For sale: Andersen winches and Echotec watermaker
These items, purchased to install on the boat, are now for sale. They are still in their boxes. All prices are in Australian dollars. If you are interested in either of these items, please send me a message via Facebook – scroll down for the link in the right-hand sidebar.
1. Andersen Winches
3 x 46ST Two speed full s/s
+ 1 x Handle 200mm std locking
More information here:
Cost $5,000, priced to sell at $3,300 (or $1,100 each) plus freight from Darwin
2. Echotec Watermaker *****SOLD*****
1500-AML-4 227 litre/hr 240v AC water-maker (minus membranes)
+ Fresh water flush kit
+ Low pressure gauge
+ Maintenance kit
+ Boost pump (for AC high output)
+ Ext. maint. kit (for AC unit)
More information here:
http://www.blueseamachines.com.au/ac_watermaker.htm#ACModularHioutput
http://www.echotecwatermakers.com/ac_watermakers_yachts.htm
Cost over $10,000, priced to sell at $5,500 plus freight from Darwin
It’s over
There has been no boat work for over a year. Tom and I have now separated. Tom has refused to sell the boat. I do not want to spend the next couple of years fighting for my share in court. Therefore I have let him take the boat. Today I watched ten years of my labour, my life savings, and my dream go down the driveway.
Tom also wanted to take this blog from me. I could not give him this too. So he intends to start a new blog, to which I will provide a link, when it becomes available.
A wider firebreak
Tom was concerned about the fire risk of a pile of cleared trees only a few metres off the starboard side of the boat. Although our property has a decent sized firebreak around its perimeter, our eastern fenceline adjoins native bushland (the boat points north).
With the wet season almost over and the ground now drying out, we were able to hire a contractor with a loader backhoe to relocate the pile.
Repositioning the boat
The position of the boat in the photo below is close to where it was set down.
It was always our intention to hire a Franna to reposition the boat closer to the building, so that we could use its roof to support the tarps. However we encountered a similar situation as with the transport – nobody wanted to come onto the property until the dry season. Tom tried to set up the tarp with the boat in the current position, but could not achieve a height and tension that he was happy with.
It was early February and we were experiencing an unusually dry spell, with several more dry days forecasted. So we seized the opportunity, phoned Bob Oram for some quick tips on how others had managed to drag their boats over ground, hired a Landcruiser, and purchased several sheets of form-ply,
Tom dug pits for the jacks. Given that we had to lower the boat to the ground, we couldn’t think of any way around this.
The next image shows a piece of hardwood, up against the port rudder bulkhead, threaded through the loop of a sling which went through a slot to the rudder cassette space and out under the hull port-wise. The other end of the sling was attached to the forward towing point of the vehicle. We tried this on the starboard side first, but later needed more sling length, so shifted it to the port side.
The next image shows how we secured the other sling on the forebeam.
We untied all the tarp stays and and let the tarp drape over the boat.
Above and below are before and after shots. It is the same pole in each photo.
This was a particularly awful task that we performed badly by trial and error. We worked well into the night, tired, sweaty, hungry and driven crazy by the mosquitoes. With the benefit of hindsight, we’d do things differently, and probably take only one hour rather than four to drag the boat. We found that the form-ply skidded along the ground better than the boat skidded on the form-ply, despite lubricating the upper surface of the form-ply with liquid detergent.
Because we were dragging the boat sideways, it would only budge by pivoting. Tom would attach the rear sling to the vehicle and I would drag it some. Then I would reposition the vehicle to the front and he would attach the forward sling and I would drag it some. But each drag at one end of the boat would reduce the progress made on the previous drag at the other end. It was a slow process, until Tom had the idea of using the Rocna anchor to secure the opposite end. Things would have been much easier if we had set up two of our Rocnas with chains and the ability to quickly shorten them.
Despite the poor process, the outcome was successful. We raised the boat onto blocks again, and over the past month various adjustments have been made to the tarps, and we are pretty happy with them now. At least until the next cyclone…
And I have told Tom we are not dragging the boat again – it’ll have to be a dry season launch, so a Franna can move it onto the truck. I think Tom was pleased with the thought of never having to jack the boat another millimetre.
The Move #2
We were very impressed with the skill and care with which Casey Haulage Darwin transported our boat. The entire operation was smooth and efficient, with the expected delay in the challenging entrance to our new place.
The next three photos show the most difficult part of the entire job – reversing a 6.5m wide load over a ditch and through a 7.1m clearance. Casey had no visibility from the driver’s seat and had to rely on directions from Tom and Les, his off-sider. It took several attempts.
Through at last…
To avoid turning around on our property, Casey reversed down the winding 250m driveway, navigating a tight spot between the house and a mango tree.
August and the dogs checking out the boat’s new location, while Tom and his good friend Graeme construct a beam which will support a large tarp.
How to load a catamaran onto a truck without a crane
The first time we transported the boat, we hired a vehicle normally used to shift whole houses, which had a trailer that could be lowered or raised hydraulically. This time, we decided that feature was an unnecessary luxury ($2000 extra cost). The trailer that Casey was bringing was a regular flat-top 40′ semi-trailer, with a height of 1500mm at the front, and 1300mm at the rear.
We figured that the boat had to be raised four concrete blocks (800mm total) at the rear, and three blocks (600mm) at the front. This would allow sufficient clearance under the bridgedeck to back the trailer under and place the stacks of truck and 4WD tyres that the boat would rest on.
The boat had been loaded with most of the workshop equipment and un-installed boat bits, and I calculated that it weighed around 4 tonnes. Two 2000kg trolley jacks alongside each other were used to jack the boat.
Moving the trolley jacks back and forth between the main beam and the back beam, Tom raised the boat, inserted additional blocks, then lowered the boat onto the new blocks, until the required stack was obtained. Because the boat is so stiff, jacking at the port rear raised the starboard rear, and vice-versa. This sounds a simple process, but with Tom doing most of the physical work, he was totally wrecked by the time Casey arrived.
After getting the tyres in position, the boat was jacked up slightly, blocks on one side removed, and then lowered onto the tyres. This was repeated on the other side.
Almost ready for transporting tomorrow – we still had to add tie-downs to the stern cleats.
At last, someone will transport our boat
Last week Casey from Casey Haulage Darwin visited the boat, both premises and checked out the 10km route between them. Tom was impressed with his careful but confident attitude. Casey asked all the important questions, was prepared to take on the job, and quoted a fair price. So he will be arriving tomorrow afternoon to load the boat on the trailer, which will remain parked in the shed overnight. At first light the next day, he will return with two escorts and a pilot, and the boat will be transported to our new place.
There was one final boat building task that Tom wanted to complete prior to losing the convenience of a strong overhead structure in the shed – installing the Sea Wasp 7200 genset in the front cockpit.
A slot was cut in the front cockpit roof to allow the chain hoist to be suspended centrally to the final position of the genset.
Shoehorned in place…
Judy
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