We didn't buy Indian Summer after all. It turns out that it has a serious problem, a rotten leaky hull!
There was quite a thick growth of barnacles and algae on the hull and so we had the boat hauled out of the water to scrape and paint the bottom and for a closer inspection of the undersides, a procedure we thought would be a simple routine.
Maneuvering into position to be lifted out of the water.
Up she goes ...
With the owners ..
Pressure wash to remove the loose muck.
At first it all looked good.
After a few hours of hard labour scraping barnacles and old paint by hand, we noticed a drip building up along a small hairline crack below the engine bilge. One of the boatyard workers came over and said "Oh! that's much more serious than it looks" and took out his car keys, scraped a bit and out popped a bit of metal followed by bucket-loads of water.
Yikes! Indian Summer had been slowly sinking!
After a few minutes of watching this stream of water in dumbstruck horror, it got even worse. The water was followed by oil, thick black dirty smelly engine oil! Now we had an environmental disaster as the slick slowly oozed towards the Brisbane bay. Oops! Panic! Dashed off to find the boatyard manager and he quickly energised his oil spill disaster kit. We managed to contain it.
Aluminium can be the best material for boats and it can be the worst. It's strong and doesn't rust like steel and doesn't absorb water like fiberglass and it doesn't rot like wood and it can last forever.
However there's a recipe for turning Aluminium to powder. First you'll need a few bits of copper or lead. A few coins and a couple of lost fishing sinkers and bits of wire will do. Scatter these loosely on top of the Aluminium. Cover everything with a low oxygen electrolyte. Bilge-water capped with a layer of oil works really well. Then apply a trace electric current, a few poorly insulated wires touching anywhere on the Aluminium does the trick. Sit back and watch the destructive magic of electrolysis.
Unfortunately Indian Summer had experienced that combination of neglect.
The repairs will be very difficult and very expensive. And not for me.
2 comments:
So pleased you dodged that purchase!
Looking forward to your next prospective boat....with hopefully a far more productive outcome!
Love
D
xx
I knew that boat well and cruised in company with her from Gladstone to Port Douglas in 1981. It was launched in 1980 and built for dear friends of mine Ralph and Connie Milne. It originally had free standing ALUMINIUM masts but they broke in less than a year and within a matter of days of each other.
I never liked the method used to install the boat's ballast (steel balls set in pitch) and I remember remarking to Ralph that if just one of those balls is in contact with the aluminium you will have trouble. With engine oil floating around dissolving the pitch its a wonder it lasted 37 years before breaking through.
Ralph passed away 10 years back but would have been sad that his beloved Indian Summer ended up with such problems.
Post a Comment