Haul out

As I stepped out of the house early the other morning, I noted how quite the fall woodlands is vs the summer season. Gone are the summer song birds whos chatter fills the woods from the moment the night scape fades. The sound of the dormant season is of the nuthatch and chickadee with their husky calls. For some reason I think of and older lady bartender, withe her bar room baritone voice when I hear these birds.... the laugh of too many Marlboros and cheap scotch whiskey.  Why that bird call reminds me of this I cant say, but what I can say is that this subtle change in the surrounding woodlot keeps me well aware that the cold months are soon upon us and its time to haul Gragodeo out for the first time.

I would have much preferred to keep her in the water over the winter. Having coffee in the wheel house on a winter morning, while looking out on a harbor scape sure did sound appealing, but my wanting to see how the below the water line hull fared during her first season was more important. Im happy to say that the hull looked good, with no sings of electrolysis or failure of the barrier paint.  The only below the water line issue I saw was where I did not get a good enough scuff on the barrier coat to give enough tooth for the anti foul to be able to bond. On advice from the boat yard paint guru, Im going to spot sand the areas where the anti foul was blown off by the power washer and re coat those areas only.

The prop is the other below the water  line area thats going to get a hard look. As I posted some time ago, Im getting a high pitched sound at certain RPMs . Between 1100 and 1650 the sound is most pronounced. Theres really no reason for the stern tube bearing to be making this noise as the bearing was  machined correctly, and the alignment is spot on. Now that shes on the  hard, I looked closely at the bearing, and found no signs of wear or any play in the shaft/bearing. The prop was purchased from an on line dealer and is a Taiwanese or Chinese import. After searching out this harmonic issue Im having, Im starting to think I have a case of whats commonly called prop sing. Prop sing is where the edge of the prop is somewhat defective and causes a harmonic sound similar to one rubbing a finger around a fine wine glass ( only louder). The fix for this is to machine a 45 degree chamfer on either the trailing edge or the leading edge. This can be done in field or by a prop shop, and I think Im going to have a prop shop look at this for me. I want a professional to measure the prop and tell me what I  have in regard to quality beginning with the bore, and ending withe the blade tips. I went the cheap route when this prop was purchased so now is the time to see how expensive my cheapness actually is.

The cruise down to the haul out yard was done with my 17 year old daughter on a drop dead gorgeous fall day. I recorded a short video of our "three hour tour" so that when the winter blues has found me, Ill have this nice video reminder of a great day to cheer me up.


There are some big projects that need to be done on the boat build this winter to get her to a more finished state, but they will have to be worked in with some renovations well be doing on the house. My goals for the boat build this winter are to install the mast and boom so we can carry a dinghy on the roof. Complete the hydraulic system so I dont have to  hoist the anchor by hand next year and also have the bow thruster operational. The air conditioners are on board, but have not been hooked up, so thats a biggie on the lists. While Im up on the lid working on the mast, I also want to fabricate the  hand rails for the salon lid.

The next weekend will be spent winterizing her, and after that a few projects around the house need to get finished. We have plans to take a few extended cruises next season, and getting my list checked off is going to be tight given that my launch date is only seven months away. Sound familiar?

Cheers    

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Haul outs today

A few weeks ago my daughter Lillian and I sailed up to Abaco to haul out and paint the bottom of Hogfish Maximus. I really like going to Green Turtle Cays boat yard Abaco Yacht Sevices because it is run by the Roberts family and is the cleanest yard in the Carribean Sea and the south east. HFM had not been hauled in 5 years time. Because I do not belive in insurance for my boat I cannot haul in the states so have been hauling out in Cariacou in the Grenadines and Green Turtle where the first world lawyers have not gotten involved. Since launching the HFMs I would have spent at least $ 12,500.00 US on insurance so far. We have gone through 5 hurricanes in her during this time watching over her our shelfs using the 8 anchors and all the anchor roads to go with them. Being on board full time means you are continually watching after your home so the main risk is being around other boaters. Liability insurance I can see using if you are doing a lot of marina hopping as in Europe. With our shoal draft we try to anchor away from the crowd which is an advantage. By anchoring in shallow water boats cant drag down on us as they run aground first. We also lure a lot of boats to try and anchor next to us this way as we look like a deep draft vessel.

Buying bottom paint for an affordable price has gotten to be a challenge. We need 5 gallons for 2 coats and at the current retail prices of $450.00 a gallon its getting to be a major cost.

But being a scrapper I am always thinking years down the road so when I come across a deal I invest. The paint we have been using for quite awhile is International commercial brand that I bought 3 five gallon buckets of for $500.00 4 years ago at a junk shop. We put HFM on the beach now and again and paint about 75% of her this way on the tide. The bottom we have to dive to keep clean. I feel the oceans around all the small islands have gotten very nutrient rich over the years as growth now takes no time to grow. Hence the latest full bottom job. We have one 5 gallon bucket left so I hope the continually sailing about will keep it mixed up till we need it.

Here you can see the little chine wings that I put on these flat bottom designs. They are adaptions of

Henry Scheels keel design. It really works well with the dagger board up and the rudder full up we can still tack and sail to weather in about 31/2-4 of water with minimal slippage . Of course we now have a motor so we can cheat if we want.

The rudder draws 49" when fully down and has to be pulled into place. The tackle will break if we hit a whale or a coral head going full speed. So just like a big dinghys. We have not hit a whale yet but hitting the bottom in our quest to go where no other sail boats have gone before is a regular accourance.

 

Hogfish Maximus 38x 11x 27"

Jubalee 40x 11x 28"

Hogfish 32x 9x 20"

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