About us and the boat

About us and the boat:

We were lucky enough to retire early at the start of 2013 so we could head off and "live the dream" on board our Nordhavn 47 Trawler Yacht. The idea is to see some of the planet, at a slow 6 - 7 knots pace. There are no fixed goals or timings, we just had a plan to visit Scotland and then probably the Baltic before heading south.

The idea is to visit the nicer areas in these latitudes before heading south for warmer weather. If we like somewhere, we will stay for a while. If not, we will just move on. So, for the people who love forward planning and targets, this might seem a little relaxed!

If anyone else is contemplating a trawler yacht life, maybe our experiences will be enough to make you think again, or maybe do it sooner then you intended!

The boat is called Rockland and she is built for long distance cruising and a comfortable life on board too. If you want to see more about trawler yachts and the Nordhavn 47 in particular, there is a link to the manufacturers website in our "useful stuff" section. For the technically minded, there is a little info and pictures of the boat and equipment in the same section

Regards

Richard and June

Tuesday, 21 April 2015

High, dry and busy

Well, once you are on the hardstanding, it all kicks off. Cleaning up the sterngear, replacing the anodes, putting some antifouling on the thruster props, cleaning the keel cooler and hydraulic oil coolers etc.

This year it was also time to change the engine coolant. The Lugger engine has wet lined cylinders which mean that an in-situ overhaul is perfectly possible (we hope not to need this!!) However, it also means that you need to keep nice fresh coolant in there. Although the anti-freeze properties might be fine, the various additives degrade over time which help prevent local "boiling" of the fluid.

Draining out the stuff from the keel cooler is a great way to get wet and messy.

The Golden Arrow team returned and dropped the stabilisers to check the seals. Here is one with the fin already removed and the huge nut that holds it place being undone (and no, the huge nut is NOT the man on the ground - he was smart and very nice actually):





We say "dropped" - the port stabiliser refused to budge and took some heavy duty attention including help from their parts guy who was brought in as added muscle. The good news was that the seals and anodes were all OK.

Andrew and Linda were in Cowes and, manically, came over on the ferry to help us for a day. That really is above and beyond anything you could expect! Andrew did the antifouling bits and pieces, put on some anodes, freed and greased the wing engine prop etc. Linda helped clean up the hull and the stainless steel rub rail. It really helped us get ahead of our schedule.

What was the end result of all this effort? Not that exciting really:




The funny colour on the props is some stuff that is supposed to help keep them free from fouling once back in the water. We don't think that it works....

However, Andrew's handiwork is more obvious - the bow thruster props:



Of course, we don't have to antifoul the entire hull as we had the boat Coppercoated when we bought her in 2009. A good move. For non boating folks - see Coppercoat website

We were happy to see the Shamrock team preparing for the relaunch. Somehow a boat always feels better in the water:



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