Eve of departure

Delivery skipper and mate, eve of departure

John Skipper Burns has spent a week attending to a number of small but important details. Sweat the small stuff, because it is the small stuff that can escalate into a breakdown or into water ingress. There's a lot to be learned from JSB, and I'm sorry not to be there. Tomorrow he plans to fuel up, victual up, and go into the anchorage ready for the off. Picture by John Butler.

Afloat again!

Afloat again after refit at Salthouse

We didn't realise what a turning point this was going to be, emotionally. Big moment for us, Orion going afloat after six weeks hauled at Salthouse. This has been the most awesome time: putting right the very few things that were wrong; catching up on some regular old maintenance; and making a couple of small improvements. Now we need to say thank you to Salthouse, and get John Skipper Burns back from mid-Tasman, and start heading south.

No. 16

Found this on YouTube. Go Number 16!

Just to clarify, for those readers who are not boaties, the big blue thing is not Orion. The big blue thing is an Auckland Harbour tug. You're looking for a smaller white boat with light blue trim going along in the midfield and flying the red duster; three figures can be seen on the aft deck. Skip to [1m 54s] and you'll see her.

Obsessed? Us?

Water sample

This is a water sample taken from Pier H Berth 8 at Havelock Marina. Details are in the page titled "Observations" in the right hand column of this blog. Pictured is the kit for measuring the Relative Density and the pH. After a rain event Havelock fills up with fresh water, and H8 is right by the outfall from a creek. This has the potential to be a Good Thing because alternating between salt and fresh can have benefits with both weed and critters.

No real drama

John Burns was to come up on Wednesday July 1st, which thing he did. But on the very day he was traveling we found pitting corrosion in the tail shaft, in the usual place, in way of the stuffing box. We should have inspected it earlier, but we didn't.

John Skipper Burns

So John took the opportunity to have a very good look around, and after making a few recommendations, satisfied himself that Orion was about ready (except for the corroded shaft) for the trip South. John has gone off now to sail a boat back from Bundaberg and will return to Orion in about two weeks, the time it should take to do the work on the shaft. All part of the fun when you own a boat.

The new shaft from Chatfield Marine

Additional detail for geeks:

It's crevice corrosion, and possibly occurred during the time she lay idle in Whangarei before Brian bought her. It's hard to really know how bad this kind of corrosion is just by looking at it. But there's significant loss of strength, and with the best part of 1000 Newton metres of torque made by the Gardner 8LXB and multiplied by the 3:1 reduction gear, there is the potential for even a 3-inch shaft to shear, and Simon Willis of Chatfield Marine confirmed this. Various courses of action were mooted, from doing nothing based on the premise that the corrosion was historical and Orion had been going around like that for years, to replacing the conventional stuffing box with a floating seal to prevent similar problems in the future. Sue and I felt that we couldn't live with a known (quite major) defect, and that equally we didn't need to fit (expensive) modern solutions that would involve disturbing the stern tube. So we took the middle road, and decided simply to replace what was there, but with SS2205 instead of the existing SS316. 316 would have been the standard of the day when the existing shaft went in, but 2205 is commonly used today. To quote Australian Stainless (ASSDA): "The grade has excellent corrosion resistance and is superior to grade 316, performing well in most environments where standard austenitic grades may fail. 2205's low carbon content gives the grade a high resistance to intergranular corrosion and has better resistance to uniform, pitting and crevice corrosion due to its high chromium and molybdenum content. As 2205 is a duplex stainless steel, the grade is also less sensitive to stress corrosion cracking in warm chloride environments, unlike austenitic stainless steels. The grade also has good resistance to stress corrosion cracking when exposed to hydrogen sulphide in chloride solutions. High mechanical strength combined with excellent corrosion resistance gives 2205 high corrosion fatigue resistance."

Shippy details

Handrail on cabin top

Handrail on wheelhouse side

When Orion was in the fishing there would have been plenty of gear to hold on to when she was rocking and rolling. One hand for the ship, and one for yourself. With the gear gone and the low bulwarks we felt a bit unsafe, so Nick made us these teak handrails. Nice shippy details.

Position of the blocks

It was pretty cold in the wind, and hard to find the necessary patience. But it's important to do this stuff, to be blocked well next time. Nick had some notes from when he hauled her last during Brian's time. Options in Marlborough include Tory Channel Contracting in Picton and Havelock Boatyard... both have good patent slipways. For the position of the blocks also see this page on this blog.

Caulking

Nick and John have done lots of caulking

One would use red lead, but it takes a long time before it dries enough to putty over. So now Nick uses a primer made specifically for underwater work, and he notes the time he paints it on and there's an optimum time to start puttying - when the paint has taken a set, but hasn't completely dried. He says the paint then kind of glues the putty into the seam. So, they go along in sections, chalking up the time they put on the paint.

Some of the butts needed attention because they'd got rather wide and stayed wet long after she was out. John refastened some of them using silicon bronze screws and was pleased to note they all pulled up tight. And some we put a tingle over as well, as in the picture below.