great videos, well done on the yacht she looks stunning, good fix too; for the surging or swells in some marinas and for use when stern too (med mooring) carry some mooring springs ready to use tailed with 5m of line, once in your berth on normal lines, swop them out to the springs, really reduces wear, tear and reduces jerking when trying to mix a g&t
Indeed. We're in Gibraltar now waiting on some parts and just enjoying the vibe of Gib. It took us a while to get our mooring lines adjusted to our liking. There's about a meter tide here, and we're on a concrete dock. We used to use the rubber snubbers, but a lot of the full-time liveaboards have the metal springs. The thing is, we have almost no space to spare. I know it sounds stupid, but Wendy has placed a moratorium on new stuff. The fairleads on this boat are a known deficiency, and later models had them upgraded to a larger size and better design. This one wouldn't have failed had it not been broken to begin with. The break in the middle meant that the two screws on either side were not connected through to each other mechanically. On the night of the failure we were tied up to the fuel dock in Camerey Sur Mer, France, and it was a pretty exposed location. I suspect a fishing boat or something came through before sunrise and created a wake that shook the boat. We had doubled up bow and stern lines, plus springs, so there wasn't any safety issue. But one of the bow lines ended up severely cut/chaffed.
The fairlead fix is a bit on the weak side. I'd suggest to be on the lookout for a slightly longer fairlead. You could lengthen the cutout and redrill the mounting holes.
As I related to another viewer, we'll be stopping by the Oyster operation in Mallorca pretty soon and I plan on asking them if they've found a better solution. Often this is the case. Oyster customer support is really something. I imagine they'll suggest welding in the hole and redrilling, but we'll see. Adding a larger fairlead would be a big job and I'm not sure we'd want to pay so long as the present fix isn't failing. It's been two and a half months since the repair and it's held up fine so far. I do try to be careful about how it gets loaded. Thanks for watching.
It's 2:30am here and a huge winter storm is moving through Gibraltar. I'll be up all night on watch as winds are exceeding 50 knots in the marina and all dock lines are suffering greatly. We have everything doubled up but keeping an eye on the other boats around too. Hope all is well in Denver.
hey Kevin, I hope you are enjoying your time in Portugal and immersing yourself in a little bit of Celtic heritage. What happened to episode 30?. I believe it should cover a review of a boat in Spain.
Ahhh, a viewer who is paying attention. We had more fun than you can imagine along the northern Spanish and Portuguese coasts. We've been hanging out in Gibraltar for a couple of months now as it's a non-Schengen area, and we can recharge our EU Schengen days. Episodes 28 and 30 were moved to private status after a complaint of sorts from the broker we were seeing in Antigua who worried that the owners of the two boats I highlighted would not have been happy about the information being shared. I felt he was overreacting (and still do) but out of respect for his wishes I made both private. The boats in question were a Dufour 485 and Moody 46. Meanwhile, he had no complaints about the Tayana 52 we highlighted, and that video ended up selling the boat for him. If you have an interest in watching I can make the videos public for 24 hours or so. Let me know.
Sailing Yacht Talisman kevin, thank you so much for sharing these 2 episodes with me. Very nice videos as all others coming from you. I really don't understand why they got upset with the videos of their boats on youtube. You said nothing detrimental of the boats, on the contrary. It is actually funny that you kind access this situation at the end of the dufour boat video. Anyhow, thanks again and all the best for you and Wendy.
Kevin do I understand correctly that the fairlead got wrenched and forced back by the 'action of your tethered mooring lines passing through the fairlead fitting' and being pulled about by severe motion of Talisman? If so, were the mooring lines leading aft onto a floating buoy or fixed pontoon? If so were they chaffed or degraded by contact with sharp edges? Looking at the damage, it looks like considerable forces were concentrated towards the stern end of the fitting. You did a great job of repairing the toe-rail, but I think the replaced fitting may, in consequence, be slightly compromised because the aft end bolt hole has been ripped open. I totally agree with your concerns about applying heat to the toe-rail, as there was a real danger of causing collateral damage. Good job you didn't try and also, perhaps a lesson learnt about fixing cracked fairleads once spotted. I seem to remember you pointing it out on your initial inspection in Scotland. It's interesting to wonder just how it became cracked in the first place. May be similar forces at play?
Good thoughts all. I think yes to everything you say. Lines were certainly cut, if not chafed. The edges were razor sharp. There is compromise to be sure, but there's not much to do to improve the situation. So far, it's all been good. In all honesty, the fairlead can fail and I'll still have the cleat working, albeit with the line running over the toe rail instead of through the fairlead. Worst that happens is anodized coating worn off the toe rail and perhaps less than ideal angle of line to dock. Thanks for watching and being with us.
Good job considering the tools you had. Do the teak decks need some TLC? Also Kevin are you and Wendy happy with the size of the yacht? Yes the brand is top notch but was wondering if you guys thought she was large enough.
Teak decks always require TLC, but ours are in fairly good shape considering the age. Mostly, they need a very light sanding to bring down the caulk that is sitting proud. Teak is so expensive these days that modern boats have very thin teak, whereas ours is over a centimeter thick. You'll be seeing a lot more synthetic teak in the coming years as the products are impressive (see Flexiteek). We're very happy with the size of the boat, and glad we didn't go bigger. I'd consider an Oyster 53 or 56, but the interior layout is more or less identical and the bigger you go the harder it becomes to find space in marinas. At 2.4 meters of draft, we're already limited on which slips we can use in most marinas, plus we rarely/never arrive or depart at anything less than mid-tide unless we have very deep water. The vast majority of cruisers are on smaller boats, mostly in the 40-45' range, but there's a big difference in interior volume between a modern production boat and a less beamy bluewater boat. The production boats being produced these days are much wider aft, and this makes them feel larger than their length would suggest. Boats larger than 55' generally see additional crew, and often full time skippers and mates taking care of things while the owners are off making money. Thanks for watching.
Sailing Yacht Talisman thank you for the videos! How’s the cruising life going? How’s your beautiful boat doing? What are your plans for the upcoming year, you guys staying in Europe for a while? All the best 👍🏻
We went back to the States for Christmas and New Years, visiting Wendy's parents and such. We also took our Bimini and spray hood back to do adjustments to the fit and some additional reinforcements. We have a big Juki industrial sewing machine there and it's perfect for this sort of work. Wendy made the Bimini and spray hood from the original canvas, and it was "almost" perfect. Pretty much is perfect now. We're in Gibraltar waiting on new sails and some machining work on our mainsail furler/gooseneck. Heading into the Med proper in mid February if all goes well. We're about two months behind on videos but catching up. I noticed on your site that your boat is based in Puerto Rico. Did she survive the hurricanes okay?
Sailing Yacht Talisman good to hear!! Yes, she did.....both Irma and Maria....unbelievable!!! The marina where she’s at helped tremendously. Very well protected and we did a great job of tying her down good. But not everybody was as lucky as we were. I’ve got some crazy pictures of sailboats a few rows down completely out of the water 😳
The Grand Soleil GS 50 we went to see (Ep 20) was located in Marina del Ray, on the west coast. We think about that boat a lot, wondering if she survived the storms.
Kevin. Always enjoy your videos. Great to see something that doesn't use girls in small bikinis to grab attention! Not that I am against girls in small bikinis but I would rather stick to sailing issues. Others have suggested this is a weak point... Me... I would suggest that as the other fairleads have lasted for over a decade or more I tend to think this failure is just 'one of those things'. They happen on a boats. But then I admit I am from the engineering school of 'if it ain't broke then don't try and fix it'. If you find your way to Greece I will buy you a beer or three.
Hi Alenka. We hope to take you up on your beer offer. As for the fairlead, it's held successfully for 2 months in some pretty harsh conditions. It failed the way it did simply because the casting was broken in the middle, allowing the loaded side to peel out. Had I replaced it earlier the problem never would have occurred. That's the lesson of all this. We also went for almost a month with it unrepaired and just led the lines from the cleat out and over the toe rail, without even using the fairlead. But doing this long-term will wear the anodization off the aluminum. We'll just watch and see. Thanks so much for being with us.
No, there was a total design change made later that eliminated the aluminum toe rail, but otherwise nothing. The guy next to us in Gib has a Jeanneau 45.2 that has a very trick looking fairlead that I think could be added. But I'd need six of them and I think I'll just make do for now.
Nice fix!! 👍👍👍😍. How secure are those screws? With the head facing out any chance of losing a screw while at sea and you won't know it. Just a thought. Thanks for sharing! 😍⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵😊👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
I didn't think to video it but I used a small DeWalt 20v impact driver on the screws and they are now not removable by hand. Also, the TefGel is an amazing product in that it's so thick that it acts like Locktite. You cannot turn a screw by hand with TefGel on the threads and this means it's very rare for a fastener to loosen on its own. Thanks for being with us.
![ILLSLICK X YOUNGOHM - We're The same [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yUJNkobYR0E/mqdefault.jpg)
We use a phrase in the operating room that you have clearly learned. “ The opposite of good is better”... I enjoy your pace and explanations.
Thanks Brendan. We appreciate that.
great videos, well done on the yacht she looks stunning, good fix too; for the surging or swells in some marinas and for use when stern too (med mooring) carry some mooring springs ready to use tailed with 5m of line, once in your berth on normal lines, swop them out to the springs, really reduces wear, tear and reduces jerking when trying to mix a g&t
Indeed. We're in Gibraltar now waiting on some parts and just enjoying the vibe of Gib. It took us a while to get our mooring lines adjusted to our liking. There's about a meter tide here, and we're on a concrete dock. We used to use the rubber snubbers, but a lot of the full-time liveaboards have the metal springs. The thing is, we have almost no space to spare. I know it sounds stupid, but Wendy has placed a moratorium on new stuff. The fairleads on this boat are a known deficiency, and later models had them upgraded to a larger size and better design. This one wouldn't have failed had it not been broken to begin with. The break in the middle meant that the two screws on either side were not connected through to each other mechanically. On the night of the failure we were tied up to the fuel dock in Camerey Sur Mer, France, and it was a pretty exposed location. I suspect a fishing boat or something came through before sunrise and created a wake that shook the boat. We had doubled up bow and stern lines, plus springs, so there wasn't any safety issue. But one of the bow lines ended up severely cut/chaffed.
Nothing fell in to the water. Murphy"s law was no where to be found on this project. Good stuff.
The fairlead fix is a bit on the weak side. I'd suggest to be on the lookout for a slightly longer fairlead. You could lengthen the cutout and redrill the mounting holes.
As I related to another viewer, we'll be stopping by the Oyster operation in Mallorca pretty soon and I plan on asking them if they've found a better solution. Often this is the case. Oyster customer support is really something. I imagine they'll suggest welding in the hole and redrilling, but we'll see. Adding a larger fairlead would be a big job and I'm not sure we'd want to pay so long as the present fix isn't failing. It's been two and a half months since the repair and it's held up fine so far. I do try to be careful about how it gets loaded. Thanks for watching.
Hope you folks are fine. I watch your videos when i can.
Terrific Tom! We're glad to have you.
Nice work Kevin! Enjoyed the video. You're such a Macgyver! Was kinda hoping the you were going to use the wrench as the solution. :)
It's 2:30am here and a huge winter storm is moving through Gibraltar. I'll be up all night on watch as winds are exceeding 50 knots in the marina and all dock lines are suffering greatly. We have everything doubled up but keeping an eye on the other boats around too. Hope all is well in Denver.
hey Kevin, I hope you are enjoying your time in Portugal and immersing yourself in a little bit of Celtic heritage. What happened to episode 30?. I believe it should cover a review of a boat in Spain.
Ahhh, a viewer who is paying attention. We had more fun than you can imagine along the northern Spanish and Portuguese coasts. We've been hanging out in Gibraltar for a couple of months now as it's a non-Schengen area, and we can recharge our EU Schengen days. Episodes 28 and 30 were moved to private status after a complaint of sorts from the broker we were seeing in Antigua who worried that the owners of the two boats I highlighted would not have been happy about the information being shared. I felt he was overreacting (and still do) but out of respect for his wishes I made both private. The boats in question were a Dufour 485 and Moody 46. Meanwhile, he had no complaints about the Tayana 52 we highlighted, and that video ended up selling the boat for him. If you have an interest in watching I can make the videos public for 24 hours or so. Let me know.
Sailing Yacht Talisman , I surely would love to see those episodes. And I guess that because it is forbidden, it must taste better, no?
Done. For 24 hours.
Sailing Yacht Talisman kevin, thank you so much for sharing these 2 episodes with me. Very nice videos as all others coming from you. I really don't understand why they got upset with the videos of their boats on youtube. You said nothing detrimental of the boats, on the contrary. It is actually funny that you kind access this situation at the end of the dufour boat video. Anyhow, thanks again and all the best for you and Wendy.
Kevin do I understand correctly that the fairlead got wrenched and forced back by the 'action of your tethered mooring lines passing through the fairlead fitting' and being pulled about by severe motion of Talisman? If so, were the mooring lines leading aft onto a floating buoy or fixed pontoon? If so were they chaffed or degraded by contact with sharp edges? Looking at the damage, it looks like considerable forces were concentrated towards the stern end of the fitting. You did a great job of repairing the toe-rail, but I think the replaced fitting may, in consequence, be slightly compromised because the aft end bolt hole has been ripped open. I totally agree with your concerns about applying heat to the toe-rail, as there was a real danger of causing collateral damage. Good job you didn't try and also, perhaps a lesson learnt about fixing cracked fairleads once spotted. I seem to remember you pointing it out on your initial inspection in Scotland. It's interesting to wonder just how it became cracked in the first place. May be similar forces at play?
Good thoughts all. I think yes to everything you say. Lines were certainly cut, if not chafed. The edges were razor sharp. There is compromise to be sure, but there's not much to do to improve the situation. So far, it's all been good. In all honesty, the fairlead can fail and I'll still have the cleat working, albeit with the line running over the toe rail instead of through the fairlead. Worst that happens is anodized coating worn off the toe rail and perhaps less than ideal angle of line to dock. Thanks for watching and being with us.
Good job considering the tools you had. Do the teak decks need some TLC? Also Kevin are you and Wendy happy with the size of the yacht? Yes the brand is top notch but was wondering if you guys thought she was large enough.
Teak decks always require TLC, but ours are in fairly good shape considering the age. Mostly, they need a very light sanding to bring down the caulk that is sitting proud. Teak is so expensive these days that modern boats have very thin teak, whereas ours is over a centimeter thick. You'll be seeing a lot more synthetic teak in the coming years as the products are impressive (see Flexiteek). We're very happy with the size of the boat, and glad we didn't go bigger. I'd consider an Oyster 53 or 56, but the interior layout is more or less identical and the bigger you go the harder it becomes to find space in marinas. At 2.4 meters of draft, we're already limited on which slips we can use in most marinas, plus we rarely/never arrive or depart at anything less than mid-tide unless we have very deep water. The vast majority of cruisers are on smaller boats, mostly in the 40-45' range, but there's a big difference in interior volume between a modern production boat and a less beamy bluewater boat. The production boats being produced these days are much wider aft, and this makes them feel larger than their length would suggest. Boats larger than 55' generally see additional crew, and often full time skippers and mates taking care of things while the owners are off making money. Thanks for watching.
Nice Job!
Thanks for watching!
Great job!!! It looks great!! 👍🏻👍🏻
Great hearing from you folks. It's been a while. Thanks for watching.
Sailing Yacht Talisman thank you for the videos! How’s the cruising life going? How’s your beautiful boat doing? What are your plans for the upcoming year, you guys staying in Europe for a while? All the best 👍🏻
We went back to the States for Christmas and New Years, visiting Wendy's parents and such. We also took our Bimini and spray hood back to do adjustments to the fit and some additional reinforcements. We have a big Juki industrial sewing machine there and it's perfect for this sort of work. Wendy made the Bimini and spray hood from the original canvas, and it was "almost" perfect. Pretty much is perfect now. We're in Gibraltar waiting on new sails and some machining work on our mainsail furler/gooseneck. Heading into the Med proper in mid February if all goes well. We're about two months behind on videos but catching up. I noticed on your site that your boat is based in Puerto Rico. Did she survive the hurricanes okay?
Sailing Yacht Talisman good to hear!! Yes, she did.....both Irma and Maria....unbelievable!!! The marina where she’s at helped tremendously. Very well protected and we did a great job of tying her down good. But not everybody was as lucky as we were. I’ve got some crazy pictures of sailboats a few rows down completely out of the water 😳
The Grand Soleil GS 50 we went to see (Ep 20) was located in Marina del Ray, on the west coast. We think about that boat a lot, wondering if she survived the storms.
Kevin. Always enjoy your videos. Great to see something that doesn't use girls in small bikinis to grab attention! Not that I am against girls in small bikinis but I would rather stick to sailing issues. Others have suggested this is a weak point... Me... I would suggest that as the other fairleads have lasted for over a decade or more I tend to think this failure is just 'one of those things'. They happen on a boats. But then I admit I am from the engineering school of 'if it ain't broke then don't try and fix it'.
If you find your way to Greece I will buy you a beer or three.
Hi Alenka. We hope to take you up on your beer offer. As for the fairlead, it's held successfully for 2 months in some pretty harsh conditions. It failed the way it did simply because the casting was broken in the middle, allowing the loaded side to peel out. Had I replaced it earlier the problem never would have occurred. That's the lesson of all this. We also went for almost a month with it unrepaired and just led the lines from the cleat out and over the toe rail, without even using the fairlead. But doing this long-term will wear the anodization off the aluminum. We'll just watch and see. Thanks so much for being with us.
saw the bad away. add a longer fairlead.
We'll see how the repair works. So far so good.
all i can say is JB WELD NEVER LEAVE HOME WITH OUT IT
Good advice!
That was a very good repair in the circumstances. Did you manage to get any answers on alternatives form Oyster before they went belly up?
No, there was a total design change made later that eliminated the aluminum toe rail, but otherwise nothing. The guy next to us in Gib has a Jeanneau 45.2 that has a very trick looking fairlead that I think could be added. But I'd need six of them and I think I'll just make do for now.
Sailing Yacht Talisman not one of those collapsing flush fitting jobs it?
Nice fix!! 👍👍👍😍. How secure are those screws? With the head facing out any chance of losing a screw while at sea and you won't know it. Just a thought. Thanks for sharing! 😍⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵⛵😊👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
I didn't think to video it but I used a small DeWalt 20v impact driver on the screws and they are now not removable by hand. Also, the TefGel is an amazing product in that it's so thick that it acts like Locktite. You cannot turn a screw by hand with TefGel on the threads and this means it's very rare for a fastener to loosen on its own. Thanks for being with us.