A Hullabaloo along the Coast!!!

On May 22 first time poster "zabardast" said he was looking for a delivery skipper Yeppoon to Gold Coast.

My criteria for deliveries are make, design and condition of the vessel, who will be crew and how well funded the passage will be. It being an S&S 36 fin keeler sparked my interest as I am quite familiar with them and on viewing the photos on Yachthub I saw that she was "Hullabaloo" and looked to be in fair condition.


Then when I looked at these pics I thought yes, she is a weapon and I am in.





Fuel capacity of 500L and water at 300L are good for a yacht like this and for a longish passage. Phone calls with the buyer zab and the vendor gave me the assurances that the delivery would be successful so I committed to it.

When first launched, she was in the marina beside us. Knew the original owner, I was sailing a few other 1 Tonners at the time.

Could all please leave comments etc until I have finished the write up please.
Thanks.

Day One.

Up around 05.30, last visits to the marina bathrooms, big mug of strong Lavazza plunger coffee to get the motor going and cook breakfast. Zab jagged it when he bought the meat. It was the butcher just near Woolworths that probably has the best to offer in meat from Rockhampton, the beef capital of Australia. Four succulent rib fillet steaks, 6 spicy rissoles, 6 tasty BBQ sausages and 6 scrumptious rashers of smokey bacon and a roast chicken made up our meat supply.
I asked zab to get a 4 slice vertical toaster that gave us crunchy toast to go with our bacon and eggs and smokey BBQ sauce. It was a memorable breakfast that was a great start to the day.

Lines slipped, zab took her out and we were onto our start mark around 08.00. It immediately became apparent that hand steering was going to be very arduous because when the tiller was let go she would sharply veer off course. It was time to pull out the tiller ram for the auto pilot and see if it would do the job neither of us wanted to do. Thankfully and mercifully it did.

Next was to get the engine up to cruising speed and temp before we got too far from Rosslyn Bay in case it did not want to play the game. Again thankfully it performed well too. Between 2200 to 2400 rpm there is a sweet spot the engine liked and I was surprised and delighted to observe that it pushed the yacht along at a comfortable 7 knots plus. The only breeze was the 7 knots we were making and the swell was less than .5m so with engine and pilot doing their job we were able to get about our jobs.

First was to figure out what each of the 12 lines coming back from the mast was for. Yes that is 12, 6 a side. The only ones we were concerned with being genoa on the furler haliyard, main haliyard, topping lift and reefing lines if we got to raise the main that stayed in its boom bag the whole trip.

Humocky Island and Ship Rock were the first hard bits to get past before our next waypoint and from there on, apart from a chicken and salad sandwich for lunch the day was uneventful.



I knew the S&S 36s are a strongly built yacht but Hullabaloo seems to be particularly so. It was confirmed by a gentleman zab met at Bundaberg Port Marina who had sailed on the yacht in one of her S to H races. He said she was the strongest yacht he had sailed on, the fastest he had sailed under spinnaker on and that she is original except for the solar panel gantry on the stern. Zab was chuffed on hearing that.

Zab and I made up a complimentary team. He is a fit 30 yo ex surfer arborist, knows his knots and has been on boat bourne surfing safaris in Indonesia but no sailing experience. I am a broken down arthiritic diabetic 72 yo with MED I, Master IV and AYF Offshore Yacht Masters. A combination of brawn and brain one might say.

Alzheimers nor Parkinsons have not hit me but two old guys were talking and one asked the other which would he prefer if he had to have one. Parkinsons definitely he said. I would rather spill the drink than forget where the bottle is.

If we had got away a couple of hours earlier we might have pushed on to Burnett Heads but it was near sundown as we approached Bustard Head so we elected to pull into Pancake Creek.




Approaching Pancake in the dark from the north you pick up the Bustard Head light easily but only closer in do you pick up the Clews Point light. There is a green on the end of the sand bar and lead lights on the port side however the front lead carries a red too. Going in the middle is fairly safe but I definitely would not go in with a strong northerly.

There were bonfires on the beach (4wd people) and tinnies still with their nav lights on and 7 yachts anchored just inside where we picked a spot to drop the pick. It wasn't till morning we saw at least a dozen more yachts anchored at the bottom end of the creek. You could spend a week or more in there and have a ball.

Rib fillet, chat potatoes drowning in butter, smokey BBQ sauce, numerous Peronis, nips of rum, bit of music and pleasant conversation filled our evening before a sound sleep.

I did plot our course on our paper charts but lacking a hand bearing compass did not allow us to plot our positions the way we are supposed to. I believe it is still a legal requirement to carry paper charts and plot your positions on them. If an insurance claim goes to court paper charts may save your bacon.

Day Three.

Lavazza and meusli for breakfast, out of the pen and onto the fuel wharf. I had zab do all the berthing and unberthing to build his confidence and skill for when he would be on his own.

The two fuel tanks feed the engine together with both fuel cocks open and fuel level was down to a third. They were about 3/4 when we left Rosslyn Bay so there was no way we would make it to Scarborough without refuelling, plus the next fuel spots are Urangan and Tin Can, neither of which places we wanted to go into. I forget the litres we took on. A rough calculation indicated the engine used about 7 litres per hour. Fuelling is via a single deck plug with a Y cock below deck and we filled to an inch below full observing the level at the sight tubes.

Full of fuel and bravado off we went with a couple of knots of tide helping us out of the river and down the channel to duck out between the second and third lateral mark past the South Head light. You can do that going in or out on the south side of the Burnett River channel. Try it on the north side you risk catastrophe.

The Bundaberg area is quite low and flat with the only easy distinctive land mark being The Hummock. Between there and the Hervey Bay fairway mark there is really nothing to see.





It is about 50 miles down the bay to the fairway and our aim was to get as far down the straits before dark to anchor as close as possible to Boonlye Point (the shallow spot). The route on my Navionics lay just to the west of the fair way and here she is right where she is supposed to be.







The straits are a fabulous playground if you have a cat, tri or centreboarder but there is no cutting corners for deep keelers. The Beacon to Beacon book is invalueable here because there are no decent charts of the place unless you happen to have an old Macfarlane chart. They are a rare and valueable antique these days. If you have one get a copy off it and frame the original. You will get a fortune for it.









Kingfisher Bay is OK to anchor in any wind with east in it. Not real flash for any other wind.

We had made very good time but not enough to make the afternoon tide at Boonlye Point. We were just around the corner from it where we decided to anchor just out of the channel beside Walsh Island a bit before sundown.





Putting the anchor down near sundown is when you are supposed to have sundowners and what better sundowner could there be than Baron Samedi 80% proof spiced rum. If that is all you got there is nothing better. The rum will help you sleep but the label will give you nightmares.





Good night. See you in the morning.

Day Four and a Half.

I forget what we had for dinner last night but sausages, eggs, bacon and toast forbreakfast this morning at a leisurely pace was brilliant. It was leisurely because we had most of the day free as the shallows were just around the corner and the top of the tide wasn't until late afternoon.

A couple of keel boats came and anchored across the channel from us obviously with the same intentions as us. We pulled our pick up and joined the que. The first boat I am sure was an S&S 34 with a draft about 1.8m. My thought was to follow him through using him as a proxy sounder for us. If he stopped we would stop and wait. He got underway quite early I thought so we followed him 250m behind.





He did not ground and stop so we kept going. This is where people say "If you haven't bumped the bottom in the straits you haven't really been there!!" Sure enough we bumped the bottom a bit before the most shallow spot I thought but kept going. These deep fin keelers will hang up if you have 20cm less water than your draft. Seemed we were in luck. I estimate we went through about an hour and a half before the predicted top of the tide. Well clear of the shallows we put the revs up intending to make Wide Bay Harbour before dark to anchor then go out over the bar on the low tide about 09.00 next day.

Cruising down the straits it was as smooth as a duck pond. Plenty of other yachts heading north, mostly cats and most of them Lagoons. Beats me how people can afford these million dollar yachts. I have always stuck to the successful policy of never letting your boat/s value exceed 10% of your nett worth. I have had 7 yachts and the costliest one was $75k.

















An hour or two later we arrived at Wide Bay Harbour with two scenes to choose from. Go to anchor or go over the bar at the top of the tide with ideal conditions. It was easy, over the bar we go.





We bad farewell to the Great Sandy Straits at dusk,



and said hello to Moreton Bay at dawn.





What happened in between those two scenes was something else again.

Clearing Double Island Point and Wolf Rock was no problem. Half way between there and Noosa found us in a southerly with a short sharp chop and the boat pounding quite heavily. The thought was to cut the revs to ease the situation but maintaining speed took the upper hand until a few hours later going past Mooloolaba where we did pull back a little. The pounding the boat took was testimony to how tough she is.

This I think is the coldest, wettest and roughest night passage I have done on a small boat.

All the leaks in the deck and windows wet the cabin until the only dry seats were the nav seat and the middle of the stbd setee. We could only poke our heads out of the hatch to look for other vessels every 10 mins or so. The AIS was very handy.

During the pounding one of the solar panels broke away and was just hanging by it's charging cable. To his great credit zab went out there with a mouthful of cable ties and secured it. He was standing on the mother in law seat, no life jacket and no harness and I thought if he goes in, I and he will be lucky if I could pick him up again.

Eventually once we passed Caloundra the sea settled down, we gave way to a ship coming up north west channel before crossing then coasted comfortably down and around the bottom of Bribie Island via Skirmish Passage and across to Scarborough tying up on the marina right on 08.30.

DONE!!!!

Very well done Zab and Cisco and thanks for posting such an excellent series of accounts of day by day exploits. A lot of learnings in there. Superb yacht for sure.

Thank you r13.
It is what this forum is and should be about. Friends sharing knowledge and experiences.
Someone for the first time may go where you have been and be fore armed with local knowledge.

Double Island point to Noosa Heads, one of the worst bits of water anywhere when fresh.
Inconsistent bottom, variable sett and big direction changes even in a well established breeze.
Read the Pardley's experiences

Great stuff. That's the best money Zab will ever spend on his boat. Experience and local knowledge.
An nice introduction into sailing like that is what people need and quiet often don't get.
Well done Cisco. I am sure you will be hearing from him again.
Sounds like you enjoyed it as well. Not sure about that rum though!

I will take your word for it. Don't think I'll find it here.
Hope you do some deliveries again soon and keep us posted.

Well Done Cisco, a well written post too, good on ya for taking the project on!, proves there's plenty of sailing left in the Old Sea dog yet!

Can't believe it. Guess what I'm trying tonight!