May 3, 2013
We haul Legacy out of the water annually to do maintenance, repairs and add another coat of bottom paint. We used to stay on the boat, but now we treat ourselves to a hotel. It’s so much nicer when you can work during the day and come back to a warm (or cool depending on the season) clean room, take a long shower, and collapse in bed for a night of TV.
The big project for this year’s haulout was fixing the rudder shaft. Plus we were, once again, looking at peeling paint on our keel. Whenever we haul out the boat, we always have big patches of paint gone on our keel, no matter what measures we take to prevent it. Our yard owner, Bruce, took one look and said we had too much zinc. He brought over the “sparky” (the electrician) who agreed we definitely had too much zinc. We’d never heard of such a thing and wondered why none of the yards in America had suggested this as it seemed completely obvious to everyone in New Zealand. They recommended something called the Maddox system, a special alloy used instead of zinc. It’s made in Australia and lasts about a year instead of the three months we get from zinc.
(Note from the Rich who lives in the future – 2014; We put the Maddox anodes on then, and replaced them a year later. We’re thrilled with how well it works. I don’t know why we’ve never heard of this before. New Zealand is a good ways ahead of the US when it comes to some things boat related.)
Here’s a link to the Maddox manufacturer’s website.
In all, the haulout went great. Everyone was so helpful and had that magical combination of knowledge, creativity, and skill that can create solutions to puzzling problems. Best yet, the prices were more than fair. The yard at the Tauranga Bridge Marina has definitely become our go-to boatyard.–Cyndi
