tophatyachts.com

Just letting everyone know that we have sucessfully moved Malacor to its new home at Albertross Marina, Lemon Tree Passage.

We had a few issues on the way up with an unknown and undocumented inline fuel filter, Diesel Bug and as well as finding out there was no breather in the fuel tank.

We will be Replacing the 27Lt tank with a Stainless Steel 60Lt Tank along with two 20Lt Plastic Jerry Cans. This will give us good range for long distance crusing.

When leaving Sydney Heads we had a smoking good time with a lightweight guage wire going from the battery to the fuse panel.

After Magyvering these problems we had a smooth trip motorsailing up with the genoa partly unfurled due to the 4knot westery wind.

A big thanks to Mike "Magyver" Colecliffe and Phil Johnston for getting Malacor to her new home.

Happy Sailing

Allyson and Jus

If you install a larger tank there is more space for condensation and hence diesel bug. My suggestion is insulate the tank to minimise condenation.

Alternatively or in addition, make sure you treat the diesel with the appropriate additive. I have a 50 litre SS diesel tank, I keep it full to minimize condensation by topping up with 10 litres of diesel from time to time. I always add a diesel bug killing additive to the 10 litres when I add it (enough for the 10L) and I have not had a problem or had to clean my tank for a decade. I do use my diesel quite regularly however, about 3-4 hours a fortnight.

Allyson and Jus,

I have a 30 lt tank and find that's good for 30 hours of motoring. [About the limit when solo cruising.]
Its size means its easier to manage diesel bug, in fact I have never had that thing because of the smaller tank.

When cruising, you sometimes have to walk a ways to get fuel. In this case the four 10 lt plastic containers I have work really well.
Two trips carrying two containers! 20 lt cans are too heavy to carry!

The 10 lt containers also work when, on the rare occasion, you have some distance to the next fueling point.
I keep them empty except, when I'm cruising when one is always kept full as my emergency fuel supply.

On a normal day requiring motor/sailing I have found that I only use about 10 lt anyway and that means I can top off
the main tank with a whole container and not just half a container.

Sound like you had a great trip north. Photos please, "otherwise it never happened"?

Phillip wrote: Sound like you had a great trip north. Photos please, "otherwise it never happened"?

Here you go Phillip These were taken off Nelson Bay, early Saturday morning. We did an overnight run from Sydney.

Hey Allyson,

Great photos, sea looks a lat calmer than when Shaun and I were there a couple of weeks ago!

Phillip wrote:Hey Allyson,

Great photos, sea looks a lat calmer than when Shaun and I were there a couple of weeks ago!

It was a great run up the coast. really couldn't ask for better conditions for the first time to "sail" her. When the forecast came out for westerly I was hoping that I might have been able to get the spinnaker up ant test that out but alas was not to be.