Sea Ray SSS 1993 63 ft

This was a classic thread.....I first responded to Rob on it and followed it daily. Hope he is ok.
 
Hi guys


So sorry I up and disappeared! Has been a bit of a chaotic and trying time for awhile now.
Like Ian said I made another run and making a business with the boat. We got very close, got permission from maritime to operate even had a few clients on the hook. But one of my partners turned out to be a very bad person. A lot of money is unaccounted for along with him attempting to push me into illegal operations outside of insurance. That's the short version of a long and unpleasant story!

So the boat is back up for sale, it is unlikely she will sell until spring aussie time. No one buys a boat in winter! Makes no sense to pay berthing etc when they won't use it until spring!
Otherwise the usual with her, the bottom is a mess I am on dive 6 to clean it up! Getting there one step at a time! The main generator has gone down again. Blew a bearing in the AC alternator, pretty big tear down job to get that part. Back together. So for now running the engines to charge the batteries.
During the business pursuits my ex partner got a generator inverter for the boat but like usual not knowing what he was doing he got one that was much too weak at 3.2 kva. Only used it to charge the batteries. Just to charge them up it would have to run at max revolutions to provide enough power for that big charging unit. It died within the first 50 hours of use, what a waste!


He was a narcissist and thought he knew everything while he was really quite clueless about everything he thought he knew about, especially boats! So there was a lot of this kind of Thing happening constantly while we worked together.


Otherwise the boat is doing very good.. Engines are running great! knock on wood! She looks good and my repairs list is nice and short as I have been spending a ton of time keeping her in tip top shape.


My plan is to buy a sailboat once I sell her and just head off into the world! I found a blog of a group of 5 people that have been sailing around since 2009 and realized right away .thats my new path! While these motor cruisers are awesome and so comfortable, they just do not provide the range or life that a sail powered vessel can! Here's the blog if anyone is interested! It's more of a v-log, they post videos of all of their adventures, awesome stuff!
http://svdelos.blogspot.com.au


I got an RYA Yachtmaster course, studying up now and will sit the exam in a month or two :)


I had a few challenging adventures over the last few months, running out of fuel on one engine due to a faulty gauge with a boat full of clients.. It Just so happened the starboard engine has the Teleflex hydraulic pump on it so I also had no steering! That was a challenging trip but got her home and docked safely. Kind of makes no sense to have only one pump on one engine as you are truly stuffed if you lose that engine. Not quite sure how I got home safely that day, the trip included huge circles to get the bow pointed back in the direction I was headed!


My partner took the windshield wiper blades away to paint when I was out with the boat regardless of my protests, promising to bring them back tHe next morn which he never did.. I ended up blind with the windsHield covered in water in the busiest patch of Water in the country! Navigating on instruments while surrounded by ferries and cruise shipS! That was not a fun trip either!


So a few exciting times! The one positive thing about everything is she got a new Bimini top which looks a lot better than the old one covered in holes! Otherwise nothing much else new on the boat.


I will be leaving the mooring to live on her on the Harbor in a month or so until she sells. I have the locations I will stay all figured out with nearby buoys I can use if storms roll in or I need to go ashore so some good boating times coming up soon..


Just prepping the boat for that, have to get the generator going as that's a must. The growth was so bad I put her in gear and she went nowhere. She idles at 7 knots normally, with the growth she went at 1.2! I didn't dare raise her over idle.. Got in the water later that day and the props were basically two big balls of growth!! That's all cleaned now along with over half of the bottom.. New anodes have been put on everywhere so she's getting into shape quickly!


I think I have done all I can to earn with this boat made 4 business attempts to date. They just make it too hard here in Australia to use a boat as a business. The survey requirements for inland waters is every bit as stringent as what you would have to do in the states to be able to commercially use a boat out to sea. I was looking at somewhere in the tune of 50 k to get her there then around 30 k a year to keep her there. It's just ridiculous for a water way where you are never further than 5 mins from help and is always calm and populated! When I was still in Florida I looked into it and all I needed was insurance and a licensed captain to be a charter boat! I also chose the wrong people to do it all with time and again, I guess I am a rotten judge of character !
So yeah given my new hopes of cruising the world I think its definitely time to sell up and move on to sail powered, cat or trimaran would be my preference!


I nearly lucked into a free 41 ft mariner. She was a little older with minor engine problems but in decent shape.. The owner was just giving her away on gumtree to the first person that would tow her away as he needed the dock space and didn't want to wait to sell her... I was number 2 in line to get the boat and for awhile it looked like number 1 would not come through but he showed up at the last minute. Such a shame, I had a home ready for her and everything! Oh well maybe I will have better luck next time haha


I will try and get back into posting as I miss chatting with all of you! Things have been a bit negative for me for a good while now, I don't like to post unless it is positive things I have to say and I have been very distracted! Living out on the boat should be fun and bring about many good stories to write about here.


Now I'm going to go and search through the forum and see what everyone has been up to and how you all are :)


Many thanks to all of those that checked in on me here, I appreciate it!
 
Rob, happy to hear your positive outlook on things. Hate to hear about the other endevors. Enjoy the boat while you can and share with us your future adventures as we all enjoy your write ups!
 
Welcome back stranger, give me a call if you need anything.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Rob, most guys I hear say they're going to buy a sailboat and cruise off into the sunset I write off as just talk. You on the other hand, I'm SURE will do it! Not to many people I know (personally or digitally) that always seem to do, or attempt to do, exactly what they say they're doing.

Best of luck with the sale of you boat and the purchase of your new one. And you can guarantee I'll keep following the story!
 
copb8tx said:
Rob, most guys I hear say they're going to buy a sailboat and cruise off into the sunset I write off as just talk. You on the other hand, I'm SURE will do it! Not to many people I know (personally or digitally) that always seem to do, or attempt to do, exactly what they say they're doing.

Best of luck with the sale of you boat and the purchase of your new one. And you can guarantee I'll keep following the story!
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Hey now - what about our own John Ahern - He sold his sea ray and is heading off into the open blue with his new cat.......
 
Hi guys

i know I kind of went awol on everyone this year. That was because this has been a really rough year for me and I haven't had much good at all to say. I have a literal mountain of stories of all that has happened with the boat and all I have been through keeping her maintained.
Well I am writing today because a major event just happened with the boat. I got a call around 5 pm from the water police and my marina manager telling me I must get down to the marina immediately there is an emergency with my boat and she was sinking.
Well I got down there and what actually happened is Sydney had a feak weather event that supposedly happens about once a decade called a black nor Easter. A sudden burst of extremely strong North easterly winds that is not predictable , you can't tell it's coming..it comes suddenly and ends suddenly.. The marina manager told me that the winds had to be at least 150 kmh at its peak.. The bay my boat is currently berthed in has very little protection from a wind of this direction!
Well the mooring line attached to the cabaret snapped... Within a minute she was against the big concrete sea wall which has a rock reef in front of it... Apparently she was only against the sea wall for under one minute as the water police was already there because the cabaret was the 5th boat of the day to break the mooring line! I sure wish they warned me this was going on as in my home it was a calm nice day, you could not tell at all and the days wind predictions was only 40 kmh at its top predicted speed by the Australian burea of meteorology...
The entire port side of the cabaret is in bad shape, the wind screen is smashed on the port side..the rub rail is ripped off, the stainless railings are twisted and mangled and there are 2 holes in the hull beneath the water line, she is taking on water.

The police towed her out to a police mooring nearby to my mooring...I am spending the night and making sure the batteries stay charged so the pumps keep going.....the water incursion is not enough to sink her with the pumps going..it is just 2 trickles at this point! First thing tomorrow I will be diving under her to see how the hull and running gear is.... I have no idea at this point! As it was dark by the time we got everything together....I have already phoned in an insurance claim, hopefully that goes smoothly as there is at least 50 - 60 k in damage! So it has been a very eventful day, would you guys believe that exactly one month ago today my cousin who lived on his 51 North sea trawler had his boat sink in a nearby bay! We must be cursed!!
i will post again tomorrow with pictures and an update on everything , today is an important day in the Le Cabaret saga!
 
Good luck with it Rob. Sounds like you need to get her hauled quick.

Can you get in the water and do a temporary repair with some Marine-tex Flexset epoxy ? (can be applied underwater)
 
You need to get it fixed and sell that boat!
 
I'm at a loss for words here.

The boat has known holes in the bottom and is leaking.

Rather than immediately hauling the boat and setting on the hard so that repairs can be made, the boat is tied to a mooring ball and all faith is put into the bilge pumps working, the batteries staying charged to operate said pumps, and the leak in the bottom not developing into something worse.

If the boat sinks at this point, the insurance company probably has a great case to not pay the claim.
 
LTD.330 said:
I'm at a loss for words here.

The boat has known holes in the bottom and is leaking.

Rather than immediately hauling the boat and setting on the hard so that repairs can be made, the boat is tied to a mooring ball and all faith is put into the bilge pumps working, the batteries staying charged to operate said pumps, and the leak in the bottom not developing into something worse.

If the boat sinks at this point, the insurance company probably has a great case to not pay the claim.
Click to expand...

It sounds like he has to wait out the weather to haul it. My marina wouldn't lift a boat that size if it was blowing and that's with travel lift. If it needs to be craned out forget it.
 
Hi Rob, did that happen yesterday ? I was awoken this morning at 5:00 am by some huge southerly gusts at home. I had a quick shower and headed down to St George motor boat club to check my boat and tender, as i was lazy last weekend and left the tender on the wharf. I am pretty exposed to the southerly's, the boat was covered in salt from the chop crashing over the wharf.

Hope all is good and the insurance company come through for you. Bad time of year for it to happen as well.

Keep your head up, I have spoken to heaps of people and all have said 2014 has been a sh#t year, which i agree with. Bring on 2015
 
Jmwarren said:
It sounds like he has to wait out the weather to haul it. My marina wouldn't lift a boat that size if it was blowing and that's with travel lift. If it needs to be craned out forget it.
Click to expand...
Hopefully, he is just waiting on the weather. The mention of diving under her in the morning to survey the damage led me to perhaps erroneously conclude that hauling her out wasn't a priority.
 
Good luck Rob, let me know if you need anything....I'm O/s at present, back on Friday



And yeah I am going to be very relieved to see the back of this year


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
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