Daily we progress and tick more items off a very long list without adding too many more.
An unexpected issue has arisen with the Yanmar wing engine. Each year its prop shaft seal (which stops seawater coming into the boat) has to be checked after removing the prop shaft. Last year the shaft was stuck solid to a collar which holds the shaft to the gearbox. This year we got the shaft and gearbox removed as one piece (drawn forward internally) and taken to a machine shop where the shaft was removed. The problem is that the prop shaft has too tight a fit to the gearbox, not allowing sufficient movement for correct alignment of the shaft. Sailand are modifying the shaft, and machining the gearbox bearing to overcome this, which will take several days, and of course we can’t launch Envoy until this is done. The shaft seal is also worn and needs replacing. While access allowed, the clutch plate was also found to be in good condition, but cleaned up and treated for light surface corrosion.
So this job together with the repair to our leaking diesel fuel tank is holding us up - the last blog predicted we’d be cruising by 11 April, and our best guess now is a week later.
For a 23 year-old vessel Envoy is in excellent condition and her gelcoat and stainless steel gleams. Every year we invest in a machine cut-and-polish of the whole topsides and hull, and believe this has paid dividends. Of course we could do it ourselves, but this is seriously hard physical work taking two much younger guys than us about three days, plus another day to apply two coats of antifouling with a third coat around the waterline, as well as a different formulation for the three propellers (main, wing and thruster).
I’ve replaced most of the zinc anodes, but done them slightly differently this year. Previously they’ve been mounted snug up against Envoy’s hull, but I read that anodes should be mounted with a gap between the hull allowing the seawater to access the whole anode – so that’s what we’ve done.
So far we haven’t needed to buy too much, but we do shop around. Chandlers provide a valuable service of convenience, mostly being situated within marinas, but their prices are often very high. Needing some spray-on electrical contact cleaner a chandler’s price was Euro 12, whereas a hardware shop in town charged only Euro 5. In Turkey we had examples where chandlery shops charged several times the price we paid elsewhere. The moral of the story is that everything to do with “marine” seems to cost exorbitantly so wherever possible just buy your needs in a normal shop.
We met with the marina manager regarding booking Envoy into Lefkas marina for the coming winter. He says it’s no problem to leave Envoy in the water, but the hardstand is already full, and although he thinks there’s a 90% chance they can squeeze us in, there’s a 10% chance they can’t. We’ve decided to take this chance, and in the worst case winter Envoy in the water for the first time. There’s no problem about the safety of the boat from weather, as the wintering-berths are sheltered by buildings. In many marinas surge coming from large swells during winter gales is the major problem, but not so in Lefkas which is accessed from a canal. Of course the vast majority of boats here and at home are wintered in the water with no problems, and we can take precautions like closing all seacocks, and leaving the automatic bilge pumps on. Wooden boats are generally left in the water because their seams can open-up if they’re out of the water for too long. Overall we prefer to winter Envoy on the hardstand, but we’ll have to wait and see if that’s going to be possible. With Envoy in the water we won’t be able to use our storage cover, designed for use on land.
During winter we removed our anchor chain from its locker and stored it flaked over a stand at ground level, a practice which most boats on the hardstand follow. Although we always wash the anchor chain with fresh water at the end of season to remove salt deposits, storage in this way helps the winter rains to wash it further, and prevent rust spots forming where chain links touch. Up to now the bitter end of the anchor chain has been shackled to a ring in the anchor locker, but we wanted to change this arrangement to make it easier to discard the anchor chain in an emergency. What kind of emergency? Well for example we could be anchored in some bay during a gale, need to move and find the anchor is snagged and not able to be retrieved. Now we have shackled five metres of 12mm line to the last link of the anchor chain and secured the other end of the line to the ring in the anchor locker. This would allow us to let out the whole length of chain until the last link came through the hawse pipe onto the deck, and then we can secure the end of a long buoyed line back through the pulpit anchor roller to the last link of the chain, let go the other line, leave the anchor and chain buoyed for later retrieval, and move away. Of course Envoy has other combination chain/warp anchors for use in the meantime.
An unexpected issue has arisen with the Yanmar wing engine. Each year its prop shaft seal (which stops seawater coming into the boat) has to be checked after removing the prop shaft. Last year the shaft was stuck solid to a collar which holds the shaft to the gearbox. This year we got the shaft and gearbox removed as one piece (drawn forward internally) and taken to a machine shop where the shaft was removed. The problem is that the prop shaft has too tight a fit to the gearbox, not allowing sufficient movement for correct alignment of the shaft. Sailand are modifying the shaft, and machining the gearbox bearing to overcome this, which will take several days, and of course we can’t launch Envoy until this is done. The shaft seal is also worn and needs replacing. While access allowed, the clutch plate was also found to be in good condition, but cleaned up and treated for light surface corrosion.
So this job together with the repair to our leaking diesel fuel tank is holding us up - the last blog predicted we’d be cruising by 11 April, and our best guess now is a week later.
For a 23 year-old vessel Envoy is in excellent condition and her gelcoat and stainless steel gleams. Every year we invest in a machine cut-and-polish of the whole topsides and hull, and believe this has paid dividends. Of course we could do it ourselves, but this is seriously hard physical work taking two much younger guys than us about three days, plus another day to apply two coats of antifouling with a third coat around the waterline, as well as a different formulation for the three propellers (main, wing and thruster).
I’ve replaced most of the zinc anodes, but done them slightly differently this year. Previously they’ve been mounted snug up against Envoy’s hull, but I read that anodes should be mounted with a gap between the hull allowing the seawater to access the whole anode – so that’s what we’ve done.
So far we haven’t needed to buy too much, but we do shop around. Chandlers provide a valuable service of convenience, mostly being situated within marinas, but their prices are often very high. Needing some spray-on electrical contact cleaner a chandler’s price was Euro 12, whereas a hardware shop in town charged only Euro 5. In Turkey we had examples where chandlery shops charged several times the price we paid elsewhere. The moral of the story is that everything to do with “marine” seems to cost exorbitantly so wherever possible just buy your needs in a normal shop.
We met with the marina manager regarding booking Envoy into Lefkas marina for the coming winter. He says it’s no problem to leave Envoy in the water, but the hardstand is already full, and although he thinks there’s a 90% chance they can squeeze us in, there’s a 10% chance they can’t. We’ve decided to take this chance, and in the worst case winter Envoy in the water for the first time. There’s no problem about the safety of the boat from weather, as the wintering-berths are sheltered by buildings. In many marinas surge coming from large swells during winter gales is the major problem, but not so in Lefkas which is accessed from a canal. Of course the vast majority of boats here and at home are wintered in the water with no problems, and we can take precautions like closing all seacocks, and leaving the automatic bilge pumps on. Wooden boats are generally left in the water because their seams can open-up if they’re out of the water for too long. Overall we prefer to winter Envoy on the hardstand, but we’ll have to wait and see if that’s going to be possible. With Envoy in the water we won’t be able to use our storage cover, designed for use on land.
During winter we removed our anchor chain from its locker and stored it flaked over a stand at ground level, a practice which most boats on the hardstand follow. Although we always wash the anchor chain with fresh water at the end of season to remove salt deposits, storage in this way helps the winter rains to wash it further, and prevent rust spots forming where chain links touch. Up to now the bitter end of the anchor chain has been shackled to a ring in the anchor locker, but we wanted to change this arrangement to make it easier to discard the anchor chain in an emergency. What kind of emergency? Well for example we could be anchored in some bay during a gale, need to move and find the anchor is snagged and not able to be retrieved. Now we have shackled five metres of 12mm line to the last link of the anchor chain and secured the other end of the line to the ring in the anchor locker. This would allow us to let out the whole length of chain until the last link came through the hawse pipe onto the deck, and then we can secure the end of a long buoyed line back through the pulpit anchor roller to the last link of the chain, let go the other line, leave the anchor and chain buoyed for later retrieval, and move away. Of course Envoy has other combination chain/warp anchors for use in the meantime.
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