Woolwich Dockyard – Work complete and we head home

We arrived late on Saturday afternoon to find Lucey Blue snuggly in the old dry dock marina. After chatting to Gary about the last few jobs we set about “finding food” and getting ready to go the next day.

We topped up the water tanks after dinner and were amused when a large halogen street light – more like a sports field light – came to life to illuminate Lucey Blue….


The kids came out with some unique perspectives on our preparations to depart and "the light"….



The next morning Jess and Pete arrived for the trip to Middle Harbour. It was a beautiful day and after some piano and “pretend” fishing we slid out of the dock and waved goodbye to Nikki and Buddha.



The trip up the harbour was fun and we made good time so we decided to have lunch at Store Beach. There were a few black clouds to the west, but the bay was empty and everyone was keen to eat.



We anchored just off the beach – well right up against the “Little Penguin” protection zone. I still find it amazing that Sydney has a few penguin breeding colonies within a stones throw of the city. The penguins are very timid and nothing like we have experienced in Antarctica, but that’s a story for another day.


Anyway shortly after we had finished lunch the “black clouds” otherwise know as a storm front hit……it went from about 20 degrees celsius and 5 knots of wind to about 12 degrees Celsius and 40 knots in a matter of minutes. Lucey Blue held fast for a while, but before long we started to drag our anchor and given our location close to the beach we decided to “up and go”.

We were disappointed not to have our new Rocna anchor with us (or at least Nick’s real wet weather gear) as it would have been much nicer to sit out the storm front. But Pete and Nick seemed to enjoy the icy blasts on the “outside” while we enjoyed playing in the saloon.



Despite the excitement we all made it home on time even if some of us were a little wet…..

Noakes – Rigging replaced and back in the water

During the second week Noakes removed and replaced all the standing stainless steel rigging on Lucey Blue. The job was undertaken with the mast in-situ so it was one stay at a time and a guy at each end – one at deck level and the other up the mast.

We missed the show, but they kept the old rigging for us to inspect…


The original rigging was “apparently” new in 2005 and looked in reasonable condition except for one lower stay which had three broken stainless steel strands.


We could not confirm the age of the rigging so given the size of the mast and the fact we only have one forestay we decided to replace the lot and start afresh – thus giving us at least 5-10 years of trouble free service.


Shortly after the rigging was replaced Noakes lowered Lucey Blue back into Sydney Harbour to await our return…..

Noakes – Awlgrip spit and polish with a spot of antifouling

As we entered the second week on the hard it was time to tackle the antifouling and chance our arm cleaning the Alwgrip topsides with Awlwash followed by Awlcare. The antifouling task was taken care of by Noakes under their winter special deal, which was great as it left us free to do other things…




The biggest “other thing” in terms of physical labour was the spit and polish job on Lucey Blue’s 168 feet of Alwgrip topsides – its great owning a 42 foot catamaran at moments like these!!!!

The paint job itself is in pretty good shape - Hinkley Yacht Services painted Lucey Blue using a 50 50 mix of Flag Blue and Aristo Blue in 2005. But since the boat was out of the water we thought we would see if we could improve the surface and extend its life.

The first step was to wash the boat using Awlwash and then remove any built up salt using vinegar. The wash itself was pretty quick, but there was some pretty amazing salt deposits under the bridge deck which extended the job well into the night…..



With the boat clean and all traces of salt removed it was time to apply the Awlcare - a protective polymer sealer formulated to protect and remove mild stains from Awlgrip. The sealer is simple to apply and after the normal “wax on wax off” routine the results were pretty impressive (the Karate Kid has nothing on us)!



Water now beads off the topsides and with a bit of luck the Awlcare sealer will last until our next haul out. If you are ever considering a similar job the "Maintaining an Awlgrip, Awlcraft 2000 or Awlgrip HS Topcoat" page is worth a read......

Noakes shipwrights - Carbon fibre rudder shaft and Edson quadrant repair

Our first task at Woolwich was removing the starboard rudder and carbon fibre rudder shaft. The job did not take long and after removing the broken Edson quadrant and upper stainless steel holding pin the whole thing just fell out. Well we had to lift the boat a bit to allow the assemble to slide out gently, but it was an easy job….


Lagoon continues to impress in terms of quality. The rudder, shaft, bearings and overall steering system are all massively over engineered according to Noakes – the lower bearing alone is over 30 cm long and made of solid carbon fibre. The fact that you can still order replacement steering components for an 18 year old catamaran also speaks volumes for US build production boats – at least those that were kitted out with quality equipment.



With the rudder out and available for detailed inspection we spend a while ensuring there were no hidden problems. After carefully consideration Noakes decided the best solution was to grind away the damaged area and laminate the shaft to a slightly larger diameter using vacuum bagged carbon fibre and epoxy. The repair took a few days, but the end result is stronger than the original shaft.

While Noakes worked on the rudder shaft I installed a new plywood panel for the “steering stopper” – the original panel was a bit too small and the forward bolt holding the “stopper “ in place had worn its way through the timber over time.


The repaired rudder and new Edson quadrant were not installed until just before the boat went back in the water about two weeks later. I missed that event, but by all accounts the task was straight forward up until they had to realign the steering system. Senior shipwright Gary Ferres said they had three guys working under torchlight tweaking and tuning the steering system to ensure the rudders were parallel and had full turn left and right. At one point they were out by 45 degrees because the cable steering had come off the Edson idler. But in the end – under failing torchlight – they prevailed and bolted the rudder assembly back in place.


I am glad to have the job done and really happy it all went so smoothly.

Woolwich Dockyard, Sydney - Lagoon 42 TPI catamaran haul out

After a few busy days at the boat show the time arrived to move Lucey Blue from Middle Harbor to Woolwich for her annual haul out. The trip down the harbor was a tad slow given our furry bottom and strong westerly winds. But we had fun and arrived late on Sunday afternoon ready for “our extraction” on Monday/Tuesday.

The facilities at Woolwich were impressive and despite the strong winds we had a quiet night or two tucked away snuggly in the historic dock near the center of Sydney.




Lucey Blue – a Lagoon 42 TPI – is 6.9m or 22 feet 8 inches wide and requires a pretty substantial travel lift to get out of the water. Luckily the yard is designed for boats much bigger than ours so while squeezing into the travel lift was a bit nerve wracking the job went smoothly under the supervision of Sean Langman and we were soon on the hard next to a 20 million dollar prototype carbon fiber super yacht.





Everyone enjoyed the show, but we were glad to be through stage one and ready for the real work ahead including the rudder repair, rigging renewal and other tasks.



Annual haul out at historic Woolwich Dockyard, Sydney - August 2010

Historic Woolwich Dockyard: Preparing for the annual haul-out and other big ticket items

We are preparing Lucey Blue for her annual haul-out and antifoul. This year will be a big one with the port rudder carbon fiber shaft, steering quadrant and bearings due to be repaired by Noakes Shipwrights at their Woolwich Dock site.









I am not sure how the shaft was damaged, but I guess over 30,000 nautical sea miles and a loose steering quadrant might have something to do with it!!!!

We will also take the opportunity to replace the lower oil seals on the Volvo Penta sail drive legs, the stainless steel standing rigging on the mast and repair the cover on the starboard sail drive well while we are out of the water.





Noakes are one of the best shipwrights in Australia with a long history in rigging repairs, composite construction and Sydney to Hobart Maxis. The Woolwick dock site is also pretty spectacular - carved into the solid sandstone cliffs by labourers between 1897 and 1901.









We've also got the Sydney Boat Show on this coming weekend, so a great chance to source various bits and pieces that we have been looking for.