Idril's Winter Haulout, 2024 to 2025
Idril was hauled out for the winter in Portland, Maine, at the Maine Yacht Center. We had an enormous amount of work done on the boat. Here’s the list. Warning: this post is long, technical and frankly pretty boring, so if you're just here for sailing, you might want to skip it.
Propulsion
The Volvo D2-75 diesel engine was thoroughly overhauled (with about 2400 hours on the clock). Parts replaced included:
heat exchanger (found to have cracks)
starter motor
seawater pump
The alternator was cleaned and checked, and reinstalling it was a source of frustration for the yard. They left out a crucial bushing that isolates the alternator case from the engine block, causing a negative side electrical leak that took forever to find.
The mechanically-shifted gearbox (a ZF MS25A-A) was replaced with a hydraulically shifted gearbox (ZF 25A), and a shaft lock installed. We are hopeful that this will eliminate our frequent gearbox failures.
All three fuel tanks were drained and cleaned, and the remaining fuel polished before being returned to the tanks.
Electrical
All of the lead acid batteries in the boat were replaced. The 12V house bank is now a pair of Relion RB100 lithium batteries; I tweaked the output voltage of the 48V-to-12V converters to 3.75V to keep those new batteries fully charged.
I replaced the old Sterling 12V-to-24V battery charger with a Victron charger, which can be remotely controlled (by both Bluetooth and wire).
We added a battery balancer to ensure that all 4 batteries in the 24V bank (which powers our windlass, bow thruster, winches and capstan) remain healthy.
I ran monitoring and control wiring to the nav desk so that we can easily select how the 24V bank is charged, and monitor the balancer.
I replaced the Integrel SoC monitor for the 24V bank with a Victron shunt. If this works out well, we may eventually replace all of the Integrel SoC monitors (except on the 48V bank) with Victron shunts and add a Victron monitor and display.
We put in a switch to control the ventilation fan for the cockpit chart plotter. We added that fan after losing a chart plotter to excessive heat, but the fan makes just enough noise to be annoying, and we don’t need the fan unless we are in tropical waters. So now we can turn it off if it isn’t needed.
The MPPT solar charge controller failed last fall. Victron replaced it under warranty.
When the mast was removed, we discovered that the rats nest of wiring at the base of the mast wasn’t labeled; we fixed that. We also added a compact connector for the RADAR 10-conductor cable, so that it no longer has to be cut and respliced (yes, that’s right…) when the mast is removed.
Both compass lights had failed. Rather than continue replacing them with very expensive parts from Plastimo that don’t seem to last, I made up replacements with LEDs, twisted wire and sockets from Digikey for much less money. If the LEDs fail, I can now just plug in a new one.
Heating
We added a heater that uses waste heat from the engine to warm air in the saloon. We got this idea from other Garcia owners (hi, Brett and Nina!); it’s a great way to warm the interior of the boat without running the Webasto.
Speaking of the Webasto: I think I found the source of the undervoltage fault that bedeviled us last fall. The wiring I installed for the fuses was too small (AWG 12), resulting in a substantial voltage drop at 25A (which is what the Webasto draws at startup). The fuse was also a 20A fuse; while it wasn’t blowing, it was probably another source of resistance. I reran the wiring, shortening the runs by about half, increased the wire gauge to AWG 8, and put in a 40A fuse. This cuts the voltage drop substantially (though the wiring from the fuse block to the Webasto itself still seems undersized).
We fear that either the combustion fan or circulation pump may be failing, as we get scary sounds at startup, which disappear once the unit is warmed up. Time will, unfortunately, tell.
Anchoring
We replaced our 120 meters of galvanized chain with 100 meters of stainless steel (Cromox CXI-10 318LN, 10mm, ISO 4565, 30mm pitch) and 50 meters of nylon braid. The old chain was in pretty bad shape after 4 years of heavy use.
Since having stainless steel in contact with the aluminum chain locker could cause galvanic corrosion, we lined the chain locker with heavy rubber sheeting. We also had a tube welded into the top of the locker to direct the chain to the middle of the locker, which will hopefully reduce the tendency of the chain to pyramid and collapse, trapping the chain and making it impossible to feed.
The pulpit had a very inconveniently-placed front crossbar that made access to the bowsprit (for anchoring operations or rigging the gennaker) difficult, so we had it cut off and replaced with a much lower crosspiece.
We also had a bracket made for our stern anchor, and had it fitted to the port side of the pushpit. This will let us keep that anchor ready to go, and therefore much more likely to be used. We haven’t used it once in our first 4 years of sailing, entirely because it’s just so much work to deploy it. The bracket fixes that.
To make that anchor easier to deploy by dinghy, we got 50 feet of high strength, lightweight G70 chain, with another 50 feet of nylon braid, to serve as the rode for the stern anchor.
The seal around the capstan had failed, which was probably a major source of the dampness we were experiencing in the sail locker. The motor housing was badly corroded (though still functional). The motor was replaced, and the capstan rebedded.
Rigging
This is the first time we’ve had the mast off the boat since the boat was launched in June 2020. This allowed a thorough inspection of the standing rigging. We had a rigger in Annapolis look at the rig (by going up the mast) in the spring of 2024, and he had some concerns, all of which turned out to be unfounded. The wire, turnbuckles, chain plates and other parts of the standing rigging are in good shape.
We did have some problems with halyard sheaves, and wound up having them all replaced with stronger sheaves.
All of the sails were taken off the boat to be cleaned and serviced. The sailmaker added some additional chafe protection to the mainsail to hopefully eliminate some wear spots that showed up. We’d love to replace the mainsail with a lighter, more modern fabric than the reliable-but-heavy Dacron, but that’s a project for another year.
We replaced nearly all of the running rigging, due to combinations of chafe, UV degradation, and just poor fitness to purpose (a bad choice of lines). Some of the attachments were altered to use soft shackles rather than simple knots; this makes it much easier to remove lines and get them back in exactly the same place later on.
Two years ago we replaced the Facnor furler for the solent with a Schaefer furler, which has worked much better; we did the same this year for the staysail furler.
We had a storm jib fabricated by Onesail North Atlantic, on a continuous line furler, that we can rig using one of the spinnaker pole lines if we are expecting big wind. Katy made a new bag for it (similar to the bags she made for the gennaker and spinnaker). The torsion rod for the furler was unfortunately the wrong length; it’s being remade (in Italy…) and we will pick it up when we get to St. Peter’s in Cape Breton.
We worked out a new scheme for putting reef 4 in the mainsail if necessary. There are several times when we’ve been in gale-to-storm force winds when we’ve really wanted reef 4.
There are now clutches on the side decks for our preventer lines. Up until now, the active preventer line was either cleat hitched to our aft docking cleat or (very rarely) left on a winch to be adjustable. Since the preventer is on the working (leeward) side of the boat, both winches were usually in use. This made properly tensioning the preventer very difficult. With the new clutches, we can temporarily take a sheet off a winch, put the preventer on the winch, tension it properly, then clutch it and put the sheet back on the winch.
To help with that, we had the Lewmar jammer clutches replaced with better quality Harken clutches, so that we can actually use the jammer to briefly hold a foresail sheet.
We’ve long wished that we had heavy duty, line-friendly toerails with lashing points (an option we didn’t realize we wanted until we started sailing the boat). We couldn’t get that after launch, but we could get a few strategically placed toerail pieces welded (forward and amidship) to the decks. This was difficult and expensive, but we’re expecting it to be very worthwhile when using barber haulers and flying the spinnaker.
We had antifriction rings added to the lines for our courtesy flags and pennants to make them easier to change.
Hull and superstructure
The hull paint was stripped down to the base epoxy layers and recoated with Hempel Silic One, a non-toxic paint that works by making the hull simply too slippery for marine critters to attach to. We’ll see…
All of the anodes were replaced.
The centerboard was removed and all of the hardware (lines, bushings, blocks and spacers) were replaced. One of the lines had (unknown to us) failed, as had one of the bushings. It turned out that the replacement blocks we got from Garcia at launch were not the right size; MYC had to take the old hardware apart and rebuild it with new sheaves and axial center bolt. The good side of this is that the blocks are now serviceable, instead of having to be outright replaced. Garcia agreed to refund the money we spent on the original (wrong sized) spares.
The forward scan SONAR transducer was removed, and a blanking plug inserted. We never found the system to be very helpful, and it is a point of vulnerability for drying out the boat, or when traveling through ice. We also removed the electronics box that interfaced it to the chart plotter, cutting a small amount of power consumption out of the navigation network.
Our dorades have leaked since shortly after launch. It turns out that the sealing mechanism wasn’t very robust, and the cap that is supposed to seal the downtube was just tack welded at three points, making it easy to break if overtightened (which we did to one of the dorades). MYC rebuilt them, using stronger welds and adding a thicker rubber gasket.
The bottom edges of the bimini enclosure are attached to little plastic buttons that are screwed into the aluminum cockpit coaming. Garcia used aluminum screws (to avoid corrosion), but aluminum screws are prone to breaking under load (and many had). We replaced all of these screws with stainless steel screws, using Tef-Gel to prevent corrosion from dissimilar metals.
Lifelines, jacklines and handholds
We considered replacing our wire lifelines with dyneema, but ran out of time and money. We’d still like to do that in the future. We did make some changes to the rigid lifeline (rails, really) at the bow (as noted above), making it easier to work at the bowsprit without having to climb over a high lifeline.
We removed the long jacklines that ran from the bow to the stern on the side decks; since we added the coach roof jacklines, we basically never used them (and considered them unsafe). After cutting them down in length, we reran one at the bow on starboard to provide safety when moving forward of the mast.
We had new anchor points added near the transom to make it easier to rig jacklines in the cockpit when foul weather is expected, and to set up a safety net at the transom for fishing.
We also had a grab rail welded to the stern just starboard of center to make it easier to catch the stern when approaching by dinghy.
Cushions, carpets and canvas
We had new cockpit cushions made by Brunswick Cushions, with stiffer foam and a more neutral color, and a slightly different design that we hope will make it easier to access the line pockets without damaging the cushions.
S&S Fabric restuffed all the saloon cushions with stiffer foam to make them more comfortable. They did the same job 2 years ago when we were in Newport, but the foam they used just didn’t last. They graciously did the job over this winter for just the cost of the (newer, stiffer) foam.
All of the carpets and throw cushions went out to Bone Dry Carpets for cleaning; they really needed it.
The bimini and associated enclosure pieces (“the tent”) all went out for cleaning (to Sailmaking Support Systems) and repairs (to Hallett Canvas and Sails). The vinyl windows in the front three pieces of the dodger were replaced; they were very cloudy. Katy made replacements for all of the support straps for the bimini frame.
Safety equipment
Our primary EPIRB was due for service, so we took it to LRSE and had that done.
We replaced all the deployment mechanisms in our inflatable PFDs. They were ALL out of date - bad on us! We checked the dates on all the personal AIS beacons in our PFDs and made sure that they are good for a few more years.
Our throwable “horseshoe” float was somewhat UV degraded, so we replaced it. The vinyl bag on the Life Sling was also pretty badly worn, so we replaced it with a new canvas bag from Standout Yacht Fittings (which we treated with fabric protectant to hopefully increase its lifetime).
We got a new Garmin InReach Messenger (Iridium tracker and communicator) to allow us to put our trusty InReach Explorer Plus in the ditch bag. The Explorer Plus (sadly discontinued) is an absolutely ideal emergency communicator; it has a built-in GPS and does NOT need to be paired with a phone to send and receive messages. The Messenger is smaller, but has to be paired with a phone to be very useful. The Messenger will now be our in-cockpit tracker. IMO, it’s just criminal that Garmin dropped the Explorer Plus.
Plumbing
The aft black water tank had developed cracks (luckily on the TOP of the tank…), so we had it cut out of the boat and replaced with a new custom built and much sturdier tank, with a better shape. The plumbing from the aft head to the tank was rerouted such that we should no longer have sludge accumulating in the hose from the macerator to the “Y” connector just above the outgoing through-hull. The tank level sender was replaced; the original was hopelessly corroded.
The watermaker high pressure fittings (which had a slow leak in the feedwater side) were replaced, and we now have spares. We also replaced the chlorine flush water filter (which was a Jabsco “Aqua Filta”) with a standard 9.75” filter housing and carbon block filter cartridge. The proprietary Aqua Filta cartridges, while ubiquitous in Europe, are essentially unobtainium in the U.S.
Both fresh water tanks were steam cleaned.
We replaced the “curlycue” hose for the anchor washdown with a flat hose that should be a lot easier to handle.
Electronics
We removed the SSB transceiver from the boat, since we never used it. The space it took up at the nav station is now filled by a small Raspberry Pi and touchscreen, connected to our NMEA2000 instrumentation network. My hope is that I can spend some time writing code to extract useful information from the network that we just can’t get from our off-the-shelf chart plotters. We’ll see if I can actually make that happen/
Also in that space is a set of status lights for the Sonihull antifouling system, a warning light for the battery balancer, and a switch for selecting the charge source for the bow thruster batteries.
We replaced the VHF antenna with a Morad 159MHz VHF/AIS antenna, which is specifically designed to work well with both marine VHF channels and AIS. We switched the antenna cable from the RG-58 that Garcia insisted on using to LMR-400, which has much less signal loss.
The temperature portion of the Airmar speed/depth/temperature “triducer” had failed (a long time ago) so we replaced the whole unit. The new one has Bluetooth connectivity (FWIW...).
The button on the control knob of the AP44 autopilot controller at the starboard helm had become very difficult to press. I took the unit apart and cleaned it; it now works fine.
Other
Katy made MANY improvements to our storage spaces. The dropdown box under the cockpit (where we store our major first aid kit and some charts) was very heavy; Katy rebuilt it and made it lighter. She built custom inserts for many drawers, replaced many of our ad hoc storage boxes with more consistent boxes that use the space better and stack more securely, added hooks at several places, and more.
Together we went through nearly all of the clothing, tools, spare parts, kitchen gadgets, books, etc. and eliminated redundant or simply unused stuff. We decided to stop carrying a paddleboard, as we rarely used it; this freed up a lot of space in the sail locker. The boat is a little less full than when we unloaded it last November.
We finally put quick disconnects on all of the fans to make them easier to clean. The connectors I bought several years ago for this turned out to be easy to work with once I had access to a high quality soldering iron and “third hand” back at the Cape house.
The plush covers on our fenders were very worn, so we had new ones made by S&S.
The Velcro that attaches our bug screens to the window frames was fraying and starting to pull off, so we replaced it where necessary. We had a metal half-round installed at the base of the companionway that the magnets at the bottom of the doorway bug screen will stick to, giving us a better seal.
Katy made nonskid mats for surfaces all over the boat, including the cockpit table (which she also applied many coats of oil to).
I had all the boat documentation from Garcia scanned, and I put together a nice bound book containing all the electronic, rigging and other diagrams. The originals are now safely stored in Falmouth, and the bound replacement (with much better protection for the paper) now lives on the boat.
We updated all the Navionics chart plotter memory cards with the latest charts.
The welding and other work required the removal of a lot of ceiling panels. When we put them back up, we replaced some of the hidden screws (which were a royal pain) with attractive externally removable screws and washers.
WHEW!
