Archive for the ‘Boat work’ Category

Ready to Splash

Friday, October 31st, 2014

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After 10 busy days we are finally ready to launch Scorpio, again. This is the 22nd time in 23 years, and the event has taken place in 20 different locations. During the first 20 years we did all the work ourselves, but nowadays we hire contractors to do most of the dirty work (cleaning, sanding, painting).

I may be a bit biased, but looking at the photos below, I think Scorpio looks as this could be a virgin splash 😉

We were scheduled for launch today, October 31, but decided to postpone a few days. There are very few spots at the docks of this “marina”, and as we are not quite ready to move on yet, we will stay on the hard a little longer for final preparations for setting sail. Interestingly, looking back at previous posts of this blog, I discovered that last year Scorpio was launched on this very day.

Back Aboard

Wednesday, October 29th, 2014

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Hi again folks. We are finally back aboard Scorpio after an absence of 6 months.

Scorpio appears to have taken our leave well. We didn’t find any mildew, rodents or roaches on board.

We just found this grasshopper measuring the decks. Maybe he’s been acting janitor?

Scorpio has been stored ashore at Green Cove Springs Marina, at St John’s River, just south of Jacksonville, Florida.

We will soon start updating our blog and www.scorpiosail.com again on a regular basis.

Splash – Finally

Saturday, November 9th, 2013

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On October 31, after several postponements of our bookings with the travelift, Scorpio is finally back in the water, ready for yet an other sailing season: 2013-2014. We had to cancel our launch several time because contractors didn’t show up to start or finish their jobs and then when we were finally ready the lift was scheduled for a yearly over haul.

But now Scorpio is back in the water. We hope to be ready to leave Trinidad on Monday, November 4, and sail to Grenada.

Back Aboard

Friday, October 18th, 2013

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The trip from Finland to Chaguaramas in Trinidad was not our worst transfer, but uncomfortable enough. We had to change airports in London, from Heathrow to Gatwick and carry all our luggage as well, on and off the bus. That bustrip alone took 2 hours. Then we had to stay at a hotel over night and catch the plane to Port of Spain next morning. The departure of the plane was delayed by two hours because of some technical problems.

This time we had booked a hotel room at Peake’s Yacht Services, the yard where Scorpio has spent the past 6 months. Traditionally we have always lived aboard the yacht, even in the yards all over the world, but this year we decided we had earned the luxury of some service for ourselves during the first week while we were preparing Scorpio for launch. We did the same last spring after haul-out, during the last days before we flew to Finland. Obviously this is an indication of us getting older and the end of our cruising life getting closer. The only time we have been living ashore before was in Thailand during our major renovations of Scorpio, when we stayed at a hotel for a total of about 8 months.

So, although the heading is “Back Aboard”, we are living in a hotel room about 100 metres from the yacht. But mentally we are already on board. And the terrace outside our room is only 5 metres from the Caribbean Sea.

We hope to splash the yacht and move aboard again within a week.

The photos above are from Peake’s web site.

Haul Out at Chaguaramas

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

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The 2012-13 season is now almost over. Scorpio was hauled out today, but we will live aboard for 4 days preparing the yacht for a 6 month rest on the hard. Then we will move to a hotel room for an other 4 days during the final preparations. This year, the season ended earlier than usual, but on the other hand we covered a longer distance than usual instead, about 8,000 nm.

As I have written before, we have hauled out 21 times, and only twice at the same yard, so this must be something like our 19th shipyard. A lot of new things and people to learn to know and to evaluate.

Fuel Is Killing My Ourboard

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

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I have a 4-stroke outboard engine – I do NOT want a 4-stroke outboard.

So why do I have a 4-stroke?

In 2005, in Panama, I bought a new (tax-free) 15hp Yamaha Enduro outboard. It was a 2-stroke machine; powerful, reliable, easy to DIY-service (could have been salvaged even in the event of being submerged) – and easy to start. I loved it.

The Yamaha was stolen less than a year later in Raiatea, French Poynesia. The only replacement outboard of the required size (15-20hp) we could find in the Society Island was a 4-stroke Suzuki, which was shipped to us in Raiatea from Papeeté. I didn’t really want a 4-stroke outboard on a cruising boat in the third world; it is heavy, technically complex and vulnerable. But I had no choice. As with everything else in Polynésie française it came with a price: more than double what I had paid for the Yamaha. In addition to the price of the engine itself, I later had to design and order a hoisting crane on the transom because of the weight of the machine.

Our biggest problem with the outboard has to do with the increasing mix of ethanol and other (“bio”) ingredients in gasoline. At the filling station pumps we cannot get 100% gasoline (or even something like E5 98 octane) anymore (at least not where we have been in Malaysia and Thailand). Markus, who runs the Suzuki service at Derani Yachts in Boat Lagoon told me that one of his customers had sent a sample of the local 95 octane fuel to a laboratory and found out that there was 20% ethanol and 10% palm oil!

The primary reason for ethanol (ethanol alcohol) being harmful to an engine is alcohol’s water-absorbing and solvent qualities. Ethanol is an excellent solvent. It will dissolve plastic, rubber, some types of fibreglass and (I think) even aluminium. It will create a sludge that coats and travels through the engine, causing complications including clogged fuel filters and carburetor jets. Therefore all major car and marine motor manufacturers have limited the allowable portion of ethanol to 10% (in the western world this fuel is called E10 and is 95 octanes). However, when even ten percent is questionable, imagine what higher levels of ethanol can cause. Regarding the 4-stroke outboard the biggest problem is the complex (and expensive) carburetor. Fuel flow is adjusted by extremely tiny orifices (referred to as jets) in the body of the carburator. The sludge created by ethanol will definitely clog these jets. With the extremely simply carburetors of 2-stroke outboards this is less of a problem.

I have found out (the hard way) that if the engine is run every day there is less risk of a clogged carburator, but if you leave the outboard standing for more than 2 days it is best to completely drain the carburator. This is done by opening a screw on the side of the device and letting the fuel out. This is a messy operation and can not be done after you have hoisted the outboard up on deck, so before hauling it out you need to know when it will be in use next time. There is no practical way to collect the drained fuel either, so guess where it ends up? And the idea with 4-strokes was supposed to be their environment-friendly clean burning process (due to precise fuel injection) ….

And before you suggest just disconnecting the hose to the fuel tank and then run the engine until it is out of fuel: don’t! It doesn’t work; I don’t know why, but I have tried.

So, why is this not a problem with cars? There must be millions of cars running on this ethanol-rich gasoline day after day. The reason, I am told, is that they have high pressure fuel injectors, which is also the case with bigger outboards (over 40hp).

An other problematic quality is the short shelf life of fuel containing ethanol. Even E10 is reported to have a shelf life of only 1-2 months in ideal conditions. Fuel in small boats is usually stored in jugs prone to condensation and consequently some water builds up. Therefore, with higher quantities of ethanol, we shouldn’t store more than a couple of weeks use of outboard fuel onboard – particularly in tropical conditions. Problem is that some times there will be months between the filling stations.

4-stroke outboards are great at your summer cottage in the western world, where you can better trust the quality of the fuel at the pumps and don’t have to store any reserve amounts at home – and, where you can easily contact a repair work-shop when shit hits the fan.

Related article: From Polynesia to Cook Islands.

Splash – finally

Saturday, December 3rd, 2011

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During the past 18 months Scorpio has spent 13 months in a “dry dock”, being subject to the Mother of All Refits (a slight exaggeration, as there was nothing seriously wrong with her). We started the project in May 2010, then went for a sea trial of 4,000 nm to the Maldives in January – May 2011, after which the project resumed between May and December 2011.

For this reason, between May and December this year, there has been less activity on the Scorpiosail website than usual. This is about to change soon: Scorpio was lifted back into the sea a couple of days ago.

We, the crew, have been living in a hotel for seven months during this renovation project and we will not move aboard until around mid-December. Until then we will work on the last details of the renewed interior of the yacht including electronic installations.

We hope to be sailing again before Christmas.

Disaster Is Just Around the Corner

Monday, September 26th, 2011

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Our first post of the 2011-12 sailing season is not a happy one.

This lifestyle of ours makes us perhaps more exposed to dangers than people living in houses that stay in a permanent place – earthquake areas excluded (although we certainly have experienced them also). Surprisingly though, we appear to have encountered more difficulties ashore than afloat.

This story includes several photos, please read more here

New Teak Deck: A Preview

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

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One of the reasons for our return to Thailand was the opportunity to replace our teak deck. Although the deck is only 15 years old and still about 10 mm thick, the plugs covering the screws are getting thin and falling off. Less than a year ago we tried to remedy this problem by drilling out screws and replacing them with new plugs (and glue) without putting in the screws again. We fixed about 200 screw holes where the plugs were gone.

The plugs in the photo above were cut and the whole deck lightly sanded. Problem is, that there are probably at least 2,000 screws and replacing them would be a continuous project during the coming years. Also I was a bit nervous that any of the old screw holes could start leaking.

On the photo above you can see that the teak of the old deck was still quite thick, about 10 mm. If only there wouldn’t have been any screws …

I will publish an article about this project in due course.

78 Boxes

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

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How much junk are you transporting around the world living on a yacht?

For the second time in a year we had to store all our belongings in a warehouse, so we have an idea. In our case, the number of boxes is 78 and then there is some additional stuff like cushions, matresses, dive tanks, bicycles, a kayak etc, etc.

Roughly, I would guess that we are talking about more than one ton of weight. And that is not counting our ten sails!

Why are we doing this again? Well, we are having a new teak deck laid, and the masts renovated.

More about those projects later.