The sail north - Sydney to Brisbane (well almost)...

With Lucey Blue ready to go we waited for a suitable weather wind to sail north to warmer weather.
The first opportunity arrived in early July and we scrabbled to leave Middle Harbour on the 14:30 Spit Bridge opening.

We left the harbour on the evening of the 5th of July and sailed/motorsailed north, hugging the coast to avoid the east Australian current that can flow at a speed of over three knots - not fun if you are traveling in the opposite direction!

Our new sails and feathering propellers proved themselves on the first night with Lucey Blue surging along at 8 to 9 knots in a 14 to 17 knot north westerly wind. By dawn we were located just north of Port Stephens on flat sea with a number of local fishing boats.

The wind died off during the day and swung around to the southwest so we motorsailed most of the next twenty four hours to keep up our boat speed. We enjoyed a visit from a pod of dolphins on the evening of the 6th and arrived off Coffs Harbour at dawn on the 7th of July.

We passed South Solitary Island in perfect conditions with blue skies and 15 to 20 knot southerly winds. Lucey Blue was really enjoying the conditions and her crew was entertained most of the day by humpback whales sunning themselves along the coast and thrashing their tails against the growing southerly swell.

By nightfall on the 7th Lucey Blue was located off Yamba and the weather forecast indicated that a change was due to hit the region overnight. We reduced sail that evening to a triple reefed main and our blade jib as there is nothing worse than having to reduce sail in rough conditions at night. We also decided to take Lucey Blue further offshore to gain extra searoom if required.

The southerly wind picked up steadily and Lucey Blue sailed along at 8 to 9 knots in the growing seas. By midnight we were located off Ballina in two to three metre seas. Unfortunately we also found the east Australian current was running strongly at two knots against the sea which was making the waves rather pointy.

The southerly front hit at around 02:00 on the 8th of July with 35 to 40 knot winds, three metre breaking waves and heavy rain. Lucey Blue was sailing safely, but our boat speed was too high for conservative cruising folk - consistently 10 plus knots - and we were slewing around as we surfed down waves at 15 plus knots.

To reduce the load generated by the sails/sea we reduced sail to just the triple reefed main and unfeathered our MaxProp propellers. The postive impact on the boat's motion and our overall comfort was dramatic. Most of the improvement came from using our now rotating unfeathered propellers as mini sea drouges to provide extra drag at the stern. We had not considered using the propellers in this fashion when we purchased them, but the ability to change from no drag (feathered propellers) to drag (unfeathered propellers) is a fantastic feature.

After a long wet and rather bouncy night we decided to pull into the Gold Coast Seaway and by about 10:00 on the 8th of July we were anchored just behind Seaworld and watching filming of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie!

We left the next moring and motored through the narrows behind the Stradbroke Islands before reaching Dockside Marina on the Brisbane river at 17:00. The trip through the backwaters was fun, but obviously not everyone makes it through the shallows and overhanging powerlines safely...

The 'Interim Period' - Lucey Blue MaxProp Feathering Propeller Upgrade

In July 2013 we hauled out Lucey Blue for her annual antifouling at Woolwich Dockyard in Sydney. Nick always enjoys working on the boat and this year was looking better than most as he had two MaxProp feathering propellers ready to install.

We had spent a long time researching the best propeller solution for Lucey Blue. Anything had to be better than dragging fixed three-bladed Volvo Penta propellers through the water, but the cost and complexity of more efficent feathering or folding propellers - such as Gori, Flexifold, MaxProp, Austral Slipstream/Autostream or Kiwi propellers - made the decision complex.

As luck would have it we found two new 'Three Blade Classic MaxProp' propellers that suited our Volvo Penta 130s saildrives for a great price.  The design looked simple, reliable and relatively easy to install and maintain.

The new MaxProp propellers are incredibly well made, but they need to be set to the correct pitch during the installation process, which worried us a little bit. If the propeller pitch is set too high our engines would not be able to reach their maxium design revolutions and if the propeller pitch was set too shallow they could exceed this limit - both outcomes were undesirable. In the end with a bit of help from the local MaxProp representaive and Scott Grittiths from Victory Marine Services the installation was relatively painless.

We finally had propellers that would not hold Lucey Blue back when sailing and hopefully we would see another knot or so of boat speed in light to moderate wind conditions. Nick was particulary impressed with the construction of the MaxProp.

Over the next few days Nick also replaced the lower oilseals on the Volvo Penta 130s Saildrives, serviced our D2-55 Volvo Penta engines, coated the hulls in Interlux 66 Antifouling and cleaned the topsides of Lucey Blue - she always looks better with a new coat of Awlcare protective polymer sealer!

Volvo Penta 130S saildrive overhaul – Lower oil seals and boot covers

The next job onboard Lucey Blue was to service the Volvo Penta 130S sail drives. With the boat out of the water we took the opportunity to replace the lower oil seals, check the drive assembly and inspect the propellers. We also replaced all the saildrive “boot covers” - half of the port boot cover had “gone missing” a while back and it was unclear how long the other would last.

Dismantling the lower element of the sail drive leg was straight forward – remove the propeller, anode and unscrew two bolts.



After checking the drive mechanism for wear and tear we replaced the lower oil seals, o-rings and put everything back together – carefully ensuring the cup side of the seals were back to back to stop water ingress and/or oil leaks. The only real trick is to ensure you don’t loose the two internal washers and sleeve….


All was looking good, but we then found that the fixed three bladed propellers had a little movement on the shaft so we sent them away to be rebushed by a guy in Wollongong. I debated replacing the propellers with either folding or feathering units to improve our sailing performance, but after much discussion and number crunching we decided to stick with what we have for now.

While we opted for a “no change solution” we found some fantastic low drag propellers on the market – including a number made in Australia. The all stainless steel Austral slipstream folding and autostream feathering propellers have a good reputation, are well made and are backed by excellent customer support. But we really liked the Gori folding propellers with their unique overdrive feature, which improves fuel efficiency when motor sailing. We also had a look at Hydralign propellers made in Sydney and the composite Kiwi propellers made in New Zealand.



Replacing the "boot covers" was actually more fiddly than the rest of the saildrive overhaul. After we had removed the old “chop strand" fiberglass covers we laminated up a sheet of fiberglass using “woven matt” to a thickness of about 2-3mm. We then used an old cover as a template and cut out four new covers, which we latter stuck to the hull with sikaflex and a few small counter sunk screws. The new boot covers are much stronger than the old ones and should stay attached to Lucey Blue for years to come....


With our Vovlo Penta 130S saildrives back in one piece we bolted on the new zinc anodes, three bladed fixed propellers and filled the system up with synthetic gear oil. Another job ticked off the list, but plenty more still to come......

Easter Sunday and Barnacled Propellors...

The Easter bunny managed to find his way to us on Lucey Blue, which I thought was rather industrious of him. The kids woke to find some bunnies on the saloon table, and little eggs hidden about the boat. It was fun lying in bed listening to them shrieking about having found eggs here and there.


Against my better judgement we allowed them to start on their bunnies.


Can you say S . U . G . A . R . ?




This is a pic of our youngest later that afternoon...I was going to try and Photoshop in an Easter egg instead of the mandarin...but didn't....you get my drift at any rate...

After we'd got ourselves all together, we decided we'd take Lucey Blue out for a spin. Being without a main....it was just going to be a leisurely motor. We turned on the engines, unsheathed the instruments (except for the chart plotter which wasn't there), returned our tray tables to the upright position and prepared for take-off. Once Nick had taken us off the mooring I gently eased the engines forward and steered us out. I didn't notice anything at first but as I eased the revs up there was an awful lot of shuddering and shaking goin' on. As we watched everything in the cockpit visibly bouncing around we agreed that we should return to the mooring poste haste!

Nick decided that a survey of the propellors was in order, and promptly went in search of his wetsuit (it not being that warm in Sydney Harbour in April). When he eventually went in...this is what he found...


...two months worth of barnacles had made their home on our propellors...


...and a cute little fishy (but we are fairly confident that the fish did not have anything to do with the shuddering and shaking!).

So Nick went about scraping them all off. While he was down there he noticed that part of the rubber fitting around the sail drive leg had come off.


He was very pleased about having discovered this because it explained the presence of some water that he had found in the engine locker...and is easily fixed (next time we haul out).

With the propellors all de-barnacled...we were finally able to set of on our leisurely motor cruise. More about that later!

:-)
Sam.