Sailing along

Random Fixings

Have spent quite a lot of time sailing Scarlett and also making some additions

Fitted a TV and antenna
15 inch LED that just perfectly fitted on the bulkhead and is very comfortable to watch.
Funny thing is that I cant receive Chan 10 or ONE tried retuning in the marina and also out on the water. But as melbourne is due to do a digital retune on 8th Jan ( tomorrow ) I hope to pick it up

Also on a trip to Asia recently I purchase a whole lot of Electrical bits and pieces for a song
100 mtr of wire for about $10AUD saving about $90Aud for the gauge i purchased and some wire fittings. Buss bars / shrink tube / fuse holders and best of all LED lights.
3 leds on a strip / 20 strips around $4.50 AUD Total  NICE

Met up with a real nice guy the other day in south gippsland who is selling a whole lot of yachting stuff from a beautiful wooden cruiser and it was certainly worth the 450 km return drive

I purchased a number of mast steps / 800 watt inverter / couple of sheets of ply and a manual achor winch that was almost seized up.

Got the winch home and spent a couple of hours on it to free it up and hey presto it now is ready to mount on scarlett.

The reason for the winch is that at 66 years old i am getting to the stage where mechanical assistance is needed.

I also fitted an automatic bilge pump after a near disaster the day after i purchase the boat.

When we took it for a test sail it was quite windy and we banged her about a bit in the chop.

Unbeknown to myself and Simon from VicSail we must have caused the speed log fitting to loosen somehow and when i went back to the boat the following day to take ownership i opened the locker door opposite the heads and the locker was full of water to within 1/2 and inch of the bottom of the door. ( the normal water level of the boat is to this point )

Just a tiny amount had seeped across the sole and into the bilge so thanks Columbia yachts the design certainly saved a disaster.

Cut a square hole in the sole right back under the steps at the lowest part of the bilge and dropped in an automatic pump that is wired directly to the battery

I also transferred the anchor that i purchased from Chinook to Scarlett as i find that the SARCA is just brilliant the way it simple digs in and stays that way very quickly.

Also did the right thing and put the plough anchor back on Chinook.

I found the gas canister to be getting rather rusty so decided to purchase a new one. What a job. The size did not exist any more with the correct fitting on top so after much hunting decided to call the people who installed the gas on the boat originally ( they happened to be in Hastings ) no worries was the answer and the next time I went to the marina the new gas bottle was installed. Good on ya guys great service.

Last but not least I have fitted a brand new LOWRANCE Elite 5 DSI depth sounder and gps chart plotter. I waited until the model was at the end of its life and then purchased my unit saving something like $350 on the retail value. They also threw in the Navionics gold card fro free. So that was a great purchase.

Fitting the transducer was a bit of a puzzle as the stern of Scarlett does not touch the water. So after reading a lot on the web I ended up fitting the transducer on a pole that is fitted to the pushpit and problem solved.

The unit is fantastic and very accurate. so accurate in fact it shows my boat right in its slip in the correct position. Depth and bottom picture is also right on. No complaints about either the price / fitting / accuracy and ease of use.

A New Boat farewell to Chinook

                    Chinook is now up for sale

at hastings marina look at Vicsail.com.au for details

Have purchased a new boat Columbia 27 named SCARLETT yes thats right with 2 T's

This time a keelboat 5 foot draft. inboard 20 hp Yanmar
Lots of safety gear good sails wheel steering

A few more images of the inside


The Epirb needs a new battery and i just found out that i can buy a brand new one with gps built in for only $45 more than having the battery replaced so a new one will be purchased.

The yanmar is in good condition with 1015 hours on it and i have been told by other sailors that it should give me around 5000 to 8000 hrs if serviced properly.

Even have a marine head and handbasin in an enclosed room now which is much better than what i had on Chinook.

sailing with an old mate

Had the boat launched on Monday and went out for a brisk sail. Ran in at 4pm and called the marina to see if they would leave Chinook in the water so I could take and old mate  out on Tuesday.
Better still the lovely Dawn said I can have a free slip for the night so I decided to stay on board for the night. Had Fish and Chips for dinner washed down with some nice Stout.
Good nights sleep and my mate arrived at 8am and we went out for a good sail.
The wind was coming directly up the bay so we had a bit of fun tacking down as far as sandy point.
The the wind picked up to about 16 to 18 kts so we ran home on the Genny only against the tide.
Arrived back in the marina at about 3pm
A good time was had

merry xmas

Merry xmas to all who look at the blog

Clive

Taking out newbies

Had a great day out on the bay on Saturday with 2 newbies to yachting.
2 Chinese students that had never been out before.
They had a great day out taking it in turns to as they said drive the boat.
Did a bit of fishing. took 2 flathead one a bit small the other a keeper.
Got onto the water at 10am and as the wind was very light we motored across to the middle spit channel.
Fished for an hour or so the the wind had started to pick up so had a nice sail down the bay to sandy point
finally came in to the marina at 4pm.

Trailer wheel bearings

Had a call from the yard this morning to tell me that another wheel bearing had gone on the blink.

Just 3 weeks ago I greased the bearings and they all seemed ok. So in the car and a  one hour drive to get there two hours and $53 bucks for grease and bearing save caps to fix it then another one hour drive home. Still the poor old trailer is dipped in salt then sits in the yard for years at a time so what to expect