Category Archives: Boat Details

We have a Ghost onboard

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Do you believe in ghosts?  Yes we all know and love Casper the friendly ghost but I mean real ghosts?  Typically, I would say I am a non-believer, but recently we have had some very unusual things happen on Sugar Shack.

As you know, we have been in Whangarei, New Zealand working on renovating the boat.  We have been upside down and backwards for so long that some times it is hard to remember what the boat looks like under normal circumstances.  But, as we are coming to end of all the construction and begin to see a light at the end of the tunnel we start having totally bizarre things happen.

 Let’s Go…

Our boat requires two keys to start (one for each engine).  Do you remember when you had to actually inset a key into the ignition of your car and turn it to start the engine?  Same thing on our boat.  You have to insert the key and turn it to start the engine.

Now imagine Matt and I sitting on our settee (couch) inside the salon, nestled in our blankets, watching a movie around 8:30pm. We are just minding our own business and enjoying a quiet evening. It is pitch black outside and we did not hear anyone board our boat.   When all of the sudden our starboard engine turns on and starts running!

We look at each other, spring up, turn on the lights and see nothing, nobody.  So, Matt turns the engine off and we go back to watching our movie.  Early the next morning (2am), it happens a 2nd time.  What the heck?  This time Matt takes the key out of the ignition.  Teach you!

But, a few hours later it tries to turn on again. This time it does not catch or actually start the engine.  Ok then.  But, we counted our chickens before they hatched.   The engine started a few hours later without the key in the ignition.  This is super weird.  Each time we were able to shut the engine off within seconds of it starting so we didn’t think much of it.  The day went on with no other incidences, no false starts, and no ghost starts.

And then…

At around 6p we decided to run out to get a bite to eat.  We were gone for 45 minutes and when we came back the engine was running.  Oh $hity $hit $hit.  We jump on board, turn the engine off and Matt crawls in the engine compartment with a torch.  This time we were not so lucky.  The power / electricity from the engine had no where to go and it burned up 2 of the 3 relays and a huge piece of wire. The relay is not supposed to fall apart in your had and the copper wire is not supposed to be exposed.

At this point, we do not know if the starter is still working and if our now bloated starter battery is recoverable.  Seriously?  Is it that the boat wants to leave so bad that she is starting her engine to go or is it she doesn’t want to leave and is creating problems that make us stay?  Or is it just a ghost?

I am sure there is a perfectly logical explanation for all of this!  Matt thinks it could be the relays so we order the parts and wait for them to arrive.

Starter Down

Once we install the relays we are able to test the starter.  The engine does not turn over at all.  We took the starter in to be tested and she is dead dead!  The good news is that Auto Tech was able to order us a replacement for half the cost of a Volvo starter.  We paid $705NZD and they got it here the next day.  If this works we will buy a second one to keep onboard as a spare!

New and Old Starter

New and Old Starter

We had to install the relays to test the starter.  Once we replaced the starter we could test the starting battery.  As it turned out the relays and the starter were all dead. What a bad ghost!

But it turns out the starter battery bounced back to life.  Unfortunately, we still have a problem with the engine self starting even after we replaced everything that burned up.  Bummer

The Ghost Is Back

Fast forward a few days and Matt and I are asleep snuggly in our bed when our main electric winch starts to operate.  You’ve got to be kidding.  We only have one electric winch and we use it to raise/lower the main, raise the dinghy and hoist Matt up/down the mast.  The ghost is back at work and now making the winch start automatically.  This could be extremely dangerous as it operates our lines for our sails and the lines to raise and lower Matt when he goes up the mast.  Thank goodness we did not (or typically do not) keep lines wrapped on the winch.

Again, a perfectly logical explanation for this, but I like to just call it my ghost.

Matt took the remote control apart and to his surprise it was full of water.  Well that would short an electrical component out for sure!  One mystery solved.

The timing is just really weird to have both the engine and the electric winch start on their own within a few days of each other!

Ghost or no Ghost?

As it turned out our old relays caused the mysterious starting of our starboard engine.  When it started once while we were off the boat it caused a lot of damage causing us to replace 3 relays, and the starter.

The mysterious running of our main electric winch was the cause of trapped water in the remote control which was easily fixed once it dried out.

So, although we did not technically have a ghost onboard, I like to think we did.  He was a mischievous little bugger!

Events from this blog post occurred toward the end of May.  Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind live events.  In our last blog post I share with you some of New Zealand’s quirks and oddities – did I make you giggle?

Fancy New North Sails

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Sugar Shack has been propelled by the same double layer dacron sails for the last 22 years!  Yep, you read that right, our sails are over two decades old and still propelling us forward.  Granted, the sail shape is not ideal and they look a well “used” but they still worked.  After all, they got us from Fiji to New Zealand in 6 days which is pretty darn impressive.

But it certainly was time to replace them.  We interviewed several sail lofts in New Zealand before landing on North Sails.  Roger, came prepared to talk to us about different fabrics, techniques, and sails.  He was the only one to bring us material samples and was very honest about being the most expensive sailmaker. He was right, he was the most expensive one.  

But, that is not why we selected him and North sails to make our new sails.  Roger has been manufacturing sails for 40 years.  He used to work for Doyle sails but moved to North Sails because of their 3Di technology.

The Technology of Tour Ultra X Sails

Our new custom designed main sail will be one giant sail with no seams, edges, or joints.  The corners and high pressure points will be built up to sustain heavier loads.   These sails are meant for reefing and designed to handle reefing.

The sails have a life expectancy of 8-12 years if treated well and a 5 year warranty.  We are also given a free annual check up at any North Sails location.  A repair kit is provided for us to do small minor repairs while at sea which is a simple patch and glue (no sewing).

We paid a little extra to have a mildew spray on both the main and genoa since we plan to spend a lot of time in the tropics.  The material itself has UV protection as well, but we plan to have her tucked nicely into her new sail bag when she is not in use.

Roger came by a few times to measure our sails, note the placement of reefs, attachments, battens, and mast cars.  He then heads off to place our special order.

The Sails Arrive

It took a few months to manufacture our new Tour Ultra X sails but it was worth the wait.  Roger came with our new main, battens, and genoa.

The genoa goes up first as it is the easiest.  She is a slate gray with a gray protective UV cover.  There is a small patch on the sail to protect it from our spreaders (bottom left photo).  The top right photo is our new main flaked out.

We have no problems getting the genoa on.  However, we have a few issues with the main sail.  The cars that attach the main to the mast have the wrong size screw hole.  So, Roger has to return them and get new ones.  A week later he comes back and Matt and Roger put up the new main!

Matt and Roger work diligently in the early morning to get the sail up before the wind picks up.

The full main sail up and proud – just needs some wind…

New Sail Bag

Matt had a very specific idea in mind of what he wanted in a sail bag / stack pack.  He wanted it to be low profile to keep the shadow off the solar panels.  He also wanted it to either wrap in front of or behind the mast to prevent the sail bag from billowing in high winds.  This is in addition to specifications for size, shape, style, fabric, zippers, clips, and velcro attachments.

Our old sail bag had a very high profile and a lot of extra room inside the bag (waster space).  But she was beautiful and lasted 13 years!

The new sail bag has a much lower profile, does not have a lot of extra space inside and is really kick a$$!  It took us awhile to get to where we wanted, but Roger came through in the end!  We are thrilled with the new bag.

Matt made new lazy jacks out of 4mm dynema which make it look even better.  

A few Snags

Roger from North Sails in Opua is fantastic to work with.  He is extremely professional, friendly, responsive, honest, and true to his word.  We did have a few snafus, but overall we are very pleased with our new sails.  What happened?

I mentioned above that our mast cars had to be remade because the manufacture made the screw holes a size 8 when they should have been a 10.  Also, we had two batten cars that had to be replaced because they did not fit properly.  The sail bag was supposed to be made within a week of delivering the main sail, but it did not arrive for almost 6 weeks.  Partially due to the the various holidays and bad weather, but it is what its.

However, Roger was up front with us along the way, kept us informed, and made sure we were happy in the end – and we are!

Events from this blog post occurred in early November (bidding) and in late March (initial install) thru May (sea trial).  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual events.  Did you see our new canvas work throughout the boat in our last blog?

New Canvas: Inside and Out

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New canvas!  We replaced all of our interior and exterior cushions when we purchased Sugar Shack in 2010.  Do you remember the horrid teal pleather that was on the boat when we bought it?  The shop in Turkey did a really great job replacing the cushions and covering them.  We replaced the interior cushions with a beautiful, light tan micro suede called Alcantera and the exterior cushions had a sturdy, stainproof, water resistant beige sunbrella. 

Fast forward to today…if you were to look at our cushions from afar you might wonder why we were replacing the fabric…Even I think they look pretty darn good from this shot.

But, when you look closely, the fabric has started pulling away at the seams especially around the bolsters.  Unfortunately, this is not fixable.  I know, I tried and it doesn’t hold as the fabric is too thin and worn to hold the thread and glue.

And some of the cushions have actually worn through the fabric on the sides.

Exterior Cushions

The exterior cockpit cushions are holding up a little better but they are stained and looking a little tired.  They are also retaining water (when it rains the cockpit gets wet) which takes ages to dry out.

Shopping for a Dressmaker

One of the first things that we did when we arrived in New Zealand (Nov.2022) was to look for canvas makers.  We knew this would be a huge job and so we wanted to get on the books early on.  We met with several companies and decided on Masterpieces in Canvas.  The owner, Kim, is very professional, has amazing creative ideas, great suggestions, and a reputation for stellar work.

The Pending Canvas Projects:

  • Replace fabric on interior Cushions (7 backs, 8 bottoms, 1 nav seat, 2 bench seats, 1 round seat)
  • Recover exterior cushions (3 long cockpit cushions, 2 helm seats)
  • New back bolster covers at helm seats
  • Dinghy Chaps / cover
  • Cockpit enclosure
  • Sail Bag Cover (North Sails will provide this)

We selected a new, hardier interior fabric that is a macro-suede in Ash (left photo).  For the exterior, we selected two types of a new (to us) fabric called Sauleda.  The main cushions and helm seats will be in light silver gray called Tandem Piedra.  The new dinghy chaps, sail bag, helm bolsters and cockpit enclosure will be in a darker gray called Tandem Grafito.

The macro-suede is water and stain resistant and can be scrubbed and cleaned.  The Sauleda is waterproof, stain proof and much stronger than Sunbrella.  It has more threads making it a sturdier fabric.

The Big Reveal:

The new cushions came in and boy oh boy are we excited.  They turned out so beautifully that we did not want to sit on them!  The color is perfect, the material is soft and luxurious, and the design is perfect.

Kim has great attention to detail which can be found in all the seams, curves, and design.  Yours truly (Christine) made the beautiful, buttery soft blanket in the bottom photo.

The bottom side even turned out really nice.  She used a beautiful black phifertex, with sturdy zippers and wood on the bottom (so your bottom doesn’t sink into the holes below)

The seat at our navigation table even came out super cool.  We bought a new chair and had Kim recover it to match the cushions.  This new chair is on a swivel so it turns around and will lift up so we can still access the storage underneath it.

Outside Canvas work

The vendor in Turkey did a great job providing us with large, cushy cushions.  All we needed to do was add a little more water proofing and new canvas.  They came out beautiful as well.

Cockpit Enclosure

Matt and I had made our rain and sun shades and they were very tired and did not completely enclose the cockpit so when it rained everything got wet.  Kim and Matt designed our new enclosure that has windows and is completely enclosed.  We will most likely only use the large back panel and the two side panels (not the corners) on a daily basis.

From the inside…excuse the mess but we are still under construction…

A New Dinghy and Chaps

Our amazing Avon 3.4 lasted over 22 years!  She was a spectacular dinghy and lasted way beyond expectations.  She had a deep “V” bottom, a false floor so we had a flat surface to stand on inside dinghy, tall transom, locker with hawes pipe and 3 pontoons.  But she had several slow leaks and we just could not keep up with them.  We thought about just replacing the pontoons because we loved this dinghy so much, but the cost was equivalent to a new dinghy.

Avon no longer makes small dinghies (they just make gigantic dinghies) so we could not even replace her with another one just like her.  In fact, we had a lot of problems finding a dinghy we liked.  We wanted a 3.6M dinghy, with a deep “V”, false bottom, tall transom (for our long shaft outboard), and hypalon pontoons.  But, New Zealand does not sell dinghies with hypalon pontoons because they are too expensive and they don’t sell.  So, we had to go with a pvc version which just are not as strong or sturdy.  What can you do? Just means the life span of this dinghy will be maybe 5-7 years tops.

We sell our beloved Sweetie along with our old 8hp Mercury outboard.

The gorgeous new outfit for Sweetie 2.0

And we get new chaps made for the new dinghy to protect the pontoons.  Sweetie 2.0.  The far left photo has shadows from the trees – the bow is actually perfect.  Kim added two beautiful pockets and the craftsmanship around each cut out is simply amazing (lower left photo).

Here is a photo of Kim and Roger (our sailmaker)

Events from this blog occurred between April-May 2023.  Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual events. We replace all of our ceiling panels, ceiling lights and update the master bath in our last blog.