Hull Maintenance and a difficult decision

 1. Gas System Problem

We  arrived at Fremantle Sailing Club on the night of Wednesday, 22 April, and the next day Bruce and I had a look at the problem that Peter and I had discovered soon after departing Port Geographe Marina with the boat's gas system, which would start a flame at any of the the stove's gas burners and from either gas cylinder, that would die after a few seconds.  The gas detector and solenoid were working fine and there was no gas leak anywhere along the line, and thus we made the entire passage to Fremantle without the services of the gas stove. Everything pointed to empty gas cylinders but I found found that difficult to accept not only because of the Bunnings person's statement that the active cylinder was full, but also because I am usually very diligent about swapping an empty cylinder as soon as possible.

I recounted to Bruce how soon after my arrival, Port Geographe Marina had instructed me to have the boat's gas system inspected and re-certified.  I found this strange because I had presented to the PGM office a gas certification dated 2015, soon after the boat's entire gas piping had been replaced.  After the certification was done during my absence I received a message from the gas inspector that the job had been done and both of the gas cylinders were empty.  During my next visit to the boat I took the active cylinder to Bunnings for a swap and when I handed over the "empty" cylinder the woman immediately told me that from its weight the cylinder was full.  After I expressed surprise she put the cylinder on a scale to prove her point.  After reinstalling the cylinder I gave it a brief test and confirmed that the gas was reaching the stove.  I then sent a note to the gas inspector informing him of my finding and he sent a terse reply that at least I had one of the cylinders was working, without explaining how he had made the mistake.  

 To start at a known point I immediately took the active gas cylinder to the local Bunnings and swapped it for a full one, even though I knew that I was probably discarding a nearly full one.  The top of the cylinder was color coated to indicate that it was backward compatible to the previous connection standard, and thus it could be connected to either a reverse or a forward thread.  Back at the boat Bruce started to connect the new cylinder.  We discussed the boat's hose and connector which appeared to be brand new, making us wonder if the gas inspector had converted the boat to the latest "forward thread" standard.  

Bruce made the connection very tight and commented that there was still a lot of thread showing.  I then mentioned how the newer cylinders seem to have a safety design where it is no longer possible to "crack" open an unconnected cylinder to see if it is delivering gas and perhaps the connection had to be deep enough to trip open the safety mechanism within in the cylinder.  With that Bruce applied significant force to screw the connection deeper, and with that I opened the gas cylinder valve, and when I moved the selector valve to the newly connected cylinder there was an instant "whoosh" of the gas rushing into the pipe leading to the gas stove.  We gave the reserve cylinder the same treatment and from then on the stove worked fine from either cylinder.

We then figured that the gas technician had made changes to the connectors, fell into his own trap of not screwing them down enough, and concluded that both cylinders were empty. 

Even though the stove is now working I am not satisfied with the amount of torque that we were forced to apply to make a proper connection, almost as though there is a thread mismatch.  For that reason and  because I have no confidence in gas inspector who caused us that trouble and expense, I plan to have the very competent gas technician here in Fremantle who renovated Pachuca's gas system during her refit to visit the boat and inspect the work that was done.

 

2. Hard-standing 

 On Friday morning, 24 April, Bruce, Kim and I ferried the boat into the lifting bay from where it was hauled out, pressure washed, then placed on a hardstand for long overdue (at least 3 years ago)  hull maintenance.  At this point Bruce had to work alone so I went back to my home in Darlington then returned on Saturday bringing back, among other things, a spare Raymarine C120 chart plotter that I had years ago purchased out of Queensland. It had proven to work perfectly well as a chart plotter but could not see the radar input.  Greg Hansen the Raymarine expert tried swapping in parts from a defunct C120 that I held for parts but to no avail.  I did not return that incomplete chart plotter because I had paid only $250 for it.

 Greg is currently out of reach and reported to be in New Zealand, but I hope to get him on the boat to see if we can get the faulty chart plotter working again with parts from either my "no radar" unit or the other one that I keep for spares.  If that doesn't work then I'll mount the "no radar" unit which won't be a big practical loss because I rarely use the boat's radar.

 Bruce and I were eventually to extend the hard standing  an extra few days to Tuesday, 12 May.  

After Bruce did the hard work of sanding the hull with some minor filling he reported with pleasure that there was no evidence of osmosis or any other serious problem with the hull and keel.  We decided to have the anti fouling sprayed rather than rolled.  Yes, rolling would yield a thicker coat of anti fouling, but the result would be rougher than that from spraying and besides, we were under time pressure and I wanted to avoid spending a full day doing the dirty work of rolling the antifouling.  On that basis Bruce commissioned Shane Williams of Williams Marine Services to spray one coat of primer and two coats of anti fouling (with extra coats on the high wear sections).  He did a splendid job and was well worth the money.

 

                                                Shane after spraying the coat of primer

 

 

Bruce applying filler

 

 Sanding the filling

 

                                                Hull and lead keel anti fouled
 

 

Bruce did a lot of the initial sanding of the propeller and shaft with an electric tool and I was commissioned to finished the job by hand, which proved to be particularly time consuming in the small nooks and crannies of the rope cutter.  Bruce was pleased with the result and it was good to know that I had saved him hours of his valuable time.  Applying Propspeed is a step-by-step process that must be done by an experienced and skilled person.

 

                                                 Propspeed treatment and new anodes  

3. Chain and Anchor

 During this period Bruce and I took the time to resolve the issue of the ground tackle lost at Mandurah.

Bruce took me to Taylor Marine where I purchased 40 meters of 10mm short link chain, a swivel and shackle for about $415, which was much cheaper than I had expected.  Bruce explained that using his business card had saved me over $400 on the purchase.  Then we went by his Koala lockup and he produced a sturdy Delta anchor which he gave to me gratis.  We then made our way to Hartway Galvanizers at Naval Base where we we left the anchor after a surprisingly low quotation of $120.

 

So my navigation error at Mandurah had cost me about $600, which was a much better outcome than had we piled up on that reef that we must have narrowly missed while approaching the wrong anchorage point..

  

I had earlier given Bruce the OK to use a portion of the $515 worth of Propspeed for a "small job", and when I learned that the small job was on Jon Sander's S&S 39 I firmly refused to take any money for what I wanted to be a gift to that legendary sailor. At the end of the hard-standing I gave the remainder of the Propspeed to Bruce for his own boat over his protests that I should keep it use for my next haul out in two years, but I insisted that he accept it as a bonus.

 

On the morning of Tuesday 12 May Bruce, Kim and I met at 7am and soon Pachuca was put back into the water after 19 days on the hardstand.  On the way back to the pen the three of us decided to take the boat out for a short run in Cockburn Sound then motored into Pachuca's pen D81 where we found it to be in good order with its new weights & chains and her original pen ropes in position and within easy reach.

 

 

                                            On her way to splashdown

 
 

 

                                                Splashdown 12 May 2026
 

 

We had been helped immensely by the amazingly clear weather with light winds during our entire time on the hardstand.   

 

 4. A Difficult Decision

 Several weeks after my arrival at Port Geographe Marina in March 2025 I received a message from the office that someone had inquired whether Pachuca was for sale.  I replied to the gentleman by email that yes, I was interested in selling the boat, but not until the end of the coming sailing season during which I wanted to enjoy what Geograhe Bay had to offer.  The man accepted this then we went through a period where he would ask for more information on the boat until he had the pathways to learning just about everything that there was to learn about the it. (He told me later that he had read the this entire blog of more than 1800 entries.)

 Things went quiet for about 10 months until I notified him that I was planning to sail the boat back to Fremantle at the end of my year's pen lease at PGM in mid-April 2026, and was he still interested in the boat.  He indicated that he was still interested and on Sunday 29 March I met the man and his wife for the first time over coffee at the PGM Periscope Cafe, followed by a thorough tour of the boat lasting about two hours.  

The meeting and boat inspection had gone very well, and after a few days I made what I thought was a generous offer which he soon accepted.  

I had spent $2000 in hull maintenance material for a planned hard standing at PGM in late 2025 that did not happen due to a car accident that put my Toyota Prado out of commission for weeks, so I offered the choice of either a quick sale where he would take responsibility of the hull maintenance at PGM using my materials or wait until after I had had the hull maintenance done at FSC.  He chose the latter which eventually proved to be crucial.

Not long after that I telephoned Kim, my pen neighbor at FSC,  informing him on the planned date of my return to FSC and 'By the way, it looks like the boat is practically sold."

Kim asked why I was still selling the boat and I replied with the usual "I am 82 years old ... balance and strength are not what they used to be ... less enthusiasm for sailing  ... desire to focus my time and limited energy on other things ... etc".

His response was along the lines of  " So What?  I enjoy pottering on my boat, sometimes just relaxing with the TV and DVD player, and take it out only a few times of year whenever it suits me, and Greg on the other side of your pen (another circumnavigator) does the same."

This gave me a totally different perspective on the possibility of keeping the boat: no need to meet any expectations of sailing and simply enjoy spending time on my boat because, well, I enjoy spending time on my boat.  From a practical point of view, I would have the next few years free of haul-out and  hull maintenance and the pen is so easy and safe to exit and enter that on a calm sunny day I'd be able go out into Gage Roads alone if I had to and not even raise a sail if I didn't feel like it and simply exercise the engine.  

 For weeks I quietly dealt with the conflict between honoring my commitment to the prospective buyer whom I knew would take good care of and make good use of the boat as well as meeting the expectation of those who cared about me, and keeping the boat for who knows how many years longer.

 On 5 May during the hard standing of the boat I sent a difficult but honest message to the prospective buyer notifying him of my decision to withdraw the boat from the market, and to his credit he sent me a gracious response a few days later.