Gosport HaulOut Week 1

Hi everyone,

Zen Again was hauled out at Premier Marina's Endeavour Quay in Gosport on Monday afternoon.  The operation was delayed by an emergency haul out of another boat in the morning.  We managed to convince the yard to stand Zen Again in the main yard instead of in the car park where many small yachts go.

Little Boat, Big TravelLift!

With the boat out of the water it was immediately clear that we had some blisters in the antifoul on the starboard side near the bow and on the starboard side of the keel.  And it was clear the Coppercoat was very thin after 7 years, 4 out of the water re-keying sessions and many in-water scrubbings.  So we asked Desty Marine for quotes to apply new Coppercoat.  We also asked them to quote on tidying up the minor dings & scratches in the topsides.

We had arranged for Marine Tech to carry out various works on the boat.  This included removing the Bruntons VariFold propellor, cutlass bearing, shaft seal, sea cocks and skin fittings, and replacing them with new.  The new propellor is a Bruntons AutoProp.  We're hoping it will improve performance overall, improve motor-sailing efficiency and reduce prop-walk.  First Marine (Solent) is supplying the new propellor.

VariFold Blades Off

VariFold Hub Off - Note LH Thread

We got the old prop off on Tuesday morning after a struggle with it on Monday evening.  It turned out the thread on the shaft is left-handed.  With the prop off we could remove the cutlass bearing which was very worn.

MarineTech removing the Cutlass Bearing

Old Cutlass Bearing

The dynaplate got a good clean.  It provides the ground connection for the HF/SSB radio and isn't painted or antifouled.  It therefore gets very dirty over time but scrubbed up well.  It is even engraved "Do Not Paint"!

Clean DynaPlate

MarineTech cut off the old skin fittings.  Prior to their doing so I removed all the hoses and cleaned the head and galley sink drains - yuk!  I also tried unscrewing the sea cocks.  Three of the four 3/4" units came off without rotating the skin fittings.  Both of our two 1.5" sea cocks rotated the skin fittings and wouldn't come off separately.

With the sea cocks off we could inspect them.  The head inlet and outlet sea cocks were both inoperative.  They weren't opening or closing fully and the balls were badly corroded.  This is partly caused by our practice of opening and closing them on every use of the head.  For liveaboards that's several thousand cycles each year and sea cocks simply wear out.  After conclusively proving that fact I think we'll change our procedure.

Incompletely open sea cock

Badly corroded sea cock ball

The two inoperative sea cocks were fitted in Fremantle in 2015.  They replaced new ones fitted in 2013 in Phuket.  The photo below shows them looking pretty on the outside compared to the others which were all fitted in Phuket and after 7 years all looked a little green.  With bronze fittings "green is good, pink is bad"!  Only the frequently cycled sea cocks had problems.

Old skin fittings and sea cocks

Desty Marine's quote was good so we asked them to go ahead.  They kindly discounted the price of polishing the topsides so we added that to the work.  Desty set to work sanding back the old coppercoat ready for the new coats.  They sanded and filled the blisters on the keel's starboard side.  They sanded and applied International Gelshield Plus to the blistered area on the bow.

Keel blistering

Sanded bow area

Gelshield Plus applied

Old Coppercoat sanded back ready for new coats

MarineTech finished the week by fitting the new skin fittings, fitting the 1.5" sea cocks, and replacing the shaft seal. The shaft seal is a PYI PSS Type A for our 2" stern tube and 28mm shaft.  We bought the new unit prior to haul out since 28mm is an uncommon shaft size.  It's good we replaced it since the rotor's grub screws were corroding and it was tough getting them out.  We're keeping the old unit as a spare.

Shaft out prior to cleaning

MarineTech also checked the rudder bearings and declared them to be in good condition.

New Shaft Seal

During the week I degreased the engine compartment and the lazarette.  Hence the nice bright white look above!

Next week we hope to have new coppercoat, gleaming topsides, a full complement of new sea-cocks, new hoses internally, a new cutlass bearing and a new prop!

Trust all's well where you are.