Wednesday 15 January 2020

2020 Maintenance at The Boat Works Part I

 




Haul Out at The Boat Works

Looking at the bottom it looks like the antifoul has held up well.  There's not much growth to be washed off at haul out at The Boat Works on the Coomera River.  As usual we have our list of regular maintenance jobs we will do, like checking all the thru-hulls, hoses, hose clamps, centerboard, servicing the Spartan seacocks, replace zincs, bottom paint, polishing, etc.  A week before haul out we had an engine service done by MMS and the engine is running smoothly.  

We've put only 2,300 hours on the engine since we purchased Bristol Rose in 2007.  Not bad for over 13 years - a couple of years sailing the Chesapeake Bay, sailing from Baltimore to the Bahamas, Caribbean, across the Pacific to Australia and including our Whitsundays cruise from Brisbane and back again. Wind power is naturally our preferred method of propulsion! The total hours on the engine is now only 4,300.  Yanmar say that a regularly serviced 75hp engine should be good for 8,000-10,000 hours.  We are in the habit of changing the oil and filters every 100 hours.  When you are cruising you have to know how to do these things for yourself so before setting sail from the USA Robert and Elliot did a marine diesel engine servicing course. 

New zincs

This haul out we want to check the cutlass bearing for wear.  Our engine specialist at MMS will remove the propeller shaft.  It's fairly straightforward. The rudder does not have to be removed. He will replace the old bearing and reinstall the shaft and propeller and we'll be good to go.