Old shipmate

 

Stewart Ball worshipping the Gardner

My old shipmate Stewart Ball blew in from Australia planning on continuing down wind to his home in England. Accompanied by his wife Caroline and daughter Jessicah he was spotted in Orion's engine room down on his knees in front of the almighty Gardner 8LXB.

Yarning

While we could generally corroborate our stories, the precise details took some time to return. A day was not enough, but travel itineraries waiteth for no man.

Easter 2022

 

Maud Island from the north

Karere

Departed Havelock Thursday April 14 at 1600 and arrived Hallam Cove in the dark. The Friday was beautiful, calm, sunny, and warm. Saturday and Easter Sunday a moderate SE breeze kept us pinned down in Hallam Cove. In company with three launches rafted up on the outer buoy. People in the baches with their kids and dogs. Monday we headed out into Waitata Reach cruising for dolphins which we didn't see, but we did see seals. Flat calm. Went into Homestead Bay where Sue caught us four fat cod for our tea. Tuesday was flat calm again with occasional showers turning into warm sun in the afternoon. Wednesday we headed out at 0800. Amazing light, and wisps of cloud clinging to the slopes and gullies. Back in coverage, we caught up with Nina who was walking the Milford track with Sam. In Popoure Reach ran in company with Karere for a while (Percy Voss 1952 Gardner-engined launch, Doug and Colleen). All fast Havelock H8 by 1200, total of 71 nm. 

Monograde 30

Oil Change

Slightly overdue at 230 hours, Ken gave us a hand. Continuing for another year with the Morris Oil Ring Free XHD30. I think I topped up once with 1 litre since the last oil change; pretty amazing for an engine first commissioned in 1977. Anyway, the engine seems to like it and it matches the spec in the operator's manual. We get it from Tractor Repairs & Spares in Renwick. See Gardner swami Joe McCool on YouTube on the subject of oil.

Genuine Gardner Parts

 

Genuine Gardner Parts

Two oil filters, two secondary fuel filters, two crankcase breather filters. Also an injector puller because it may soon be time to clean and set the injectors. These parts come from one of my favourite places to shop - Gardner Spare Parts. 

New Year 2021

Nina on watch, Outer Sounds

Dolphins at Post Office Point

Gardner in full song

This year's New Year cruise defined by the best dolphin experience ever.  A large pod of what we think were common dolphin approached on our starboard bow, passed under the boat, and surfaced on our port quarter. Fortunately, Nina was quick to grab her phone and capture the clip above. Fishing was good. We've got a thing about only catching what we'll eat, and so we put one kahawai and four fat cod in the fridge. Overnighted in: Kauauroa Bay, Ngawhakawhiti, and Chance Bay. Logged 72.2 nm.

Mid-winter cruise

Embarkation

Checking the oil

Pukatea inward

Kenepuru from Take-in Bay

Take-in Bay

Ship's Dog

Early departure

Grape Escape leaving Ferndale

QBW18

The Kenepuru at sunset

Despite an unpromising forecast we decided to go out anyway, at 10 am on the Saturday. It turned into quite a nice day. We steamed as far north as Yncyca Bay on a recce. At this time of year, and in the SE'ly weather, it was a bit bleak. We approached the PMW buoy and recorded a waypoint for our return some summer evening. Then we beat a retreat to Take-In Bay. The picture shows how the weather dominated the weekend, but we had a nice time regardless. Sue caught a 26cm Spotty. 

We did a Man Overboard exercise and managed to get our bucket-and-fender casualty back aboard in quick time. We did a Williamson turn and that worked well, bringing us right back onto our reciprocal course and on track. The MOB feature on the Raymarine is not that good. I'm not sure, even after reading the manual, that it is working the way it should. Quite the worst feature is the way it automatically changes the range such that you can't see any land. I found it disorientating, and retaining your orientation and a heightened situational awareness is what a good MOB is all about. Our procedure now is simply to always start a track which means we can at any time exactly retrace our steps. 

Passing traffic in the Havelock Channel

We did some handle-down running to test the gearbox repairs and it passed with flying colours. The hottest part of the casing after an hour of full power was 70°C. The shifts to ahead and astern were instantaneous and smooth.

We came in near the top of the tide on the Monday around lunchtime. All in all, a satisfying long weekend.

Making smoke

Gardner spares 5-mins video

L. Gardner and Sons ceased production of new engines in the early 1990s. They could no longer meet the emission regulations. A plume of grey smoke from the stack of a fishing boat is an evocative sight, but less acceptable in the present day. A number of spinoffs emerged when the factory closed. One of those is Gardner Spares and you can get just about any part within a few days at a reasonable price. So saying, Orion hardly smokes at all. If we've been trolling and then we wind in and wind on for home she'll smoke for a while, but it soon clears; any engine does that.

Winding on after idling

The light plume of smoke from Orion's stack looks a little blue in the photo but that's just the hues of the scene. The colour is actually light grey. I don't have to top up the oil between oil changes which are 200 hours or one year apart whichever comes sooner. That may change as the years go by, but just now she has only 1000 hours on the clock since the re-build; she's barely run-in.

Clang Boom Steam

Henry and Joe

Gregory Engineering have been on board servicing the gearbox. It's great to have such capable guys working on the boat. This is a period of maintenance in the run-up to Easter. Let's hope we get good weather and we can go and get it all wet and salty again.

Henry with the test rig

On the Tuesday after Easter Henry and Joe came back and set up a test rig. The oil pump stood up fine, doing its thing. But dismantling the selector valve revealed a broken spring that could explain the symptoms: a long delay, and harsh engagement.

Selector valve exploded view

Henry sourced a spring and shims from Pacific Driveline in Australia and Zane and Joe came down Friday 27 to bolt it all up and test it. Yay! No more delay. Smooth engagement too, though we'll need to steam at full power for a couple of hours to get things nice and hot to finally prove that one fixed. Well done guys, we're impressed. 

Moutapu Bay

Passing Grape Escape in the Havelock Channel

We pinched the one nice night, the Friday, of an otherwise wet weekend. Here we are on the Saturday morning, passing No. 1 buoy inward and Grape Escape is outward on a short cruise with a shipload of friends. The sun doesn't always have to be shining, who would miss these softer tones in light rain?

Guardian

Gardner 8LXB

I am so privileged to be the current guardian of this long-lived engine. My family came from Manchester, so that connection is special for me. To hear it idling, or to hear it in full song, both are a joy.  It's 14 litres, makes well over 150 hp and well over 900Nm torque for around 2 litres per nautical mile. The gearbox is a TwinDisc 3:1 reduction with a 40" 4-bladed propellor. We get 7 knots at 900 rpm and 9 knots at 1300 rpm. There's full standing height in the engine room, access all around the engine, a workbench, and lockers. Orion carries 1200 litres of fuel giving her a range of 1000 nm at 7 knots or 700 nm at 8 knots.

Clean tanks, clean fuel

Port fuel tank looking aft

I'm sure I misquote Ludwig Bemelmans "On Board Noah's Ark" when I say, "ninety percent of marine disasters are caused by dirt in the fuel" but you get the drift. So, when Dave Shaw said, "you need to clean your tanks" our options were really limited to cleaning our tanks.

Port fuel tank looking forward

Catering to our mixed readership here, I'd like to make the point that you're looking at amazingly clean fuel tanks. As old fishing boat fuel tanks go these are absolutely pristine. The Good Oyle Dr Feelgood additive these guys have sold us suppresses the rust, and this much rust isn't a problem anyway.

Filtering and polishing the diesel

When we bought Orion she had around 900 litres of diesel oil on board. That could be an asset or a liability. These Diesel Clean guys pump it all out, clean the diesel, clean the tanks, and then put it all back. The service is not cheap, but it's kind of not-optional, because nothing will stop a boat engine quicker than dirty fuel churned up in a rough sea. And when the sea is rough, that's when you really don't want your engine to stop. We just found what could be a cheaper alternative to services like Diesel Clean. In 121 Marine Centre Ltd., 3/20 Constellation Drive, Mairangi, North Shore, (09) 444 3442 you can hire a filtering machine for $75/day. You've got to find a place to do it, and get together some clean drums, which won't be clean after, and work out the value of your own time, but it could be a way to get the job done for less money.  It might even be fun if you got in some mates and a few beers.

Something I want to say about Brian here. These are not the original tanks. Fishing boats have huge tanks (typically 10,000 litres) and once the boat is converted for pleasure there's really no use for all that diesel. By the time you got to burn it, it could be five years old. So it makes sense to reduce the tanks to around 1000 litres. Brian has done a brilliant job: using mild steel instead of stainless; with sumps that collect the water and dirt; and with large inspection hatches that give access. Go you, Brian. These tanks are the real deal. 

While we were at it we replaced the main fuel filter and some fuel lines. It could be said this is the one most important thing on board a motor vessel... more important than the rudder, because without any thrust the rudder will be kind of redundant. So, while the Gardner 8LXB is reported to cruise at 1100 rpm for a thrifty 11.5 litres/hour it could easily ask for twice that going into a headwind with the handle down. Hence the big Racor.

Work done at Salthouse

Dave servicing the main engine

Originally Orion had a Dorman 6 cylinder engine. It was replaced with a more powerful Gardner 8LXB in 1974, and this engine was rebuilt from the crankshaft up in 2008 by Dave Shaw. In this photo Dave is servicing the engine before the trip south to Picton.

John scraping the garboard seam

After looking and poking at the garboard seam for a couple of days Nick Peal decided to re-caulk it for the full length on both sides. Here John is scraping out all the putty and any loose cotton.

Garboard seam re-caulked (Video 1 minute)

Nick caulking a butt

Weeping butt joints were mentioned in a survey way back. Here Nick is re-caulking one of several he has identified as in need of attention. Also some butt joints along the garboard are being re-fastened and re-caulked.

Old wooden fishing boats leak, and there's nothing surprising about that. When we went aboard Orion the automatic pump was going off once an hour and pumping out about a litre of water. After a couple of weeks out of the water she will have dried out and may take a few days to take up, but after that we should see a considerable improvement. More to the point, if she meets any weather on the trip south she stands a much better chance of remaining staunch. Each two-starred item on the Jon Jones survey report has been inspected and attended to, and more besides.

Pictures by Sue