Subdued start to the new season

We’ve had a pretty subdued start to the season. The weather hasn’t been great in Scotland and yet we’ve watched, listened to, and read forecasts of hot sunny days further south in the UK. The fact that winter hasn’t fully retreated yet, arguably makes our ‘current‘ technical problem slightly easier to swallow. During one of the half-decent weekends that we had recently, we intended to head out for our shake-down sail. Unfortunately just before we were about to set-off our plans were scuppered when our Malin’s engine wouldn’t start.

Our Macwester’s Lombardini diesel engine is a reasonably recent replacement engine with low hours so we reasoned that a problem with the starter motor was unlikely. After a few simple diagnostics we were reasonably sure that the batteries were flat, so we took them home and I gave them a good charge. Both batteries appeared to maintain a healthy charge over several days. I was a tad confused as to why there should be a problem with either of the batteries, and given that I had nagging concerns about the Osculati main isolator switch (above, left switch), I bought an identical replacement and swapped these over. With the timely help of a passing friend, we managed to get the batteries back on board our yacht. I should perhaps mention that as the batteries are both half a metre long, I can’t tell you how happy I was to bump into the passing friend I mentioned, as I really hadn’t worked out how we were going to get the batteries from a bobbing dinghy back on to our Macwester Malin. Before long I had both fully charged batteries reconnected.

Unfortunately the engine still wouldn’t start. By this stage, we knew for sure that this was a battery problem as we had started the engine in the interim period with a car battery. Deciding to try to start the engine with one single battery, I persevered and after trying three combinations of the 2 x leads to 2 x battery terminals I got the engine started on the fourth and last combination. We decided to head to Capernaum where we would get easy pontoon access to fix the problem …whatever it was.

The short journey was completed without any problems, although the wind was gaining in strength and we were taken sideways as we entered the harbour. Of course we couldn’t rely on the bow thruster because of the battery problem, nonetheless we managed to get on to the pontoon easily given that there were friends ashore to take the ropes.

On Sunday the 5th of May the wind changed direction and with the tide well in, by midnight we were getting a bit of a bashing from a south-easterly (from the direction of 11 o’clock in the photo above), which was bring waves right into the harbour and pushing us against the pontoon. I got up and sat on watch for half an hour. Our Malin’s bow and stern were swinging up and down by anything up to 0.75 of a metre at times, but the centre of the yacht was relatively still and I reasoned that there was no danger that our new navy blue Majoni fenders were going to ride up over the pontoon as they’re 0.7m tall. Eventually I went back down into the aft cabin and managed to nod off despite the fairground ride and sound of the waves slapping firmly into our Mac’s hull.

The following day, while I was scratching my head and taking advice on the battery problem, I took advantage of being on the pontoon to do some smaller jobs. This included swapping out an old stanchion block, which was a bit sticky when we were operating the head sail, with a new Holt 450 block. Hopefully we’ll notice the difference when we eventually get out for our shake-down sail. At the same time, ‘the crew’ re-did some whipping on our new fenders, as she wasn’t happy with the first attempt.

With the help of a friend from the club, we discovered that one of the batteries dropped from over 12v to about 4v under load. The old battery didn’t go without a fight; later we discovered that it had chewed through my jeans and my hoody as I wrestled it off to the recycling centre. Our friend kindly sourced a replacement Yuasa Cargo battery with 143 Ah the following day and he even managed to swing a better deal than the £190 retail price for us [yay!]. With that, our Macwester Malin was fully operational once more. However we still had a small problem of some sort, as there was a spark when the leads were connected up to the batteries even although the isolator switch was off. This meant that there was something constantly drawing power from the batteries.

I reasoned that this problem was likely to be something that had been happening since we bought our Macwester 32 early in 2011, and that we had been able to sail throughout two seasons despite it. Nonetheless I decided that it made sense to keep going and try to identify the problem, rather than just live with it and assuming that everything would be okay as it had been previously.

This post is already overly-long so I’ll finish up now. As things stand, we’re fully operational. According to another friend (and electrician), it might be the bow thruster that is the source of the spark, or more accurately perhaps a sticky relay that sits between the batteries and the bow thruster. We’re still running diagnostic checks, however one solution might be to introduce a new standalone isolator switch for the bow thruster. We’ll keep going and we’ll find a solution over the coming week or two. The good news is that at this stage it looks as though there’s nothing that will stop us from going out for our shakedown sail come the next suitable day that we have free.

Whatever floats your boat

With a couple of good days forecast, we were keen to head out for a quick shake-down sail over the weekend. We planned to set-off straight away and then get our yacht’s genoa on alongside Capernaum Pier. It was a neap tide with only 4.4m at High Water [HW], so we knew that we had a very small window to escape our sheltered mooring. ‘The crew’ painted five stripes on a wooden post a couple of years ago, and we know through experience that anything below the bottom stripe means our twin-keel ketch is on the ground. As HW came and went our Macwester Malin 32 thought about floating, but her keels never quite made it clear of the mud. Best we can tell the high pressure must have kept the tide on the low side, so for my future reference anything less than 4.5m at HW is unlikely to be enough to float our boat if there’s also high pressure.

We decided to stay on-board and do some of the stuff that we needed to do. First up was getting the genoa on, which was a job made easier by a very gentle breeze coming from the South West straight on to our bow. After a spot of lunch the tide was receding and we decided to stay the night. I carried out some adjustments to the mooring when the water had finally ebbed away, and then the rest of the day disappeared well ahead of schedule.

Turning down an invitation to the local pub, we had a very quiet night on-board as our Malin failed to float when the tide came back in for another attempt just after 10pm. The next morning the view South to the river was bright and settled. Not sure what happened to one of the yachts further out; we reckoned that its rudder must have found a deep hole. I guess that’s one benefit of having a chunky skeg like our Macwester, as it doesn’t matter where you walk on deck when the tide’s out …she just isn’t prone to tipping over in any direction.

On the Sunday we spent a more leisurely day having accepted that we weren’t going sailing this time around. We nipped over to our yacht club and caught up on news about the day’s racing. I helped a friend carry out some remedial work to his mooring tackle following a screw-up which saw one of his rear strops being chewed-through by his rope cutter. Back on Indefatigable Banks, I read about a gas leak on-board a Macwester Malin called Sea Gilt in May 2013′s edition of Yachting Monthly …and that reminded me that I really need to get some sort of gas detection set-up organised sooner rather than later. After lunch we spotted some homing pigeons being released on the pier. They circled around two or three times before heading off beyond the trees.

With the arrival of some darker clouds we decided to call it a day. In the end, it didn’t take too long for us to drive through the rain and on our journey along the River Forth we spotted a steam engine meandering along the water’s edge. We gave it some beans and managed to make it to Culross in time to watch the train pass. The ‘Union of South Africa’ whistled, and her driver waved a rag at us as she steamed gracefully passed.

It was a welcome high point to finish our ‘low water’ weekend on.

Crane-in 2013

With chilly winter weather right up to Easter 2013, crane in came a bit too early for most at our club this year.

I had an unsettling feeling that we just weren’t ready as the countdown to Saturday inevitably reached ground zero. We were scheduled to be third in, and crane-in started at 7.30am, so by 8.30am (latest) our twin-keel, centre-cockpit, Macwester Malin 32 ketch was going to be sitting alongside waiting for the tide.

We had popped our yacht’s cockpit tent up for a week or two prior to crane-in to ensure that we could carry out essential engine bay maintenance no matter the weather, but as a precaution we took it back down for crane-in. I always feel the lack of cockpit tent makes our Macwester Malin look naked, but understand that some purist like it that way.

Weather-wise it was the best start to a crane-in / crane-out that I’ve witnessed. Blue skies and almost no wind. On-board, the deck was very slippy with a thick layer of icy frost. I awkwardly skated around the deck strapping on our new navy blue Majoni size/star 4 fenders (0.7m long). Five to starboard just in case there was some sort of unplanned close encounter as we were lowered against the harbour wall. As one of the larger yachts in our club, we were due to have another six boats rafted off our port side.

The club had purchased two new sets of strops, so we were spared any muddy marks given our early slot. As it turned out, the strops weren’t placed in the optimum lifting position (marked with blue tape), because the tide was out and if the rear strop was positioned under the skeg it would have been stuck there. Can’t say that I was overly happy with the rear strop being so far forward, (it was positioned just about the centre of our engine) but with no wind, our Malin remained reasonably level.

Once the tide was in, my friend and I towed the dingy round to our mooring and before we lost the tide, “the crew” and I nipped back round with Indefatigable Banks and popped her on her mooring for the next six months This was more or less straight forward with the exception of our brand new extendable aluminium boat hook, which catastrophically failed on the very first attempt at lifting our pick-up buoy …snapping clean in half. It was a poor show, but with the aid of our Malin’s bow thruster we managed to recover the situation without any further drama.

As it had been six months, we gave ourselves a little extra time for house-keeping; making sure that we remembered to close all the sea cocks, switch everything off, and double-check the strops. Fortunately my measurements were accurate and all six new fenders fitted snuggly into their new home.

With our Macwester back on her mooring we spent the remainder of the weekend helping crane-in the rest of the club boats. The good weather continued and we finished well ahead of schedule. The only hiccup for me was getting my fingers trapped under a wooden block as a Westerly Merlin’s keels were lowered on to it. As the Merlin must have weighed upwards of 4 tonnes, momentarily it was a tad painful (not to mention scary) …and I was fortunate to escape with my hand in one piece. That’s a mistake that I’ll be trying not to make again any time soon.

Next up we shall be putting the sails on and making sure she’s ready to go for a shake-down sail come the first glimpse of a half-decent spring day.

A very busy Easter weekend

This Easter is the third that we’ve spent with our Macwester Malin following on from Easter 2011 when we sailed her over to the River Forth from Naarden (photos here). With exceptionally cold weather over the last month in the UK, we’ve made almost no progress with our must-do-before-crane-in list.

Anti-fouling was high on my list and I nailed that on the Saturday. The extra 100mm height added from last year (total 300mm) made a big difference and I didn’t paint between the keels with my face this year : ) We changed from red to blue this year; a couple of days later I decided to freshen-up the boottop too.

At the very top of the list was replacing our leaky stern gland. A suitably-qualified engineer and good friend fitted the new gland, while at the same time I cleared a blockage from one of our cockpit drains. The photo above shows a small diameter hose running to and from the stern gland. The hose on the right brings sea water (lubricant) from the sea water intake, and the hose exiting on the left lets any air escape. The larger hose on the right comes from the cockpit and connects to the vacant skin fitting on the right.

After recommissioning the engine, we tested the new set-up using a fresh water reservoir and everything appeared to work well.

Another must-do item was to re-install the mooring tackle. I leave the chains buried in the mud, but like to take the buoy and the strops out.

Above, end of the line for the wheelbarrow, so time to get my muscles out. The weather wasn’t too bad, and with fresh shackles to fit there were no problems. Phew!

Filling in a couple of cracks with two-pot epoxy was also on the list, but with low temperatures I had to use a fan heater to encourage the epoxy to cure. I should point out that the cracks were between the original skeg and a post-manufacture block of hard wood that has been added to offer some sort of additional support or protection to the propeller shaft. Once the epoxy had hardened, I finished the job off with anti-fouling paint.

After four very long days I made it to the end of our must-do list and we were just about ready for crane-in the following weekend. We had our fingers crossed for better weather.

Green light in run-up to the new season…

One month to go until crane in …and we’re in full swing preparing for the new season. Amongst other things, We’ve fixed our yacht’s internal electrical fault with the generous help of our club sparkie, who quickly spotted an earthing problem that I simply couldn’t see. While he was checking over our electrics, he commented that our batteries were impressively meaty and that we had all the electrical bells and whistles. Good news. Hopefully, we’ve also fixed the transducer problem which (having already replaced/tested 100% of the hardware) I’m now pretty much convinced was an electrical fault, but we won’t know for sure until our Macwester Malin floats on the 6th of April.

Additionally, we’ve fixed a separate electrical fault with one of our navigation lights (see top). We’ve fixed the broken rollock on the dinghy and the gelcoat puncture in our dinghy’s little keel and as you can see in the photo above we’ve quickly splashed some of last year’s anti-foul on her bottom.

And… we’ve polished our Macwester Malin’s propeller. We’ve fitted a chunky stainless steel hoop in the centre cockpit for attaching lifelines. We’ve power-washed the hull and decks with a friends ride-on uber-power-washer. Okay, it’s not actually a ride-on, but it’s a duel-powered-steam-breathing monster. See above and below for evidence.

In addition, we’ve bought a replacement stern gland, opting for a mechanical seal made by ‘John Crane’. The previous Allpa seal has been removed and I’m now in the process of sourcing additional stainless steel components for the stern gland installation, including a 1/2 x 1/4 straight reducer (3 components) and a 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/4 reducing Tee (see 5 component solution below). This has proven difficult as the required parts are not available off the shelf, so the only option is to make them up from 316 stainless steel components. Incidentally, many thanks to John of ‘Flow Technology’ in West Yorkshire who informed me that I was searching for something that simply didn’t exist and, despite having the component parts available, put me on to ‘Complete Stainless‘ in Cumbernauld who are much nearer.

Where was I? Ah, yes, we’ve bought six new size four Majoni navy blue fenders. We’ve bought a spare boat hook, and as I mentioned previously we’ve bought 5 litres of antifoul paint, some more navy braid-on-braid rope, various shackles, carbine clips, grease and other stuff that I can’t recall.

I’m fully focussed on the must-do-before-we-hit-the-water list over the remaining weekends. That’s mainly fitting the stern gland, re-aligning the engine, re-commissioning the engine, applying the anti-foul paint, and reinstalling the mooring. Any other jobs can happen after crane-in, but the aforementioned all need to be dealt with this month.

It’s gonna be busy, but it’s gonna be good!

Party season draws to a close

Club parties, Christmas parties, birthday parties, cocktail parties …and yes, work parties as well. It’s been quite hectic over the last month or two, but this has been more to do with our yacht club’s social circle and member activities than our Macwester Malin, which has been in hibernation through the worst of the Scottish winter.

While we’ve had fun there has also been a fair bit of progress made around our club (through our weekly work parties) including re-roofing the shed, and laying new sinkers. This week I managed to evade digging-holes-in-the-mud duty for a change, and helped manufacture six concrete sinkers instead.

When we’ve had family time, we’ve been guilty of sneaking in a ‘boat-fix’ whenever possible, with trips to harbours and marinas in Arbroath, Tayport, Granton, Dunbar, St Abbs, Eyemouth, and even the new marinas in Greenock and Sandbank (Holy Loch) on the West coast of Scotland. The above shot (looking South towards Cumbrae) was taken on-board the “Sound of Shuna” while travelling across the Clyde between Gourock and Hunters Quay on Saturday. It’s only a twenty-minute crossing, but it was good to be out on the water …even if it was on board a car ferry.

With party season coming to an end and with only two months to go before crane-in, our thoughts are now turning to the new sailing season. We’ve started making a few boat-related purchases, including 5 litres of anti-foul paint, a 2kg anode, and replacement 16mm shackles for the rear strops. February is going to be spent focussing on the key tasks that really need completion while our Macwester is on the hard. We have our fingers crossed that the weather is kind to us and we make good progress, as that will mean less pressure come March.

Hogmanay 2012

We’ve reached the end of 2012 so we’re looking forward to 2013 and the new season which is now only about three months away. While we haven’t been doing all that much to our yacht, we have been busy socialising with friends from the club, as well as spending time exploring the River Forth and the River Tay from the shore. The picture above was taken recently when we walked across the Forth Road Bridge and back.

We’ve also been checking out beaches and harbours that might be destinations in the new year. Above is an image of Barnbougle Castle on the far left with Inchcolm just about visible on the far right. While below is a photo of Pittenweem at dusk.

Leisure craft aren’t encouraged at Pittenweem as it’s a lively commercial fishing harbour, however when we were there two yachts were alongside the inner harbour wall including a 49ft Jeanneau owned by a member of our club.

Not long until the stroke of midnight now (GMT). Guess I should think about strapping my kilt on soon. This blog has been read around the world in over 80 countries this year. With this in mind I hope you have/had a fab time at the bells and wish you all the very best for 2013 when it arrives for you …wherever you are.

Happy New Year!