Re-inventing the wheel....

One of the problems that needed addressed as part of the ongoing refurbishment of the Grand Banks Eastbay 43 currently residing in our shed, was to fix the 'wobbly wheel' at the helm station. Initially, it was thought that it had loosened on the spindle over time and tightening up the locking nut and maybe packing it out with a couple of shims would do the trick. However, this was only part of the problem. On removing the wheel for closer examination we noticed that not only were the spokes loose where they connected into the hub, but it would be impossible to repair them without first dismantling the wheel.

A couple of phone calls and a few emails later, we had confirmation from Grand Banks shipbuilders yard in Singapore that the problem was with the joints between the spokes and hub, and they sent us this photograph to fully explain the problem:

Next stage in the process was to ask Grand Banks for the price for a replacement wheel to be shipped to us. On being told that it would cost $3,600 + VAT + shipping, we swiftly moved onto the next stage in the process and re-visited the idea of repairing the wheel. Engineering and boat-building ideas were bandied about before we settled on designing, manufacturing and fitting two polished stainless steel plates on either side of the hub that would overlap onto the base of each of the spokes and allow us to pin the plates, the spokes and the hub together.

Work in progress cutting the plates and drilling for fitting

Plates were fitted to the wheel, the keyway was marked and cut, before final polishing and fitting to the wheel.

The boat is still in the shed with other works ongoing, so the wheel is currently sitting in the workshop office. But the project is nearing completion and our next few blogs will have further details and pictures of the extensive works carried out - and some photos of the end result when she is fully fitted out and back in the water again.

What needs fixed?

The torrential downpours, impending gale force storms and dropping temperatures all confirm that we are still in the midst of a traditional Scottish summer. So time for a quick review of your sailing season so far........

You negotiated traffic jams and diversions, sat behind caravans and tour buses on your journey here, but finally made it to Ardfern safe and sound.

You unloaded more equipment, food and drink than you thought could fit in your car.

You made numerous trips back and forth between the car and the boat using the trolley with the wobbly/squeaky wheel or in the dinghy that seems to have shrunk and become less manoeuvrable than before, but did finally manage to get everything, including friends/family/pets, safely stowed on board.

You cast off and set sail in good/bad/indifferent weather and, managing to avoid rocks and any other objects that might cause some damage to your boat (including unwanted visitors), you had a lovely time sailing or motoring around the west coast of Scotland.

However, whilst under way, you remembered all the bits on the boat that weren't working last season and that you forgot to get fixed.

You also identified an alarming number of new breakages and pieces of equipment that aren't quite working as they did or should.

You then read all the boating magazines and got fully up to speed with all the latest equipment and gadgets and electronics that you don't have but think you absolutely must have, or should have, or would like, or intend to get anyway because it's your boat, your money and you deserve it.

In addition to that, you saw that rather annoying skipper from the boat a couple of berths along from you that you would like to be able to casually drop into a conversation next year the line "yes, ours is the latest model, much more compact and powerful, I think you'll find the version you have is now obsolete...."

Now, before you finish up for the season, and unpack all your gear again, and shove it all in the car for the journey back home, why not bookmark this post or make a note that, before you forget everything that needs done, you really should fill out the Winter Maintenance Form for 2014/15 and send it to the workshop at Ardfern Yacht Centre.

Select here to go to Winter Maintenance Form 2014/15 now and tell us what you need fixed.

August has started wet, lets hope it improves!

After the glorious weather of July; which saw temperatures in Ardfern reach a sweltering 28 degrees for the better part of a week, August has got off to a rather damp and disappointing start!

Fingers crossed the weather will improve before the annual Clyde Corithian Yacht Club Round Shuna race weekend on August 23rd and 24th. The weekend starts with feeder races from Ardfern and Oban to Craobh Marina on Saturday August 23rd with the Round Shuna Pursuit race getting under way on Sunday 24th. Its a fun event with a great family atmosphere and a relaxed attitude, if you have always fancied trying a bit of racing this is an ideal way to dip your toe in the water. Full race instructions and entry form available for this years event available here.

If you have now dusted off the waterproofs which were hanging idle for July and found they are leaking why not treat yourself to a new pair? In the Chandlery we have a sale on all waterproofs for the month of August (or while stocks last) with 20% off everything there is a selection of jackets and trousers for every budget from all the big brands.

YACHTSMAN AND DOG RAISE OVER £13,500 FOR MACMILLAN CANCER SUPPORT FOLLOWING ‘ISLE TO ISLE’ WALK AND HOG ROAST

A STAGGERING £13,680 has been raised so far by yachtsman, Alistair Pratt and his loyal Labrador Tess, who completed their 230-mile walk from Lewis to Arran in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support at the end of May.

Walking in memory of Alistair’s wife and Tess’s mistress Margot, who sadly passed away from cancer in September 2013, the duo set off from their home near Reef beach on the west coast of Lewis on 30^th April and had made their way to Goat Fell on Arran by 24^th May.

“This was always Tess’s walk for Margot and I just went with her,” said 69-year old Alistair.

The pair walked down through the Morsgail Estate on Lewis, across the Harris hills to Tarbert and onto Leverburgh, before taking the ferry across to Berneray and making their way down North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and on to Lochboisdale.

“From there we caught the ferry to Oban and walked to Ardfern on the Craignish peninsular, before we headed off to Skipness on the Mull of Kintyre for the final ferry trip to Lochranza on Arran.”

With mixed weather conditions along the journey and three particularly gruelling days heading into gales, Tess and Alistair didn’t always have the easiest of conditions for their adventure.

“We had three pretty horrible days with gales and rain in your face when we were in the Highlands, but we battled through it together and on the whole we were lucky with the weather for the duration of the walk and it all went very well,” said Alistair, adding that the longest day of walking saw them cover over 20 miles across the moors of Lewis and Harris.

“One of my biggest concerns was how Tess’s paws would cope with such a long walk everyday and I am pleased to say that her paw pads held up very well.”

Although the walk sometimes saw the pair making their way down the long route on public roads, they mostly used old drovers or coffin tracks together with forestry roads.

They also had various friends joining them along the way, including David Wilkie from Kilmelford who helped drive the campervan for accommodation purposes, along with John and Jane MacInnes of Tayvallich and David’s wife Lynn who joined them for some of the walking stages.

A charity hog roast was also held at Ardfern Yacht Centre (AYC) as Alistair and Tess passed through the Mid Argyll area, which raised some £4,016 towards the grand total, according to AYC director Joanna Ashton.

“I would like to sincerely thank all of our customers and friends of Alistair and Tess who attended the hog roast and who gave so generously towards this valuable cause,” she said.

Tess’s blog available at www.tesswalk.wordpress.com had also proved a real hit with many during their journey.

“She proved to be a whiz on the laptop with some interesting updates and observations on the daily happenings as the walk progressed,” said Alistair.

“We still have money coming in now and I know Tess will be up for more challenges in the future, so we need to see what adventure comes next,” added Alistair, who retired from running a local education authority outdoor activity centre on Arran and now works part-time at Ardfern Yacht Centre during the spring and autumn rush periods.

Donations to Alistair and Tess’s walk can be made on-line via the Macmillan Tribute Funds website by going to www.macmillan.tributefunds.com and typing in Margot Pratt in the ‘find a fund’ name section. 

The race is on....

The story so far....

A few weeks ago, Guy was allowed out from behind his desk in the chandlery to go and helm a Sonata One Design on one of the race days during the 2014 Scottish Series at Tarbert. He completed four races on the Friday of the race meeting. First race - he placed seventh. Second race - he placed seventh. Third race - he placed third. And in the fourth race he placed first. So, in less than a day he took a boat he hadn't sailed before, with a crew he hadn't met before, and beat everyone else in the race.

This weekend, Mark has managed to escape from his desk now too, and is on board a Westerly Storm 33 taking part in this year's Round Mull Race. He knows the boat having sailed it before, he knows the crew having gone drinking with most of them before, but he doesn't get out on the water as often as Guy does and so might be a bit rusty. So, the question is, will he do as well as Guy did when he went racing, or will there be any number of excuses presented to his staff on his return to work on Tuesday without any sort of trophy whatsoever????

Given that Guy is sitting beside me as I type this, we are anticipating the latter scenario and so have decided to see if we can't make things slightly easier for Mark by drawing up a list of excuses for his epic failure for him to choose from.....

1.  As general manager of Ardfern Yacht Centre, and being aware of the need to keep staff morale high, I chose not to win any races to let Guy feel better about himself.

2.  We were so hungover after the Friday night that we were lucky to be able to find Mull never mind manage to sail all the way around it.

3. As Ardfern Yacht Centre are co-sponsoring the Round Mull Race, it wouldn't look right if I won - a bit like hosting a raffle and winning the main prize - it's not the done thing!. 

Any other suggestions as to what Mark's excuse might be? Or are we doing him a huge disservice and we should be building a trophy cabinet for his office before Tuesday? !!

Anyone for some cucumber sandwiches and a glass of Pimms?

We had a glamorous new arrival at Ardfern Yacht Centre recently - a Hinckley T34 Picnic Boat. Built in the US of A and shipped over the Atlantic, she arrived on the back of a low loader, under wraps and waiting to be commissioned.

Chris Jordan of Hinckley Yachts also turned up, 

not via a container ship or a low loader as his employers obviously think more highly of him than that and, once the boat was off the transport and on her cradle, started the unwrapping. One big football net (soccer net if you are reading this at Hinckley HQ and wondering where on earth Chris has got to) and an awful lot of plastic later, and the boat was uncovered and attracting some admiring glances.

Chris then got to work commissioning engines, fitting the mast and electronics antennas, and readying the boat for launch

Once Chris gave the go-ahead, we shoved it down the slipway using a couple of crowbars and some strategically placed kicks*, and she took to the water first time (at least on this side of the Atlantic) and gracefully sidled up to her berth under her own steam. Steam might be understating it a bit as she is powered by twin Yanmar V8s pumping out 320hp through twin Hamilton 274 jets!

And here she is heading out for her initial sea trials - with a couple of our staff along for the ride using the "we need to know how everything works just in case we need to move her sometimes" excuse. And the review from our staff is that it is a very smooth and quiet ride, a beautifully built and finished boat but, on the downside, they couldn't find any sandwiches!

And the last words from Chris before he headed off to commission the next Hinckley were "other than home, there haven't been many more beautiful places than Ardfern that I've visited, hope to come back one day soon, but preferably when there aren't any midges!"

*we can assure all owners who keep their boat with us, and any owners who may be considering bringing their boat to Ardfern Yacht Centre, that we don't actually use crowbars or kick boats down the slipway to launch them. We are very careful and attentive with all boats and only nudge them slightly with our foot every so often...

A busy start to 2014 at Ardfern

A BUSY START TO THE 2014 SEASON AT ARDFERN

.....AND WITH AN INTERNATIONAL TWIST.

That's the rain on now, so summer must be just around the corner! Having completed around 200 boat launches this year, and with a brief respite before they all want lifted back out again, we thought this would be a good time to pass on some of our news about what has been happening in the workshop so far this year.

The spring of 2014 has been busier than normal at Ardfern Yacht Centre. Just about all the 130+ boats we've had wintered ashore in our yard have now been recommissioned, antifouled, upgrades and renovations completed and chucked back in the water (when I say chucked, I mean carefully placed back on the water by the gentle caress of our 40T Sublift), most of the bigger boats that have wintered afloat have also had a brief visit to dry land for some maintenance and, unfortunately for the owners, we have also had a few boats in our sheds for repair work after some unintended visits to dry land!

Some of our visitors have come from far off lands - some with critical issues that we've managed to live up to our reputation and find solutions for, others with (in the grand scheme of things) slightly less than critical issues but which we have still managed to help resolve - you can decide for yourself what degree of urgency each of the following jobs arrived at the workshop with with....

1. The Finnish Sail Training Swan 65' Vahine called in for a quick crew change and repairs to her Harken furling gear. Vahine had left Finland during the late summer of 2013 and headed over to the Caribbean for a winter cruising in warmer climes, with an ever changing crew of young Finnish sailors aboard. Prior to leaving the Caribbean the Harken furling gear suffered a bearing failure leaving the system completely inoperable. Due to their busy schedule, and the need to have Vahine back in Scandinavia for her summer commitments, the boat couldn't stay in the Caribbean to await repairs. So began an exercise for the crew to find a port that had rigging expertise and high-reach facilities to repair the furling gear in tandem with the Harken technical experts despatching the necessary parts to meet up with the boat.  After failing to make the repairs in the Caribbean, Azores or Ireland, a call from the skipper to Ardfern Yacht Centre had us organising our rigging crew, clearing a berth, and arranging delivery of the parts from Harken. When Vahine turned up, we had the furling gear system stripped, cleaned, re-assembled and back in operation ready for the boat to depart Ardfern the following morning. To quote the skipper 'It all came together perfectly at Ardfern'. Actually, that's just a soundbite, the full Finnish/Scottish translated comment from the skipper was that it was fantastic how it all came together perfectly at Ardfern, he was so impressed by our rigging team, and he was especially pleased at how quickly we had fixed the problem because it meant he could now go to the pub!

Finnish Sail Training Vessel 'Vahine' 

2. From the other side of the Atlantic we have the American yacht 'Toodle-oo' now ashore following a light grounding while enjoying the delights of the 'Whisky Isle'. Having lost steerage following the incident, passage was made to Ardfern under tow. Now safely ashore and with the damaged rudder removed, ourselves and the skipper are now awaiting delivery of a complete new unit arriving all the way from China! The technical aspects of this job aren't complex, but we have had to have the patience of a whole busload of saints when dealing with the Customs & Excise Helpline and trying to track down the correct forms and codes to use!

'Toodle-oo' along side before slipping

3. Skipper of the sailing yacht Cinquante, heading across the Irish Sea, called us with the opening line "you probably won't be able to help but.....". Three phone calls, two photographs, some texts, a visit to the chandlery, an envelope and press-ganging of a friend into acting as courier as part of their own sailing voyage and disaster was averted as the replacement hinge for the cockpit table was on its way......

Our yard facilities have also seen regular use over the winter months by other local marine businesses - Crinan based fishing boat 'Golden West' was re-launched recently after having a new engine fitted.

 'Golden West' heading down the slip

We will keep you up to date with stories of interest and news from the yard over the summer season, and we look forward to seeing you all in Ardfern during this coming summer, wherever you home port is.