Swab the decks - Washing Kismet

After our cruise up the Yarra, Kismet was very dirty with scum and dried salt.

We don't have any boat washing places within a 45 minute drive wash-so at-home it was to be.

I used the tarp normally covering the boat as a water capture and arranged the sides so no salt could get on our garden or the  nature strip.

I lay another tarp in front of the big grey one (across the footpath) and rolled the sides to form a gutter. Setup and washing took about 2 hours.

Second Boat outing - to Herring Island

After greasing all the rollers on the trailer we were suddenly confronted with perfect weather today. We organised a picnic lunch and invited daughter and wife's sister to a cruise up the Yarra again - this time 8 NM up to Herring Island.

The boat slid off the trailer with ease and retrieval was easy too. Pictures are going up the river and tied up at Herring Island.

Rollers Greased

Yesterday I removed all 16 rollers (one at a time) greased the shafts and sides of the rollers and spaced the rollers (using galvanised washers) so they stayed more in line with the keel. 

I can now move the boat back and forward while on land.

The next launch should be a lot easier. None of the rollers were frozen but they were difficult to rotate - now they spin freely.

The zinc plated split pins were all I could get so if I had to use them I swapped them up front where the trailer doesn't get immersed.

Waiting for retrieval

This is a nice picture of Kismet while we waited for Fisher folk to finish their trailer refurbish. I should have tidied up that messy line first...

First Launch without drama

We launched successfully for the first time yesterday at 2:20PM at "The Warmies". We were very late getting started but it was important not to stress. We only intended to motor for a couple of hours.

Here I am putting rudders down - not so difficult that I'd bother adding any line system just yet.

Note the PVC pressure pipe tiller. It works fine but feels a bit like a toy.

We motored up the Yarra. here we are approaching the Westgate bridge.

Launching required a bit of huffing and puffing to get the boat moving off the trailer and it was the opinion of an onlooker that we should have reversed in a bit deeper.

The motoring was very nice and we did not take on any water. We ran the motor at about 1/3 throttle and generally made 3.9 to 4.5 knots.

We got back to the ramp at 4:20PM then had to wait while two fishermen fiddled with their trailer for 15 minutes AFTER they quickly launched on our side of the ramps when they saw us tying up.

Retrieval was a real pain as the rollers have 10 to 15mm of sideways movement in them and they all went the wrong way. Retrieval and prep for travel took 1.5 hours. The straps slowed us down a lot too. I'll be looking for a better way to secure the straps to the trailer.

Tiller pivots

The SS 316 Ear expanders (similar to those I used on the Vogue) are my pivots for the tiller.
These are really inexpensive on eBay and the 8mm have a perfect 1/4" internal diameter. The 10mm have about an 8.5mm internal which is a tad sloppy but better than what would happen if I just drilled an 8mm hole in the PVC pipe. I had to buy lots of different sizes to find this out as the ear expander jewelry business isn't terribly accurate on dimensions.

Quick and dirty Tiller

This will give us steering. It's made of 33mm OD PVC pressure pipe. It's helpful that it can be heat bent too!

I've kept all dimensions so I can make a more permanent one when I have time.

We are planning on a motor only launch on Thursday 5th April. Off to the boating shop this afternoon to do the final purchases for safety and legality (flares, fenders, boat hook etc.).