Maiden Voyage of the Free Yacht

Our crew of adventurers sets sail on our little ship for the first time.
continues the saga begun at How to Get a Free Yacht

Nick Papadakis, Patrick Buckley, Lorraine Superhero, and Tim Anderson.

words and music by Pat assisted by Tim,
Photos by Pat - great job - I didn't even know you were taking these!

continues the Free Yacht saga begun at How to Get a Free Yacht

Here's the table of contents of the whole saga:
Chapter 1: How to Get a Free Yacht
Chapter 2: Maiden Voyage of the Free Yacht
Chapter 3: Fix Broken Stix and other Trix
Chapter 4: Outboard Motor Mutilates Foot
Chapter 5: It's sinking and it's on Fire.
Chapter 6: How To Give Away a Free Yacht
Chapter 7: Get an Even Better One and Fabulize it.
Chapter 8: Celebrate Freedom
Chapter 9: Technicolor Dreamboat
Chapter 10: Privateer Knot
Chapter 11: Dismasted!
Chapter 12: Kiteboat!
Chapter 13: Mast Raising

Our exhaust tube was bulging and pulsing with every crank of the little diesel,
spraying water from holes that seemed more numerous with every minute.
The bulging innards of our exhaust tube. The entire tube was decaying from the inside out. An internal hernia was plugging the exhaust tube.

Also known as through-hull fittings so as to seem less crazy.

A plastic bag wadded up in the exhaust pipe to keep the boat from sinking while we ran to the store. Your free boat may be kept afloat by similar means. Look at that prop, nice and clean thanks to Tims scrubbing.

Sizing out the exhaust tubing. Floor tiles are usually 12" squares and so can be used as a rough tape measure for lengths. Tim got down and dirty to compare tube diameters.

Cutting the tubing with some strange west marine tool made special for the job. A pocket knife could have done the job.
At the register: "That will be one milliion dollars. Per foot."

Its actually a jet boat, no just kidding, this is the new exhaust tubing in action. The water is used to cool the exhaust of the engine, from what I can remember of thermodynamics I beleive that this helps increase the efficiency of the engine.

As soon as it was fixed we found another million-dollar hose just laying on the dock.
A neighbor with higher standards had just replaced theirs. Oh well.

Our diesel engine expert, Nick checking the manuals to try and figure out what the mystery coolant valve did. We decided it was suppose to be closed while the engine ran. It is a good idea to try and get as much information and any manuals you can from the previous owners. Our boat came with alot of this stuff making it easier for us to figure out how things worked.

Some boats have carved wooden pieces under their bowsprit, we have a flying Tim on the top of our bow sprit

This is a shot of Tim as he breaks our rudder by standing on the handle, the nautical term for this handle is tiller. Usually you want to avoid breaking this as it is important for steering the boat. Don't be surprised if you break lots of stuff on your free boat the first time out. I would recommend taking your boat out on a calm day the first couple times out. Start a list of the things you want to repair or fix

Lorraine was our sailing expert and when not hiding in the cabin to avoid being seen on our boat by other people she sailed with she was a huge help with guiding and advising us.

Several seamanly maneuvers later, including fouling the gaff with a backstay, we sailed into harbor at the emeryville marina.
There the joyful natives feted us with garlands and budweiser.

Continued at: Fix Broken Stix and other Trix

continues the Free Yacht saga begun at How to Get a Free Yacht

Here's the table of contents of the whole saga:
Chapter 1: How to Get a Free Yacht
Chapter 2: Maiden Voyage of the Free Yacht
Chapter 3: Fix Broken Stix and other Trix
Chapter 4: Outboard Motor Mutilates Foot
Chapter 5: It's sinking and it's on Fire.
Chapter 6: How To Give Away a Free Yacht
Chapter 7: Get an Even Better One and Fabulize it.
Chapter 8: Celebrate Freedom
Chapter 9: Technicolor Dreamboat
Chapter 10: Privateer Knot
Chapter 11: Dismasted!
Chapter 12: Kiteboat!
Chapter 13: Mast Raising