We have been working on a similar flow, dealing with various issues as they appeared and trying to work extra hard on other regular tasks when the issues took up more time than expected. But, this time things have taken a turn for the worse.

New Main Sail Problems

We lost two days when we had to take down our furling unit to fix some extrusions. But, this was more or less a “normal” thing. Once we fixed the furler, the new sail went on smoothly as said in an earlier post.

The new mainsail has been the root of our big issues the past few days. I mentioned in our last post that we got the mainsail off, but we discovered our new mainsail cover did not have the required track sliders in the bottom, or the holes where they were supposed to be attached. We ordered our new sails (back in February) from Quantum Sail Design Group in Cape Town, South Africa – they made our original sails. I had reasoned it would best to order from them because they make sails for St. Francis, and made our original sails. They did an excellent job with our new spinnaker last year. Quantum said they had all our specs from the original so I was confident they would make the sails right. The jib sail was fine, but this issue with the sail cover was troubling.

We waited until Monday, and I then took the old and the new sailcovers to a canvas and furniture shop in the nearby town. The shopworker found me a sample grommet that he could get that is non-corrosive. Later in the day, he confirmed he bought the required number and I came back with our sail covers. In a little over an hour he quickly marked off the locations for the holes and we soon had the grommets in place, and the tracksliders transferred from the old cover. I stayed and chatted with him and several young guys who I guess help him with jobs and deliveries. Soon they were done. I wanted to get a receipt from the shop so I could pass the cost to Quantum. But, the shop owner only charged me 40 RM (about $13)!

Meanwhile we had taken our mainsail boom off the boat so a metal worker could take it back to his shop to fix the metal that had worn on our mainsheet block holders. We couldn’t put up the new mainsail until that was back. The boom left Monday afternoon. We spent most of Tuesday working on other jobs while waiting for the boom to return. Late in the day (about 4:30) it came back. We spent the next hour or two getting the boom re-attached. Our first job after that was to install the new sail cover. So, before dark, we had that job completed as well (now about 8 PM).

Wednesday morning came the big day, to install the new mainsail at last. I was up at the crack of dawn and finally broke open the big package. I got the big sail unrolled and laid on the deck in a position for raising it up onto the boom (eventually). I had heard a story of another sailor who had received his new sail only to find it had the wrong type of connectors. So, I first went to check this. At first, things looked correct. Same kind of connectors. But, I then started counting. Something didn’t look right. I went back to the old sail on the ground nearby and counted. Uh oh…the new sail has more connectors than we need. There appeared to be one more connector than our original sail! I also discovered they did not provide new connector bits where the pins go into the batt cars. No problem, we have our originals. I worked on removing the metal connectors which go where the battens are inserted. Got the old ones off, but in putting them on the new sail, I found one would not screw in. It turns out the threads were not even made in that connector!

There’s a South African couple on a boat near us who are riggers. They are the ones we have hired to make new awnings for Tahina. Chris, the guy who fixed our extrusions for our jib furler, looked over our situation. He said we could just not connect the bottom connection point, and still use the sail. We could maybe add a batt car (sliders at the mast where sail connections go) later to connect it. He also said he could help me tap the plastic piece so we could put threads for the last hardware connector. But, his boat was going back in the water today. Also, he didn’t have the right size tap bit.

So, I went to the hardware store and got the right sized tap bit. I also bought the right sized bit to drill the hole. But, upon attempting it, neither of my drills could make the hole. I needed a smaller intermediate bit, but my collection of bits didn’t have it. Other projects were going on in the meantime, so I thought I would wait for Chris. But, he wasn’t around. Turns out they had gone to the beach to reward themselves for finishing in the yard.

Finally around 5:30 Chris showed up and asked if I still needed help. In about 10 minutes he had the new hole drilled and the thread tapped. Karen and I immediately started raising the mainsail, inserting one batten at a time, and connecting to the mast sliders (batt cars). This is a laborious process and each connector had to have a pin inserted and a cotter pin. It took a couple of hours.

It was near dark (about 8 PM as we got near the bottom). Suddenly I realized we had another problem, there wasn’t one extra connector, there were TWO. Oh my goodness. This was NOT good! We couldn’t leave two connectors off at the bottom, it would create a huge gap. I was flabbergasted. But, we needed to raise the rest of the sail so we could attach the foot of the sail to the boom. We raised it the rest of the way and were horrified to find that the sail is too big at the bottom. The tack connection (where the boom and the mast meet) went on ok (except the luff of the sail – top to bottom – was not tight enough), but the big concern was when we attached the clew (at the end of the boom) when we tightened the outhaul all the way the sail was still not tight. Holy moly (and other four-lettered words), our sail has really not been made right!

We also discovered our reefing points did not have the same hardware as our original. Something was really wrong here. I had already E-mailed Quantum earlier in the day about the issues we found in the morning (no reply yet), so I called them. They had me immediately talk to a manager. I *calmly* explained our new discoveries in detail, and he said they would investigate and get back to me. I suggested in the morning the next day their time as it was already late in the evening for us. I summarized our findings in an E-mail before going to bed.

These developments with the new mainsail are a little more serious than the usual project. Especially considering the money and time spent organizing these new sails and their delivery.

Meanwhile, our anti-fouling paint was put on today. That went relatively smoothly as the work was done by a paint crew we hired. We have to spend the next two days waxing our waterlines to help protect the hulls from staining above the anti-fouling line. And, a dozen other jobs will have to be done as well before we go into the water on Saturday. Not the least of which will be dealing with the sailmaker.

Not Going Smoothly is a post from: Tahina Expedition

Tahina on the Hard

We have started and/or completed a number of tasks. The sails were taken off last week. A couple of screws had to be replaced on our furling unit which meant it had to come down. As mentioned before, this is a big project as we have to loosen the shrouds on the main and tilt it forward to get the furling unit off. But, it was all competed by the end of the week. We got the new jib sail installed on Friday. Hurray, it looks beautiful and new!

The old mainsail was a bit tough to get off. I had used a variety of cotter pins over time for attaching the sail to the mast batt-cars. Some were really tough to get off. Then the sail itself is a LOT of canvas and weighs 350 lbs (160kg). We had to remove the battens and then roll up the mainsail so I could use the main halyard to lift it up and off the boat.

After getting the mainsail cover off, we discovered the new cover did not have the sailtracks (slugs) installed so it could be fitted on the boom. The sailmaker must have forgotten to install them! It was the weekend, and we couldn’t get someone to install eyelets so we could transfer them to the new cover, so that had to wait until Monday, as did installing the mainsail.

Meanwhile, we need to have a piece of metal repaired that is the receptacle for the mainsheet block on the boom. The metal guy I found could do it, but he needs to take the boom to his shop. So, he’s coming by on Monday to pick it up on a lorry (truck) and do that job.

I’m particularly proud of a job I did this weekend. A week ago I had removed our main deck light. It was a floodlight (basically a car headlight) mounted on a custom black plastic “tripod” mount screwed into our mast a few meters up. The new light is an LED floodlight, which is much lighter and came with a little metal bracket for mounting. But, it wasn’t aluminum and I didn’t want to put a dissimilar metal on the mast. Also, it wasn’t shaped properly for the angle we needed.

Modified mount

I then spent a few minutes preparing the wiring for fast installation before going up the mast. Karen then operated the winch to get me up there and in a few minutes I had it mounted. We tested the wiring and the light worked, so I finished the install and it looked great! Next, we had two other spreader deck lights and I needed to switch out the bulbs with new LED bulbs. I was worried because the new bulbs were about an inch longer, but I was lucky with the wiring and it all worked like a charm.

New deck lights

This is only a portion of the tasks we have been doing. There were many other tasks done, and many more left before the end of the week. Back to work!

Lots More Boatyard Work is a post from: Tahina Expedition

Broken bits

On our spreaders up the mast, we have had a radar reflector which is a long thin cylinder filled with pieces of metal and wrapped in plastic. It was screwed on at the top to a cable, and then taped to cover the cylinder at the top. At the bottom there was a sail tie. About a year ago, I replaced the sail tie because the old had gotten tired in the sun after 4 years. Well, apparently the sun here is more intense, it apparently broke. During the strong winds the bottom must have broken off and then the cylinder fell out of the top and onto our deck. Luckily it didn’t hit any windows, although it wasn’t all that heavy. A rude way to be awakened!

Fortunately, this is an easy thing to replace, and doesn’t stop us from sailing. But, it is important for other ships to see us, and without the reflector our radar signature is very weak on other ships. Fiberglass doesn’t reflect radar well at all.

We have done a host of jobs. We finished installing the new thru-hull ball valves, changed impeller on the generator, performed other basic maintenance on the engines (oil and filter changes, and more), changed oil on the sail drives, cleaned the props, organized painting and sanding, and we just got the jib sail down. Unfortunately, we have to take down our jib furler unit because the extrusion have some screws that will need re-tapping. It’s a big job – essentially a two day job, one to take down, the other to put it back up. It also involves multiple trips up the mast in the bosun’s chair.

So, we’re very busy!

Bang in the Night is a post from: Tahina Expedition

Frank watches

We spent a couple hours, as usual, near the ramp while the yard staff power washed and scraped the growth on the bottoms of our hulls, rudders, saildrives and props. Then they moved us a short distance to a spot in the yard and put our keels down on wood blocks and propped us on either end.

It’s noon the next day and we have already made good progress on our first project – removing our thru-hulls to replace the corroding stainless steel ball-valves installed when Tahina was built. We will be installing new composite-material ball-valves, that won’t rust, after we finish cleaning up the thru-hull parts, and the bilges. We should be finished by tomorrow on this project.

Many, many other projects on our boat list in the coming days. I may only post a few times, and will only summarize the tally and write about the more interesting projects.

On the Hard is a post from: Tahina Expedition

Meanwhile, it turns out James had not acquired the required timber for propping on top of the lift to fit Tahina on. I went to the sawmill to order the necessary timber myself. It wasn’t until 4PM that the timber was delivered. By 5 PM, we had the basics of the preparations done. Now that we have it set up, I’m very confident the new system will work. High tide will be at about 3:45 PM today (Friday), so we will have plenty of time to be prepared. No other boats will be hauling out to interfere.

The manager is crediting us on our slip at the marina for the last two days of delays (we were originally supposed to be ready on Wednesday). Now we just have to pray that the weather cooperates and there are no other problems. If it doesn’t work on time today, we delay into the weekend and will have to wait until next week. Argh!

Some people (on Facebook) have been telling me to be patient. But, the reality is that this haul-out has already been delayed a lot, and I’ve been very patient up to this point. It’s normal to take longer than you want to get out of a boatyard. And, I know lots of cruisers get anxious about getting back into the water and out of a boatyard. But, its pretty unusual to have to wait 3 weeks to get INTO the boatyard going on the 4th attempt now!

Third Time Not a Charm is a post from: Tahina Expedition

Earlier this year, we had decided since we needed to stay longer in the Singapore area due to health reasons, we thought we would try leaving in September to cross the Indian Ocean. I had read the weather isn’t bad then, it’s just not the normal time of year to go. Last week I did some more analysis and found out the reason most people don’t go that time of year is that the winds are pretty adverse for sailing. Basically a lot of beating against the wind for weeks. Given this, and the fact our boat haulout is weeks later than expected, we decided to fall back to a more normal time to cross the Indian Ocean – end of the year. Then the winds are much more favorable.

This means after we finish with the boat yard, we can sail back around to the eastern part of this Malaysian peninsula – which during the southwest monsoon season, is the popular cruising ground. There we are told you can actually sail, the water is clear and blue, and the weather milder and nice. We can leave our boat in marinas there when we go off to do sightseeing in other Asia countries. Then in October, we can bring the boat back up the Malacca Straights and go to Thailand for a month.

After that, we are thinking we will fly to the US to visit family. We would have to return before Christmas because we need to start the crossing around mid-December. This lines us up for other plans the following year.

So, another change in plans, but we hope this will result in some fun cruising and our boat should be in fine shape for it in another few weeks. Today we’re supposed to finally get hauled-out. We’ll let you know how that goes soon.

Change in Plans for Next Few Months is a post from: Tahina Expedition

First up was to replace the parts necessary for our fuel guages to work again. We have a system called “Tank Tender” which uses little air tubes into the tanks, with a guage at our instrument panel that pumps a little air into the tube to measure the pressure. This is an accurate way to read, but we discovered that the little metal fitting at the tank tops to guide the tube inside have a tendency to corrode and then the airway gets blocked.

As usually happens with a boat project, the project took longer than expected and had complications. It turns out we can’t take the fuel tank lids off easily because the manufacturer fiberglassed the tops into the bottom of the storage area where they are located. I would have to break around the edges which would allow water to accumulate in that area. As a result, the fitting on one of the tops – which had corroded off, had to be tapped out. This left the little plastic tube inside the tank. We just have to hope it won’t block anything in there. Also, the fitting has a metal tube attached to the nut top where the plastic tub inserts. I could not screw in the new nut all the way because the tank lid block it from turning. This left a 1/4 inch gap. So, I just caulked around the bottom of the bolt. This has the advantage of reducing the corrosion risk, and it’s not visible once I put the fiberglass cover over the tank tops. So, beauty is not an issue.

The second tank went more smoothly as I was able to remove the tube since the fitting did not break. I had to clean up the corrosion from the fittings, and any other signs of rust on the stainless steel tank tops. Then put everything back. The gauges now work (and we had less fuel than expected), and after an hour of putting tools away the job was done.

I also installed some fittings for us to attach the sun shades at the aft end of our cockpit, which Karen made over a year ago, so they can be held in place when it gets windy. I need to get more parts though before this is finished for all three shades. We are planning to have some awnings made to provide more sun shade over our boat tops. Most of the boats here have full boat awnings made to keep the boat cooler, and protect from the sun. The sun is VERY intense here.

We are slowly going through the boat and removing anything unused, especially weighty items. Tahina has been getting heavier as we have accumulated this junk and we need to lighten the load to keep our performance up. We have probably reduced the load about 100 pounds so far.

Projects Started is a post from: Tahina Expedition

Well, when setting it up and taking the measurements, things were not working out. The manager got called away on some emergency, so I ended up taking all new measurements under the boat. By the time he came back, it was too late with the tide falling to attempt hauling us out. So, I carefully looked over all the measurements. It was clear more frames would be needed to position the wood blocks properly. I was not pleased to have to wait up to another week, and I had already done some checking on hauling out at the next marina. So, I tried contacting the manager at the Rebak marina. After some going back and forth, he came back and said it was not possible to lift us on his travel lift. We exceeded the beam width designs.

After further discussion at Pangkor Marina, the manager James agreed to build two more frames. He let me design the specs for these elements, and later the metal worker came and got my measurements and reviewed the design. He agreed it would work, and later worked out the schedule with James to deliver next Wednesday. At this point, there’s no likelihood we could get to a yard faster, so I agreed and we now have a few more days to wait before the yard work.

So, we are going to try and do some of our projects while we are waiting for the haul-out. This way our list will be a bit shorter and we can hopefully reduce the total time in the yard.

For those of you who think we spend all of our time just cruising around in paradise, kicking back on a beach hammock and sucking on our frozen margaritas, swimming in crystal clear waters, and watching beautiful sunsets – this should help dispel that illusion.

Haul Out Attempt Two Fails is a post from: Tahina Expedition

For both shipments, a customs officer came to verify we took delivery of our imported goods without paying the duty (since we are a yacht in transit). I had to use our little rubber ship’s stamp and sign about a dozen pages for each shipment. No extra fees were asked to be paid, which was a pleasant surprise.

We have too many toilets on board Tahina, which causes me to have to work on them more than I like. I had previously tried to fix one of these toilets when the pump motor went out. I finally got a new motor and put it in a year ago. In the process, I had cracked a seal housing which caused it to leak. A couple months ago, I figured out how to order just the seal housing. What I didn’t realize until yesterday, when I went to install the new part, is that when I installed the new motor the old leaking housing managed to leak INTO the new motor. Now the second motor is not working. Argh! I will have to investigate whether the motor(s) can be repaired.

Anyway, we now have parts needed to be able to complete a dozen of the three or four dozen projects I have written down for this boatyard trip. Tomorrow we are scheduled to haul out if the new frame they built to lift us properly arrives today as planned. If so, our projects will begin in earnest!

Shipments Arrived is a post from: Tahina Expedition

Meanwhile, the two big shipments I tried to organize finally left their origins and are both in Kuala Lumpur as of yesterday. They could arrive as early as today, but may be a day or two later. We will have most of the parts and supplies we needed for the projects at that point, so that will be good. And, the new sails will be here too.

We got a rental car and have been driving to the local mall which is the same operator as the mall we went to in Johor Bahru. Only, this one just opened a few months ago, so it’s brand new.

During our attempted haul-out last week, I lost my prescription glasses. We went to the mall yesterday and were able to get new glasses made in 1 hour for a price 1/10th what I paid in the US. Glasses are a real racket with the prices they charge back home. Oh, and they didn’t even charge to do an eye exam to get my prescription! Exam and glasses made in 1 hour for US$60.

Waiting Some More is a post from: Tahina Expedition