After buying Wynsong, there were several items that had to be attended to, as pointed out in the survey.
First were the raw water and fuel filters - we can't believe they weren't there. These were installed by Stewart Wright, 'the best damn marine engineer on the Gold Coast' (his words). While installing the filters, we asked him about gensets. There really wasn't room for a normal 240V diesel-driven genset in the engine room, or anywhere else. Stewart recommended that we look at the small DC generators that were built at Labrador, up the road from Southport. We spoke to the builder, Geoff Davies and were impressed by the concept and small size. Basically it is a 120Amp alternator driven by a marinised Kubota 3.5HP diesel engine. It uses a standard Falcon starter motor and Mazda fuel pump. It can also be started with a hand-crank.
Stewart installed the generator for us, with a fair amount of tricky work to get it wired and plumbed in. While he was doing that, we had him listen to the strange rattle in the engine, that no-one could identify. Stewart diagnosed the noise as coming from the blower. New bearings and seals fixed that up.
A leak from the water pump lead to a complete overhaul of that too.
The next project was for rigging and sails. Peter Charlton (S & H Spars) did the following:
| Separate track on the mast for storm trisail |
| Track on front of mast for spinnaker pole |
| Make inner fore-stay removable |
| Folding mast steps |
| Extend boom 2' so main sheet was behind cockpit |
| Install boom vang |
| Install insulators in the back-stay for HF radio |
We also had a new storm trisail and storm jib made by Gary Martin.
Other work done was some carpentry for book shelves, stainless steel mid-ship bollards and emergency tiller, new clears for the dodger.
Jobs I did: Install Kenwood TS-50S HF radio, Sony HiFi Receiver and Bose speakers.
Things we bought: AC/DC TV, 60lb plough anchor (Manson) new shower tap/spray set, various tools, crockery, cutlery, gas bottles, etc.
After 6 weeks we finally let go of the dock and headed north through the Broadwater in company with 'Lady K'. From there we stayed in Manly for a week then Scarborough.
The reason for going to Scarborough was to visit Permanent Power Solutions to buy the Heart Freedom 10 (1000W/50A Inverter/Charger) and the Link 1000 controller. This took a few days for me to rewire the 240V side and install the inverter. We soon discovered that our microwave didn't like the modified sinewave output if other things such as the computer or VCR were connected.