There’s just one thing I don’t like about catamarans with saildrives, and that is the fact that they have oil seals that are only accessible underwater. When those seals leak, which they seem to do once a year, the only way to replace them is to get the bottom of the boat out of the water. While changing the oils (the saildrive oil is separate from the engine oil) at the end of the season a few months ago I found both of the saildrives had the telltale milky white oil. I drained out as much as I could, and refilled with fresh oil and then didn’t put the engines in gear after that. If the shaft isn’t spinning around the leaky seals, they probably shouldn’t let water in. So goes my reasoning, anyway. So when we left Nawi Island, our goal was to get down to yet another marina for a quick haulout and oil seal replacement. $15 parts, $1,000 haulouts. Pretty much sums up boat ownership.

Every picture of the boat underway shows Ali’s never ending struggle against dirty laundry. Hard to believe we never had a washer on a boat before this one.

Vuda Marina.

We spent a night on the dock, while we waited for high tide the next day.

The plan had been to haul the boat out, replace the oil seals, and repaint the saildrives and props with Propspeed paint. It’s a specialized paint that sloughs off barnacle growth and keeps things nice and smooth. I figured two nights on the hard would be plenty of time. Unfortunately, the marina never mentioned to me that they can only accommodate one catamaran haul out and one catamaran return to the water per day at high tide. So when I went into the office to check in for the haul, I found out that I would either have to go back in the water the next day, or I’d have to wait twelve days for another open slot. Well… that seems like something that they maybe should have mentioned when I booked?

The boat’s bottom paint is still in good shape, so there was no reason to do that job this year (I’ll have to haul out again next year for these stupid oil seals anyway), and thus no reason to be out of the water for two weeks. Propspeed couldn’t be done in one night, so that job was off the table. So all we’d be doing is replacing the oil seals, and cleaning up the props.

With less than 24 hours to get things done I was worried I might run into issues getting the job done myself. I called in a mechanic, and was immediately glad that I did. The guy showed up right on time, as the boat was still dripping dry, had the props torn down and seals removed within minutes, marked everything with stamps, and took everything with him to clean up at the shop overnight. Watching him, I was sure of two things. One, I could have done it myself, and two, that it would have taken me until well after dark. I love it when I spend a small amount of money to save myself a ton of time, and the person hired turns out to be super competent.

We didn’t want to spend the night in the boatyard, so we got a bungalow with a pool at the resort next door. The kids had barely gotten their hair wet before the boat work was finished and I was jumping in with them.

Job complete. Oil seals in, props cleaned, and ready to drop back in the water. Without the Propspeed paint, I’m sure to be scraping and cleaning a lot more often than I’d like to be, but that’s just the way it goes.

Back in the water and onto the dock. We’ll do some grocery runs and a bit of touring around, then get out of here. I will mention here, for future cruisers to the area, that I wouldn’t recommend Vuda Marina for catamaran haulouts. They are extremely overpriced, their launch ramp is sketchy, and they can only do one boat per day. Nawi Island Marina, where we recently left, is just launching their brand new boatyard with a huge Travelift. Their price is sure to blow Vuda away, and they won’t be constrained by tides. If I were going to be around next season I’d haul out at Nawi Island Marina.