Last time on Luckyfish
we sailed the boat for the first time
rounded the Cape of Good Hope
had a first time for everything
left the boat on the hard stand in South Africa
Zaya got labelled an undesirable person and banned from
returning for 12 months
we arrived back in Mongolia and began preparation for
the Atlantic crossing
Luckyfish was set up for coastal cruising she needed some
upgrades to make her ready
there was a lot to organise and we had to get
ourselves ready too - we continued fitness training
ordering parts
and chatted long and hard about how to make our first ocean voyage success
Zaya's experience would be enhanced if she had some female company and someone to share
her beloved Mongolian language with during the long days at sea
A watch system with three crew is also much better than two
we asked sister Tuya if she would like to join us, she said yes and we are so
happy that she did
Zaya's over stay appeal was taking much longer than the
90 days they told us we had to make a back-up plan
we decided I would go to Cape Town on my own prepare the boat and sail to Namibia
where both Zaya and Tuya would be welcomed
I needed a crew for this and as I was completely new to Wharrams
I needed to learn how to set one up for crossing oceans safely
I dug into the Wharram Hall of Fame looking for expert help
one name popped out Rory McDougall
he sailed the smallest catamaran around the world in the 1990s a tiny Wharram
Tiki 21 an incredible feat but would he help us ?
a bit of googling later and we
found out he has a marine business in England and does the occasional yacht
delivery I phoned him, he was interested we agreed on terms
the only catch was I had to have the boat back in the water before Rory arrived
I packed all the boat parts un-boxed into my suitcases and left for Cape Town to begin work on the boat
in the meantime the girls carried on preparing
In 600 metres, turn right
Yachtport has very high security
Hello
Im going down to my boat. Its at Yachtport
Your boat? Yes, at Yachtport
thank you very much hello you remember me you remember you I went out late one
night I'm living on the boat down there sailing boat and and I think you wanted
some cigarettes or something coca-cola remember I was going out to okay yeah so
I'll be coming in and out quite a bit over the next month okay. So I'm going to be bothering you
Can you open the boot for me please. Yeah, I can. No problem
OK, well, nice to see you again and have a great afternoon
Are you going to watch the rugby? yes of course who's gonna win?
do you think the Boks will win or the All Blacks?
ohhh! the All Blacks
you think the All Blacks are going to win? I like that I like you you're my
friend I think the All Blacks will win too
I'm a New Zealander oh good thank you very much bye bye
I was really surprised to learn that the black population of South Africa generally cheered for the
New Zealand team the All Blacks and not their local team the Springboks they
remember the days of apartheid and the stance the New Zealand rugby union took
boycotting matches with South Africa
I'm just going down to my boat yeah I have a sailing boat here Luckyfish
thank you very much
the wind depth and speed logs on Luckyfish were no longer functioning despite
being only 18 months old
I replaced everything with B&G gear
it began with the removal of the old depth transducer to make room for the new one
The blister on the outside of the hull needed thinning down a bit
The B&G gear has water temperature log and depth all on one through-hull
so the old log was removed and the hole filled
that work completed I began on the nav console
filling the old holes and making way for the chart plotter compass Triton
gauge AIS transponder radar and simnet backbone
The coppercoat had already been delivered
and work was well underway grinding off the hull coatings
back to epoxy
to re-coat a hull with epoxy it is important to remove any
single pack paint first. There were patches of Primacon under the old anti
foul and these needed to be ground off
Luckyfish is coated throughout with two pack epoxy and polyurethane paints
the keel, rudders and trim tabs got an extra dose of epoxy resin before the
rest of the paint system was applied
make sure this is homogenised
I chose Coppercoat because it is more cost effective and is much better for
the environment
now we'll be experts in a couple of hours yeah
it actually mixes nice and quick. It does Yeah.
OK, now comes the hard part. I will give it another
good mix eh?
cos thats the trick with epoxy isnt it? its all in the mixing
It looks pretty mixed. Yeah it does eh? It looks very homogenised
They dont give you any idea how long it needs stirring
when I read the thing there - nicely homogenised.
OK, away you go. OK, keep mixing.
In goes the gold dust. Yeah.
A kilo, or two pounds of
ultrafine copper powder is added to every liter or quart of resin
the epoxy resin is water-based once the powder is added the coating is rolled on as a thin
coat before it sets a second coat is applied and so on in one continuous
process until four coats are completed it is then allowed to cure
Its not going to cover all in one go Nikko, Its going to be four layers
We've only got a certain amount of time
Yeah, so really roll it on. So Move It!
it took 12 liters about three gallons to coat the two hulls and rudders and cost
about 1700 u.s. dollars
the copper coat has already paid for itself and should
be good for another 10 (years)
Wiping the hull every two weeks or so to remove the slime as all it takes and it
sure feels a lot better than sending clouds of ablative anti foul into the
marine environment
we then reblocked the boat to coat the areas we couldn't get to
Um, extend it first Gav. All the way. Let it down
Going down.
then we put a thin shim
ya its moving yeah.
About four days before launching the copper coat requires a sand with 400 wet
and dry sandpaper
we had found that the side decks lifted with wave impacts
particularly in beam seas which no catamarans enjoyed so we fitted some
latches to retain them
I wanted to flip the center deck so the front side of the pod could be used for
storage without blocking the deck hatch
it was a close fit but not close enough Off it went to the workshop for a few
millimeters of adjustments
Four days before Rory gets here
With just a few days to go before Rory arrived, the boat looked a long way from being ready to
set sail for Namibia
and conditions in the port hull aren't much better
All I could do was hope he understood
Next time on Luckyfish
we install a water maker
commissioned a factory to
make a custom rode for our drogue
tour one of the largest sail lofts in the world
Rory arrives and well you will have to subscribe and watch to find out
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Cheers !!