Schooner Maggie B » Still Learning

Trying out a Spade anchor

Frank — Thu, 17 May 2007 12:40:40 +0000

One new Nelson friend, Adrian Faulkner fell in love with the Maggie B. He was, however, shocked about our main anchor which is a 80 pound CQR. He had gotten to know the French inventor of the Spade anchor, which is quite different in design. I said something like “well, everybody has their favorite anchor.” Or words to that effect. The next day he brought by a thick package on all sorts of careful tests by several different independent organizations, which proved that the traditional “plow” anchor was pathetic and the Spade was terrific. That caused me to recall that the Maggie B did drag in Barbados, the Seychelles and twice in Tasmania. All were in notoriously bad holding grounds. But then I thought of the anchoring challenges ahead of us in the Marquesas, the coast of Chile and Patagonia, and all of a sudden a “top rated” anchor seemed much more attractive. While the Spade anchors are excellent, their availability isn’t. It is run by Frenchmen.

Adrian is off to Southeast Asia for five months and has loaned us his anchor with the understanding that we either get it back to him by his return or get him a new one. I’m hoping that the overdue shipment will arrive in Auckland by the time we get there. Meanwhile we’ll try it out in Marlborough Sound and the Bay of Plenty.

The essential difference is that the “plow” anchors plow up the bottom. I have definitely seen it happen in Barbados. The Spade digs in. Also the plow anchors have a big proportion of their weight in the shank and not much in the tip, which needs to dig in. The Spade has 50% of its weight in the tip and supposedly digs in so hard and fast that new owners think that they have snagged an underwater cable. We’ll see.

Tips on handling customs duties and VAT/GST taxes

Frank — Tue, 01 May 2007 15:59:33 +0000

Customs duties and VAT/GST taxes can come to significant numbers and it can add up to real money. Many countries, including Australia have mechanisms for “Boats in Transit” to avoid or recoup those taxes, but just try to actually make it happen! Australian GST is 11%. In theory it is refundable when you leave, but the rules make it essentially impossible. First you have to sign into a “scheme” (yes, that’s what they call it) which, besides paperwork, requires you to pay $38 for each crew member. That $190 for us would mean that we would have to have spent more than $1727. But just on goods, not services. Goods and services mixed in a bill? Sorry, not deductible. Then if it is just goods, you must be able to prove it is being exported. Paint, painted on already? Sorry, can’t tell. Rope made up into halyards? Sorry. Did you know it also has to be exported within 30 days of purchase? Sorry. And you don’t get 100% of what you spent due to unspecified charges. I talked to three Customs officers and a “question line” at the Capitol, and got the impression that it had never actually happened.

Know Your Boom

Frank — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:37:46 +0000

While in Fremantle, we also found and fixed a problem we didn’t know we had. Our boom is carbon fiber and hollow. The main outhaul goes into the boom about a fourth the way back from the mast. Three-fourths the way back there is a cross-member inside the boom to support reefing lines. At the end of the boom there are two rollers to guide the outhaul line up and out to a clear, handy place to attach to the sail. It would make sense to run the line straight back and clear to the rollers. Unfortunately we found that the line had been run OVER the cross member, from which it had to cut sharply down to meet the first roller. So as the sail worked, the Spectra rope sawed into the cross member and the cross member sawed into the Spectra line. The line is now reversed and cleared and no great damage to the cross member.

You can’t check out any time you like, but you can always leave. . .

Frank — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 17:38:28 +0000

Brazil is a lovely country, but bureaucratic beyond comprehension. To clear into Natal, we had to visit 1) the Federal Police (Immigration), 2) Customs, 3) the Health Ministry (“Are you bringing Yellow Fever?”), and 4) the Captainerie (Harbor Control). It only took us four hours, filling the similar information in each spot. We were told that when we left Natal, all we had to do was check out with the Captainerie, which we did.

On arriving in Salvador, we went at once to the Captainerie, and checked in. No problem. Soon the Federal Police showed up and wanted to know why we hadn’t checked out of Natal. We said we were told we didn’t need to, they showed a line on one of our forms which said we had to. We asked why we had to check out with the Federal Police when we weren’t leaving the country and they said because we went to another Federal State. So they wouldn’t check us into Salvador because we were still officially in Rio Grande del Norde. But they would check us out when we were ready to leave for Cape Town. Which they did promptly. It made perfect sense to them. At least they didn’t send us back to Natal to check out. And, no, nobody asked for or hinted about “special fines” or “processing costs” or anything.

To learn Portuguese takes two translations…

Frank — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 23:34:39 +0000

Few people realize how difficult it is to learn Portuguese. Few understand that it takes TWO translations, first from Portuguese to English, and then to the real meaning.

Thus:

Portuguese=English=Meaning
Agora=today=tomorrow
Amanha=tomorrow=next week
nao problema=no problem=it is complicated
Esta sabado=this saturday=next wednesday