It is maintenance time for Take It Easy and as usual there is always more to do than you thought, it takes longer than you would like and costs more than you planned to spend! Boats are holes in which to throw money and the annual haul out is a particularly scary time.
Dawn on the Coomera River, as we wait to be hauled out… red skies in the morning, sailors’ warning!
It was just going to be a quick clean, antifoul, engine service… two days on the hard at the most! Yeah… right! It is not until six days later that we are getting back in the water! splash time is later today.
So what happened?
Let’s start with the worst bit. Over the past years layer after layer of antifoul had built up and after the high pressure jets did their job, the hulls looked like a checkerboard: bits flaking off. Our current black antifoul was no longer adhering to the original green antifoul in a few spots. So we sanded back the flaked patches to the level of the original antifoul, put on two coats of primer, then could proceed to apply a couple of coats of new antifoul. That took three days! We both looked a bit scary as we wet sanded. Check out this photo of my darling. I’m just as bad, but luckily I am hiding behind the camera!
Gorgeous!
We thought the blue hulls looked rather dull and faded. They needed a cut and polish and a paint touch up in a couple of spots. We got “143 Boat Building” to handle this. That job took four days!
Men at work!
Cut and polish – big job!
Every time we haul out we get the Yamaha mechanics to service our two outboards. And we left the dinghy motor with the Honda dealer on the way up the Coomera river. Note to self: better not forget to pick up the Honda…
While out of the water, we finally were able to remove the old sounder and instal the transducer that communicates with our Raymarine Multi Function Display. Remember that saga from nearly a year ago when our navigation gear got stolen and the replacement MFD could not talk to one of our two transducers? And remember how we beached TIE, Wade started taking the old sounder off but felt too nervous to complete the task with the tide coming back in? Well just as well he did not proceed then because the hole for the new transducer was not quite big enough. It took a few hours to adjust it, cover the raw timber with Everdure wood preservative and then fit the transducer in the enlarged hole at the bottom of the hull smothered with Sikaflex – a very messy job and one that takes a lot longer than a low tide lasts!
It has been hot, sticky, dusty and hard work. A week like this reminds us there are certain things about boating we really dislike… But we have to sing the praises of The Boatworks. It was our first experience at hauling out there. Everything was coordinated very well. These guys do have the works and made our life easier. Every boat trade you can think of is at hand, they have really thought of everything, even allowing live-aboards and their pets to stay on their boat on the hard instead of having to find a hotel room somewhere.
Great facilities, very helpul people, nothing is too much trouble. Everything has been attended to, we have cleaned every surface inside and out, laundered every cushion cover… It all went like clockwork. Take It Easy now looks very nice and shiny, thank you very much. Shame about our bank account!
Sv-Anui 
Well doesn’t TIE look magnificent. Jobs well done, sail safe
Thanks Susie – she’ll turn a few heads now! Very sparkly… we’ll try to keep her that way, but with the extra speed from the clean bottom we might get more splashes 😀
She looks beautiful! What a difference. TIE is much larger than I thought. ❤️👍🏻😎
Hi John – she looks big out of the water… and huge when you have to work on the hulls, that’s for sure!
Lovely to have a clean bottom and everything else looking so spic.
Good job done, I can tell you!
TIE sparkles in the sunshine!
She does, Chris! Look at all those reflections!
Now you’re going feel like you got a new catamaran! I does look new! Great work guys. 🙂
Thanks HJ – yes all spiffy!
Well done fellow Easy owners!! Will you be staying on the Gold Coast for long? Would love to catch up. We saw past you at Airlie but didn’t see you after that as we took our time heading south. Cheers, Jason and Sal, Que Sera.
Hi Jason and Sal, we will be around Moreton Bay and the Gold Coast for a few weeks. Not going south this side of Christmas. Back to Manly to see some family till early next week. Would love to catch up after that!
Her topsides also look great now! Will send photos through of the final hour! Cheers Trish
So good to spend some time together. It felt quite momentous leaving Boatworks with you waving us off. Don’t know when or where we’ll see you next. But we’ll talk soon! 😜🤞
Looking very sparkly and new.
We’ve got to spruce her up for you Phil! Hurry up!
A thing of beauty! (and that’s not just Wade with sanding debris all over him!)
One is really a thing of beauty, the other is a wee bit frightful!
Hey I like those stands, guys. I wish I had a couple for our antifouling. Not looking forward to that job!
Yes, that’s when you realise you have a big boat!
T.I.E is looking fantastic – by the way! Oh, and while you are in range: can I ask you to run a tape up your stanchions? I’m trying to decide which height we should install.
Thanks Pete! Our stanchions are 62cm high.
OK: Thanks heaps!
Congrats on getting the job done. Just remember houses are also just vessels that we throw money into. Houseproud people will find even more ways to throw money into their vessel as you two. The main difference is that for sea vessels the chances of drowning goes up as vessel maintenance goes down – not true for us land lubbers, leaking roofs have little correlation with drowning risk.
Yes, all structures need maintenance. The frustrating thing is that when you throw money at a house you do it to an appreciating asset, whereas with a boat it is a depreciating asset, not to mention it lives in a very harsh environment and it is not very forgiving if you do a poor job.