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Alcatraz Slipped

Initially I was going to beach the boat in order to change the saildrive leg oil, the drain plug is at the bottom of the leg and it's the only way it can be done. Clever Yanmar. But when the sonar transducer (thru hull) also needed replacing under warranty and I had milky oil in one of the legs (was told probably due to fishing line ruining the seal in the drive) I decided it was to risky to try and get this done in the time frame provided the tides and started to look for a means of getting the boat out of the water.

After looking around the best option turned out to be a conventional slipway in one of the older yards in Port Adelaide and I had to book in and wait my turn. Due to weather, it had started to rain a bit, my turn was delayed for several weeks but finally early in May I got the nod.

Trip Up

From Wirrina to Pt Adelaide is about 65 miles and we had to motor the whole way as there was little wind, and that was to high. Motoring with one engine however we managed to get the sails to contribute about a knot of boatspeed. Fred (the autopilot) did most of the work and I was able to relax and watch the city coastline.

A large school of dolphins also provided some entertainment, sufficiently to distract Case from his injured forehead. He'd bumped it earlier and had fashioned himself a large bandage on his head.

We got to the Port River after dark and had to navigate 10 miles up the river to Pt Adelaide. There are lots of lit-up channel markers, but at night it very hard to pick them out in amongst all the other lights, plus to determine the sequence they are in can get quite tricky. The GPS provided the solution, set to course up/overhead view it was like driving a car on the road. It even indicated a laneway. It certainly demonstrated the value of modern technology as we would have been struggling with the traditional map / compass bearing technique.

We found a public marina, in a dock that is being redeveloped, in the dark from info supplied by the GPS. It hadn't really been designed with boat like us in mind as we barely fitted between two of the fingers. The fingers were also a bit short, but there was no charge so we didn't complain.

Getting Slipped

After waiting most of the following day we were pulled out of the water late in the afternoon and despite lots of precise instructions on where to support the boat the rear supports were incorrectly located, about 600 in front of the cabin bulkhead.

As you can see they'd located the support just behind the mini keel and the support plate had pushed into the hull by about 15-20 mm. I had visions of having to cut open the soles to push the laminate out again, reinforce the internal laminate and then work on the outside to remove the damaged laminate and core before proceeding with repairs. Despite the slip accepting full responsibility and undertaking to repair it to my satisfaction I did not sleep well that night.

The following morning I got them to support the boat correctly, which was done by taking the weight on the aft bulkhead and then relocating the incorrect support to the cabin bulkhead location.

To my amazement the indentation came out while the weight was being transferred and 1/2 hour after one had difficulty working out where the incorrect support had been.

To improve communication I went home that night and e-mailed Ian Farrier the details requesting his opinion on what ought to be done. Ian responded by the following morning with advise and I also got the marine surveyor who'd done the inspection for the insurance involved.

The consensus action was to do an external survey of the laminate by exposing it and this revealed that the laminate had survived without permanent damage, ie no white fractured areas apart from some small tears radiating from the back of the minikeel.

It was decided not to disturb the hull any further and it was restored by an new layer of laminate (org.spec.), fairing and antifoul.

When the work was completed the repair had been blended in perfectly.

Antifoul Repairs

When the hulls came out of the water I was reasonably impressed with the condition of the Cop-R-Cote copper epoxy antifoul coating I had applied before launch.

All the surfaces, bar the SB inner hull, looked pretty awful but it was mostly cosmetic slime that wiped off quite easily. There were the occasional barnacles, probably due to insufficient burnishing, which I got rid of with a scraper, after I which I sanded the affected area a bit further.

Once that was completed I cleaned the surface with a water pressure gun which left the surface looking like new. It's interesting to note the originally exposed copper has turned a dark blue/green colour which is hard to tell apart from the black.

The SB inner hull, where I hadn't exposed the copper properly ( I had put it on too late in the day, when it was cold resulting in the copper settling overnight and with neat epoxy on top which had gone very hard in the three years before I got round to sanding it) I re-sanded with a belt sander which di manage to expose the copper. I re anti fouled the entire hull side to play it safe

As the accident had given me additional time on the slip, at no charge, I took to opportunity to correct/modify the waterline. Prior to cleaning I had marked a 65 mm offset from the scum line with a marker pen at 600 cts, which I used a reference to run the masking tape. The 2 pack was sanded with the belt-sander which also flattened the old demarcation line between the anti foul and paint.

Once back in the water the new location of the waterline, 65 mm above the design line looks like it will be much more practical as it should hide the dirty scum line I was previously getting.

The saildrives were serviced and we discovered the oil seal on the SB drive had been damaged by yours truly omitting a washer between the zinc and the prop. This resulted in a bit of slop allowing the prop to slam into the zinc/seal every time I engaged the reverse gear.

I also anti fouled the Sail drives and prop with aluminium compatible anti foul as I found both experienced considerable fouling in the previous 6 months, partially blocking the water intakes on both. It's certainly an item that will need to be inspected (ie go for a swim) regurlarly.