After our first two sails around Moreton, we decided to take a closer look at the condition of things before the serious trip to Newcastle. First stop was the engine, an original 1976 Perkins tractor diesel, marinised for boats. While it doesn’t look the best, it still seems to go strong and reliably. The coupling from gear box to propeller shaft however, was about to disintegrate! Of the four bolts holding it together, all were loose and worn, only two had nuts, and one was sheared off. If I hadn’t replaced the bolts, the coupling would have flown to bits and the propeller could have pulled the shaft out of the boat. This would leave a nice hole for water to flood in, and given us that sinking feeling.
Next was finding the sacrificial zinc anode in the heat exchanger completely disintegrated. The anode is designed to corrode first, before the heat exchanger itself develops holes and dumps all the coolant into the bilge. With a new anode and a little more peace of mind, I went aloft to inspect the rigging. I knew the rigging was old (20 years old in fact!) but I was leaning towards changing it back in Newcastle. The condition of the backstay attachment changed my mind pretty quick. As you can see from the picture below, a rather large crack was developing and would not have stood up to rough seas. If it had failed, the backstay would have come crashing down to the deck and the mast would shortly come down too!
With the help of local rigger David Lambourne and a crane, we removed the mast as the sun set. Unfortunately the large pin that the mast hinges on at the base was completely corroded and stuck. We spent 40 minutes and two hacksaw blades cutting through it on each side in order to remove the mast. It was well and truly dark by the time we finished loading the mast onto a trailer to be taken back to the workshop. Makroro is now mastless and awaiting shiny new rigging!
