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Back in the Boatyard

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We are back on the hard in Norsand Boatyard.  What, you are probably asking, “why?”  Well, we had a lot of little things we needed to do – each individually would not warrant a haul out, but together they did.

Boatyard Projects on the List

  • Reburnish the Coppercoat (due to our barnacle incident)
  • Fix small gelcoat damage (another boat ran into our starboard bow)
  • Water Tanks: Scrape, clean, and repaint interior 
  • Repair Teak on both Sugar Scoops 
  • Wax the hulls and stern

Haul out

Hauling your home out of its natural environment and onto a trailer is always nerve racking.  However, Kevin and Shayne at Norsand Boatyard are experts and they truly take every precaution to ensure our home is safe. 

Coppercoat

We applied fresh Coppercoat in late December 2023 and had a massive issue 6 weeks later after being in a barnacle infested river.  Coppercoat UK and the local NZ Coppercoat distributor agreed to reburnish the bottom of our boat. This particular task requires us to be out of the water so the boatyard can sand the entire bottom with 320 grit sand paper.  

I will say that we rock!  Why do you ask?  Well, we spent days in the freezing cold water scraping and cleaning our bottom and it looks so much better than other boats with barnacles on their Coppercoat.  I took a photo of a monohull that had similar barnacle problems to us (lower right photo).  As you can see they were not as successful at removing the “feet” of the barnacles (little white spots) as we were.  And another boat with Coppercoat who stayed in the barnacle infested water for over 6 months had a reef with baby eels falling off of it when she hauled out (lower left photo).

Sugar Shack bottom at haul out (top) and another boat after haul out (bottom), both with Coppercoat.  Yep, we did good.  

Coppercoat Repair

Once we were out of the water, we noticed an area that has 4 spots that are down to the barrier coat – that is not good.  So we have to address this issue.

Conor fills the spots with filler and Coppercoat.  It needs a sanding, then it is ready to be burnished with the rest of the bottom.

Burnsing the Coppercoat

Right before we splash, the yard comes back to burnish the Coppercoat with 320 grit sandpaper.  Not sure what I expected, but honestly, I was surprised that the bottom turned back to copper color after the boys (Ian and Shamus) burnished it.  It was soooo smooth.

It even had a shiny penny look when the sun hit it.

Hit by another Boat

Another boat hits us while we were docked at Town Basin Marina.  It was rather an unfortunate occurrence but the damage was minimal.  This other boat was trying to squeeze in front of us and claimed he had bow thrusters.  He had bow thrusters, but they did not work.  The tide was pretty strong and carried his boat side ways causing the stern of his boat, with his dinghy and dinghy outboard to scratch the inside starboard bow.

Aaron from Norsand Boat yard came out to give us an estimate and the other boat owner, begrudgingly paid us the $1500NZ that it cost to repair our boat.

While we were at it we had the boatyard finish a job they forgot to complete last time.  They missed cleaning up the repair around the port cleat (the cleat goes where the 3 holes are) the repair was the cracks around the cleat.

Water Tanks

Our two water tanks hold about 400L of water each and are built into the boat.  When the boat was built, the manufacturer used some sort of weird potable paint that has not held up well.  For several years it has been peeling away and clogging up our filters.  Matt has drained the tanks, scraped the excess paint off, and vacuumed up the mess several times.  But, it was beyond time for us to completely clean out the tanks and repaint them with special non-toxic potable paint.

The white or light specs are actually pieces of chipped paint.  Now don’t completely freak out because we do have several filters for each water tank (which holds 400L).  So the water goes through each filter before coming to the taps.

This is such a huge project that I decided to write a separate blog about it so I can include more of the details (in case any of our other fellow cruisers need to do this too).  See upcoming blog post “Disgusting Water Tank.”

Repairing the Teak on our Sugar Scoops

The teak on both the port and starboard sugar scoops has had a long, challenging life span in direct sun light, constantly covered in salt water and enduring heavy usage.  We try to be diligent with its care but it is completely exposed to salt water, sun and constant use.  We’ve replaced the teak about 8-9 years ago, but it time to do a temporary repair until we can replace them again (it is a long and expensive process so we want to squeeze as much life out of these sugar scoops as we can).

As you can see, the black caulking has come up and is completely missing in some places. It is time to repair it all.

I watched several YouTube videos and pulled Matt in to help.  This is turning out to be a much larger job than we anticipated. So, the details of the teak repair will be coming out in an upcoming blog called “Caulking the Sugar Scoops Teak” stay tuned.

Waxing the Boat

Ian, aka “Stretch” comes in to wax our boat and make her as shiny as possible (considering her gelcoat is thin and old).  He always does such a great job.

While we were working on the sugar scoops we had to get on and off the boat with a very tall (15 steps) ladder which was such a pain in the arse!  Luckily it was only for 2 of the 6 weeks we were here.

As you can see we made the most of this haul out in the boat yard.  We were anxious to get back in the water as we prepare to head to a new country, Vanuatu.

Our blog posts run several weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred late April 2024. We enjoy some rough housing during the stock car races in Whangarei.

Stock Cars and a Little Bit of Rough Housing

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Whangarei Saloon and Stock Car Club races every fortnight right across from the Norsand Boatyard.  Matt and I used to love watching the stock cars, speed boats, and other race car races when we lived in America so we could not resist making a trip out to Whangarei Speedway.

The stock cars, Northland Mini champs and Club Champs were scheduled to race.  The drivers ages ranged from 12 to 75 and there was a little bit of rough housing going on the muddy track. 

The stands were single rows of chairs located on 3 different levels above the track.  We scored seats on the lower level close to the start/finish line.

We had a great group come out to play with us:  Kara and Ollie (and his 2 crew: Kelsie and Owen), Sharron, Mirko, and Daniela.  

The “Cars”

There were a variety of cars racing, not just stock cars.  Some looked like they could barely run and others were transported in special enclosed trailers.

These cars were great fun to watch as they had a metal bar surrounding the car (not the beautiful yellow one) that allowed them to safely collide with each other.  The fancy yellow one had some money invested into the sport.  He was really fast and took the corners beautifully.  His front tires would always point to where he wanted to go while the rest of the car went wonky across the muddy apex.

These beautiful oldies but goodies came out to race and put on a good show.  Matt loved the confederate flag on the roof of the one car!  #5 was in it for the win.

And finally the stock cars came out.  The #8 corvette smoked everyone.  It was really fast and the driver took the corners exceptionally well.  #8 and #21 won their perspective races.

Stock Cars

Stock Cars

Of course I had to go down to the pits to see the cars up close.  As I neared the super fast corvette with a 409 engine I smiled at the driver and asked to sit inside!  It was super low to the ground and very warm!

It was a super fun day with friends.

Our blog posts typically run 8-10 weeks behind actual live events.  However, I switched this one up as I needed more time to complete a few other blogs.  We attended the races at the end of April.  Did you see what Matt did while I was back in the states – check out our last blog post.

What Happens When Matt is Alone on the Boat?

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Many of you have asked, “What does Matt do alone on the boat while you are in America?”  He does whatever he wants, when he wants, and how he wants.  Of course, he keeps busy with the never ending list of boat projects, but he also makes time for fun!

During this trip he has managed to go on several long paddle board rides.  He brings his garmen and then uploads the track to create fun animated videos.  I took snap shots of the final route on a few of them – one he even made a heart!  As you can see, he progressively went on longer and longer routes…starting at 4.7 miles, then 6.5 miles, then 7.1 miles.  Of course, this is his “alone” time even when I am on the boat as you won’t be finding me doing a 7 mile paddle!

Boat Projects

There are always boat projects to do and Matt continues to tackle the list!  He cleaned out both port and starboard diesel tanks, replaced the Raco diesel filter and secured the baffles inside the tanks with bolts.

Matt is famous for starting a project, then starting another project before the first project is complete.  Usually, its because he needs a tool or part.  But when this happens, I ask that he clean up his mess at the end of every day.  While I am gone, he starts piles of projects all over the place – which drives me crazy.  But, it doesn’t matter because I am not there!

He may be alone, but he was a very busy boy:

  • He dropped off and picked up our Genoa which was in for a quick repair with North sails,
  • Picked up our new exterior cushions, sunshades, table covers, cockpit cushions, cockpit pockets, and recycle bags.  Then installed them.
  • Filled our jerry cans with both gasoline and diesel
  • Started installing the bathroom accessories in both heads (needs me on a few pieces)
  • Tested the new Bauer Jr dive compressor, only for it to fry our new inverter charger (guess we will be selling the new to us dive compressor)
  • Mounted our new main sheet line bags on the transom
  • Installed a new 6 button C-Zone controller on the starboard helm

New Cockpit light installed.  We have a cockpit light that we leave on at night so that it is easier to find the boat in the sea of boats at anchor.  The light is white or red.  As you can see our original light was a little corroded.   Our new light is a Nevis2 Engine Light that we bought on Amazon.

I posted photos of the canvas work on the blog “Final Touches on Sugar Shack.”  

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events. This blog post occurred in March 2024.  If you missed our last blog, Road Trip to America, then you don’t know why Matt is alone.