PDQ 32 Catamaran

On our way down to Woolwich for our annual haul out we spotted a PDQ 32 catamaran in Middle Harbour, Sydney.



The boat is a long way from its Canadian birthplace and looks well set up for cruising. This rare sighting in Australian waters made us think of Mike and Rebecca on Zero to Cruising currently exploring the Hudson River in North America.

Coincidently PDQ was bought by Pearson Composites in 2008 – formally part of Tillotson Pearson Inc. (TPI) and builders of Lucey Blue.... so now our boats are kind of related ;-)

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

2010 Sydney Boat Show - Jessica Watson and Lagoon Catamarans

Despite the crowds, we had fun at the boat show looking for odds and ends for Lucey Blue. The kids were great and put in a ten hour day on Saturday which is pretty impressive given Ryan is only four.

We managed to pick up (well...only just managed to pick up ;-) a new Rocna anchor:


...a heavily discounted digital TV system and a few cruising guides for the East coast of Australia from Boat Books.

I also spent some time admiring the Lagoon 400:


A real highlight was Jessica Watson's talk about her round the world solo adventure. Emily really enjoyed meeting Jessica and looking over Ella's Pink Lady.



We were also amazed to see Lucey Blue - a tiny blue spot with a big pink flag (white arrow) - near the head of the welcome home flotilla for Jessica (red arrow) on the back cover of the Jessica Waston's book - True Spirit:

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.