Fueling the New Zealand Economy
Crossing the Pacific Ocean on one’s small sailboat is a unique adventure and one that is still available to anyone who is willing and able to take on the challenge. Though man has been sailing this ocean since he first put a sail in a dugout canoe and though there is presently a plethora of information about the “how to’s” of undertaking this voyage, one is still not always sure what is out there or what one will find. Everyday is unique, and the sense of exploration is upfront and real. Though moments of doubt (sometimes prolonged moments of doubt) do arise, for those aboard these ocean-bound boats, cruising the islands of the Pacific is the making of dreams.
For the poor boats themselves, it can be a nightmare! The ocean is a rough and demanding environment, and once embarked on a voyage, there are few ports of call where reliable service can be rendered for failing parts and where non-functioning equipment can be replaced. Many of these boats find themselves in great need of doctoring as they limp along the last leg of the voyage toward the shores of either New Zealand or Australia. The Captain estimates that for every boat landed on New Zealand’s shore, a minimum of $10,000 to $20,000 is infused into the New Zealand boat service industry alone. (Not counting the money spent on food and travel in New Zealand) Most of these boats have been cruising for a year, some much longer, without being able to obtain competent service or necessary parts. Oh, are they in need!
A boat has aptly been defined as a “hole in the water into which one throws money.” It is now our turn. Avante last saw good service two years ago in San Diego just before we left for Mexico. Since then, she has seen a lot of ocean and the hard use that comes with sailing on passages. Aboard Avante, we feel that part of our role as cruising sailors is to give back to the places we visit by stimulating the local economy. Are we about to help! Avante, newly arrived on New Zealand shores, has joined the line to do her part.
Our list? It reads like a boatyard’s dream!
- Order Parts and Repair Anchor Windlass
- New Batteries
- Service Refrigeration System
- Replace Salt Water Wash Down Pump
- Fix Leaking Hatches
- Fabricate Additional Boat Fiddles for Galley
- Antifoul Paint on Bottom of Boat
- Repair Sails and Replace Jib Sun Cover
- Canvas Work: Repair, Restitch and Redesign
- Service Engine and Generator
- Ability to Use 220v Shore Power
- New Anchor and Anchor Chain
- Find New Backup GPS Chart Plotter
- Service Autopilot
Daily we worked at the list and, by the time we were ready to leave Avante to return to the States, much has been organized for work or repair. Now returned to the boat, we cross off completed work.
Anchor windlass: Parts were ordered immediately after our arrival. The correct parts arrived within two days. “Correct” is underlined because that is not often the operative word when ordering marine parts anywhere in this world, even from one coast of the United States to the next. Here we have in our possession the correct parts and within two days. Amazing! We are going to like this country.
Batteries: Those truck batteries we had bought just a few months ago in Tahiti for $2000 just barely got us to New Zealand. We had expected their demise as these were not the appropriate batteries for our needs, but at the time of purchase, that old adage “beggars can’t be choosers” came into play. These were the only batteries in Papeete that came close to filling our needs which would fit into the battery compartment on our boat. Expected as it was, it was still disheartening to be looking at more battery expense in so short a time.
In New Zealand, we have some choices, and Lifeline AGM batteries are selected as the replacement. They have a reputation for standing up to hard use, and, very importantly, they fit in the space provided. Because we use a lot of electrical power on Avante, The Captain decides to increase our battery capacity by 50% by adding two additional batteries for a total of 6. We now have an arsenal of batteries at work for us and are happy, though initially it was a hard decision to make since the area to be given over to the 2 additional batteries is part of our beer, wine and soda storage space. That’s prime storage space! Something is going to have to give way elsewhere in the boat.
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It it impressive looking down at our 6 batteries all lined up and busily humming out electricity for our hungry boat’s needs. At $800 each, their total cost is impressive, too. The First Mate’s eyes popped when she tallied up that amount. It’s a good thing her female gene for jewels, furs and such has never worked overtime! The end result (for those who are savvy in regards to such things) is that we have jumped from 720 amp hours of battery capacity to 1260 amp hours. This means we can go a lot longer before having to run the generator to recharge the batteries.
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Refrigeration System: In The First Mate’s scheme of things, losing the refrigerator and freezer ranks right up there with losing autopilot. Our system is working, but it is a huge drain on electricity using a whopping 40 amps when it kicks into the cool down mode. We call it “The Killer” because that is exactly what it does to the batteries. In the Pacific Northwest, where the cold water helped maintain the freezer’s temperatures, its impact wasn’t felt as much, but here in the hot tropics, where the refrigeration seems to be working double-time to keep up with the heat, we both cringe when we hear that cooling cycle start. Is there an insulation problem? Is there something wrong with the system itself? Can something be done to improve the cooling or the insulation? A new system would run at least $15,000, a rather uncomfortable amount to consider. The technician, to The First Mate’s dismay and The Captain’s monetary delight, sees nothing wrong. In fact, the technician is very complimentary about the construction of our system and says we have one of the best insulated units he has ever seen. He tops up the refrigerant. That’s it. So, we now know we have a good system. It just eats a lot of electricity to keep itself running so greatly! We will have to live with “The Killer” and plan accordingly.
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The freezer on the left, and the refrigerator on the right are actually two deep, dark cavernous boxes. Until The First Mate came up with a containment system of plastic boxes and spring-loaded mesh bags, any small item that was not so contained did a “Deep Six” into the bowels of the boxes. That item was invariably the next item needed on the food preparation list necessitating a clearing out of all items above the lost item, a dive by The First Mate into the recesses and, most importantly and unfortunately, a severe increase in temperature as all that cold air escaped. Her system of containment has evolved over the years, and rarely does an item now gravitate downward on its own accord.
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Salt Water Wash Down Pump: Replacing this unit did not add to the New Zealand economy for the new pump came with us in our luggage when we flew in from the States this time, but replacing it is certainly going to make our lives a lot more pleasant. The wash down pump is used to hose down the anchor and chain each time we bring it up from a muddy bottom, and it also washes out and over board guts and gore from our freshly caught fish. It’s a much desired part. Our old pump died on the way into the Galapagos last spring. At an outrageous price, we were able to replace it with a less powerful unit that was the best option The Captain could find in the Galapagos. Underpowered as it was, we were happy to have any pump. This pump lasted only until we reached Papeete. It had failed in less than five months! Granted it lives side by side with the anchor windlass in the sail locker, a nasty, wet place for anything electrical and motorized, still one does question a mere 5 months of life for a unit supposedly designed to live in such an environment. The Captain took it apart to try to repair it and could not believe how poorly made and badly designed the pump was. He was so irritated that he wrote the manufacturer about our experience, describing what he found in detail.
The manufacturer apologized and sent us a new unit — the same exact model! It’s the thought that counts, one must consider, so we will keep this replacement pump as a temporary backup if ever needed. We had already ordered a new, larger wash down pump from a different manufacturer, and this is the pump that we installed.
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Wedged into the anchor locker replacing the pump, The Captain does not find this the greatest of working environments. It’s hard to get into, small and tight when one does fold oneself into it, and uncomfortable to stand or kneel on the pile of anchor chain. It’s also hot, musty and moldy. When we are sailing in heavy seas, seawater washes down through the anchor chain hole. No wonder electrical motors don’t like it!
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Raising anchor in PekaPeka Bay, NZ, on our test cruise of the season, The Captain happily washes the mud off our anchor chain using his brand-new wash down pump.
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Leaking Hatches: The hatches on Avante have always leaked a little, but banging around the Pacific along with the heat and simple aging have made them worse. Formerly, it took a good rain or heavy sea spray to drive in the water. Now a fine morning mist causes several of the hatches to drip.
The wet, wild crossing from Tonga to New Zealand created as much havoc inside as it did outside. Unable to use buckets in the rolling seas, we resorted to stuffing towels along edges to catch drips. What a mess! Every half hour or so, the person on watch had to make the rounds to wring out dripping rags of sea water.
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A bright red J/120 is in the marina, and we learn that this boat had had the same problem. The fix, done by the local boatbuilder, was to remove all the hatches, re-seal and re-bed them. $4,000! “But these are such small windows,” thinks The First Mate. It is time-consuming, laborious work we are told. Well, it has to be done, or we are eventually going to sink the ship!
The fix is done while we are back in the States. We only have the boatyard’s word that this will work. Does it? Will it? Though we have yet to make a sea trial, the pelting rain we experienced while waiting out a 5-day storm before our departure for Tonga did not once dribble through a window. What a relief!
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Fabricate Additional Fiddles in Galley: What’s a fiddle? Removable slats of wood that when put in place keep items from sliding around on a tilting surface. The First Mate wants 2 additional fiddles added to the one she presently has in the galley. The most important one will function to hold bottles, boxes and glasses in place in a rolling sea. (Note to Crew Mate Tom: Your morning orange juice will now pour directly into that little glass nicely secured behind our new fiddle!)
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Repaint Bottom of Boat: Having already decided to store Avante on land over our return to the States, we decide it will be a good time to have the bottom repainted as it had not been done in two years. The Captain really likes the local boat painter, and after hearing that this man had painted two of New Zealand’s America’s Cup sailboats, a repaint of our transom is added to the list as well. Exposure to the sun and some scars from the Galapagos water taxi service had put it in a sad state. While the stern is being repainted, why not fix those marks from our anchor chain which happened when the anchor got stuck under a wreck in Mexico? Why not? We’re on a roll! More stimulus for the New Zealand economy!
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What a shining beauty she is when we return to her!
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Repair Sails and Replace Sun Cover on Jib: Sails are sent down to an Auckland sailmaker who does a very professional job at a reasonable price.
Canvas Work: Repair, Restitch and Redesign: Tropical sun does a job on threads. After spending painful, tedious hours sewing up part of the dodger, The Captain decides to have all our canvas restitched at the local canvas shop. Our sail cover and bimini need more serious attention due to The First Mate’s insistence in the equatorially hot Galapagos that we put up this massive canvas tent designed to keep the sun from beating directly down on the roof of the boat. It was ugly, ungainly to work and walk around, but it helped keep the inside of the boat cooler. What we did not realize until we removed the thing two weeks later was that, in the rolling harbor of Academy Bay, the tent had been chafing our other canvas. We now had holes in both sail cover and bimini. The Captain was furious, and if The First Mate had not insisted upon keeping the tent, it would have gone overboard. It is truly is amazing that it did not then and has not since!
Tweaking one’s living environment on a sailboat is a constant creative activity, and all those solitary middle of the night watches we had sailing across the Pacific gave us plenty of time to invent solutions to nagging problems. The Captain comes up with a redesign for 2 areas of canvas that had been bothering him. One is for the canvas lee cloth that covers the pilot berth. We found that we never used the pilot berth. With the aft cabins and the comfortable saloon sofas, there was no reason to crawl into the pilot berth. We use it instead for storage of bigger, bulkier items like our medical kit, ditch bag and all The First Mates’ “designer pillows”.
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The small lee cloth that came with the boat just did not cover enough of the area, and the space looked ugly.
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The new cover designed by The Captain stretches tightly across the berth, but with 3 big zippers, access is easy. The design stills allows the space to be used as a bed if the need were ever to arise.
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The second area that The Captain was determined to address was the need for rain and sun protection on deck when under way. We did a lot of sailing last year in the rain with the wind behind us. In those conditions, there is not much rain protection in the cockpit. We have a connector between the dodger and the bimini that was used a lot when we were motoring in the rain in the Pacific Northwest, but it attaches securely to the bimini with zippers. As our mainsheet travels in front of the bimini and must be free to move back and forth, the old connector was not useful under sail.
We wanted something that could be quickly set up or dropped to use on long passages where the boom often stays on the same side of the boat for days. The Captain and the owner of the canvas shop came up with a great design with snaps that easily and quickly release when necessary.
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Service Diesel Engine and Generator: It’s time. It’s been 2 years since this was done by professionals. We need these critical items to be reliable and with expert servicing available, work is completed.
Ability to Use 220v Shore Power: The Captain works with the people installing our new batteries to solve this problem. We have a US boat with a 110 volt AC electric system. Much of the rest of the world runs on 220 volts and so do their marinas. How can we access this 220 volt shore power so we do not have to run our generator in the quiet of a marina 3 or 4 hours a day? A compact 220v battery charger is installed. We can now connect to shore power and charge our batteries. This solution covers our electrical needs except when we want hot water. Because our hot water tank uses a lot of power, it is set up to heat only when either the engine or generator is running. Thus, we still have to run the generator for about a half hour to heat water, but that is tolerable for all concerned.
New Anchor and Anchor Chain: Our old stainless steel plow anchor is a thing of beauty, but beauty is not everything. Our patience had worn thin with its tender anchoring capability. To verify that we had a secure anchor set, we would back down on the anchor fairly hard. To our irritation, much too often, all our old anchor would do is plow a furrow across the anchorage bottom. They don’t call it a plow anchor for nothing! Frequently, we would have to repeat the process at least once, often more. It was an embarrassing pain, and even with our anchor alarm, we never felt totally secure with that old anchor when the winds freshened. Tired of all this, The Captain is intrigued by the reputation of the New Zealand-made Rocna anchor. We purchase a 33kg Rocna which is 20% heavier than our old anchor.
As long as we are replacing the anchor, we might as well replace our badly rusting old anchor chain with a new chain, increasing its length by 50% while doing so. We cannot count the number of times that we have anchored at depths where we wanted 25 to 50 feet more anchor rode than the 200 feet of chain that we previously had. Though we were always able to let out the additional scope with the 200 feet of nylon anchor rode we had added before we went to Alaska, it is a much more secure feeling to be riding on an all chain anchor rode when the wind is blowing over 30 kts.
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Our new Rocna is not the shining stainless steel beauty that the old plow anchor was, but it is going to hold us in place much more securely. We happily make the trade: beauty for piece of mind!
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Our new Rocna anchor stands by its reputation. After our 10-day test cruise around the Bay of Islands, we are very happy with it. It set and held right where we dropped it making anchoring a lot more enjoyable and secure experience. (Note: The beautiful stainless steel anchor is stored deep in the sail locker for the day, if ever, that Avante becomes a “dockominium” boat owned, of course, by another.)
Find New Backup GPS Chartplotter: We had been using an old Northstar GPS Chartplotter as a backup. It provided GPS position only, as charts for it were expensive and not very good. When its antenna failed on the way across the Pacific and a replacement antenna was found to cost around $300, The Captain decided he was going to look into completely replacing this old system. As he already had pretty good worldwide Garmin Blue Charts installed on his PC, he contacted Garmin and explained that he was looking to replace his backup chartplotter with a Garmin model that would use our Garmin Blue Charts. Unfortunately, the simple answer was that none of the current Garmin models would do this, and that if we were to buy a current model, we would have to buy a number of new chart cartridges for the areas that we needed. The last thing The Captain wanted was a backup unit that complicated his life further by requiring a whole new set of charts. The Captain explained this to the Garmin representative who turned out to be a very savvy and quick-thinking salesman. Admitting upfront that he eventually wanted to see a new Garmin unit on our boat, he told The Captain that certain older models of Garmin chartplotters could utilize the Garmin Blue Charts we already had and that they could be purchased new from internet sources such as The First Mate’s favorite, Ebay.
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Even better, they were heavily discounted from the original price. The Captain purchased one, and installed it on the boat. It is exactly what he wanted. The Blue Charts that it uses are not as detailed as the ones on our primary GPS Chartplotter, but they are sufficient for a backup system. Also, running them on the new chartplotter means we do not need to keep the PC running all the time. That Garmin representative has probably secured himself the future sale for which he is hoping!
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Service Autopilot: After 25,000nm, our B&G autopilot ram definitely needs servicing. Like our refrigeration system, it is working fine. It just needs a tune-up. B&G only has one authorized dealer in New Zealand. The autopilot is removed and sent off to this dealer in Auckland before we leave in December. It is not back when we return at the end March. After several phone calls, the unit is finally sent back to us, and we discover that only part of the job was completed. A critical external pin was also missing, but The Captain noted this and replaced the pin before he reinstalled the unit. By now, The Captain is questioning the competency of the work that had been done. The autopilot is installed. We set out on our test cruise, raise the sails, set the autopilot, and it does not work. It will not hold the course. Back we go to the marina with one very mad Captain aboard. The dealer, when contacted, maintains that his people did nothing wrong. But, he clearly does not know how to fix it and instead of helping us work out the problem, he disappears. For a while, it looks like we might even have to buy a whole new autopilot because of what B&G’s authorized service people had done. Only through contacts back in the US (Thank you, Eric Rogers!), did The Captain learn how to recalibrate it and get the autopilot working again. Does B&G ever need a new dealer in New Zealand!
The local chandlery in the marina whom we worked with turned out to be terrific. They were extremely knowledgeable, eager to help in any way and had a good supply of items. They could also order in most parts fairly quickly, as they did with the motor/gearbox for our anchor windlass. Our account with them fairly blossomed!
With the exception of the autopilot, we are very pleased with the work we have had done on Avante in New Zealand. With our contribution of about $30,000 this year, we certainly can say we have done our bit to fuel the New Zealand boating industry.