Col’s Tech Update: winterizing & annual maintenance

Like most sailing boats, finally my darling (FMD) needs her annual maintenance. Without that maintenance, both the systems on the boat and hull of the boat itself would start to rapidly deteriorate and ultimately let us down. It’s a bit like insurance. It costs to have these insurances in place and maintained, but it’s the protection you must have not just for the boat, but also for the safety of those who will continue to enjoy cruising in her. Like the saying goes, there are no service stations when at sea!

With the benefit of having cruised in the Mediterranean for almost eight months, we have pretty much worked out what we’d wish the boat to be like going forward. So in addition to the maintenance costs that were to be carried out, there were improvements we decided upon that also required some expenditure on our part. As was the case this year, we actually spent more on improvements than on maintenance. But the monies spent for those improvements are now permanent, their benefits to be enjoyed for the life of the boat. Thus ongoing annual costs should be almost entirely on maintenance. There can be no doubt that value of the boat in terms of re-sale value will have improved as a result of the changes, making FMD stand out when being compared by potential future buyers.

Maintenance

This year’s maintenance costs will come in at about A$3,900. Here’s a summary of where that money was spent:

• Rebuilding one of three electric flush toilet macerator/flushing pumps. Here’s a great example of a saying in Turkey: “don’t throw anything anyway”. Most large town or cities in Turkey have an area/s called “the Sanai”. Where can be found an amazing range of mostly small workshops and technicians who, for years have re-built just about anything for a fraction of the cost of buying the new part. If indeed the new part can even be found locally or is still available from the supplier at both a reasonable cost and in a timely fashion.

• Replacing toilet “joker” or one-way valves. A relatively small outlay, but essential considering what occurs at sea if a toilet blocks or effluent can be held in the holding tanks while at sea or in a small, pristine harbour or waterway.

• Rebuilding a failed Harken 42.ST electric sailing winch gearbox where the bronze bevel gear failed almost three months earlier, forcing us to use a winch handle.  It was fun trimming by hand for a week or so, but it was bloody frustrating when both Harken and the Italian gearbox manufacturer Bonfiglioni failed to respond, didn’t reply to emails or via their service department web sites, and when they did reply, they never really gave a concise answer. A new gearbox, had it been available in a timely fashion was quoted at A$775. Whereas the gearbox was completely rebuilt in the aforementioned Turkish workshops, including installing all new bearings and seals, and the machining of a new hardened bronze bevel gear, all for A$390.

• Replacing two failed stainless steel gas struts that supported the heavy fibreglass hinged water maker compartment lid.

• Rub back and sand the entire hull below the waterline to remove and smooth imperfections in the anti-fouling paint layer. Damaged areas were filled with epoxy resin filler and faired to give an even finish ahead of applying two coats of (expensive) anti-fouling paint. The application of anti-fouling paint won’t in fact be undertaken until a few days before the boat goes back in to the water.

• Cut and polish the hull from the waterline upwards, including the underside of the bridge deck, the deck and superstructure areas. It should be noted this cut and polish task shouldn’t be required again for another two to three years, with a light buff now and then for maintaining a nice lustre.

• Service of all three onboard diesel engines being the two Volvo Penta D2-55Hp engines and their sail drive units, plus the 4-cyl Perkins diesel powering the massive 11kVa 220V electric generator. This year, all three engine-cooling systems were flushed and re-filled with coolant and all three engines received new water pump impellers and water pump seals. Two of the three engines had noticeable weeps develop around the housings over the year. Total costs for these three services that exclude labour as it was all done “in-house” totalled in the order of A$400. The costs include oils, fuel and oil filters and parts. The coolant for example and hopefully the water pump impellers and seals, shouldn’t need replacing for about three years. So again, next year’s costs will be less than this year.

• Carry out minor gel-coat repairs: minor bumps and scratches almost always occur. With modern repair kits and a bit of practice, the owner can generally get an acceptable finish especially when the job is followed by the hull cut and polish.

Improvements

As mentioned earlier, a number of improvements were carried out in the 10-day period immediately after FMD was lifted onto the hard stand at Marmaris in Turkey. In a couple of cases, elements of these improvements will be completed by local contractors while the boat is out of the water; to be completed over the five month European winter storage period. These improvements include:

• Making an additional cylindrical cushion for the backrest railing, located behind the full-width helm bench seat. The standard Lagoon 440 helm position can seat five to six people with comfort, but gaps in the cushions mean someone is sitting half-on and half-off a cushion which can be uncomfortable. FMD’s cushions are now seven years old and losing their lustre. So Velcro–secured dark blue Sumbrella-type material covers have been made to completely re-cover the existing cushions and as well as the new cushion. The covers can be removed for ease of cleaning; and cover colours match the other Sumbrella blue trimmings.

• Using sail cloth material from our Code 0 reaching sail, that was unfortunately severely damaged from an incident two months back, a set of screen covers have been made for the outside of our Lagoon saloon windows. They completely cover all the windows during times of longer storage or absence, and are affixed by secure clips matching the colour of the boat. The screens not only provide privacy, but also will protect the interior curtains and furnishings from fading.

• Again using the former Code 0 sail material, a full lace-up cover has been manufactured to cover the three large 275Watt hinged solar panels.  The remainder of the otherwise excellent condition sail cloth was sufficient to make not only window and solar covers for our boat, but for fellow cruising partners Viv & Frank’s boat: Dominos.

• In adding 1.5M long, 3700nm gas struts to each side of the existing solar panel lifting frame, makes the task of changing angles of the solar panel as the sun moves during the day, a one handed operation.

• We relocated the large Outback Flexmax80Amp solar regulator to a more sheltered and accessible position in a shaded, waterproof cockpit cupboard. Next increasing the cable sizes from the solar panels to the MPPT unit, and then onto the batteries. The result has seen better cooling of the MPPT unit and virtually no voltage drop in the circuit. Also added to the circuit were individual 40Amp circuit breakers allowing each, or all panels, to be individually isolated.

• The complete removal, straightening and bracing of the weakly designed Lagoon anchor cable roller and bow support frame. Many Lagoon 440’s suffer the same breaking of mounting bolts and resulting bending of the frame. A new brace designed by fellow cruiser Frank Maunders was fabricated for both our Lagoons, and the new installation is completely bullet proof.

• Relocation of the salt water feed pump for the Aqua-Tec 140Lph water maker. The original feed pump and piping, installed by a Lagoon contractor immediately following construction in 2006 was, in my view poorly routed and potentially inefficient. The improvement saw the removal of over five meters of hosing removed, hopefully saving in friction loss along the line.

• Purchase of a stainless steel water manifold, ball valves and clamps to again tidy-up a poor Lagoon installation. The new manifold allows both water tanks to be individually isolated at the manifold ends and each distribution line to vessel services can also be individually isolated. Previously, a leak or rupture in any one hose would see all fresh water potentially lost overboard.  

• Manufacture and installation of an easily removable 2.1M high stainless steel support post for our auto tracking satellite TV antenna. In the antenna dome’s former position, it restricted access on the cockpit roof, became a tripping hazard, and the satellite signal was often blocked by the boom. The dome’s new location on the pole fixed on the extreme starboard quarter means it is well out of the way, easy to access and in direct, unrestricted line to satellites being sourced.

• Finally, and not being undertaken until we return to FMD in March 2014, will be a replacement of the main sail halyard, the Spinnaker halyard, foresail sheets and mainsail sheets. All of these lines are original and at seven years of age, are either starting to show signs of fatigue, but have also developed “memory”. This memory causes them frequently to twist to the point where for example, the main sail cannot be hauled fully up, and is then often difficult to lower.

Upgrade and improvement costs will by March 2014 have cost in the order of A$6,000. This is a lot of money when added to the annual maintenance cost, but in each case, the works will not need to be borne again and will almost certainly add significantly more value to the boat’s potential re-sale value than the initial cost. When both FMD and Dominos are eventually offered for sale in Australia, they can genuinely be advertised as two of the best fitted-out Lagoon 440’s ever to come to Australia.

  

For those of you closely interested in the technical detail of maintaining and winterizing a boat, should you have any further questions or comments, please direct them via the comments field below. We look forward to returning our darling lady to the water next spring and will be sure to update here on any new learnings or developments. Wishing you the merriest of festive seasons and happiest of New Years! May 2014 be the year for chasing your dreams.

Cheers, Col. 

Greece rolls out the welcome mat

Summer is now well underway and time continues to cruise by. We are close to five months onboard and already almost a full month in Greece! So quick to fall behind with updates given this is the first Greece blog post – but here we are! Our first week was spent milling around between anchorages off Gouvia and old Corfu Town on Corfu Island; getting setting up again with Greek phone numbers and internet, customs and immigration formalities, rectifying a few issues with the AIS and Raymarine plus tackling other small maintenance jobs.

Having just departed the peace and beauty of Croatia and Montenegro, initially we were not partial to this area of Corfu given the noise, grubbiness and sprawl. Though since moving onwards and further south, each day has brought another treasure of natural beauty or warm hospitality. Perhaps it’s that Greeks have a stronger grasp of English or they understand that tourists are their lifeblood in an otherwise crippled economy. Almost everyone we’ve encountered is approachable, genuinely welcoming and gracious, taking the time out to talk, to ask or answer questions and entertain with their often quirky sense of humour. The stunning scenery certainly helps – but so far we’ve found that the true beauty of the Greek people are what will make this country so loveable.

Oh and the sailing! We knew Greece had a windy reputation, and even more so when we reach the central Cyclades and Dodecanese Islands where Beaufort force 7-8 winds are quite common.  I think we can safely say that we’ve enjoyed more sailing in our first three weeks in Greece than we did in three months through all of Croatia. Fortunately we should be able to regularly harness the very predominant prevailing summer winds as we make our way in a general E – SE direction across the country and eventually towards the SW coast of Turkey. This is unlike Croatia where our zigzag up and down the country often did not fit the wind’s agenda or there was simply not a breath at all. That said, we are very happy to be sailing regularly, getting to know our sails and how the boat performs, and turning off the engines for the pure joy of propulsion by one the almightiest elements of Mother Nature.
 

Arriving in Corfu we were reunited with our friends Frank, Viv and their son Nick on Dominos from Glastone, Australia. They also have a Lagoon 440 which they acquired in Croatia last year and have been our travelling boat buddies for majority of this past month. Photos below are from our first week in and around old Corfu Town.

 

 

One fine sunny morning during our first week in Greece, both we and Dominos backtracked north up Corfu Island for lunch at the tiny village of Kassiopi. We anchored well off a neighbouring beach, an exposed area to the prevailing northwesterly winds, though nothing nasty was forecast for that day. Upon returning to the boat a few hours later, ominous and angry grey clouds were quickly approaching and before long we were being directly hit by the squall. We’d swung around on our anchor chains in the wind with our sterns now pointed uncomfortably close to the leeshore. Engines were started to help maintain position and to correct laying side on into the wind, which could easily spoil our anchor hold. Now bouncing in the waves that were building as they reached the beach and hit by a succession of wind gusts and pelting rain, dad quickly decided it was safest to up anchor and drive out to sea so as to move the boat away from the shore.     

I could handle the hailstones and sheeting rain. And the wind whilst strong it wasn’t necessarily that fierce. Plus the fast moving storm didn’t have time to whip up a swell to add to the wave chop. What I was completely unprepared for was heading directly and unavoidably into thick bolt lightning sending three to four strikes at a time straight down to the ocean surface. I swear some must’ve been only a few hundred metres away. Perhaps I did not understand the way vertical bolt lightning works – nor that a boat is earthed to handle such situations (though dad was reassuring me). As far as I was concerned, we had a 62-foot aluminum mast, reaching skywards like a lamb to sacrifice on a massive deserted ocean surface. I huddled behind dad at the wheel and under the bimini cover to avoid pelting hailstones, in that moment I held my breath, said a quick prayer and wondered what death by lightning strike must be like. Is it instant?

Over reaction? Maybe! Yet for me, it was a foreign and white-knuckle scenario to experience on a vulnerable little boat, but no doubt there will be similar days like that ahead of us. 

Once the worst had passed both we and Dominos popped our gennakers in the downwind and sailed south, back to the protected anchorage alongside old Corfu Town. Later that evening we all recounted our unexpected afternoon adventure with gusto – and despite the unreal feeling of being so closely surrounded by lightning touching down, it was an exhilarating and character building experience!

First few photos below are taken mid storm action by Nick on Dominos with a waterproof camera – thanks Nick! Finally my darling is pictured with the white gennaker sail – Dominos with the racy red and white gennie.  

 

One notable difference with Greece and Croatia is the cost to the yachtie community in terms of mooring quayside in seaside villages. Developed marina facilities in Greece appear to be scarce which is fine by us as we prefer to avoid them anyway due to high cost and they are often smelly, noisy or hot due to lack of airflow. Plus with a water maker, solar panels, clothes washing machine and hot showers, we are totally self-sufficient anyway. A protected, comfortable anchorage is always our first preference – as the simplicity of being left completely to our own devices in nature must be one of the greatest gifts of sailing. Though with the endless string of quaint seaside villages throughout Greece’s Ionian Islands – mooring stern-to into the quay is also an inviting option for the convenience of stepping directly off the boat, but mostly to be right amongst the atmosphere, making friends with the local taverna owners and other passers-by. Sometimes there is an expectation to eat dinner at the adjacent restaurant that maintains that portion of the quay, or a small fee from the local Harbourmaster (approx. 10 to 20 euro per night – even for our wide berth catamaran) – though mostly we’ve found them to be completely free. In Croatia the quayside fees for our Cat ranged from 60 to 100+ euro per night – so unfortunately we’d simply avoid them and anchor out (unless at extra special locales like Hvar Town). That said, Croatian quaysides generally offered more facilities with laid underwater bow mooring lines, power and water; and they are sufficiently busy enough with the week-long charter crowd who will happily pay for the quayside privilege. 

Our first few free nights quayside were alongside Sivota, on the Greece mainland and opposite Corfu Island. Tied beside our current travelling buddy boat Dominos – with skipper/owner Frank who is an openly welcoming, gregarious character and easily draws people around him – before we know it there is a drinking session on the quay with handfuls of land-bound tourists and tours of both our boats for those interested. Not to mention complimentary beer brought across from the neighbouring taverna owner as he thanks us for generating a buzz outside his restaurant, which in turn has helped to fill his tables. Ha! This boating life sure is social!

One day jumping ship onto Dominos afforded the chance to snap a few pictures of finally my darling under sail. The following sequence shows dad and Mike hoisting the Parasailor during a downwind sail. Stored inside a lightweight sock-like sail bag, attached with a carbon fibre funnel head that once rigged is hoisted quickly upwards to release the giant ballooning Parasailor (as shown below). Then alternatively pulled down to effortlessly ‘snuff’ the sail back into its bag for easy stowing.

The Parasailor is one of two additional sails available in our sail wardrobe. It is specifically designed for downwind sailing when the wind it directly behind or an arch of sixty degrees through the stern. Greece’s seasonal prevailing winds are N – NW and then N – NE over in the Cyclades Island group. So whenever headed S or SE to SW this beauty should get us where we are going!  We’ve read stories as well as heard firsthand accounts of yachts keeping this one particular sail hoisted for a full week or more at a time when passage making in a trade wind belt. Incredible! We hope one day we can tell our own story of an epic journey via Parasailor. 

 

West off the mainland, Greece’s Ionian Islands are superb! The iconic whitewash buildings, windmills and barren landscapes of Cyclades Islands such as Santorini and Mykonos are generally what come to mind when you conjure up images of Greece. Mike and I actually lived and worked on the Greek Island of Ios one summer as twenty-one year olds and we still didn’t know the true beauty of this country. Already in the last three weeks there have been countless welcoming ports and we’ve visited multiple breathtaking settings. In particular Lakka Bay on Paxos Island (pictured below), Emerald Bay on Antipaxos Island, and both the chic oceanfront village of Fiscardos and magical Myrtos Beach on Kefalonia Island (Kefalonia to follow in next blog post). My mind boggles at the beauty that awaits us to round out the European summer!   

 

The latest modification that was designed by and we have adopted from our boat builder friend Frank, is a stern mounted engine control pedestal. The Lagoon factory built controls positioned at the internal saloon navigation station are never used for maneuvering and hence wasted.  The throttle and gear linkage cables have been replaced with a shorter length of cable and the controls moved to a custom fabricated pedestal above the stern portside sugar scoop. From this vantage point dad has a clear view of the boat’s stern when maneuvering back into a marina berth or quayside – an area that was partially obscured by both the solar panels and trike when driving from the upper deck. He also now has easy access to throw/retrieve the portside stern line from here. Needless to say dad is very pleased with the new addition!

 

Growing up in humid North Queensland, we always had a sprawling bougainvillea vine running the full length of the back fence. I remember never having much of a care for the thorny climbing vine that grew recklessly in the backyard. Yet ever since our wedding last year in Fiji, where we collected bougainvillea from the resort gardens for our bouquets and buttonholes, I’ve just adored this vibrant, cheerful bloom. Much to our delight they are awash everywhere in Greece – growing wildly on the roadside or trained up the side of houses, restaurants and balconies. The fuchsia pink, purples and peach colours are simply gorgeous and I'm excited at the upcoming photo opportunities that will exist when they are contrast against the iconic whitewash building scenes of the Cyclades Islands. Whilst bougainvillea wilts quickly when picked, they hold their shape for days when placed in a vase of water and make for a breezy table centerpiece, as we often like to have on the boat.

This glorious little café bar was in Sivota Bay, Lefkas Island – yes, a different village called Sivota! The balcony was awash with bougainvillea beauties and an entertaining vantage point to watch a dozen or more charter yachts of the ‘entry level flotilla variety’ Mediterranean moor to the quayside (under close radio direction of the charter company crew) whilst fighting against gusts of afternoon northwesterly winds that rifled down into the bay.    

Another thing in abundance in Greece are cats! Some well fed, healthy and happy, others not so much. This sleepy guy below did not even twitch when stepped over. Too cute!

Before we say farewell – an update on our current location finds us at the very southern end of Zakinthos and the last of the Ionian Islands on our itinerary before we start making our way east towards Athens via the Corinth Canal. Given passing both the gulfs of Patras and Corinth should take us three or four days, we should be in Athens by about the end of next week. 

Much love from us all! x