinda I cannot consider it a completely successful cruise. But in all other respects it was indeed successful, a judgement made easier by the knowledge that Lucinda will make a full recovery. Robert Morales

Winches Serviced

Until last year I had been servicing Pachuca's winches with Lanox lanolin grease but last year I accepted with some reluctance "Lanotec" grease, after being assured that it was the same as Lanox. In fact I have not been able to Lanox anywhwere. I opened the Lanotec and saw immidiately that it had a much lower viscosity than Lanox but I nevertheless decided to give it a go. That turned out to be a bit mistake because as soon as the weather became hot the Lanotec grease began to seep out of the winches as though it was oil. This year I wanted to avoid the standard winch greases because you get very little for a lot of money, and I like to grease not just the wearing surfaces but any internal surfaces prone to corrosion. This year I settled on "Nulon L80 Lithium Grease with PTFE", which ticks all of the boxes for marine use. If this grease works out well I will not expect to have to service the winches for at least 3 years, given the light sailing that I've been doing.

Day Sail to Woodman Point

Peter and I met at 8 AM on Sunday 16 January for a short sail to Woodman Point not far from the club with the purpose of seeing how the new anchor windlass would handle the recently installed chain-rope rode. We motored out of the marina at about 9.30 AM and set sail in a brisk easterly wind with one reef in the mainsail and no jib. The boat moved well as we sailed south next to the shipping channel on a port beam reach, comfortable reaching speeds of more than 6 knots.

Peter at the Helm

Approaching Woodman Point

 

We dropped anchor in 4 meters of water off the beach and the anchor easily bit into the sandy bottom. We then successfully paid out the 30 meters of chain but when we attempted to continue by paying out the 20 meters of rope the windlass jammed, instantly throwing the electrical breaker. Even though the splice of the rope onto the bitter and of the chain appeared to have been professionally done there was enough lump in the splice to cause the jam. It was a disappointing result but we were satisfied that we had achieved our mission and were pleased that we had identified the problem in home waters rather than during the Bunbury Cruise. I had no patience for an attempt to make the chain-rode system work, possibly with a new splice of a new rope, particularly since we had not been able to perform the second test of whether a wet rope would have sufficient weight to fall into the anchor well fast enough to prevent a jam, as the dry rope had done.

After some relaxation on the boat we set sail in the early afternoon for our return to the club marina. By then the wind had shifted to a variable SE so we sailed more or less downwind with a partial headsail. After clearing the Parmelia bank we rolled in the headsail and motored directly for the club. When we switched off the engine in the pen at about 3 PM it had 600.3 hours on the clock, amazingly few hours for a engine that is now 10.5 years old (commissioned in La Paz Mexico on 16 Aug 2010). Peter and I plan to meet at the boat shortly before the start of the Bunbury Cruise on 6 Feb to replace the failed rode of 30m of chain and 20m of rope with the all-chain rode of 38m that had safely taken me around the world.

Chart Plotter Replaced

 During last year's Bunbury Cruise the Raymarine C120 chart plotter started the pattern of rebooting itself every 3 minutes or so.  Despite the annoyance I was able to use it for my return to Fremantle. 

During the winter I described the problem go Greg Hansen, a semi retired and extremely experienced marine electronics specialist.  After an inspection he deemed the unit irreparable due to its age in this era of fast turnover of models and to responsibility to long-term support.

The cost of a replacement was from memory about $2500.  It took me a few months to get over the sticker shock and bow to the inevitable so I contacted Greg to arrange a replacement.  Fortunately toward the end of our discussion I casually asked if my radar would work with the new chart plotter.  The answer was No because the new "Quantum" radar supersedes the old analogue technology. From memory a new radar would cost just over $2,000.  My choice were (1) new chart plotter and radar at probably more than $5,000 if labor was included, (2) new chart plotter only and trash the current working radar at a cost of more than $2,500, (3) get creative and find another solution.

I purchased a appropriately sized computer monitor which I would mount in place of the chart plotter to project the screen of either one of my excellent laptop software packages. I got far into this plan before realizing that there would be problems in interfacing the output from  the AIS transponder to the monitor, with a solution costing hundreds of dollars.   This failed effort cost me only $20 for the monitor and a few hours of time at the computer and in the garage.

Then I got the bright idea of searching for a used C120.  To my delight I found one on eBay out of the Sydney area for $650.  I placed the order, paid, received confirmation, and a day later the order was cancelled by the vendor, who reported that when he went to the boat to fetch the unit he learned that the owner had sold it to somebody else.

So I looked again and found one out of the U.S.A. for about $450 USD.  I ordered it knowing that I would take a hit from the currency exchange, shipment, and import duty of 10%.  All up the unit cost me about $900 AUD.  However, the unit was in excellent condition, was fully functional, and once again I had a chart plotter with radar.

I mentioned this to Greg as a courtesy and he replied that had he known he could get his hands on two used C120's for me.  (Grrrr!)  I replied that I would be very interested in the units as spares, but given that they were out of town I told him to take time to get them at his convenience because I was in no hurry.

The months passed and just before sending a query to Greg I had a look in eBay and found another C120 for sale out of Airlie Beach, Qld for $350.  I snapped it up and it arrived a week later.  The next day I mounted the unit and tested it to find that it could not see my radar, no matter what I tried.  I contacted Greg who came to the  conclusion that some sort of radar interface component in the C120 was faulty.  OK, I asked, is it feasible to get a replacement radar interface from my original and faulty C120?  Greg replied that it was worth a try.  I then contacted the vendor, explained the problem, and told him that I was happy to keep the unit with no claim from him given the modest price of $350 and at the very worst I would wind up with a backup chart plotter which is much more important to me than the radar.  I also noted that the cabling that had arrived with his unit did not include a radar cable, so who knows, the C120 had perhaps been originally supplied without a radar option.

Raymarine C120 Chart Plotter Hospital

So the matter stands, and here is a photo of my C120 "hospital", the original faulty one at the left, the Airlie Beach one that cannot see the radar in the middle, and the fully functional USA one at the right.

New Anchor

 On 28 November I attended a monthly "Topics Night" presentation by Kim Klaka and Richard Macfarlane into recent advances in anchors and anchoring.  I was so impressed with the performance of the new generation of anchors (e.g. much quicker to bed down, significantly more holding power) that after some investigation I settled on a Sarca Excel No. 5, one of the new generation of anchors at a cost of .  I chose the Sarca to replace my 16kg Delta at a price of $749 because it is Australian designed and built and has an extremely good reputation, particularly in Tasmania with it demanding conditions. One message from the presentation was the advice to purchase an anchor two sizes heavier than that recommended by the various vendors, so I purchased the No. 5 at 22kg (48.5 lb) rather than the recommended No. 4 at 16kg (37 lb) which listed 12m as the maximum suitable boat length. The extra weight of the anchor should not be a problem for me because from now on it will be the electric windlass that will raise and lower it.  The extra 6kg of weight on the bow from the heavier anchor will be more than compensated by the fact that we have replaced the previous 38m of all chain rode with 30m of chain and 20m of rope.  That shorter chain represents a reduction of 19kg in weight.

Peter helped me make the anchor change on 28 November.  

Peter tidying up extracted rode, foot on last of new rode

 I fed the Delta anchor and its all chain rode from the bow of Pachuca directly to Peter who was on the jetty and placed the tackle onto one of the club carts.  Peter then fed me the 20m of rope attached to 30m of chain (10mm or 3/8" dia) which I passed around the windlass and directly into the chain locker.  Last came the Sarca anchor, which from memory had already been shackled to the chain by Peter. The entire operation went as planned and very well. 

While  I was at it I replaced the "spare" 16 kg Swarbrick "fisherman" anchor with the heavier 20kg Swarbrick. The Swarbrick is more than a spare.  It is my "go to" anchor for unknown or difficult holding ground, and also my last-resort survival anchor.

New Sarca Excel No. 5 Anchor

The next step, to take the boat out and test the new anchor setup, particularly how the windlass handles the change from chain to rope and vice versa.  This was delayed because the anchor foot switch at the bow was not working, which surprised me because the switch was fairly new and had worked well the last time that I had used it.

Later I removed the switch and found that the electrical cabling was badly corroded at the end.  In fact, one wire broke off completely as I lifted out the switch.  This was result of my inexperience many years earlier, either I had used ordinary house wiring for the cable run between the windlass below and the foot switch which had to operate in extremely wet conditions.  It did not take me long to establish a firm policy of using only tinned marine grade wiring on the boat.

White sheath of corroded wiring replaced with marine grade

For various reasons it was 3 January before I was able to complete the replacement of the cable run.  Fortunately I had taken photographs and made a good sketch of the wiring, so the foot switch worked on the first try.

Back to Normal

After the hatch installation was completed my boating life settled down to the normal equipment and maintenance work associated with owning a boat.

In mid-September Peter Austin, a work colleague from my early years at Murdoch University who had helped me get my start in sailing in the mid 1980's, helped me with a task that involved an unpleasant climb to the top of the mast.  

The project was to reinstate the cord barrier between the mast steps and the shrouds to stop the main halyard from wrapping around the mast steps, something that could be dangerous when raising or reefing the mainsail in rough conditions. 

It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and sail

The rigger had recommended a solution using very light building cord that didn't make sense to me so I used the same system that had gotten me around the world with no problem.  In 2008 in preparation for the circumnavigation and in Mexico before departing for the Horn I had made this climb alone, but being older and wiser I now had the precaution of a harness with Peter down on the deck working the safety line.

I passed 3mm polyester cord between the mast steps and the shrouds and after about one hour of slow and methodical work the job was done.  We celebrated with lunch at the club.

Peter and I did what was my first JAM ("Jib and Main") afternoon sail on Sunday 18 October, accompanied by John, a very experienced sailor who usually crews with Jim MacBeth, a fellow sailor from my Murdoch University days. We also did a short "shakedown" sail to Rockingham and back.