Yacht "Blue Heron" Getting to know the boats secrets.

We cruised on Blue Heron for three years on the New Zealand, North Island, NE coast when our various work commitments and projects allowed.











Here she is anchored off Russel in the Bay of Islands.
The teak woodwork looked great varnished, but we soon worked out it would be a lot of work to keep looking good on the outside.

We were really pleased with the way she handled, despite having a baggy old mainsail. She is a relatively comfortable yacht offshore, although the confused sea around Cape Brett had the crew feeling a little queazy.

In a building breeze from the east, we sailed back from Great Barrier Island reaching speeds of 12 knots across the ground with a single reef in the main and poled out Headsail (Number 3) and wind peaking at 27 knots.















There were aspects of the boat we were not comfortable with in terms of ocean passaging that had to be put right. We had no passive income and felt the work should be done before we departed New Zealand.

The position of the gauges annoyed me for one and they told lies.

The Position of the Mainsheet winch was silly and it wasn't up to the job.
The echosounder beeped (a lot).










The list started ;

• Investigate wet spots in Teak Deck. (More on this later)
• Improve the dodger.
• Replace the Standing Rigging
• Replace all running Rigging
• Replace the 20-year-old foresail furler
• Add a Trysail track to the mast
• Improve the Spinnaker pole track system
• Rebuild the waterlogged rudder
• Treat Osmosis
• Sort out the electrical systems

Of course, the list grew as all yacht maintenance lists do. If you choose to do it right first time, there are no free lunches. If you choose to take shortcuts, it's not long before those jobs present themselves again for your attention.