Ripple Too gets some loving
Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 4:02 pmI posted a while back not long after we purchased Ripple Too about some of the first jobs I did on Ripple Too however the post appears to have been lost when the forum had some issues, so here is a recap.
My wife and I purchased Ripple Too in early Feb, I sailed a lot when I was younger and had not owned a boat for many years, and never a full keel yacht.
We bought Ripple Too 'as is where is' knowing it needed a fair bit of maintenance to bring her up to speed but she appeared to be solid, had a bunch of spare head sails and having been raced as RANSA at some point and was well equipped with all lines back to the cockpit which would make sailing with Lisa who was new to sailing easier. After no end of confusion and messing about with RMS we managed to transfer the boat and the mooring into my name and set out to start tacking some of the jobs
The first job was to clean out the bilge which contained approx 30 liters of water (mixed with oily muck) which had come from the (now removed) water bladder thanks to a hose which rubbed through on the engine fly wheel. The water was too dirty to pump out into the harbour with the manual pump so I headed over to Withworths to pick up some oil absorbers to separate the oil form the water and headed over to the boat.
This is where it got a bit more exciting, Ripple Too came with two old fibreglass dinghys one which was used during the boat inspection leaked like a sieve (albeit the better looking one of the two) and the other was just plain ratty. Knowing I would be a while I choose the ratty dinghy and rowed out, I reached the boat and tied off, went to stand up and got my toes jammed in the cut up pieces of milk crate that had been used to reinforce the dinghy and I fell backwards on my back like a turtle, spilling oars and cutting my feet up in the process. After regaining composure (to the delight of the local fishermen) and paddling around collecting the oars I successful clambered aboard.
Feeling rattled i removed the engine covers and deposited the oil absorbers into the bilge and settled down to wait while they worked their magic. While the absorbers did their thing I opened up the switch panel to start to diagnose the reason why the automatic bilge pump wasn't working. Greeted by a rats nest of 7 core trailer wire and wires twisted together with electrical tape I realised there would need to be some surgery done to get the bilge pump working and pass the insurance inspection. Back off the boat I managed to get to shore and return to Whitworths and purchase a new bilge pump, switch and wiring.
Back on the boat without further incident I checked the bilge to see if the magic had happened. The absorbers were full of water and oil, nothing was separate, this wasn't going to work. Rummaging through the boat I found some buckets and a bunch of old oil containers, ringing out the oil absorbers into the bucket and decanting into the containers was time consuming and messy. I needed a better solution, more rummaging turned up a mop head and a pole with a magnet attached for retrieving tools from the bilge. I now had a sponge on a pole which sped the process up. After filling the stockpile of bottles on onboard I still had water in the bilge, as luck would have it the milk crate dinghy was also reinforced with old oil containers, so after extracting these I managed to empty the bilge and install a new pump and sort out the wiring for the small solar panel. Feeling pretty beaten up I collected up the oily water and mess and returned to home (bottles were taken home and disposed off responsibly).
The following weekend I returned to do a general clean up with the slipping date and survey fast approaching. There was a solid southerly blowing and from the shore it was easy to see the boom cover was in tatters and the weather strip in the Genoa was partially flapping in the wind. After getting to the boat I wrestled the sails off and packed them out in the dinghy including the stockpile of spare sails. A visit to the sailmaker the next week saw the weather strip resewn and a new boom cover made.
A quick tip out a few weeks later saw the sails back on and some final prep for the slip and survey, still haven't been for a sail.
Survey day came and the guys from Gladesville marina picked her up and took her to the slip while I was at work (just across the river). A phone call at midday suggesting I should come for a look before the antifoul went back on revealed this
The old antifoul had washed completely off with the water jet leaving a messy looking hull, advice was that she would need a full strip next time as the paint may not stay on. Also found a dozen or so osmosis blisters which would need some treatment.
The other surprise was the bow fitting had lifted, after reading a lot of forum posts I worked out that this was becoming common and I would need to remove the fitting, the wet wood and sort out some better support
The survey inspection was completed and passed with only comments on the steaming and mast head lights not working (mainly because they were wired with trailer wire) I left feeling OK about the boat but had a growing list of jobs.
Fed up with the two crappy dinghys I bought a new inflatable tender and went sailing with my Aunt who was visiting from Denmark, the day out on the harbour was great and the little boat sailed perfectly, I was well impressed.
On the way back we came across an issue with the little Sole Diesel, it seems she has a lot of blow by and sprays vaporised oil throughout the engine bay when hot. This resulted in the motor getting low on oil, stalling and not starting again on approach to the mooring. Luckily enough I still had sails and after a couple of circles successfully sailed onto the mooring which was nerve racking but got us out of a pickle.
Another sail with some friends a couple of weeks later confirmed that the engine was OK as long as the engine oil levels were kept up, the film of oil persisted and was a proper pain in the arse though and after talking with an engine builder friend it was agreed a overhaul was the only way to solve it. The engine needed to come out.
With a growing list of things to do I started calling around the dockyard on the harbour to see if I could get a spot on the hard to do some work over winter, Woolwich was the only place that was happy to have DIY but at $200/day and a 3 month waiting list it wasn't feasible. After speaking to my Father who has a property in the Hawkesbury and a few transport companies we decided that Ripple Too should have a holiday on the farm which would let us complete a proper refit for hopefully less $ than having work done by the local dockyards. Some proper yacht stands were purchased (I didn't like the idea of a 3 tonne boat falling on someone because I propped it up with scraps of timber) and plans were made.
So with everything booked I headed down to Ripple Too after work one evening, stripped all the sails for a second time, removed the running rigging, the boom and loosened the standing rigging a little ready to be hauled out the next morning. I slept on the boat and got up nice and early to run around to Woolwich Dock. On the way I got a call from the transport company letting me know I wasn't booked in for a lift that morning (something went wrong on their end). I turned up and after some discussion I was given the first lift as luckily they had a spare spot.
All good I had a lift and a truck, I didn't need to go back to the mooring and plan this all again, until the question "so you have the mast down already don't you", no was the answer, I had booked the crane to lift it out, "well that wont happen today, the crane is broken". Awesome!. After a bunch of discussions a new plan was devised, I was tied up in the travel lift dock and with a group of dock hands recruited the mast was lifted straight out of the boat by hand and disappeared over my head onto the hard.
Up next for Ripple Too was a ride in the slings, a ride on a truck and then a ride on a 200t slew crane (franna broke down on the way to the job) and we were finally on the hard.
So there she is high and dry ready for a refit.
For those that are interested, moving Ripple Too both ways works out equivalent to about 12 days on the hard at Woolwich, With her at home, I can take my time, have an extra set of hands and my Fathers opinions and workshop to help me along.
Anyway, that was a long post, you are up to speed and I will keep you posted on progress as we go.
JB
My wife and I purchased Ripple Too in early Feb, I sailed a lot when I was younger and had not owned a boat for many years, and never a full keel yacht.
We bought Ripple Too 'as is where is' knowing it needed a fair bit of maintenance to bring her up to speed but she appeared to be solid, had a bunch of spare head sails and having been raced as RANSA at some point and was well equipped with all lines back to the cockpit which would make sailing with Lisa who was new to sailing easier. After no end of confusion and messing about with RMS we managed to transfer the boat and the mooring into my name and set out to start tacking some of the jobs
The first job was to clean out the bilge which contained approx 30 liters of water (mixed with oily muck) which had come from the (now removed) water bladder thanks to a hose which rubbed through on the engine fly wheel. The water was too dirty to pump out into the harbour with the manual pump so I headed over to Withworths to pick up some oil absorbers to separate the oil form the water and headed over to the boat.
This is where it got a bit more exciting, Ripple Too came with two old fibreglass dinghys one which was used during the boat inspection leaked like a sieve (albeit the better looking one of the two) and the other was just plain ratty. Knowing I would be a while I choose the ratty dinghy and rowed out, I reached the boat and tied off, went to stand up and got my toes jammed in the cut up pieces of milk crate that had been used to reinforce the dinghy and I fell backwards on my back like a turtle, spilling oars and cutting my feet up in the process. After regaining composure (to the delight of the local fishermen) and paddling around collecting the oars I successful clambered aboard.
Feeling rattled i removed the engine covers and deposited the oil absorbers into the bilge and settled down to wait while they worked their magic. While the absorbers did their thing I opened up the switch panel to start to diagnose the reason why the automatic bilge pump wasn't working. Greeted by a rats nest of 7 core trailer wire and wires twisted together with electrical tape I realised there would need to be some surgery done to get the bilge pump working and pass the insurance inspection. Back off the boat I managed to get to shore and return to Whitworths and purchase a new bilge pump, switch and wiring.
Back on the boat without further incident I checked the bilge to see if the magic had happened. The absorbers were full of water and oil, nothing was separate, this wasn't going to work. Rummaging through the boat I found some buckets and a bunch of old oil containers, ringing out the oil absorbers into the bucket and decanting into the containers was time consuming and messy. I needed a better solution, more rummaging turned up a mop head and a pole with a magnet attached for retrieving tools from the bilge. I now had a sponge on a pole which sped the process up. After filling the stockpile of bottles on onboard I still had water in the bilge, as luck would have it the milk crate dinghy was also reinforced with old oil containers, so after extracting these I managed to empty the bilge and install a new pump and sort out the wiring for the small solar panel. Feeling pretty beaten up I collected up the oily water and mess and returned to home (bottles were taken home and disposed off responsibly).
The following weekend I returned to do a general clean up with the slipping date and survey fast approaching. There was a solid southerly blowing and from the shore it was easy to see the boom cover was in tatters and the weather strip in the Genoa was partially flapping in the wind. After getting to the boat I wrestled the sails off and packed them out in the dinghy including the stockpile of spare sails. A visit to the sailmaker the next week saw the weather strip resewn and a new boom cover made.
A quick tip out a few weeks later saw the sails back on and some final prep for the slip and survey, still haven't been for a sail.
Survey day came and the guys from Gladesville marina picked her up and took her to the slip while I was at work (just across the river). A phone call at midday suggesting I should come for a look before the antifoul went back on revealed this
The old antifoul had washed completely off with the water jet leaving a messy looking hull, advice was that she would need a full strip next time as the paint may not stay on. Also found a dozen or so osmosis blisters which would need some treatment.
The other surprise was the bow fitting had lifted, after reading a lot of forum posts I worked out that this was becoming common and I would need to remove the fitting, the wet wood and sort out some better support
The survey inspection was completed and passed with only comments on the steaming and mast head lights not working (mainly because they were wired with trailer wire) I left feeling OK about the boat but had a growing list of jobs.
Fed up with the two crappy dinghys I bought a new inflatable tender and went sailing with my Aunt who was visiting from Denmark, the day out on the harbour was great and the little boat sailed perfectly, I was well impressed.
On the way back we came across an issue with the little Sole Diesel, it seems she has a lot of blow by and sprays vaporised oil throughout the engine bay when hot. This resulted in the motor getting low on oil, stalling and not starting again on approach to the mooring. Luckily enough I still had sails and after a couple of circles successfully sailed onto the mooring which was nerve racking but got us out of a pickle.
Another sail with some friends a couple of weeks later confirmed that the engine was OK as long as the engine oil levels were kept up, the film of oil persisted and was a proper pain in the arse though and after talking with an engine builder friend it was agreed a overhaul was the only way to solve it. The engine needed to come out.
With a growing list of things to do I started calling around the dockyard on the harbour to see if I could get a spot on the hard to do some work over winter, Woolwich was the only place that was happy to have DIY but at $200/day and a 3 month waiting list it wasn't feasible. After speaking to my Father who has a property in the Hawkesbury and a few transport companies we decided that Ripple Too should have a holiday on the farm which would let us complete a proper refit for hopefully less $ than having work done by the local dockyards. Some proper yacht stands were purchased (I didn't like the idea of a 3 tonne boat falling on someone because I propped it up with scraps of timber) and plans were made.
So with everything booked I headed down to Ripple Too after work one evening, stripped all the sails for a second time, removed the running rigging, the boom and loosened the standing rigging a little ready to be hauled out the next morning. I slept on the boat and got up nice and early to run around to Woolwich Dock. On the way I got a call from the transport company letting me know I wasn't booked in for a lift that morning (something went wrong on their end). I turned up and after some discussion I was given the first lift as luckily they had a spare spot.
All good I had a lift and a truck, I didn't need to go back to the mooring and plan this all again, until the question "so you have the mast down already don't you", no was the answer, I had booked the crane to lift it out, "well that wont happen today, the crane is broken". Awesome!. After a bunch of discussions a new plan was devised, I was tied up in the travel lift dock and with a group of dock hands recruited the mast was lifted straight out of the boat by hand and disappeared over my head onto the hard.
Up next for Ripple Too was a ride in the slings, a ride on a truck and then a ride on a 200t slew crane (franna broke down on the way to the job) and we were finally on the hard.
So there she is high and dry ready for a refit.
For those that are interested, moving Ripple Too both ways works out equivalent to about 12 days on the hard at Woolwich, With her at home, I can take my time, have an extra set of hands and my Fathers opinions and workshop to help me along.
Anyway, that was a long post, you are up to speed and I will keep you posted on progress as we go.
JB