Hi Eldarbaker, Not quite sure what you are asking about in this sentence, especially the "places to avoid". Do you mean geographically? Are you also from our part of the world or do you refer to situations?
[QUOTE=eldarbaker;738519]Also any pitfalls, problems, places to avoid from your experiences would be beneficial.
Anyhow, with the rest I shall do my best.
We often joke that these big cruising cats are the ultimate in motor-sailors and they are. We did have a lot of light wind 0-10 knots from directly aft on the crossing to Fiji and directly on the nose down to NZ. We did a lot of motor-sailing using one
motor only. However, give her just a little more breeze and the boat just comes to life and
sails beautifully. On the way down to NZ our crew got the gennaker(screecher?) out and working and light air performance improved considerably.
When we went up to Tahiti late last year, we did a test sail on her from Papeete to Raiatea overnight, approx 130NM. She performed very well, doing constantly around 10 knots (we were off the wind) top speed 15.1 briefly.
Two weeks ago back in NZ we were again impressed with her performance reaching in 12-15 knots. We have not had a lot of decent on the wind opportunity as yet so a little hard to comment but we did do a
Charter in the Whitsundays on a Bahia a couple of years ago on one of our R&R (research and relaxation) trips and the
skipper obligingly put her on the wind in about 30 knots in the Whitsunday
passage and we were delighted, not so the rest of the paying guests
.
When we returned to Tahiti this year to pick her up, we were in Tahiti for a total of eight days while getting transaction, and paperwork etc done. That is a complete story on it's own and an experience I would not wish to repeat in a hurry. However, knowing what we know now.........etc.
During this waiting time we provisioned the boat for the journey and did what we could in order to ready her (and ourselves) for the delivery. We did one small afternoon sail to check the
sails, reefing systems,
anchoring system,
water maker etc. We replaced and repaired a few small items as we found them, if at all possible. Now here it gets a bit tricky. The boat had been sitting in Tahiti in the tropical sun, relatively unused for several years.
#1 Tahiti is a
remote tropical island and it is very difficult to get spare
parts or workmanship done if you don't have plenty of time to spare.
#2 If you possibly could achieve any of #1 it would cost you an arm and a leg (or four).
Therefore we were forced to ignore the fact that a few thing might not have worked satisfactorily (or at all). But nothing major, we were sure we would manage.
It was a private
sale and the owner had dived and cleaned the bum for us prior to out arrival (it was anti-fouled when we took it to Raiatea in December). He and his wife had fully stocked the boat with bedding, towels, cutlery, crockery,
cooking equipment etc, almost everything you could think of and what was missing he drove us around everywhere until we had exactly what we wanted. Silly things like a
galley plug that fitted properly, an
electric drill, a pair of
cooking tongs, a torch and other such essential items. They also provided us with an assortment of tools (sans drill) and other
equipment that might be necessary for such a journey. He also, being ex airline pilot, had spare
parts in duplicate and triplicate including spare
autopilot ram drive.
We had also taken up as many as we thought, necessary items of our own. Chart Plotter,
Epirb, handheld
VHF and GPS's,
charts, charting equipment,
laptop with charting
software (we love the redundancy theory),
cruising guides,
weather guides,
manuals, pilot
books, wet weather
gear etc. And last but by no means least, duvee's for when we got close to NZ
.
On the delivery home to NZ we did have a few breakages etc. After a couple of days out a fan belt shredded but no worries as plenty of spares. The
water maker did not make
water although at first we thought it was working, after priming it and throwing out about 5 buckets of
water we then realise that the priming intake was still open and we were just circulating water from the tank OMG! We think the impellar on the intake is gone or the intake itself is blocked. A job for some other time (much later).
The casing on the main
halyard parted where it went through the jammer. Rotten.
Email to the incoming crew to bring new
halyard up to Fiji with them. Fortunately all of the original
manuals are still on the boat, happily providing us with the required size and length etc.
We were often showered with bits of rivet and screws as they gave way to
corrosion and a bit of pressure (oh so that was not a good place to attach the preventer), (or the traveller
).
The casing split on the No.2 reefing line - don't worry, we'll replace it with the old mainsheet when the new one arrives.
The trampoline was largely a no go zone as it too was rotten with a few holes in it where to odd foot, (mine) had gone through.
We had absolutely no luck with the
SSB until one day out of NZ. We had tested it and received a fax on it in Tahiti but we later discovered a very dodgy aerial attachment in the back of the set. Luckily we had Inmarsat and were able to keep in touch with our shore crew daily with emails, as they advised us of weather conditions etc and we put in our progress reports. Very expensive but worth every last cent!!
Another fan belt went - same engine, odd.
The genaker(screecher) parted from the prod. A combination of a dubious metal fitting (spot welded crap metal) and too much breeze. The manual says to be used only up to 16
knot breeze. When it got to 20 knots I suggested to the lads that it just may be a bit much for it, but of course I did not know what I was talking about, don't be a girl (but I am a girl). Oh well nothing that a bit of
rope lashing and some handy duct tape patches wont fix
.
The refridgeration died the day we arrived in Fiji and local knowledge and experience deemed it not worth trying to get fixed at such short notice in Suva so we just loaded up with 12 ice bags and had the extra crew bring up a portable 12V Waeco from NZ (thanks for your
beer fridge Toots).
The
autopilot also packed up, it got worse and worse over several days and we were at a loss as to what was wrong it. Read the manual (nah it can't be that simple). It just kept losing the plot and letting go leaving us heading off into nevernever land. In desperation we had a brainstorm and replaced the
linear drive with the spare one. Wonders will never cease!!!
A small mystery
oil leak and a cup of
salt water in the engine
bilge.
Oh and another fanbelt shredded on the last night into
Auckland, seems a little hidden hose clip tail was the culprit.
All in all, we were very happy with the behaviour and performance of the boat. It was after all nearly 3000 NM journey in varying conditions, so we think we got off fairly lightly all things considered.
Now that we are home we are finding are few new little challenges, sewage outlet pipe clogged with calcified crud, no wonder it didn't flush very well and we suspect the others are the same. Faulty
deck switch that sets the
electric winch going without warning. Oh well that's
boating.
We know we are going to have a lot of fun with her so each little setback is just a new way for us to get to know the boat better.
You can wake up now!!
Cheers
Lisa