Tidahapah Refit

Benn, looks great! Yellow roof and mast is akin to Mark's Coot. Welcome to the motor sailor crowd sir.

Its all looking great Benn. You must be relieved to be back on the water after 4-5 months on the hard.

CPseudonym said:

Welcome to the motor sailor crowd sir.

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I think we may have to get our own forum section on TF soon.

Anchored up at the Sandhills after a night at Deanbilla Bay.
Deployed the paravanes this afternoon , only as flopper stoppers but an exercise in how they go.
Have used a dynema hanger instead of chain as I think it will be quieter, have Dynex 75 for fwd and upper stays.
So far looks good and performs as expected whilst at rest.
Have to improve my stowage system for the fish but won't do this until I settle on what fish I will use permanently.
A couple of photos of the arms etc.
In that last photo the wire that is lashed to the stay is actually my wire/rope HF radio ant. Far cheaper and just as effective as using the stay itself and installing insulators
Cheers
Benn

CPseudonym said:

Benn, looks great! Yellow roof and mast is akin to Mark's Coot. Welcome to the motor sailor crowd sir.

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Good choice. My Coot has a bright yellow pilothouse roof, but the roof of the forward cabin is tan/straw-colored to reduce glare, and the saloon roof is white for maintenance ease. Yellow definitely makes one more visible.

Yellow roof stems back to when I built her and was going into survey.
It was a requirement then to paint roof signal yellow and the rego numbers were also on the roof.
This was to aid identification from the air.
The deck colour is Internationals "Fighting Lady Yellow".
Cheers
Benn

Congrats Benn. Looks great. You should have a lot of fun with all that. When you went from Deanbilla to the Sandhills, do you go behind Peel, or via the Rous Channel..? Coming the other way at new year, we decided to try the Rous. Wouldn't bother again. Too twisty. looks like a shortcut in the chart, but isn't. Mind you, we were heading for Myora, not Deanbilla.

I`m trying to imagine the discussion at the paint company which led to naming a color "Fighting Lady Yellow". There would be paint colorists, managers, sales people, public relations people, soothsayers, black (or yellow) magic practitioners....Probably needs its own thread, not important enough for that.
That is one great refit, congratulations Benn.

Peter,
We left Deanbilla, up to Dunwich proper across tp peel on the north side over the bay to the west then up to the shipping channel.
I didn't want any shallow water had had enough of that shallow brown shite yesterday when coming around Macleay Is after Karragarra Is.
Sorry mate I'm a blue water man don't like that shallow stuff.
Hope I have scraped the Deanbilla mud off the Excel up here at the Sandhills with this nice sand.
It's been a nice couple of days sorting a few things out and also relaxing doing nuttin at times.
Cheers
Benn

Benn, that's the best way, where you went, all right. All the best for the Sandhills to Mooloolabah leg to home.

BruceK said:

I`m trying to imagine the discussion at the paint company which led to naming a color "Fighting Lady Yellow".

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Perhaps something like this was the incentive.

USS Yorktown (The Fighting Lady)

Based on the movie.

The Fighting Lady - Ask.com Encyclopedia

Ben, a few more pic's of motor sailers I have come across in the last week or so.I will post them in two parts as I have trouble uploading more than three pic's at a time.This one is at Cottage Point, quite a few wooden boats there.

These are from a boat visiting the club yesterday. I bumped into him on the dock and we got chatting. She was built in 47', I think. originally a Tassie cray boat.

The wheel house is not original, she was built with a tiller.

The owner took her down from Sydney to the last Wooden boat festival in Hobart, then he took her around to the west coat to do some commercial work.

Funny thing is I talked to him for quite a while, never even asked him his name, remiss of me.

First photo is to keep Pete happy.

Thanks for the "Fighting Lady" info, I see she has a place in US Naval history.
Andy, that impressive ex Tassie cray boat was at the RMYC Wooden Boat Festival last year.

Andy,
Thanks for those.
Skomer I know .
I ran into the family in Bundy some years ago when Gayle and I were cruising north, fantastic , solid Scottish built vessel..

Love the Tassie cray boat, that was my first choice when I was getting a large boat but was talked out of it by the guy who was selling it to me back in 93.
So ended up building a new timber sharpie instead of refurbishing an older cray boat.
I think I made the right choice in the end.
Cheers
Benn

Andy G said:

First photo is to keep Pete happy.

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Naah...I have Super Sarca Andy, that's a Sarca Excel - Benn has one of those though...they are good...maybe if I ever lose my present one..?

BruceK said:

Thanks for the "Fighting Lady" info, I see she has a place in US Naval history.
Andy, that impressive ex Tassie cray boat was at the RMYC Wooden Boat Festival last year.

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According to Val Jenkins, an American powerboat industry guy. (Production manager for Mako, Black Fin, Cigarette, Egret, and vice-president of Cigarette and Chris-Craft.) "Fighting Lady" was a 36' sportfishermen for which the paint colour was originally mixed in the 1960's.

Tad,
Thanks for that.
I knew it had game fishing connections but was not sure of the exact origins.
Love it as a hull colour for centre console or flats boat.
Cheers
Benn

Now that I have left the yard my mates 61' Norman Wright is about to get the paint job.
In the shed just prior to getting the gloss coat.

Some time ago someone asked me what sail area I would be carrying and at that stage I didn't know.
Have now worked out the areas of the new sails.
genoa is 24 sq mts (250 sq feet)
main is 24 sq mts (250 sq feet)
Mizzen is 12 sq mts (125 sq feet)

Hope to get away early November , heading and this should be my first real chance to test run my sails and also try out and experiment with my paravanes.
Benn

Away at last.
Good weather window so departed Mooloolaba at 0300 hrs this morning.
Now just off Double island Point.
Low swell with a nice light 5 knot breeze.
Deployed the fish for the first time and system is working well a few more days of experimentation and will try my other set as well.
Will steam straight to Fitzroy Reef 32 hrs a for a bit of spearing before heading out to the swains.
A couple of shots of the arms deployed

Very cool! Good for you!!!

Love the updated, keep them coming. Your boat is awesome!

Good for you and I know you'll have a great time out Fitzroy and the swains.


Thats a very light looking set of arms compared to some I have seen on similar style vessels.



Mind you, these are probably the original trawling arms which had far greater loads.

Yeah the ones on Lifeline are the original gallows that also towed the prawn nets.
With the masts the loads are transferred to the mast and down to the keel.
Small problem have had to call into Pelican Bay just inside the Wide Bay Bar and do an exhaust leak .
Hope to get away tomorrow and will now go up the inside of Fraser Island.
Just getting away has been a whole load of fun.
Cheers
Benn

Exhaust leak fixed and underway again.
left pelican Bay this morning and travelling up the inside of Fraser island.
Depart From Rooney Point tomorrow morning for Fitzroy Reef where we will start fishing and diving before heading out to the Swains.
All is good with the world.

Cheers
Benn

Tidahapah said:

Exhaust leak fixed and underway again.

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What was the nature of the exhaust leak? Failed component or lose parts? Typical shakedown stuff?

Great to hear you're having so much fun. Love the updates.

Back inshore and tied up in Mackay after 11 days at sea and anchor inj the reef.
We actually had supurb weather for the whole time nearly that good it wasn't worth putting out the sails or running the paravanes.
Had one day under sail and power and the system works a treat.
The paravanes worked well but require a little tweaking for one man operation and I am yet to use the other set of fish so testing is incomplete.
I will post some photos when I get home to Mooloolaba .
Just completing the clean up and ready to leave the boat here for a month or so.
Fishing and spearing was as good as it gets and at times we had vis over 20 mts , like diving in gin down side the fish can see just as well.

All systems worked better than ever and I am really happy with the new solar panels inverter/charger, battery set up. gen set time is really down.
Ran it every other day just to run the water maker.
Will be back later with more info and photos.
Cheers
Benn

Andy G said:

These are from a boat visiting the club yesterday. I bumped into him on the dock and we got chatting. She was built in 47', I think. originally a Tassie cray boat.

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Andy, that boat is as old as I am...oops, slips....

Hey, re you pic upload issue...how are you adding in the pics..? Are you doing it via the thumbnails system under the 'Manage attachments" section, or are you adding them via the insert image icon at top of the screen. If the latter, that explains it as they do come in very large, so you are limited, but if via the manage attachments section, they should allow several at least. If not even that way, it just means your camera is too good, ie too high resolution, (ie too many megapixies), so you need to scale them down a bit in your photo-manager, whatever system you are on. Just a thought.