Maintenance Day in Southport

Monday 12th October 2015

First job this morning was to help Bob Woollacott move his boat to a new berth at the yacht club. Bob, Steve and I came down to the marina at 6 am, to move "Galene" to a new berth, as the owner of the berth she is currently in has decided to come back early and needs his berth.

After moving the boat, I decided to stay at the marina as the insurance assessor is coming this morning and I would need to be dropped back to the marina in an hour or so anyway, if I went back to Labrador with the others.

The assessor turned up at 9.15 am, and gathered all of the necessary information and took photos etc. He suggested I get quotes from Windcraft to replace the radar and he would talk to some local companies to see if it could be done here within a reasonable timeframe. He also will get in touch with Quantum sails here on the Gold Coast to see what could be done to remove the oil stain from the mainsail.

Ever since I had the sail drive cone clutch repaired in Airlie, I have been leaking gear oil from the transmission. The oil level has not reduced enough for me to be overly concerned, but it makes quite a mess and my suspicion is that the oil was overfilled. I spoke briefly to a mechanic in Mooloolaba who agreed this is most likely the case and suggested I remove some oil to get it to the correct level and then see how it goes. As I investigated further, I discovered that the dipstick in the sail drive was superceded by Yanmar in 2009 by a newly calibrated one which effectively drops the oil level by 14 mm. It appears to be a well kept secret. The low level on the existing dipstick now corresponds with the high level on the new dipstick. The mechanic in Airlie was aware of this, so I am staggered it was still overfilled, and owners were not contacted and the new dipstick supplied.

I went out to Boatworks with Steve and Bob, and spoke to the Yanmar service people there, and have ordered a new dipstick which I should get tomorrow. I will then reset the level and hopefully the leaks will stop. There is a possibility that the overfilling has damaged the input shaft seals due to the high pressures produced by not having enough expansion space for when the oil heats up. I hope this is not the case.

We had lunch at the yacht club, with the Smiths, Woollacotts and Bill McGowan (and crewmember Mark) who also came down from Wide Bay bar yesterday in his big Maritimo "Our Dream". He passed us along the way, but was much further out to sea.

Later on this afternoon I received a call from the assessor who said he had spoken to Quantum Sails and they doubted the stain could be removed from the mainsail. He suggested that when we get back to Sydney, we should get a quote from North Sails to replace the damaged panels. He also wants to remove the damaged radar mount from the mast so they can investigate why it failed. We agreed he would come down to the marina tomorrow afternoon and one of us would go up the mast to remove it.

Whilst we were kindly invited to spend another night at the Wollacott's apartment tonight, but we opted to stay on board and have a quiet night. I need to be here in the morning to pick up the dipstick for the saildrive from the Yanmar mechanic who is coming here to service another boat. I don't know what time he is coming, so it is best to be here.