keltik

Can't beat a day at the lake with you, your kids and your Johnson. As a staunch 4stroke advocate, it's hard for me to approve. But the boat to motor ratio makes it ok.

To be fair, WoFs are one of the least profitable things most workshops do. Let's assume a normal retail hourly rate of $130. This gives you just over half an hour to do a WoF at our current charge of $69... Before you take into account the $4 for the label and check sheet. The average new vehicle WoF takes 45mins - with an old rusty shitter or more complex vehicle taking up to hour and a half (extra time to look things up in the virm and check rulings). Plus the risk vs reward is rubbish. Miss some defects and potentially get your WoF authority pulled creates a massive ballache. Rust and perished rubber components are a constant problem for consistency amongst inspectors

I need to do something about the depth sounder. Occasionally it would miss a few pings and report the depth as deeper than it was. The only thing worse than a broken gauge is an unreliable one. Now I could have sent this one back to Midas, replaced the transducer and got them to service and recalibrate it... But a Raymarine ST60 came up on trademe and it has some nice new features along with massive numbers I can actually read. This one will also network with my autopilot and display course errors, waypoints n stuff. Also has auto gain control and a much better backlight. Had to upgrade the transducer. Rather than remove the original one, I decided to install the new one slightly further back in a flatter part of the hull that's less likely to get turbulent water over it. Plus the original one had a lot of glue around it so was probably going to be a mission to remove. Now I'll keep my eyes open for the matching Raymarine speed and wind gauges.

In today's episode of "5 minute jobs that took multiple hours" we have some upgrades. Repaired the deck underneath the keel hoist sheaves. Moved the jib sheet to the cabin top self tailing winch. This will make it much easier to trim the sail from a comfortable position. And attached this little placard in the cabin. Hopefully I'll get another one to go with it next winter.

How resilient are Carina diffs and axles?

Yup that worked. Precision work with a flogged out excavator. Nicely done. Many thanks for your help Mr Bell. Didn't actually get a photo of it all nicely painted. What a rookie mistake.

Things to do; Move the cockpit spinnaker winches so they don't jab you in the hip when you sit down. Keep an eye on the trademe for some second hand instruments. Take a little bit more rake out of the mast by shortening the forestay another inch. Investigate running the jib sheet onto the coachroof so it's easier to trim. Reseal some more deck fittings. Fit the toilet.

Final race in the winter 2 handed series done on Saturday. Was a mint day for it and we made some good tactical calls resulting in a bottle of rum for first place. We had a good lead through the first part of the race but La Vida was catching us quickly.... Until we managed to run aground, luckily it was on a narrow sand ridge and we dragged our keel over it after a few seconds. Going to need to slap some more paint on there. La Vida was distracted trying to keep out of the way of a container ship so didn't notice our sudden loss of speed. She decided to follow our course and smacked into the same ridge but got stuck. The win was the best father's Day present I could've hoped for. The old man did his victory jig when we crossed the line and we celebrated at the club. Sunday was another awesome sailing day and I was out on La Vida in the open series race. 2nd place meant some more well earned beers.

@johnnyfive Would need about 5-6 metres lift height and weight should be somewhere around 150-250kg. I'll give it a try with Kato, the last person I saw doing this used a digger so it seems legit.

Got the solar panel hooked up and the engine charging circuit. Added some hanging wardrobe organisers for storing odds n ends. Cabin lighting sorted with a single white/red light in the fore cabin and some LED strips in the saloon. The LED strips drew a bit more current than expected so added a switch to the port side lights so you can run half if you don't need max intensity. Next up, new seat squabs for the interior, fit the shitter and hopefully some more reliable instruments.

A bit of progress but it's all stuff that doesn't photograph easily. Let's start with the race results; So we have a DNF, A didn't start, 2nd place and 3rd. One more race to hold onto third place in the series. Trying to find somewhere friendly with a gantry crane so I can lift the keel out the top to antifoul paint it so I can leave the boat moored for a few months over summer. Can only drop it down 12inches on the trailer before it hits the axle so will have to come out the top. Plan B is to get the marina travel-lift to hold the boat for an hour while I slap some paint on... But that will be money.

Got the lighter weight pink spinnaker out last Sunday. It's in great shape. Then Saturday this week, sent it around Karewa Island in perfect conditions. https://i.imgur.com/cMBiU59.mp4 Then the skipper for Sunday's open series race decided to go fishing because his boat wouldn't move in the 5 knot winds... So took the missus out on ours instead. Got the boat at the marina until next weekend's 2 handed race. Then I can tow it home and make some progress and post some more project thread content.

Only because "Grunty Chicken" didn't enter this series

Open series race on Sunday was around Karewa island, finished second in the boat I was on. Couldn't have asked for a better weekend tbh. And the cherry on top, placed second in the 2 handed race on my boat. Can't wait to try and repeat this success in 3 weeks. Next post should be my wiring upgrades finished with solar panel and engine charging circuit hooked up.

Been doing some work on this thing the last few weeks. Managed to re-wire the whole boat, add cabin lights and make some ropes neater with new pulleys and shackles. Note to the previous owner; please don't wire everything with 6 core alarm wire. Sure it can handle the current but it just looks crappy. The speedo has started working better since I replaced the wiring to the sensor. Not sure why or how. That tinned marine wire is good stuff. All the copper core wire I pulled out was BLACK within a meter of any join. Today was the 3rd round of the winter series 2 handed race. We turned up and officially finished our first race! Had a cracking good battle against a very nice chap in a Ross 930 - "The Bondi Tram". Great name. Had the bigger foresail up and conditions could not have been better for us. Should get the results tomorrow night after the open series race which I'll be doing on a different boat. Mine will be up at the Marina for the next 3 weeks so hopefully I can get a few more weekends with good weather to make the most of it.

T58 conversion if this doesn't work. Then you can run 19,000rpm all day

Reposting this because i like it.

Mr postman brought me a present today. He also seems to have decimated the poor old credit card. But after a couple hours work, I've got the new struts in. Was interesting to find the drivers side one is slightly different to all the others I've seen, not sure why the lower bellows extends all the way to the mounting fork. Not the most thrilling update. I did replace the rear tyres while I was at it. Had the new ones sitting on the rack at work since January so nice to fit them up. Was a good learning experience trying to get 35 profile tires with stiff sidewalls mounted. Next up, do the oil service it's well overdue for, replace the leaky transmission cooler pipe and get some new engine mounts. On the bright side, the ride quality is much improved compared to the dubious second hand shocks before they exploded.

Well that's less than me freighting this one to you lol

Got a seized Mazda 3 here with the older LF engine. Would that bolt on underneath your oil pan adaptor? (The 2.3L L3 engine has the same filter housing but with an oil cooler opposite the filter pointing upwards).

Just has to comply with normal WOF rules I believe. Never had to cert a new ute build... Even the ones with hydraulic tipping decks

Had my first race in the 2 handed series on Saturday. Conditions were perfect for my boat with very light winds so we ran the bigger foresail which I've never used before. It was the right call because we spent the whole race wringing every bit of performance out of what little wind was available. We signed on for the race via radio and were given a 1pm starting time....which was a problem since we were ten mins away from the start line and only had 5 minutes to get there. Crossed the line at 1:06pm and got straight into a battle with a Farr 1020. Managed to stay alongside the Farr and eventually took the lead. This made my dad happier and prouder than I've managed in the previous 30years. He was literally doing his happy dance. We were heading back towards the mount when the Farr sailed a course further into the harbour while I was heading straight across the entrance taking the shortest route to the next mark. It became apparent who was right as the outgoing tide swept us into a wind shadow underneath the mount and pulled the boat out the harbour entrance at alarming speed. Diagram attached, red line is the next mark we were headed for. I wasn't the only one, a bit further out the entrance was the boat that had been in first place. With no steerage, no control and seeing how hopeless the situation was - I fired up the engine and motored back into the harbor to a safe position and resumed sailing but planned on withdrawing from the race for cheating and using the iron sail We continued to fight towards the last mark, but with the wind dropping even more, it was impossible to make progress against the current. So after spending 30 mins tacking upwind to gain absolutely no ground - we called it a night and headed home. Turns out the Farr we passed and then got passed by finished in first place. The boat further out the entrance than us managed to complete the course and finish 2nd after motoring back into the harbour and doing some penalty 360 turns. Everyone else was a DNF. Lessons learned: Its ok to use the motor to get back to a safe position as long as you take the appropriate penalty and do it the right way. The boat is very competitive in light winds. Think about the current as well as the wind when deciding what course to take. Those self tailing winches are fucking excellent. Stay tuned for the next race in 3 weeks time.

Yup pretty much that. Many years have gone by and I have now heard from 3 other people that ripped the keel off their Bavarias. So I think the factory could do a better job of bolting them on.

If you wanted the short version... Tough luck