And then February 11 is finally here. Linde really gets out of the water. We still have to remember that the motor valves have to be opened in order to transport Linde to the elevator. What a great feeling, sailing in February. OK it is only 5 minutes but still, I enjoy it!
After we put Linde in the right place, she is hoisted up. On YouTube I often see people getting very nervous when the boat is in the air. I have no problems with it. I have good faith in the harbor master. It says on the boat elevator that it is suitable for 70 tons. Our 8 tons is not really a problem then. Once she's in the air, it's the first time we can see the underside with our own eyes. Looks pretty good. With high pressure all the fouling is sprayed off and with the fouling also goes the antifouling. We conclude that the antifouling is soft, which is logical, since we do not sail fast.
Just a little background on antifouling. A boat is in the water for a long time and in fresh water(inland water) slowly shells and algae grow on the boat. In salt water, smallpox grows. Especially the latter are very strong and once they are on the boat, you don't sail them off, even if they are dead. If there is a lot of fouling on the boat, the boat will slow down. I have seen pictures of boats that had inches of thickness of fouling(more than 10 cm).
To prevent this somewhat, there are several paints on the market that prevent fouling. These paints used to be very bad for the environment but worked very well. Nowadays there are (fortunately) rules so that the environment is no longer much burdened. The disadvantage is that it does not work as well. This special paint is called antifouling.
There are 2 types of antifouling soft and hard. With hard antifouling, the animals cannot attach very well. When the boat sails hard, the animals usually let go. Now a sailboat does not sail hard enough for this antifouling and there is soft antifouling, This paint, when it is wet, lets go very easily.(micrometer) If animals attach to this and you sail(slowly) then with a little bit of antifouling the animal will let go. So it makes sense that soft antifouling is on Linde. Big disadvantage of soft antifouling is that when the boat is taken out of the water and hosed down with high pressure, a large part of the antifouling is sprayed off. Result, the harbor master is covered in antifouling and you have to apply new antifouling in any case.
In addition to studying the hull, we also look at the anodes. Anodes are metal parts that you put on a ship under water. Anodes are made of a soft metal which dissolves in water faster than other metals due to electricity. On Linde there is not much metal under water. The only thing is the saildrive and the propeller. The saildrive is made of aluminum alloy and the propeller of bronze. So anodes have to be placed on these. If there is a small current (for example in harbors) the anode dissolves before the propeller or saildrive. Now it appears that you have zinc anodes for salt water and aluminum for fresh water. What exactly the idea of that is I am not sure. The fact is, we apparently did already have Aluminum anodes under Linde and they did a good job. The Anode on the saildrive was 1 quarter solved in a year and the one on the propeller a little less.
So in short, we didn't need to get out of the water this year as far as the Anodes are concerned but well, we better start installing new Anodes now anyway.
Studying Linde further, we should not be dissatisfied. No play on the rudder blade. We have no problems with osmosis (polyester layers coming off due to moisture problems, delaminating) on the underwater ship. The only thing that scares me is a spot near the propeller. At first I was afraid of osmosis, but after examination all layers of antifouling and primer appear to be detached almost to the gelcoat(actual polyester layer without protection). No moisture bubbles(osmosis indication) anywhere, thankfully. But then what is going on. Together with the previous owner, we conclude that probably the propeller at high rpm draws air bubbles through a water drain in the cockpit(self-draining cockpit). These air bubbles are then continuously "sprayed" along the hull. Linde motored for several days during the crossing especially at the channel near England at a reasonably high rpm. In addition, a 3-blade propeller was installed a few years ago instead of a 2-blade. So the power under water has increased. On the Azores, it looks like they applied primer over the old antifouling. This layer is not strong enough for this force and is coming off. I will have to completely scrape off at least 1 square meter until the polyester layer....
So what's on the schedule over the vacations in February
That will be hard work on my own in 5 or 6 days of "vacation"....
Jacquelien wrote at 01/04/2023:
Roel, wat een werk moet je doen in de wintermaanden. Maar ook ik, als vaar en zeil Nono, leer van je verhaal. Leuk hoor en veel vaar plezier weer komend seizoen.
Nederlands
Roelof wrote at 03/04/2023: