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Grith said..

julesmoto said..

Grith said..


We have rented a berth and waiting on better weather before crossing the passage. Gale force conditions today.

Yes unfortunately that's what we faced when we got up there and never ended up getting to the destinations in the islands that I wanted to see. Oh well we will have to wait till we are up again in September. Hopefully you will catch a break. Maybe you will still be there when we get back :-).

Just out of interest what do they want for a berth?

It's $91 a night.

Yikes! Hope the weather window opens soon.

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julesmoto said..

Grith said..

julesmoto said..

Grith said..


We have rented a berth and waiting on better weather before crossing the passage. Gale force conditions today.

Yes unfortunately that's what we faced when we got up there and never ended up getting to the destinations in the islands that I wanted to see. Oh well we will have to wait till we are up again in September. Hopefully you will catch a break. Maybe you will still be there when we get back :-).

Just out of interest what do they want for a berth?

It's $91 a night.

Yikes! Hope the weather window opens soon.

Boat! Bring Out Another Thousand or a hole in the water into which you pour money! or Sailing The art of standing under a cold shower in a freezing wind tearing up $100 notes!

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Grith said


Boat! Bring Out Another Thousand or a hole in the water into which you pour money! or Sailing The art of standing under a cold shower in a freezing wind tearing up $100 notes!

Yes I just don't keep track anymore. Just try to do whatever you can yourself and purchase parts as economically as you can.

Although there were very strong winds once you got out of the bay we found it quite comfortable at anchor at various places around Airlie including right out front of Coral Sea marina beside the sea wall/ lead ins.

My mistake was not taking the 3.3 for the tender and thinking that I could row in. Ended up not even blowing the dinghy up and having it occupying bunk space and taking the boat into one of the public wharfs every time we needed something. Will definitely be taking the motor next time even though carrying 2 stroke fuel is total pain in the neck plus all the added weight.

You have much longer so you should be able to find some nice weather at some point.

Is yours a Macgregor 26?

Jules, don't ask if it's a Macgregor 26 !!

After all, it a Poor Man's Imexus!!!

The Imexus 28 is a nice boat!! And I like the Isuzu Slide off Camper!!

Griff, I looked up the Jarcat 6.. They would be very light to tow up to the Whitsundays. How would they handle the sea's out from Airlie, if you chose a window of good conditions.. Although you wouldn't want to be out too far if the weather changed!
They are not given away on the second hand market.
$7K will buy you a renovators delight!!
Very shabby inside..

Cheers

Younger and more hardy the Jarcat 6 was fine for getting out to and living in the islands with my ex for 5 weeks back in 2000. We had the privilege of being kind of adopted by a diverse crowd of long term cruising friends who took pity on us I feel and invited us on their various much larger craft for parties and dinners and also some beach bbq's.
We did manage to snap a side stay and drop a mast way out near Shaw Island in strong winds and short steep seas but managed to gather it all in and motor to Lindeman Island and scrounge some old beach cat rigging to stand the mast back up for sailing.
It was after all only rigged with a very aged Marri Cat mast sail and rigging along with furling headsail I had fitted.
I hope on our current trip I can show my relatively new (previously non sailing) partner everything I experienced back then and so much more in the relative comfort of the much larger and very extensively equipped Imexus 28 and with planning to be out here for 2/3months now recently retired.

One and Only dried out in Hill Inlet behind Whitehaven Beach back in 2000.

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BeamReach said..
Jules, don't ask if it's a Macgregor 26 !!

After all, it a Poor Man's Imexus!!!

Oops sorry for the insult. I am the first to admit that I know nothing about trailer sailers except for the one I have.

I have now educated myself by googling it and watching a couple of boat show walkthrough videos.
Got to admit however similar concept with giant size outboard.

Regarding comparison to Mac's:
Concept as trailerable powersailer/ caravan/ cruiser yes, execution no, price no, equipment no, primary mode of propulsion being sail, open for debate (I don't see mastless Imexus 28's), category B certifiable no, inboard and outboard options no, walk around side decks no, massive of amounts of cruising storage no. Basically some serious multi function powering and use conceptual similarities and about as many serious yacht/cruising orientation differences.

Jules...I thought you were all across boats!! Lol

Yes similar, with a big outboard, I would think they are water ballast for their size..??
That's a long haul to tow a boat!!
I hope your not going to sell your Northshore 38, as I previously read..
I guess your TS will be a holiday house on water..
With the weather you had, I personally would go further up..Cairns/ Pt Douglas... Like another country up there... A lot different when I was first up there in the early 80's as a 15 year old!!
Talking about the weather...We have had some nice days here in Adelaide.. Very little wind, just a bit cold on the water.. And good rainfall so far!!
So much for the experts, predicting Elnino and Climate Change!!
Just more revenue for our Government, in policies and procedures, via Tax, Training,etc..
Bring back the 80's !!!

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BeamReach said..
Jules...I thought you were all across boats!! Lol

Yes similar, with a big outboard, I would think they are water ballast for their size..??
That's a long haul to tow a boat!!
I hope your not going to sell your Northshore 38, as I previously read..
I guess your TS will be a holiday house on water..
With the weather you had, I personally would go further up..Cairns/ Pt Douglas... Like another country up there... A lot different when I was first up there in the early 80's as a 15 year old!!
Talking about the weather...We have had some nice days here in Adelaide.. Very little wind, just a bit cold on the water.. And good rainfall so far!!
So much for the experts, predicting Elnino and Climate Change!!
Just more revenue for our Government, in policies and procedures, via Tax, Training,etc..
Bring back the 80's !!!

Definitely not selling the NS 38. Never intended to. Might sell the Clubman after I am satisfied I have done the Whitsundays. Can't imagine three of us sleeping and living in it when the little one is a bit bigger.Time will tell :-).

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BeamReach said..
Jules...I thought you were all across boats!! Lol

Yes similar, with a big outboard, I would think they are water ballast for their size..??
That's a long haul to tow a boat!!
I hope your not going to sell your Northshore 38, as I previously read..
I guess your TS will be a holiday house on water..
With the weather you had, I personally would go further up..Cairns/ Pt Douglas... Like another country up there... A lot different when I was first up there in the early 80's as a 15 year old!!
Talking about the weather...We have had some nice days here in Adelaide.. Very little wind, just a bit cold on the water.. And good rainfall so far!!
So much for the experts, predicting Elnino and Climate Change!!
Just more revenue for our Government, in policies and procedures, via Tax, Training,etc..
Bring back the 80's !!!

Yes it's a long tow from SA to Airlie Beach but I am guessing that I used less diesel doing that than most cruising yachts getting from Southern SA to here. It was also less than six days of fairly unhurried daylight only driving with rest stops and walks verses how many weeks of relentless 24 hour sailing/motoring to cover the same distance? Yes the Imexus uses 730 litres of water ballast to keep the towing weight fully laden for cruising under 3.5 ton on trailer. With the amount of cruising equipment, drinking water, batteries, supplies and alcohol on board and all mounted or stored down very low its use however is only needed to sail in relatively strong winds. Nowhere near as comfortable as a Northshore 38 but adequate for three ( two being well over 6 foot tall ) for a week and for a couple for weeks to months on end. We have standing headroom at the galley, enclosed shower toilet with hot water and two very generous long double berths, one at each end of the yacht. The 6/8 seat dinette isn't part of the sleeping arrangements. Not for everyone or perhaps even many but a sailing/cruising solution for those wanting relatively quick and easy access a wide variety of cruising destinations including many not accessible by conventional yachts.

Griff...You have an ideal set-up and yes it would be a long slog to get there from SA...
Your boat looks very comfortable and capable.
Could you fill the boat at Airlie, to reduce the towing weight, after all its less than a kilolitre of water, where you could fill up at a stay at a caravan park or the marina you are in.
Thanks for your overview of your boat and travels.
Hopefully the conditions improve soon and you have a memorable holiday...
Cheers

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BeamReach said..
Griff...You have an ideal set-up and yes it would be a long slog to get there from SA...
Your boat looks very comfortable and capable.
Could you fill the boat at Airlie, to reduce the towing weight, after all its less than a kilolitre of water, where you could fill up at a stay at a caravan park or the marina you are in.
Thanks for your overview of your boat and travels.
Hopefully the conditions improve soon and you have a memorable holiday...
Cheers

The yacht was nearly empty of potable water on the long journey up here. This saves about 200 kgs of weight carrying. Unfortunately we were still carrying about 180 litres of petrol as we had filled the tanks and portable containers before our last local trip in SA and that trip ended up using very little of our 220 litre capacity. With no other petrol using vehicles or equipment at home there was no way to reduce this load effectively. More planning next time! My partner had created, dried, made and packed much of our two months plus food supply at home in SA and is strongly against pre prepared and tourist priced food and produce. Our alcohol supply was also local high quality but cost effective from premium wineries close to our home in Southern SA. Water ballast tank is obviously empty and remains so except in extreme sailing conditions. Apart from doing better with petrol there was not that much weight saving possible when also carrying an inflatable dingy, torqeedo electric auxiliary and dingy outboard with its two batteries, tools, repair materials, sup, diving gear, fishing gear and all the rest of the unnecessary toys and stuff!
Convincing ladies to pack less can also be very tough!

Pre her packing stuff in!

Despite being a trailerable yacht I have a pretty extensive cruising fit-out for long periods of live-aboard including nearly 1000w of solar, 2 different style bow anchors and two again different style stern anchors just for instance.

Grith... Thanks again for the details.. Your on a Winner with your partner. She looks after you very well, just like being at home.. I agree the cost of food on the road, you couldn't sustain or justify it, plus it's not as healthy. And you have got your priorities right, with stocking up with quality wines, as they would be costly up there, as their climate is not favourable for vineyards.
So what would be the approximate weight of the boat/ trailer without your fuel onboard?
Also, on your camping trips with the Isuzu, do slide the camper off at your camp site, when sight seeing, etc..
Cheers

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BeamReach said..
Grith... Thanks again for the details.. Your on a Winner with your partner. She looks after you very well, just like being at home.. I agree the cost of food on the road, you couldn't sustain or justify it, plus it's not as healthy. And you have got your priorities right, with stocking up with quality wines, as they would be costly up there, as their climate is not favourable for vineyards.
So what would be the approximate weight of the boat/ trailer without your fuel onboard?
Also, on your camping trips with the Isuzu, do slide the camper off at your camp site, when sight seeing, etc..
Cheers

Without the fuel load the Imexus could be another about 150kgs lighter bringing us down to about 3.25ton on trailer. Without all the supply's and long range cruising fitout onboard the Imexus tows at around 2500kgs.
Re our slide on truck camping only holidays I haven't found the need to unload the camper as we are not base camp for days in one place types rather fairly constant move on daily or at least after several
day types. It takes as little as 10 minutes to unload and 15 minutes to load however so it's perfectly feasible. As also walkers, kayakers and cyclists the slide on mounted on an AWD truck is ideal giving us fairly rough track accessibility, a high degree of self contained flexibility and ease of manoeuvring.
The mounting on a light truck removes weight limitations and the fear of breaking the vehicle back as can happen with large slide ons on traditional utes.

Due to its short length (despite its height) it can also fit in crowded tourist spot car parks and many shopping centre car parks legally squeezing into a conventional car bay.
It does shock the regular car drivers at times however.
The slide on has reached some fairly remote spots to act as a base with toilet, shower, kitchen, big bed and fly/mossie proof base camp.

Well we ventured out and crossed The Whitsunday Passage today with most of the crossing being at about 15knots ( predicted 25knots) and feeling a bit silly having put two reefs in the main. It did however hit 20-25knots ( which would have at least required one) for a short while before we could shelter in the Lee of Hook Island and run up to Stonehaven anchorage. Typically as we were heading into Stonehaven to pick up a mooring a sudden and intense rain storm swept through when we were about to lower the main with the attendant driving rain and bullets of wind off the surrounding mountains.
Soaked for lunch but I managed to get my partner to go inside before the driving rain leaving only my friend and I to brave the elements and it's effects!

Photo was taken under sail but before rounding North Mole and hitting the more serious winds and waves
Actually all the much bigger yachts we saw out there were motor sailing whilst we were actually just sailing so serious offshore sailers can can the jokes please!

Grith...Thanks for sharing...Very envious..

Enjoy your holiday and I hope it warms up a little..

I did read that the best time to visit Airlie is September, October and November..

But the whole idea of SA people migrating North, is to escape our Winter.. But we are getting into the 20's in the next few days!! A mild Winter so far..

Cheers,

Mike

Our noted weather jinx friend Bryan left us today to fly back to Perth so we are at Hamilton Island for the evening and the weather has turned perfect!

Wow...That looks nice !! Now it's looking like Queensland..Perfect one day and even better the next!
Looks like your settled in now and ready to enjoy your free anchorages and Island hopping..

Trailering a Yacht from SA is a great concept..
Enjoy!!

Well we are out here in the Islands proving it's possible to live in some degree of comfort on a trailer sailer even if it is towards the largest that can be comfortably towed.
I realise our unusual Imexus 28 power sailer isn't for everyone as it's definitely not suitable for around the cans weekend racing type sailing.
We however sailed across from Airlie to Butterfly Bay doing 5-6.5 knots with two reefs in the main and the Genoa in 20knots of breeze and a decent swell. Many much larger yachts were motoring. One day we smashed straight into 20-25knots at 5-10 knots over ground against the tide in a decent short swell under engine again outpacing three much larger yachts all also under their engines. We had hit 14knots in the shelter of Hook to empty the ballast tank. The speed varied as the wave period changed and I didn't want the yacht dropping off the back of waves and slamming.
Yesterday we ran downwind from Hamilton to Cid under just Genoa at times hitting 6-7 knots despite having a full ballast tank of water onboard. For a trailerable yacht we have standing headroom at the galley closed up , a closed door shower toilet room and two large double berths not requiring the disassembly of the dinette area. The penalty is lots of freeboard and windage but with a SUP hanging on the side and permanent Bimini with solar panels and dodger erected we have lots of windage anyway.

We have spent several days anchored in Hill Inlet in The Whitsundays. This anchorage is only available for very low draft craft and our first of two positions was in a deep spot about 2nm in which is even more access restricted precluding even the low draft catamarans that sometimes come in closer to the entrance and to the back of Whitehaven Beach near the top of a rising tide and then dry out.This first spot guaranteed our almost total tranquility except on the rising tide near its peak when a variety of fishing dingy's and sightseers blasted on by and back to catch the brief moment with adequate depth to do this. We were lucky as when we moved to the more commonly used close to the beach spot it also remained empty for our two days there. These stays were in stark contrast to the anchorage at Whitehaven Beach which when were approaching from a distance from Borden Island Clare swore she could see a forest of bare trees and argued with me when I said it was yacht masts unbelieving there could be that many boats there. It was a total zoo down there with many many anchored and visiting craft along with loads of daytripper boats carrying tourist hoards from both Airlie and Hamilton Island. On our third day in Hill Inlet we spent two hours one morning in our 2.3 m inflatable dingy with torqeedo outboard silently cruising up stream on the rising tide and reached the very top of the inlet just in time to catch the turn of the tide and make it all the way back to our yacht on the falling tide as it is only accessible at high tide. Huge numbers of stingray and a variety of fish both large and small were sighted along with a wide variety of birdlife including sea eagles fishing. It would be difficult to imagine a more perfect camp site (anchorage) with the spectacular views of surrounding hills and mountains along with the inlet, sunrises and sets and the every changing landscape thanks to the rise and fall of the tide exposing and covering huge areas of white sand and mud amongst aquamarine and green changing water colours in the changing light. (Shame about the sandflies when the wind died which had us move closer to the mouth) We collected a huge feed of oysters off nearby rocks (beautifully cooked by Clare) and it has proved very difficult to drag Clare away from our own private paradise! When we moved closer to the mouth we then walked the entire length of Whitehaven Beach from Hill Inlet then up and over to Chance Bay and up to the Whitehaven Lookout. Including the walk back with swim it was an over 22klm day walk. Twice we also got up early to watch the sunrise over one of the worlds most beautiful beaches made much easier by accidentally completely drying out on a sandbank after a change in wind direction moved our position despite anchoring both bow and stern.

Have a look at dingo beach for another shoal draft / dry out type anchorage, water front park pub neat little town. Right there in the pocket !

Back there a month from today. Watching your posts with interest. Thank you. Keep them coming :-).

Need a midge screen in the companionway and front hatch so considering how to make it at home without a proper template.

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julesmoto said..
Back there a month from today. Watching you posts with interest. Thank you full stop keep them coming :-).

Need a midge screen in the companionway and front hatch so considering how to make it at home without a proper template.

See photos. Two of three rear hatch boards replaced with drop in marine ply board with cut out that has standard small diameter alloy flyscreen frame screwed to it fitted with micro fine midge flyscreen.
it stores on the side of the keel case under the fold up dinette table side. Front hatch has Velcro glued around it with cut to size midge screen with the hook Velcro sewn to it. now replaced with easier to use propriety hatch screen that suction cup sticks to underside of the hatch and adjusts via a draw cord for various opening.

Thank you very much for that. I will hunt down one of those proprietary items for the front hatch (don't remember where you got it do you?) and now just have to get the measurements for my wash boards from another Clubman owner so that I can make one up at home and take it up to my boat.

Mosquito net cut over size with light chain sewn in the hem makes a good throw over & it's real easy to stow, I've not ever noticed midges or mozzie around the Whitsundays but I don't go poking around in mangroves either. Even tho it's not stinger season I would hire a 1mm steamer for each snorkeler from the dive shop they are only about $40/week as we did see a few translucentish smallish jellyfish

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julesmoto said..
Thank you very much for that. I will hunt down one of those proprietary items for the front hatch (don't remember where you got it do you?) and now just have to get the measurements for my wash boards from another Clubman owner so that I can make one up at home and take it up to my boat.

The front hatch midge/ mosquito net came from Whitworths.

Thanks guys :).

We sailed over 8 hours under asymmetrical spinnaker yesterday coming back into the Whitsundays from the outer reef. Not many trailer sailers ever venture out there!

Grith...Well Done !! Looks like a perfect day !!
Very scenic!!
Did you anchor overnight in the outer reef area?
How many NM was it?
Cheers

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Grith said..
We sailed over 8 hours under asymmetrical spinnaker yesterday coming back into the Whitsundays from the outer reef. Not many trailer sailers ever venture out there!

Good on you. Can't wait to get back there