THE YARD

THE YARD?

The yard is always a mystery when you go in, and at times a mystery when you have left. When you go in you never know what you will find wrong. Of course you are there for a scheduled maintenance, or you have become aware of a problem? Once the boat is up on the hard you nearly always find new, and unexpected projects. After the boat is launched you sometimes wonder how you survived!

Heres some videos of the boat getting hauled :
http://youtu.be/E9R6g5p64ao
http://youtu.be/zWza2Wxs6Ks

After weeks of trying to arrange getting into the yard. We finally made it, only to find they could not raise us. We would have to come back the next day. This left us anchoring amongst the local shrimp boats. You can see in the pictures they live a hard life, the boats. They are well worn, and play bumper cars amongst each other while anchoring.

The yard is also a work yard that is full of work boats. There are several exceptions besides us. One was Valkyrie, schooner, built in 1928 in New Zealand so we are told. The other is Islamorada built in 1918. She is an old gin palace, and is being returned to her old glory. Then we are alongside a schooner built in 1914. She must’ve been something in her day, because even though she has been sitting for awhile. She’s something to be admired right now, but let me get back to the yard.

So we returned the next morning, and they have placed blocks on the rail in the proper places, we hope! The man in the water is being thrown all sizes of blocks of wood to him. He is shoring up the sterns, and bows. They raise us a wee bit, and then stop. The man in the water takes a look. He is thrown some small pieces of wood, and they raise us a wee bit more. We are raised a wee bit more, and a final look is taken. The decision has been made that we are good to go, and they raise the platform until it is even with the bulkhead.

All boats look bigger out of the water. You can now see every inch of them. Not to mention there are men usually walking around the boat, and you get a real comparison in size. Imagine being no exception, especially since she is over 23 feet wide. The mule comes up to the front of Imagine, and with a large line attatched to the rail where she sits. She is pulled forward to an area that runs between 2 aisles of track. She is then winched down the middle of the 2 aisles until she is in the proper location. Once there along comes the mule again, and she is towed to her resting place for the work to be done.

This may be the third world, but these men are efficient, and professional at their duties. I especially appreciated the foreman’s decision to make us wait a day. He wasn’t sure, so he made sure that Imagine was safe in her transfer from her natural element to an unnatural element, land! A large catamaran is unusual here, so we created a lot of curiosity by the work crews. We got a lot of smiles, and thumbs up. This always brings pride to a proud pappy of his baby. Then Mel herself got even more looks of admiration, and this too brings pride to a proud pappy of his baby!

This is where the first mystery begins to unfold. The unknown is presented straight out to one’s face. The blemishes scream fix me, fix me, and fix me properly. If you don’t then somewhere down the line will be heartache. It may not be tomorrow, or next week, but any weak spot will eventually bite you on the backside on an ocean going vessel.

Imagine has sacrificial keels, and the reason they are named sacrifical. Is because they are sacrificed to save the true keels. They are soft wood that will hopefully take the impact of a mishap such as a hard grounding. The dreaded, and feared torredo worms had found their way into the false keels. The wood was beginning to deteriorate. These worm eat wood, and the false keels were not epoxied, or fiber glassed in. I imagine the thinking is if, and when needed they can easily be separated from the true keels.

There were other blemishes on Imagine’s bottom. None too serious, but they still need attention, and attention in a yard is money. Even if you do the work yourself it takes time. Everyday is an additional cost to sit there in the yard. If someone else id doing the work then the cost skyrockets. Since I am not in possesion of my strength, and stamina. I have to hire out the work that I would normally do.

There is a small separation from the rear of the right keel to the hull. The fiber glass between the 2 have parted. I believe this happened last year when Imagine was picked up, and thrown sideways about 20 feet before she landed back into the water. It knocked Mel down,, and threw me sideways. Then there has always been a problem with a rubber plate that attatches to the hull, and over the sail drives. This makes the bottom fair, and is suppose to let the water slide past the hole that the sail drives extend from. The sail drives are like the bottom of an outboard motor where the props are attatched.

I have shared this information with other owners of sail drives, and many have the same problem. What I have seen in the yard is that wood, or fiber glass was used instead. This is what I have decided to use this time. A person has to shape the plate of glass, and cut a hole in the center for the sail drive. Then it has to be wrapped around a round hull, and epoxied into place. Pieces of wood need to be shaped to the shape of the hull, so they can hold the glass up against the hull while the epoxy dries. Then it needs to be faired so everything is smooth, and let’s the water pass with the minimum of drag from the water. It takes time, and these men work with hand tools. Electric tools are rare here.

Over the years I have applied nearly a dozen coats of bottom paint. I always give the hulls, and keels 2-3 coats of paint. Then the leading edges of the hull, keels, and rudders get an extra 2-3 coats of paint. You can see in a river where water will smooth a rock. Well, water eventually wears off the paint too, and the leading edges get most of the wear. This is the reason for extra coats of paint in these places.

This time the paint has been sailed off of the boat. The last time I painted her bottom I got a real deal on paint, so I gave her double the usual amount of coats of paint. While in the marina I would have a diver monthly scrape the bottom clean of barnacles, and any growth. This, and the sailing we have done has actually taken the paint down all these layers to the original owners bottom paint. What was left was sanded down far enough where there was nearly no paint left on her. This has not only lightened her, but her bottom is pretty fair once again. The lighter the boat, and the more fair the bottom. The faster she can be in the water, and speed reduces time spent on passages.