Getting Dirty - Haulout

[Ex-Calif]

Day one and two of the haulout are complete. Great mates came and helped out so we had a good number of hands available.

The bottom did not look as bad as I expected. This is two coats of Mocron Extra after 26 months in the water. This is the longest I have gone between anti-foul and it is overdue. We are through 3 different layers of anti-foul in some spots.

The other big disassembly jobs were

- Remove prop
- Remove sails
- Remove saildrive
- Remove anything not nailed down - lifejackets, rings, spinnakers, yada, yada
- Strip the bilge. Wow - talk about handy - Karcher wet/dry shop vac, Jif dish soap, a scrub brush and a hose made a world of difference

It is "almost" clean. I will go today for final cleaning. This makes working on the boat a heck of a lot more enjoyable as you don't come home looking like a refugee from Slumdog Millionaire.

Photo 1 - Relax Lah on the boat ramp. We need a 2.7+ meter tide to get out at the ramp. Waited all week.
Photo 2 - Dougout Doug my Aussie mate removing the prop.
Photo 3 - Wendell the Canuck taking charge of Engine controls and fuel hoses - Note the bilge floor in the background with muffler still attached. I plan to make a new floor and extend it farther aft in the bilge for a little bigger battery platform.
Photo 4 - Bilge before. Yucky, yuck, yuck.
Photo 5 - Bilge almost done. Yucky black water is no match for the Karcher wet/dry vac. Great bit of kit. Plan to get this all cleaned up - there are a couple of areas needing some epoxy/glass over bare plywood (you can see up along the sidewalls) and then a nice coat of white paint in here.
Photo 6 - The bilge boys...

One thing perplexing me at present is the Bilge draining. You can see a "v" spot behind the saildrive hole, a well in front of the saildrive hole and a spot in front of the engine cradle. How to keep these three dry? There are no limber holes and the only way they "drain" forward is when I heel the boat. 3 bilge pumps? What a PITA...

[Ex-Calif]

Also found the lower rudder pintle bushing worn pretty badly so decided to remove rudder and sort this out.

Rudder weighs a ton - full of water. Will drill and drain and see if we can seal it.

Ended the day with motor on Wendell's Jeanneau where we at long last calibrated his speed log. It showed 1.2kts when the gps showed 5.4! NOw all good.

To top it off the wind filled in for an hour and we ended up sailing along at 7.2 knots!

All in all a great and productive day.

Photo 1 - Another shot of the boys power washing and scraping before moving to our parking spot.
Photo 2 - Very fouled MaxProp - At this point the prop wasn't feathering due to crusties - I wonder if that affected boat speed - LOL...
Photo 3 - "Tiger" George. Gotta give credit to a great 3rd mate. He is a great swamper handling ground duties. Moving all the junk from the ground to the car for storage at home. Of course being the tropics we had a deluge about an hour before we finished. Tiger decided to add a little garden hose to cool off.
Photo 4 - At the end of our shift one of the trimaran guys asked us to help step his mast. Tiger got the head end and I have no idea why there are a pair of shorts hanging from the masthead - I swear nobody was nekkid... LOL

PS - Photo 3 - You can see my 80 kilo rudder and yes that is another Maxi to our starboard. He's been on the hard for a while but has done a lot of work inlcuding new paint job - very pretty IRL.

[Wotname]

These are moments when you truly enjoy having a "small" boat. Thanks for all the photos .

Any idea at this stage where / how the water is getting into the rudder?

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Wotname

These are moments when you truly enjoy having a "small" boat. Thanks for all the photos .

Any idea at this stage where / how the water is getting into the rudder?

Absolutely - At 26 feet you can really dive in and do almost anything yourself without a lot of equipment or drama. Parts, paint etc. are all cheaper and mistakes are also cheap to correct.

I love sailing but there is also something fun about haulout time and "makin' her purty"

The rudder is a "bit" of a mystery. Last haulout it was wet also. I didn't do the fix last time which was basically drill some holes in the bottom and let it drain for a couple of weeks, then fill the holes.

The prime suspect has to be the lower pin but don't know yet. I'd like to see if I can "pressurize" it with compressed air somehow after it's dry and use a soapy spray bottle to see if I can find bubbles. Hmmm...

The rudder is solid and not spongy - I doubt I am going to take it apart and rebuild it unless something reveals that makes me do it.

[DeepFrz]

I would imagine that the core is separated from the skin. If this is so it will weaken the rudder.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

.......but there is also something fun about haulout time and "makin' her purty"

You are right, no matter how messy it is to do it, cleaning the bilge always make me feel better about the the boat, life and the universe as does looking at freshly antifouled bottom hull .

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

The rudder is a "bit" of a mystery. Last haulout it was wet also. I didn't do the fix last time which was basically drill some holes in the bottom and let it drain for a couple of weeks, then fill the holes.

The prime suspect has to be the lower pin but don't know yet. I'd like to see if I can "pressurize" it with compressed air somehow after it's dry and use a soapy spray bottle to see if I can find bubbles. Hmmm...

The rudder is solid and not spongy - I doubt I am going to take it apart and rebuild it unless something reveals that makes me do it.

Hmm... sounds scary, I hate mysteries, especially underwater ones! Is it just me or does one just "know" it will turn ugly once the investigation begins.

The upside is that once the horrible truth is finally revealed and a fix is worked out, the actual repair becomes less confronting and even enjoyable - or perhaps I am one of those (sick ones?) who enjoys the maintenance / improving as much as the sailing.

Good luck with the remainder of the haul out .

[Jaxxiam]

I don't think I would use much compressed air in the rudder, it may delaminate things that are just fine. Don't know if I would introduce soapy water to the inside either. This may be a good way to fine a air leak in an inter-tube, but rudder. Not me.
The weep holes and hot dry weather sounds much better, fill the hole and seal the hole thing up. IMHO.

How do you like the Saildrive??

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Jaxxiam

I don't think I would use much compressed air in the rudder, it may delaminate things that are just fine. Don't know if I would introduce soapy water to the inside either. This may be a good way to fine a air leak in an inter-tube, but rudder. Not me.
The weep holes and hot dry weather sounds much better, fill the hole and seal the hole thing up. IMHO.

How do you like the Saildrive??

I agree on the compressed air. I may end up with a puffer fish.

I like the saildrive just fine except the original folding propr was near useless. The maxprop is awesome.

Having an 18 inch hole in the bottom of the boat with only a rubber diaphram keeping the sea out is a bit freaky.

I have a new diaghram kit going on. I don't know for sure how old the old one is.

[noelex 77]

Wet rudders are very common. In most cases they leak from where the shaft joins the rudder. In many cases they are structurally fine, but there is the risk of crevice corosion in the stainless steel web.

There is really no way to test for this.

In this sized boat it is tempting to drain the water and reseal at each hallout, but a system of using the spinnaker pole with a washboard, or hatch cover, as an emergancy steering option is always sensible, as a backup, if the worst happens.

If you have the time, splitting the rudder, inspecting the tangs, and rebuilding the rudder is not difficult, but it is time consuming.

If the rudder has been removed I would take he opportunity to split and inspect the internal components.

[Ex-Calif]

Thanks noelex. I'll get a couple of drain holes drilled and see how light it gets in a couple of weeks. Rapping it with my knuckles all over on Saturday didn't reveal any obvious hallow or delam.

I also expect if the core is corroding the water that drains will be a nice orangey color. giving me a clue to rip it open. If the water drains pretty clear, it lightens up and doesn't sound hallow after draining, I will likely try and seal and paint.

When it is hanging in the water, full of water doesn't it weigh the same as water - LOL...

[Ex-Calif]

OK - this weekend is to remove the remaining deck hardware and start sanding the topsides.

Second job is to do some minor fiberglass repairs in bilge and lockers. Then prep the bilge for paint.

So - What is the recommendation on bilge and locker paint? Enamel? Polyurethane? I can't see putting "marine paint $$$" in a bilge.

My goal is simple to apply, cheap, bilge crap resistant and hard-wearing.

We don't have lots of "brand names" here so generic names are appreciated.

Thanks in advance...

[DeepFrz]

Bilge-Coat - sorry don't know generic.

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com...uct.do?pid=119

Darn I had it spelled right the first time.

[Ex-Calif]

Thanks DeepFrz - There is an International dealer here - I'll check their price difference. Marine paints get a premium here.

Looks like it will go over just about anything with minimal prep and gets good user reviews.

Cheers!

[shamrock]

+1 on the Biogekote. Very easy to apply, cleans up well and durable finish. Keep posying pics, great to see progress!

I also had a wet rudder last haulout? I had weeping and suspect the entry point was where the shaft met the top of the rudder. I sealed with boatlife and epoxied where weeping, and am keeping fingers crossed.

[Ex-Calif]

Well the local International Paint distributor did not have BilgeKote but did have "Danboline" which he says is equivalent.

The Jamestown link had it at $23 a quart. After conversion from Liters to Imperial and Sing$ to US$ I paid US$39/qt (ouch) - The joy of living overseas...

I hope it is good stuff - LOL...

http://www.yachtpaint.com/gbr/diy/pr...danboline.aspx