Haul Outs by Paul Andron

Haul Outs by Paul Andron

In the three years we have owned the Sea Heather we have pulled it out of the water twice. The first “haul-out” was on a grid. A grid is a system of supports that sit in the water. When there is a very high tide, it is possible to drive a boat up onto the grid and tie it up to support beams. Then when the tide goes out the boat will sit upon the supports and out of the water. This allows you to clean the bottom, paint and sometimes even leaves you enough time to make minor repairs.

In the summer 2004 we “Hauled-Out” Sea Heather for the first time on the Grid. This is a humbling experience and provides a whole new perspective for anyone (like us) who hasn’t seen their boat from this angle. We talked to the harbor master who provided us with a drawing of the grid layout. It is very important to line up the bents (the padded railroad ties that support the vessel) with strong and balanced points on the keel (I wouldn’t recommend attempting this with a fin keel!). We compared the bent spacing with the only drawings we had of Sea Heather and then used a healthy helping of guesswork.

A couple of important considerations before we go on:

1. Don’t line up a bent under the rudder.
2. Make sure the boat will not roll forward or backwards off a bent (a good way to balance the boat is by filling or emptying water and fuel tanks, or by moving heavy objects like the anchor chain).
3. Pad the gunwale or any other part of the boat that will lean against the vertical posts of the grid.
4. Don’t plan on getting any sleep.
5. How high and low are the tides and what times do they hit?
6. Is the next high tide higher (preferable) or lower (not so preferable) than the first? You don’t want to be spending a month on the grid.
7. Make sure you have all the tools needed for the job ready to go: pressure washer, paint, brushes, rollers, scrapers, sand paper, lunch, zincs, etc. etc. etc. When you have 6 hours between tides you don’t want to stop to go to the store!

The next step after arranging a times and tides was to move the vessel into position. It was a windy day and we had a bit of trouble getting her to turn into the wind. I think the locals were a little concerned when on our third attempt we came in at about 5 knots, slammed the rudder over, and gunned the engine to get her into the wind. Once in position, with 30 minutes to spare before the tide turned, we double checked everything and began tying her down. I think we may have gone overboard with 10 lines over, but the idea of balancing a 12 ton object on edge and then walking under it was incentive enough to not skimp on support.

And then the tide began to receed…

She slowly settled down onto her keel and suddenly felt different. It’s strange to feel the vessel stop moving, it doesn’t feel right. We carefully monitored the lines to make sure everything was in order, and once the tide was out far enough to walk under her for the first time it was an awe inspiring experience.

She is a lot of boat! We also learned some things: when we purchased the Sea Heather it had not been hauled out for years! The bottom was growing ten foot long tentacles, no wonder we could barely do two knots under sail

As the tide receded we pressure washed the hull. You have to be a little careful with a powerful pressure washer because there is the risk of ripping off gel-coat, but with care it saves HOURS of scrubbing! There certainly wasn’t enough time to pressure wash AND paint on the same tide, so we used the extra time to check and replace the zinc, scrub the prop, measure and take photos of all those strange “below the waterline things” that are difficult to measure and take photos of otherwise, and go to the hardware store to get some forgotten items, like paint, brushes, rollers, scrapers, sand paper, lunch, zincs, etc.

That night we(Paul) didn’t sleep much because we(Paul) had to tend the lines as the tide lifted our boat up and set it back down again. The next morning we hit the ground running. As soon as we could wade into the water we began applying masking tape and rinsing off the hull with fresh water. The “Bottomkote” paint we used said something about a 16 hour drying time. We decided that was malarkie and applied it as quickly as possible to get a full 6 hours of drying time. As the tide rolled out we rolled on the paint.

It was an exhausting process, but the finished product was well worth the effort!