The Haul Out

May 5

Any Cinco de Mayo festivities shared the day with our celebration of hauling the boat out at Ocean Pacific Boatyard. OP is located in Discovery Harbour, not far from the Discovery Harbour Marina. But our slip at the marina seems a world away from here now that we’re sitting up on the hard, inside a shed, out of the weather, even out of sight of the saltwater.

The torrential rains and occasional gale force winds of the past week played havoc with the yard’s schedule. The rain slowed down any outside painting projects and the high winds postponed any TraveLift movements, so no boats were launched or lifted out. No fault, no blame when schedules slide - but I still have to work on developing patience. Grass can’t grow fast enough, boat projects can’t happen soon enough… and my patience is still a work in progress.

The lift went smoothly, purely routine with no surprises and no excitement. That’s always a good thing during a haulout.. 

After the lift a pressure wash of the bottom removed some fuzzy, green organic growth at the waterline and a little scraping took care of the colonies of baby barnacles developing inside some thru-hull inlets and outlets. 

The bottom paint looked pretty good, as did most of the zincs, but we’ll redo everything just because it’s a good idea. (Actually WE won't, but OP will.) The BIG project will be refinishing the exterior teak on a wide caprail; thus the move inside a shed to minimize moisture and dust contamination. 

A steel-hulled fishing boat was in the shed ahead of us, finishing up an exterior paint job. New paint made that old hull look pretty good.

After the fishboat was moved out into the yard, the shed was washed down and readied for Rhapsody's arrival.

Moving Rhapsody inside the shed proved to be an interesting exercise in skill and caution; Gilbert used walk-around wireless controls and handled the Travelift with precision.

It was a close fit heightwise that required dropping the large antennas (antennae?) and snuggling the dinghy’s lifting gear up tight against the back wall.

Even then the anchors and a bit of the bow thrust out beyond the forward wall. Now what?

No problemo - it's been dealt with before and OP had a solution underway almost immediately. Boomer manned the Z-lift and managed attaching and fitting an extension.

While still suspended in the Travelift slings, Rhapsody was gently lowered... slowly... inch by inch... onto wooden beams; then metal support stands were fitted all around the hull. Jeff used retention chains, passing under the hull, to secure each pair of stands.

Wide access stairs were installed fore and aft... a lot easier to negotiate than a standard ladder.

The end panels received a final adjustment and we were inside and closed in. Ready for action, ole!