Adelaide to Brisbane, November 2010 - Any Tips on this Trip Are Welcomed

[dennisail]

Bricky. I think we met your mate. Was he on a Hunter 43? He is on the pier with us. He told us he came back here after Wilson's Prom when the storm loomed. Nice guy. He invited us on his Hunter to take a look.

[Bricky]

Nah mate. Still traveling with the guy we met in Bermagui, at Metung now still waiting for weather to improve

[MarkJ]

What a great read!!!!!

Love the "spirits are low and mutinty is setting in on the boat". Hope you got the crew drunk before they could check the bus timetable.

It gets warmer for you every day now. Course North by East and wind up the butt!

Have fun with the rest of the adventure. You have my sympathy for all the breakages but at least you know what needs fixing

All the best


Mark

[dennisail]

Cheers Mark. I didn't think anyone was reading the thread. We are waiting for our shaft coupling to turn up so we can go today and use the last couple of days of Southerly before the Northerly kick in.

Crew is Wes (my mate and owner) me and my Brother Gary. So 3 of us. Wes was all shitty and grumpy because his boat has so many probs, Gary and I are shitty and grumpy because this was supposed to be fun on a boat with no major problems (instead it was literally untested in any way until we got there) and we were living in substandard unsafe 3rd world conditions. The 4 days at Eden has helped a lot though. As long as not too much more goes wrong I think we will all be fine.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by dennisail

we were living in substandard unsafe 3rd world conditions. The 4 days at Eden has helped a lot though. .

Oh, I thought you meant Eden was 3rd world unsafe and substandard! I was about to agree with you!

Its a lovely place

[dennisail]

Its the only place we have stopped at for more than the minimum time required to get going again. Well, actually we have stopped here for the minimum time but that just happened to be a few days. I quite like it here.

[trapper1]

Hi, hope you get your parts ok, I had the same problem last year,up North, tore the coupling out, had to have a new shaft machined and then the engine mounts decided to go too, very expensive excercise. Make sure you get the shaft aligned properly otherwise you will get the same problem again,thought I'd put my 2 bobs worth in. Happy sailing from now on,I will be doing the trip from Gladstone to Adelaide after Xmas.
Best of Luck to you all.
regaards Tom

[dennisail]

Thanks Tom. Ant tips on shaft alignment?

[trapper1]

Hi again,
I did mine by trial and error,by jacking the engine up and down while turning the engine over slowly in gear,until I got the shaft rotating evenly,takes a while,with patience,as I say if you dont do it with new mounts,you will have the problem over again. Have you got a "Flexible Coupling", if so you can get away with it being a little out. you have got to adjust the engine up or down and sideways if needed.
regards Tom

[trapper1]

Hi again,
if you Google up, "Yacht Shaft Alignment" you will get some usefull tips there,
Regards

[dennisail]

Thanks.

[Get-a-Life]

Hi guys,

Great read and what an adventure.

We used to live in Melbourne and about twice a year dash across to Tasmania.

This went on for about 8 years and then we decided to move to Tasmania.

Buy this time we had crossed Bass Srait about 17 times, only remember getting hammered once, we had left Devonport for Melbourne and was about 60 miles out when I got this feeling that we should not be here. Turned back and tied up at the Devonport YC late that night.

Next day, was told that Bass Strait was turning on one of its famous gales.

Eden can be expensive because they know they have a captured market with all the yachties who get there with problems. But you are in the right place to have any problems attended too.

From Eden, Bermagui is relatively easy to get into and very friendly.

Stay away from Ulladulla, not welcome and a hellhole to tie upto.

Jervis Bay can be dodgy with large swells and backwash from the cliffs.

Kiama, very tight and crowded.

Batemans Bay bar is silted up but there are moorings out from the headland which are very sheltered in a Northerly.

Beware the "black Nor'easter's" along this stretch of coastline, they can be deadly and come without warning.

Illuka/Yamba fairly easy to get into and good anchorage in Illuka.

Coffs - great.

The Dunco's are getting a bit long in the tooth, but they are a very serious and sea worthy boat.

Keep us all posted with this continuing adventure.

May all your winds be from aft of the beam for the future.

Ken

[Weyalan]

Tip for shaft alignment - hire a professional!
If you are gonna do it yourselves, get a set of feeler gauges. Bear in mind that all hulls will distort out of the water, so check alignment in the water.

[dennisail]

PART 6 The disaster continues.

We didn't haul the boat. The new coupling worked great and everything was going well. We set off from Eden. The forecast was for 20-30K wind. Which was on the strong side. But it was from behind for once. We got along at rapid speed with just the main up. The wind was causing the genoa to flap behind the main. In hindsight we should have dropped the main and used only the genoa.

Gradually the wind picked up to a gale overnight and I awoke from my snooze to the sound of a crash gybe and frantic yelling. The main sheet had ripped the blocks in half and that had allowed the boom to pivot on the shrouds ripping the fitting out the end of the boom which connects it to the mast. So we had a madly flailing disconnected boom with the sail pulling out of the track. By this time they had started the motor just in time to get it into the wind. For some reason this sort of problem is always mine to try to fix up so I ran up on deck and somehow lowered the main with no more damage. The sail was OK.

The sun had only just came out to show the state of the sea which was obscured by darkness up until now, hiding the sea state. The waves were huge and wind must have been gale force. We rigged a storm jib on the inner stay ready to go before we set out (see we occasionally do somethings right). If only we raised it earlier. We were still doing 5K with the tiny sail and surfing at almost 10K down the face of the waves.

We decided to keep the engine ticking over so it would be running when we needed it given our starting problems. After a few hours it got very loud then died with an Almighty clunk. A week waiting at Eden was a waste of time now with the motor dead anyway. The wind eased off by mid morning and by the time we got to Ulladulla we had to use the tender along side to get in. We repaired the boom and mainsheet easily. But the engine will not run again. There is metal to metal contact on the pistons.

More Northerly winds and we tacked our way to Sydney. The wind died tottally about 5 mile out of the heads like usual and we used the dingy to get in. So we are sitting in Syndey now for a rest day. Then we will battle our way north again into the NE winds. IF we can get to Newcastle the Southerlys will have kicked in up there and the rest should be easy. We plan to fit an outboard motor a Coffs Harbour.

Everything looks so calm on vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcHZRadmvxg

[banyandah]

Dennisail you make it all sound so entertaining, except I know you're not only endangering your lives, but those that will be sent to rescue you. My first piece of advice was "know the boat." Obviously you do not, and seem to lack prudence. What were you doing in Eden while waiting for your part? With a boat showing weaknesses, maybe you should have been taking everything apart and examining all the bits. Then sailing her conservatively.