Work on the Hard ... and Then the Launch!

Original post - rusted in place

What a rusty mess to clean up!

Finally, all cleaned, lubed, packed, and back together

Work on the boat here in the boatyard at Curacao Marine has been hard.  When a boat is in dry-dock the slang is to say that the boat is "on the hard", i.e., not in the water.  Our work has been hard also.  After almost two years of neglect while I was undergoing treatment and recovery, the boat was waiting patiently for us to return to her.  And all of its parts were rusting together.  We have been all over the boat, deep down in the bowels, inside, outside - testing and repairing all of her systems.  On Christmas Eve and Day, we tackled the steering mechanism - in the "basement" of the boat.  The tiller in the cockpit connects under the floor with a stainless steel post to a plate, with Teflon packing to keep out the water, outside the boat below to the rudder and its large pintles and gudgeons.  The plate needed to be raised and the packing replaced.  But it wasn't going anywhere.  For two days, Larry was banging on the metal with a variety of hammers, wrenches, and other prying devices, using every lubricant we had to get the pieces free.  Finally - it came! And a rusty mess it was, requiring sanding, chipping, and then metal restorer and Lanocote.

A view from above at our backstay turnbuckle.  Ugly, ugly, ugly.

Another view from the side.  An accident waiting to happen

Another problem, easier to fix, I found while spending many hours polishing the stainless around the boat.  The backstay fitting above keeps the mast up, along with other rigging on the sides and the front of the boat.  If this had given way under sail, say, in the middle of the Caribbean, the mast would likely have come down.  So it has been replaced, with a sturdier fitting.

Our cutless bearing needed to be rebedded

Another multi-day project involved the propeller shaft.  We found the cutless bearing which surrounds the shaft had slid out past its spot in the hull.  We had to dig out the set screws holding it in place, and then new screw holes had to be re-tapped and bedded, the chips and old screw holes re-epoxed and painted.  Of course this happened over the New Years holidays, when everything on the island closed for six days.

The tractor, with the Debonair on its trailer behind

A view from the rear as it makes its slow way through the yard

Slowly, slowly, into the water at the slipway

Finally, on Tuesday, January 6, exactly one month after we had arrived in Curacao and started work, the Debonair was launched.  A tractor capable of hauling 60 tons, with five and a half foot tall tires, pulls a trailer with hydraulic arms to cradle the boat.  It is a slow process, and the workers and driver have much experience in handling boats far bigger than ours.  Nonetheless, special care is taken with each one, and we have never seen any accidents at this yard.  In other yards, we have seen boats dropped, boats that were sloppily put up on stilts and slid into one another, and other mishaps.

Just one problem - we were taking on water.  Not much, but enough to be concerned about.  As we were puzzling out where the water was coming from, a sixty-ton motor vessel, perhaps 80 feet long, was waiting to use the slipway.  They tried to nose past us:

A view from our cockpit - at the pushy behemoth next in line

We managed to back out in a hurry and get away from the slipway to let them use it.

We have figured out where the leak is - at the wood backing for a hole in the boat to pull in sea water to cool the diesel engine.  It's only about 1/4 cup of water a day.  We'd rather have a dry bilge, but we had some professional opinions on it.  We will have to replace the thru-hull at next haul-out but it is solid and not a big concern.  Of course, to us, any water in the bilge is a concern.

Work continues at the dock, meanwhile.