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Friday, June 14, 2019

Heading back to Australia.....by jet :(

During my time in Roompot Marina in 2018, I worked long hours and achieved a great deal in the five weeks living aboard Roaring Forty. The unexpected delays when I arrived in August compounded when delayed by technical issues, resulting in abandonment of my grand plan to sail Roaring Forty home by Jan 19. A new plan is being hatched.


I cannot wait to unleash the potential of the old girl.
This won't happen quickly as I will need to ease into the relationship to allow time to get to know Roaring Forty so I don't break either the boat or myself! Here are some more pics of the work I have undertaken.



Code Zero tacked in place and unfurled..... probably for the first time in 7 years. The sail is in excellent condition and mounted on a Facnor Custom Furler.


Coming along nicely. This is the port mid-aft watertight compartment housing my electrical gear mounted on the centre line. The black piping and valves make up the water ballast transfer system leading to mid and aft tanks providing 1000 litres of sea water ballast per side (600 fore/400 aft) or the equivalent of 10 big crew sitting on the rail but without the food or bar shout costs!


Plenty going on in the chart table and Instrument Panel was nowhere near complete at the time this pic was taken. A full rewire of the Instrument panel will be part of my at-home refit but for now its new wires running in parallel so I know what goes where to minimise risk.


Volvo Penta D1-30 with saildrive and Flexofold 2B folding prop. No concerns about engine or fuel as the entire system has been cleaned and a dual filter with changeover valve installed.

Attached the safety day-glow tape after driving my big toe into the end of the foot rest one night in the rain.......it was not a pleasant experience.


Had to dismount the Stealth D400 wind Generator as the bearing mount had play. It is one heavy bit of gear and I wanted to be able to get it off without assistance as if at sea so I rigged the spinnaker pole, added some block and tackle and wollah...off in a jiffy.....well an hour. So its off back to the OEM in the UK for an overhaul, new blades and a new bearing sleeve to ensure a snug fit in the black carbon fibre A-Frame. I guess its been around the world once and crossed the North Atlantic several times so its no wonder there was some play.


When I was in the US I picked up this great piece of kit. Its a Weems and Plath Barometer. Shows history, has alarms for pressure drops and rate of change and can run of house batteries or AAA batteries.


The rust annoys the crap out of me! The Sailman 35 Series Luff Boxes secure and apply tension to the sail battens. The machine screws holding the boxes together must be 304SS as they have bled everywhere. Will replace all the screws with 316SS and then eventually clean up the sail so it does not look so industrial!   

Still need to measure the Dyneema strops with snap shackles that will secure the tack for each reef. As the sail is progressively reefed down, the luff (fwd edge of the sail) stack increases so you cannot use the previous reefing strop as its too short. You also need to keep the tack point close to the mast.

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