Chamber of horrors

June 21 the ferry Aratere went aground in Picton harbour due to a steering failure. Turned out it wasn't so much a mechanical failure as a procedural one, but it made me decide to do something about the corrosion in the steering flat on Orion. Life got in the way, and no action was actually taken until last week when Sue asked Gary and Giles (Aquaserv) to get on with the job.

The lazarette is poorly ventilated (which we are going to address next) and the damp conditions caused the hydraulic hose connectors to the steering arms to rust. Karl and Sam (FPS Havelock) found things not too bad, one hose however was "about to blow" and that is now an exhibit in the Chamber of Horrors. Some connectors were restored and some new ones supplied and this time they were coated. We didn't use Denzo tape because then you can't inspect them.

Before

Before

After

After

Windlass motor damage

 

Corrosion damage

Corrosion damage detail

Sourced a replacement motor from Muir in Australia through Lusty & Blundell. Aquaserv (Gary and Giles) did the work and protected the new motor with Lanocoat. As this is the second time this has happened, we'd best inspect it annually from now on; it is recommended in the manual.

Small repair

Canine helper

A small leak, but an annoying one because it's right over Sue's bunk! All fixed now thanks to Poppy who is clearly being a big help.

 

Launching in sunshine

Work done this time: small area of rot in the bottom plate of the bulwarks forward, timber replaced; one board in the bulwarks port side in way of wheelhouse door replaced; wheelhouse door rebuilt; rot in transom belting, timber replaced; all upper works prepared and painted; prop speed; metal stem band to protect stem and forefoot from flotsam damage; anti-fouling paint.

Hauling in the rain (again)

Chuck, Vlad, Sue

How do we choose these wet and windy days to haul? A SE gale with rain in it, cold and grey! Still, she might as well be in a shed being painted, because it's hardly boating weather.

No problem getting over the cradle, sitting nice and upright, and a gentle drive and push back into the shed. Dave's mast hinged down in about 10 minutes.

Small job, big improvement

Eyebrow, October 2019

Sue has long maintained that Orion would look better with an eyebrow over the wheelhouse windows. Not to mention the practical thing of keeping the rain off and creating a bit of shade for the helmsperson. Expertly implemented by Roger of Sounds Shipwrights we're really pleased with the result. 

Smart as paint

Job done

Moving to the ramp

Back in the water

Back on the berth, showing off

The purpose of painting a wooden boat is to protect her from the elements. But the wonderful spin-off is that she looks great too, and you feel great about her. Thanks to Lloyd and Roger at Sounds Shipwright Services, Orion is looking fantastic: cabin roof, deck, topsides, boot topping, and hull. There's a new mast too, seen here in the lowered position for coming out of the shed.

Getting trolleyed

Fine day

Pressure wash

Ready to roll

In the yard

In the shed

In New Zealand you can get all four seasons in a day. There is no good time of year - it's either too cold, too wet, too windy, or too hot. That we can get Orion into the shed at Sounds Shipwright Services right here in Havelock is a huge advantage. We're hoping, believing, that the paint job will be all the better for it. It means she's in the shade and out of the wind, so although she'll dry out it'll be nothing like last year when insanely hot sun beat down on her day after day.

Three winter projects

With mainly inclement weather, short days, long nights, we've been using our weekends to make a few small improvements: fuel transfer system; aft deck cctv; better dinghy chocks.

Fuel transfer system
There was a tank balancing pipe that was quite useful, but it had a tendency to block with crud and water at its lowest point where it passes underneath the shaft. We started thinking that if we installed a pump and a filter and some change-over valves we could add some useful functionality: fuel transfer between tanks, only to having to use the filler nearest the fuel jetty, and trapping water and dirt. It just felt like it would offer more control than simple gravity balancing. It's a 14 litres/minute gear pump, and an off-the-shelf Ryco filter. Gregory Engineering of Picton made up the panel, and we fitted it over two weekends.

Aft deck cctv
Seeing out the back isn't too good, especially since we fitted the clears. We've installed a car reversing camera that looks out over the aft deck. The picture is really clear.  It helps when we're backing out of the berth; it'll be handy when we're fishing; and it'll be good for keeping a lookout for traffic coming up from astern.

Higher dinghy chocks
When it rains the dinghy fills up. There's a perfectly good bung at the back with a mushroom valve. So we've built the forward chocks up to tilt the boat up at the bow. It helps when we're washing mud out of the bottom of the boat too.

In the bilges of my mind

When we became aware of the pitting corrosion in the tail shaft we were all trying to think of any boat we'd ever heard of actually shearing a shaft. The Interislander ferry Aratere is easy, and everybody gets that one. But no-one guesses Cousteau's ship, the Calypso. Not only did she shear a shaft, but she did it 1800 miles from the nearest drydock. In the clip below jump to 18 minutes 40 seconds to see the action. Run on past 21 minutes to hear Cousteau's reflection: "...in the bilges of my mind."

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."

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.

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.

Nailed it

John Butler

 John's hand-made nails

John makes by hand the nails that will fasten the sacrificial board to the keel. You can't buy nails like this in any chandlery shop we know. When we bump the bottom going into Havelock we'll know nothing's going to drop off.

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

Hauling out at Salthouse

High and dry

The wind was fresh from the west, blowing onto the Salthouse jetty. I think Greg and Nick nearly postponed, but she came out just fine: straight, upright, and well supported. It's a great wee slipway, in a lovely setting.

Skipper Brian and his crew

These are the guys who did all the hard and often dirty work of the conversion, and also went on week-long fishing trips to Barrier Island. It's been our great honour to meet them, and we really hope they come down to Picton one day to fish for the blue cod and to have a drink from our bottle.

Brian Gallocher piloting Orion
up river to Salthouse

Salthouse Boatyard is at Greenhithe on Lucas Creek. The upper harbour is lovely, with bush coming down to the water's edge. The deep water is marked by but also taken up with moored craft, and you have to pick your way through them carefully. 

Tory Channel Contracting

That's not Orion on the right

Round the back of the ferry terminal on Lagoon Road is TCC's yard with two cradles, and a jetty. There's a big shed, and inside we met with Shorty and Fred who were "no problem" kinda guys. They're tuned into wooden boats too, so we may find ourselves hauled out here before very long.

Franklin's Boatyard

Franklin's Boatyard, Waikawa

Continuing our search for suitable slipways we looked over the gate of Franklin's Boatyard, Waikawa, Queen's Birthday weekend. It's on the site of the old Jorgensen Yard, and this suggests the slipway might well take Orion. There are two chandlers and several marine businesses nearby at Waikawa Marina.

Havelock Slipway

Havelock Slipway

On our way north in the van we went via Havelock to check out the slipway. We saw two cradles that could take Orion. By luck, we were there at dead low water and got a good look at the channel.

Post-survey repairs (afloat)

Brian has done those items from the survey that could be done afloat:

• Wood electrolysis around six keel bolts
• Rot in bulwarks

Thank you for doing these jobs, Brian. You have put that engraving piece in there like I never could. You've looked after this old boat so well, and breathed new life into her. I am the lucky one, inheriting all your good work!