Unpacking in Aussie (12 photos)

[Phillip]

Excellant. Thank you for that.
If I was a little smarter I would have thought to look up the MSDS myself.
I will work out how to ventilate the boat. The vacum cleaner idea is a good simple one.
Quarantine are pretty hot on everything here. Maybe 8 yrs back someone accidently bought in Fire Ants from your part of the world, and it has costs mega-bucks to get rid of them, as they were well distributed by the time they woke up to what happened.
Thank you again.
Cheers
Phillip

[Lease]

You know what this is? This is the bad stuff from our old friend bromochlorodiflouromethane; BCF (Halon 1211)!

Yes, the stuff that used to come in the yellow extinguishers with the white(?) band that the instructors said "great on fires, just don't breath it when it gets hot."

Banned by the Montreal Protocol of 1994.

I can't beleive that AQIS get a concession on that!

[Phillip]

Here is some info on it.
http://www.workershealth.com.au/facts009.html

Cheers
Phillip

[Frank C]

Phillip,
What model year is the boat? And exactly where do you expect to find "timber"?
(you might add some boat info into your Profile, "location field")

If the boat is '99 or later, I think the only wood products should be the bilge covers and the plywood platform for battery, and possibly the head door. Surely seems easier and less expensive to simply discard all of them.

[Phillip]

Will not get to see the boat until it is delivered here Frank, so can't answer those points. It is Aug 99 made.

Quarantine here is really hot on anything here, so for the sake of $300-400 I'm going with the methyl bromide no matter how little wood is in it.
I am a grower and the hort/ag industries has had some serious near-misses recently....fire ants; large African Snails; flying pests.

I actually hold a spray licience myself in accordance with my Quality Assurance, and although I have an Intergrated Pest Management Program in place, and it works well, as soon as I get an outbreak of say caterpillars, I am on to them with the heaviest most effective chemical I am allowed to use......correctly applied as per labelling....and correct with-holding periods.
Have made mistake of being Mr Considerate in past, and it can cost me up to $20K in lost product/reduced sales etc etc.

Personally I hate using chemicals, and have reduced my arsenal to 2 types only, but I know the damage imported pests could do to us, so I go along with Quarantine, although I would prefer not too.....just the compromise I have to make I suppose.
Cheers
Phillip

[Frank C]

... It is Aug 99 made.

Quarantine here is really hot on anything here, so for the sake of $300-400 I'm going with the methyl bromide no matter how little wood is in it. ...

Your boat is model 2000, probably a hull numbered very close after my own. But I thought you were facing thousands in remediation ... at only a few hundred bucks, it's much easier,
" . . . to switch than fight."
(paraphrasing a very old Tareyton TV ad ... reveals just how old I really am! )

[NiceAft]

Phillip,

I just saw your photo's.

There definitely were not too many

I, and others are eagerly awaiting pictures of your sailing exploits.

What are you naming the boat


Ray

[NautiMoments]

Congradulations Phillip and thanks for the pictures. This sure helps alot in seeing how it is packed and shipped. I will also save the picture to show our shipping agent. As you said, I will go with a company that provides the total package including packing/unpacking. Look forward to seeing picture of you on the water.

[Craig LaForce]

If you are putting the boat in fresh water, might want to rinse the ballast tank with some bleach in case any zebra mussels are in there waiting for a new country to invade.

You can also add a bilge blower. I put one on mine and it really improves overall air quality in the cabin if you run it a couple minutes when first opening the boat.

[Phillip]

the Name
well, it is currently named Blue Moon.
Of the 3 boats I have had, I have always kept with the name they came with.
The previous owner is a Chopper Pilot with the Marines in Iraq. When it is in my hands I may ask him if he named it, and keep the name as it sort of has some 'history'.
Frank:
MACX3208H900 so it is right up there with yours.
Yes, I fully understand that 'quote'.
Craig:
Can't speak highly enough of the young broker I dealt with. Requested he super-clean the complete boat including ballast, which he has obviously done (as per nothing from Quarantine), which I paid him for, so hopefully I will be 'right'.
That raises another Question. Do you ever bleach the tanks. I get my chlorine by the 200L drum, and its the heavy stuff, so the product is not the problem. Is it necessary, does water sit in there and foul or allow mosquitos to breed?
As for sailing exploits....well that is going to be a fun time.
As for the radar (JRC 1000)....not sure what I am going to use that for here....but guess it will be a fun toy.
Anyone got one...are they any good?
Has a GPS 215 Map (Garmin?) so will need a new map for here.
Understand it has the map for CA in it, so if it does, may have to find a home for it.
Hopefully it will be delivered next week.

Cheers
Phillip

[Frank C]

... That raises another Question. Do you ever bleach the tanks. I get my chlorine by the 200L drum, and its the heavy stuff, so the product is not the problem. Is it necessary, does water sit in there and foul or allow mosquitos to breed?

Water can sit in the ballast tank and grow nasties when it is kept on the water, but I doubt that will be a problem for your boat. It has been on a trailer for months now, right? The tank should drain fully once you pull the boat up the ramp. I always adjust the trailer nose wheel to provide some aft pitch and make sure it is drained. Close it before leaving for the week to avoid any land critters or wasps from taking up residence.

Mine is dry-stored on the trailer ... constant flushing of the ballast tank has precluded any problems. When it spent 3 weeks in the water last summer the tank got pretty rank. For the future, I'd try to keep the ballast tank empty when slipped. Sometimes the gate valve leaks a bit ... complicates that theory.

[dave_p]

Hi Phillip, you are making me envious. I hope you post some more pictures once you have possesion of your boat and a summary of what it involved and cost to get it into Australia. Maybe if a few more people take the steps that you have it may pull down the price of secondhand 26X's in Australia. Hmmm, maybe I'm happy with the average market price staying up in case I ever get a cheap 26X myself and then later need to sell it. There was a 26X that was advertised for a year at AUS$59,500 and finally sold a few weeks after they reduced the price to AUS$49,850. In the meantime I will keep on enjoying my Farr 6000 and hoping the purse strings will be opened enough to look at a 26X.

Dave P.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Additionally, the gate valve opening sits up about an inch or so off of the bottom of the tank so you really can't completely drain it even on the trailer on a ramp. But this is a pretty small amount of water which will likely evaporate in a few weeks if you keep some ventilation in the tank. The vast majority of the tank would be dry and I think that is the key....drying out the tank. If you keep the ballast full all the time, then you likely will need to add chlorine periodically. But I would be careful about adding too much since I wouldn't be suprised if it could eventually damage the tank.

[Craig LaForce]

No mosquito problem in the tank. Even they have standards! I leave my tank full at the slip all year round and when I do drain the tank the smell is pretty foul.

(actually the only time you smell it is when refilling the tank), so when I refill, I open the valve and vent and go do something else for a few minutes, come back and put the cork in the vent and close the valve.

But with the vent plug in there is no smell.

I suppose I should dump a little bleach in there now and then, but really haven't seen the need.

[Rolf]

I'm a longshoreman (and a baker, BALTIC BAKERY on ebay!) here in the LA/Long beach harbor. It's a good thing that the boat is a tight fit, because containers get banged around quite a bit when being loaded onto bombcarts (like a flatbed truck with steel sides to hold the container in) or chassis' down from the hammerhead cranes (next to ship) or top handlers (like giant forklifts for stacking "cans" in the yard).

Was there another small boat or something else in the rest of the container? That would have reduced your cost. Roger ships two Macs in 53 foot containers, the longest used on ships.

I've helped unload mega million yachts using winch cranes in some of the more specialized yards (a crane tipped over and dropped a 5million dollar italian yacht up at the Port Hueneme dock bout 3 months ago, smashed into a total loss). Most boats under 20 feet come lashed down and shrink wrapped on open containers. Same with wide boats and campers.

Rolf