When you buy an old boat that has not been used a lot in recent years, getting the boat back to home port is the first project. Everything about the boat is new and reliability and seaworthiness is always an unknown quantity.
The boat needed new sails and the windows replacing. We placed those order with local tradesmen immediately after purchasing the boat with the intention of sailing it down from the Gold Coast to Sydney early in the New Year of 2017.
Of course nothing goes quite to plan! Murphy is always lurking in the shadows. The sails and windows were both late. Then there is the Christmas shutdown for 4 weeks. Settlement of our business was also delayed so couldn’t get time to go up Gold Coast anyway.
Finally in early March 2017 things were coming together. Both the new windows and sails were ready to be installed. So headed up to Hope Island on the Gold Coast by car on 17th March. My brother in law Sam came along to help. The rest of the crew were to fly up just before we set sail.
Preparing the Boat
We arrived late in the day to find that there was no access to the boat. The contractor George who is installing the new windows had taken the keys home! Great start! However we managed to find his home and gain access so we had somewhere to sleep.
The next day George was back installing the new windows. Unfortunately there had been a lot of rain in the New Year and more water damage. So we spent the day planning what to do and sorting through all of the rubbish left on the boat.
There is always a lot more to do than you anticipate. The hydraulic steering was leaking fluid. The RIB tender and life raft had to be consigned to the rubbish tip. All the through hull fittings were badly corroded or seized. Port holes were all leaking. The fire extinguishers and safety gear was generally out of date. All things that can be fixed but only had allowed for 1 week to get things sorted.
Arranged to have the boat taken out of the water on 21st March at Maratimo boat works to replace the thru hull fittings, anti-foul and get a survey done. The boat was bought without a sea trial or survey – an impulsive buy.
Enlisted some assistance to take the boat around to dry dock as I had not sailed the boat prior to this. We had only gone a few hundred meters and the port engine stopped. Appeared to run short of fuel! Then a few hundred meters further the steering failed. Not a good start! Of course it was raining heavily and wind was blowing. So we got out the emergency hand tiller and limped around on one engine.
Never mind, we made it safely and the boat was lifted out. Water blast took a couple of hours while we waited, cold and wet before we could get back on the boat to get some dry clothes. Rather despondent we booked into the closet hotel for a hot shower and a good night’s sleep.
So we had more work to do. The hydraulics was leaking near the slave cylinder and at the back of the helm! Had to replace the flexible hoses to the slave cylinder and discovered after pulling it apart that the reservoir for the hydraulic fluid was more cosmetic and could not be filled as there is an overflow at a lower level!! While the boatyard replaced the thru hulls and did the anti-foul we worked on the hydraulics and port holes. The port engine had stopped because of air in the fuel line and when that was bled it worked fine.
The surveyor came around in the afternoon and did the survey inspection. Did not find anything that we did not know about but you need to do this to get insurance coverage. The boat was starting to look much better.
Boat was relaunched on 24th March. Of course it was raining and windy again but this time we were more confident. After 10 minutes of motoring our confidence was shattered as the starboard engine stopped! Tried bleeding the fuel lines and it was good again, but something is not right. So I booked the local diesel mechanic to come around the following day and check out the engines.
My sweetheart flew in and we went out for dinner. We were running out of time as the rest of the crew were arriving tomorrow and there is only a limited time that they can stay for the sail south.
The Diesel Mechanic came at 10am to check out the engines. Spent time sorting out the cooling system replaced hose and pump rotor. The Yanmar engines are salt water cooled! A simple cooling system, but more prone to corrosion. The mechanic said he could not find anything wrong with the fuel system. He suggested that the air in the fuel was probably because they had not been run in the past 5 years!
The new boat had to be named before we sailed. Part of the deal to buy a boat was to name it “Water Lily” in honour of my sweetheart Lily Cheng. Boat naming is a serious business if the wroth of the sea gods is to be avoided.
We had a short renaming ceremony presided over by John Penn-Davies, the broker we purchased the boat through. A bit of fun and reassurance for the superstitious amongst us. Some ceremony and lots of red wine. Hopefully we appeased the sea gods Neptune and Poseiden and wind god Aeolus. My sweetheart flew back and the rest of the crew arrived.
With the full crew we set about getting everything shipshape for the first test sail. All the running gear and standing rigging was checked and navigation light globes on top of the mast replaced.
Decided that tomorrow 27th March we set sail for a test run and if all goes well we continue all the way to Sydney. Fairly optimistic but why not?
Really need to get out of the Gold Coast Broadwater into the ocean to do any real sailing. It takes a couple of hours to get out of the seaway. Lost the Starboard engine about half way out. Not a great start. Had to bleed air out of the system to get it running again. There was a nice breeze of about 10 knots.
Once clear we put up the stay sail, then the head sail and finally the main. All good and the boat performs better than I expected! Really well balanced and we can do 7 knots reaching in a 10 knot breeze! And the auto pilot works perfectly. Easy to adjust and operate, that will make the trip so much easier.
All good but the head sail halyard was not properly tensioned and the halyard was jammed. Looking through the binoculars it was obvious that something was jammed at the top of the mast.
Reluctantly I decided that we should head back to Port to sort out the problem rather than risk Sailing on even though the weather was perfect.
Got back before dark and climbed up the mast again. Didn’t take long to sort out the problem. The head sail halyard was loose and operation the furler had caused the wire rope section to wrap around the stay and jamb.
So we were ready to set sail the following morning.