Farewell to Boat Lagoon

Hi everyone,
Zen Again departed Boat Lagoon, Phuket this morning after nearly 6 months of repair and refit. We fuelled up and then were guided out of the creek by one of the marina men. After clearing the creek I hoisted the main but had to motor for an hour until we excaped the lee of the island. We are now romping along in a great 10-14 knot WSW breeze, heading directly for Langkawi with the wind on the beam. No 2 and full main, logging 6.5 knots and about 7 over the ground. Dry bilge too!

About to depart Boat Lagoon

The weather has been improving as we sail south. In Boat Lagoon it was overcast with drizzle. Once away from the island there's been about 6/8 cloud cover and no rain so far.

Sailing out of Thai waters

It was a little sad leaving Boat Lagoon. They're a friendly crowd. Most importantly Precision Shipwrights did a great job on the repairs and refit, and everything appears to be not only looking good but working very well too. The dual mainsheet system atop the new s/s arch is working very well. The new cockpit teak is wonderful - no more sitting on a bed of nails!

New Sail Number - back to our old FSC 88
Note - not a bendy mast, rather a wide angle lens!

Right now we're in position 07 38.9N 098 39.5E, doing 7.2 knots over the ground. But you can see all that on our new PredictWind tracker page (on the right hand side of the blog home page).

Still charging mid-afternoon (speed or amps? Both!)

Trust all's well where you are.

Relaunch and Refit Week 15

Hi everyone,
She floats!  On Tuesday morning Zen Again returned to her natural element.  Since then Precision has just about completed all refit work items.  A new forestay base fitting was made and fitted, a boom sheaves pin modified to allow fitting of new (dual) mainsheet blocks, and the new mainsheet arch fitted.  The only items still to be fitted are two pushpit-mounted gas bottle holders.

Prior to launch the propellor and shaft were painted with PropGold.  'Twill be interesting to see how it performs.  We also fitted Kleenhull anodes which are very small and should last many years.  Kleenhull is a Western Australian product and it will be very interesting to see how they perform.  These anodes are intended to work well with Coppercoat antifoul.

Propellor and shaft painted with PropGold

New Kleenhull anode - tiny isn't it!

Ready to go!

Launching

Floating!

Forestay fitted

Anchor roller is a big improvement and the stemhead much simpler 

Fully rigged, but with messengers replacing second main & jib halyards

Double-decker organisers to handle added reef tack lines and mainsheets

Below decks we have a new cabin sole.  The oiled teak with sikaflex stripes is much better non-slip than varnished teak and holly, and the new boards latch, rather than screw, down.

New cabin sole - nice but highlights the poor varnish!

Today the new mainsheet arch was fitted.  It has a large base plate with dual backing plates port & starboard, and feels very strong.  It needs to be!  We now have dual mainsheets which lead forward along the boom, down to the deck and aft to clutches.  Exactly what we had on Degrees of Freedom and the system worked very well for us.  Best of all there's no traveller or mainsheet in the cockpit which is a big safety improvement.

Mainsheet arch - note large base plate on coaming

Mainsheet arch - note one sheet each side

Zen Again is now at home in a pen in Boat Lagoon Marina, where she'll stay for at least a month.  We hope to return in late July for sea trials and perhaps to move to Krabi or Rebak.

Zen Again at rest

The refit carried out by Precision Shipwright Services has exceeded our expectations.  We recommend Scott and his team without reservation.  We had expected to need to stay in Phuket to oversee the work but the first couple of weeks showed that simply wasn't necessary.  The work has been carried out to a very high standard.  We're now confident our yacht is better than ever structurally, and looks good as new!

Blogs will be less frequent now our refit is complete, until we go sailing of course!

Refit Week 14

Hi everyone,
Our refit is now very close to completion.  This week Precision completed the stemhead, anchor roller and windlass on deck, the cabin sole below and the mast was stepped.

New integrated stephead and anchor roller
with our Manson Supreme anchor fitted

Mast ready for restepping, with mobile crane in the background

Lowering the mast into place

Looking like a sailing boat again

Boom and mainsail back in place, and boom tent too

Protecting the transom from the hot tropical sun

While Precision were busy on the mechanical work I was busy on the electrics.  I wired the solar panels and antennas on the new pushpit arch to the navstation.  I also reconnected the house battery bank in the saloon table to the navstation after the cabin sole was installed.  I had several sessions moving gear from Precision's shed back aboard Zen Again.  The Aires vane gear was mounted on the transom.  Countless miscellaneous little tasks done too, such as checking the fuel and water tank breather tubes are clear and working.

Another job done this week was to apply our new sail numbers.  Zen Again is now F88, the same Fremantle Sailing Club number we had on our previous boats Critical Path and Degrees of Freedom.

The last major job Precision is doing is constructing a mainsheet arch.  We'll have a traveller-less dual mainsheet system as we did on Degrees of Freedom.  Work on the arch is well underway and hopefully it will be fitted next week.  On Monday we'll finish setting up the rig, "key" the Coppercoat antifoul and fit the anodes.  On Tuesday morning the boat is booked to be relaunched.  She'll stay in a pen here at Boat Lagoon for at least a month.

Refit Week 13

Hi everyone,
I've been at Boat Lagoon this week and will be staying until the refit is completed.  It's been a busy week with lots of work going on.  The boom and mast fittings have been refitted, with some replaced or modified.  On deck the new windlass, new solar panels, additional deck organisers and new lifelines are being fitted.  Below decks a new saloon floor is being fitted.

The new cabin sole is oiled teak with black sikaflex stripes

Rudder antifouled, preparing metalwork for painting

A number of mast fittings have been replaced due to the old fittings being either very worn or of incorrect size.  The gooseneck fitting was very worn so was replaced, and while doing so we adapted the design to handle tack lines for reefing the main.  This will make it unnecessary for anyone to be at the mast while reefing.

New gooseneck fitting - the old one was very worn
The holes and hoops are for new tack reefing lines

The tangs to which the lower shrouds are attached were replaced since the holes for the pins were oversize and washer had been welded over the holes to match the pins.  Not very pretty.  The new ones have correct size pins.

New bicolour nav light (left) and unchanged deck light (right)

We have replaced the mast-mounted navigation lights.  Our "bow" lights are mounted at the lower spreaders and are an integrated bicolour "lopolight" LED light.  The old one had an LED array globe but the housing was very brittle.

The masthead tricolour/anchor light was similar so was replaced with an integrated "OGM" tricolour/anchor/strobe light.  The windex was replaced too.

New tricolour/anchor/strobe masthead light

The repainted deck and new cockpit teak really give the deck a new look.  Very smart.  The new pushpit/arch/lifelines enclose the cockpit and the lower arch with much larger solar panels will provide more shade.

Repainted deck and new cockpit teak look great

The new pushpit extends solid lifelines around the cockpit

260W of solar power, plus a little shade!

Outboard motor mount and gas regulator fitted

While Precision was doing much of this week's work I did the electrical wiring in the mast, sorted out and discarded about 50kg of perishable food and other excess stores.  I also reinstalled the cabin table/pedestal and refitted/rewired the 400Ah of house batteries inside it.  With all the coachroof fittings installed I refitted the cabin headlining.  With the new cabin sole and the 18 month old headlining the varnish below now looks a little tired.  Something for us to do ourselves when we get the boat home.

We hope to step the mast and relaunch the boat this week.  The anchor platform, chain pipe and inner forestay chainplate need to be fitted before that since the boat needs to remain under cover until they're done.  I also need to refit the pushpit arch mounted VHF antenna, GPS antenna wiring and install the solar panel wiring.

It rains here several times each day, and some are real tropical downpours.  Having the boat under cover is an absolute necessity while major deck work is going on.

Refit Week 12

Hi everyone,
This week the hull was antifouled and progress made on the stainless steel work.  The antifoul is Coppercoat (known as Coppershield in Australia).  Hopefully it will live up to its reputation and last for 10 years.

Today we discovered Kleenhull which provides anodes intended for vessels using copper-based antifouling.  Last year we found the Coppercoat antifoul was corroding away near the zinc anode on the skeg.  We plan to try Kleenhull anodes this time.

Looking good down-under

Much nicer keel-hull join now

Nice contrast (although the antifoul changes colour in the water)

Nice Bow

Very Nice (and note the new pushpit & arch)

Nice Stern too!

Name, home port, club and sail number will be painted on the transom.  On each side of the boom and the bow we'll have the name.  Here's hoping the colour we've chosen will work!  The photo below shows one of the stencils.

Preparing the the signwriting

The new pushpit integrates an arch/goalpost which supports a frame for our new solar panels.  260W of solar power should be plenty to keep all systems going without using the engine - even on overcast days.  The pushpit extends forwards to provide solid handrails around the cockpit, with wire lifelines forward from there.

New integrated lifelines, pushpit, goalpost and solar panels frame

Just about all the original deck-gear is now remounted, together with some new items.

Two more clutches per side and new stainless handrails

Solid handrails extend forward from the pushpit

Polished granny-bars and new handrails and new solid lifelines
The top hatch has been rotated 180 degrees!

Can't wait for next week when I'll be back up in Phuket to oversee the final work on the refit!

Refit Week 11

Hi everyone,
This week the rudder was rebuilt, the toerails replaced and progress made on various new stainless steel fittings.

The rudder was rebuilt due to very bad osmosis and it being full of water.  Happily the stainless shaft and "frame" were found to be in pretty good shape so could be re-used.

Stripping the old rudder

Tidying up the s/s frame

One side laid up

Finishing the job

New rudder!

The old toerails were quite badly corroded in places due to dissimilar metals (eg stainless steel staunchions and the like).  There were also a couple of bent sections from minor collisions in times past.  Happily Precision had a toerail from an Oyster 43 which had similar section and was in much better condition.

New toerails and cabin windows

New stemhead

Nice quarter view

Jobs still to do include fitting new s/s pushpit/arch, windlass, anchor roller and mast fittings, a new cabin sole and hull antifouling.  Should be completed in early June if not later this month.