I had several projects I was expecting to complete in the few days left in October, and when I arrived ready to get to work, I found that nothing had been completed. As we were scheduled to be out on the 31st of October, the yard had delayed completing everything and had planned to work on her just before we splashed at the end of the month. As I was there, I asked them to begin the repairs while I was aboard, and sure enough, the jobs were completed in time to splash as scheduled.
This is what the hull looked like when we originally pulled Sea N' Stars for the initial inspection:
The pictures below show the great job Scorpion did on the bottom job, and a boat always looks better with the new paint for protection against barnacles and sea growth.
Moving a boat to be splashed always is a wonder to me. The crane they used, and this one will lift 100 tons, is moved completely by remote control, which I find amazing. There is a guy with a control panel, like the control box for a radio controlled airplane, who walks along turning the wheels remotely, backing the crane onto a narrow pier until the boat is ready to be lowered into the water. Our boat weighs in at about 40,000 tons, so it is only about 1/5th of the total weight this lift will hold.
As we had just replaced the packing material in the stuffing boxes for the prop-shafts (arrow points to one of the stuffing boxes),
the plan was to lower the boat into the water just far enough to cover the props, and I would jump aboard and check to ensure the bolts were tight and there was not any water leaking into the boat.
This photo is as the keel of the boat is 6" from entering the water.
You will notice, just to the left of the holding strap, there is a slight defect in the keel bottom. I had noticed that when the boat was being lifted, the support blocks had been removed, this 4" area had no paint on it. That is not unusual, as the area under the blocks is inaccessible when the rest of the hull is painted, but I thought it was unusual that this area had been missed. I asked the lift operator and he immediately got it painted.
"Now you'll hear the rest of the story", as Paul Harvey used to say.
The operator lowered the boat into the water and I jumped aboard. I got down in the engine room.
I found the packing glands were tight, but there was a 10" geyser from a 1/8" hole in the hull (see where the purple arrow is)
Jumping out of the engine room, I suggested we needed to figure out where this hole came from. Rehauled the her and discovered one of the screws for the external strainer for the port engine raw-water intake was missing. The yard denied ever using a drill for the hull, which I accepted, as I never saw a drill in the area. The only logical explanation was it probably was there prior to the haul out and been done previously. But the yard did seal the hole and reinstalled the screw, and the boat was relaunched.
I was nervous, as I had only had Sea N' Stars out with the sales rep who sold us the boat, and now I was at the helm by myself. I have never operated twin screws before, and it took me three attempts to get into the slip correctly. As it had taken me 15 minutes to accomplish the feat, I jumped back into the engine room to recheck the packing glands. They were fine. What I did find was water pouring in under the generator you see - actually it has been replaced with a new 10kw Phasor genset, but there was water still pouring in. I checked under the genset, but the source was behind it from under the flooring in the aft stateroom. I immediately checked under the aft bed, where the rudders are located. No water. I pulled up a 10" square access panel to the prop-shaft strut on the port side, and found what I thought was the source. I assumed the bolts holding the strut in place were loose. I got a wrench and tightened the nuts, but the water continued. Further inspection, I found leak in the exhaust flange for the exhaust hose on the port side inside of the stateroom.
However, at that point, I also decided the amount of water was NOT equal to what was now coming into the bilge. The bilge pump was now running about every 45 seconds. Looking more closely, I discovered water coming from three weep holes in the bilge floor. Ensuring the bilge pump was working properly and reliably, I jumped off the boat to find the yard manager. He came down and found it odd there was water entering the bilge there. He immediately called for the lift, and I returned to the haul out slip. As we were pulled out of the water, it was evident there was water draining out of the keel from the defect in the keel I had noticed earlier.
We reblocked the boat. Upon inspection of the defect, it appeared the block had crushed the keel at this point. It appeared a very poor repair had been accomplished at some point in time previously, as the boat was NOT leaking like this when the inspection was accomplished, but the weight of the boat on the block had broken through the repair. Our only conclusion was that she had been run up on a coral reef or coral head previously, a fast repair completed, and the boat put up for sale. That sale was made two years ago to the guy who owned the boat before us.
So the repair began! When it was all ground down, the defect was about 8-1/2" long. The hull was left for 4 days and a heat gun used to ensure the hull was dry.
Fiberglass putty was stuffed in the defect.
Bi-axial roving was glassed in (3-4 layers)
Then regular glass was installed over that.
However, there was a drop of water that continued to drain just aft of the repair at the rate of one drop every 2-3 minutes. We also were concerned there was moisture on top of the blocks (which you can see as the dark area on the block.
In consultation with the yard manager, it was agreed to leave the boat (now November 8) and they would remove about 2" from the repair aft to the heal of the keel, as he was concerned the poor repair continued to the end of the keel. Then the repair would be completed properly.
So, today, November 16, the repair has been completed. Our friend, Mike Rooney, who had flown out to Port Canaveral, to assist me in bringing the boat back to Houston, and I flew back to Houston. Renne' and I are ready to head back after her checkup on Wednesday, and we will bring the boat back to Houston around the first week of December with our friends, Warren Gloss and Caroline McDonald.
So we will see what has happened when we arrive on Thursday afternoon.
From there, the saga will continue.
In the meantime, stop over at Port Canaveral Yacht Club and join us for sundowners. We would love to have you stop by!
Jon and Renne'
