Boat Spa 2018

We are not particularly fond of the trip through the ‘swamps’ between Moreton Bay and The Gold Coast waterways. This is probably coloured by memories of high anxiety the first trip through 2 years ago, so finding ourselves around Southport a month before our scheduled Boatworks haul-out date gave the following options:- (1) hang around the Gold Coast waterways for a month, (2) return to Moreton Bay for a month, or (3) ask the Boatworks if they could haul us out early. Lucky, lucky, lucky us; they were able to bring forward our lift. Mentally though, we weren’t quite ready. No matter: needs must!


We had a couple of ‘big’ items on our ‘to do’ list and a couple of things that emerged. Luckily we’d opted for 1 week on the hard stand to be followed by 3 days in a wet berth. In the 2 previous years we’d taken a 5 day deal - get hauled out Wednesday, have Sat/Sun free with a splash back on Monday. A bit too manic!

Although our booking time was in the afternoon, the lifting crew were ready for us early. By the time I’d gathered the items we’d need over the next 2 hours e.g. paperwork etc... we were already in the sling and airborne. No time for nail biting. The Bloke must be getting accustomed to it.

We were up in a flash

Peering at your boat’s underside is quite interesting. How effective was the anti-fouling paint? What’s the prop and rudder looking like?Are those Through-hull openings (skin fittings) still viable?

  That green stuff on the gel coat will be a thing of the past once we extend the waterline

Land travel in the travel lift. 

We probably kept the tracker on .... ooops we're not really on the tiles.

We were actually surprised how good the bottom looked. Notable exceptions were the 4 square areas where the support pads had been during the previous hard stand visit. Zofia gets suspended for 30 minutes in the slings prior to being returned to the water (splashed) to allow for some anti-fouling paint to be applied where the support pads were. Always a rush and never a good cover. Worse still, it was pouring with rain last year making the last minute daubs less effective. What was very evident was that the prop-speed on the propeller had not done a good job and was the result of a poor job last year. We would ensure a better operator this year.

Two issues here.

Poor application of the Prop-speed anti-fouling paint plus the anode was Sikaflex'd reducing it's sacrificial properties and allowing some pitting in the metal. Grrrr!

A few other nicks and areas of flaky anti-fouling paint were quickly identified. The Bloke marched directly to find Levi (our go-to guy at Ocean Degree Boat Services 0411 722 542) to arrange expert attention and source the anti-fouling paint. We were part of a rally last year and didn't use him. We should have! Then we headed to The Galley cafe for coffee and to draw breath and plan the monster project ahead.