Summer Haul-Out

We are sadly arrears in posting updates to the progress of Mayaluga. On the one hand, it’s bad, on the other hand it’s positive, because we have been too busy making progress on projects to stop and write about them.

Here we are in December already and this tome is being written only because it’s pouring cats and dogs outside and tarps cover the on-the-dock workshop. By the way, I trust you know where the expression “it’s raining cats and dogs” originated? It comes apparently from the necessity of having to avoid stepping into a poodle.

The big picture:
Just about all the exterior refurbishing is complete, so let it rain, let it rain, let it rain! All exterior wood now has at least 7 coats of lovely high-gloss Helmsman varnish. The coach roof sides and top is no longer stark white, but now glows in a softer off-white Bristol Beige Pettit Easy-Poxy which complements all that lovely glossy golden teak. Kiwi-Grip non-slip has been applied to all textured areas. Looking pretty good!

We were out of the water for almost a month on the “hard” at Canoe Cove” up at Sidney. What did we accomplish you may ask? Well, after pressure washing below the waterline, we were relieved to discover only a handful of minor small shallow cosmetic blisters just below the waterline on the port aft quarter. Thirty plus years had added many many layers of thick anti-fouling paint. We decided it all had to come off because many patches had peeled over the years and had simply been over-coated resulting in rough spots and edges. Easier said than done! But we did employ 3 eager and energetic adult students (Alex, John and Russell), supplied them with gloves, protective masks, disposable coveralls and sharp tungsten-blade scrapers. At quitting time each day just the whites of their eyes were visible! A week later after working through the various layers of black, red, green, blue, and more red paint, finally we got down to gelcoat and the sanding started. After a couple of days of that, a good water wash, and then a solvent wash, followed by epoxy filler in all the uneven areas to achieve an amazing result. It set up really quickly so could be sanded fair the same day followed by yet more filler. A week later it looked fair enough to be a racing yacht. Three coats of epoxy barrier followed. A light scuffing with sandpaper followed by three coats of slightly ablative anti-fouling drew comments from all who passed by.  Sacrificial zincs were replaced, and a donut-zinc was added to the propellor shaft.

Parallel to all this, we hired a crane to pull the mast off and lay it down on trestles beside the boat. Everything was stripped off including the aluminum masthead which we sawed off. We did that to drill access holes into the top of the mast to thread halyards internally through the mast instead of leading them on the outside. Halyards are noisy when the wind blows, and UV takes it’s toll on the braid. A new masthead was fabricated by the Blackline team and welded back on with an added spinnaker-crane out front. The net result is that we now have 6 halyards instead of 3, plus another two; one for the staysail, and one for the spinnaker pole bridle, neither of which go all the way to the top. All the electrical and antenna wires were replaced up a plastic conduit and masthead lights were replaced with LED units.

The trickiest part of the mast-project was cutting vertical slots in the lower sections of the mast for the halyards to exit. We added hefty halyard winches at the foot of the mast (one port, one starboard) and so two winches now handle the tensioning of all the halyards, coupled with six rope clutches. A sailor’s dream! An additional smaller self-tailing winch was mounted on the port side of the boom near the gooseneck with three additional rope clutches. This now neatly takes care of all 3 reef points in the mainsail. It was put to the ultimate test in September when we were returning from a shakedown cruise out in the open Pacific Ocean. As we were returning inbound past Sooke, 60 knot winds from the west hit us with a vengeance. We had all white sail up, so we had to VERY quickly make Mayaluga managable. We got three reefs tucked in the main in less than 3 minutes flat!

New inner forestay chain plates were fashioned in stainless 316L for each side of the stem-head because we noticed some hairline cracks in some of the welds. The bowsprit was thoroughly checked and the platform removed to gain access to check for rot (none) as was the case with the sampson-posts. Alex arranged to have all the wood surface-machined in his father’s shop and we successfully reassembled the entire bowsprit with all it’s many accoutrements.

What surprised us the most is how much speed we have gained through the water by properly fairing the hull. We estimate at least a full knot, probably more. Mayaluga now sails like a dream and moves far better in lighter air and still surprises us with her turn of speed for a displacement of 34,000lbs on a waterline length of 33 feet. Of course, once the wind picks up to 12 – 15 knots, the old girl picks up her skirts and breaks into a run!