ETERNAUT

Well behind schedule

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It has been four weeks since Eternaut has arrived Hong Kong.

Last weeks had been super busy, I haven’t had any time to update this blog.

We are running well behind schedule. A departure prior onset of rainy season appears impossible at this moment. These are (were) the main concerns at this time:

Registration

This is (was) the biggest issue:

The topic registration itself could fill a whole book. There are plenty of websites, blogs and advertisements covering that topic. I had thought writing a separate post about it, but as the issue arises these days I cover a few lines here already.

The flag you are flying on your yacht is not only important for taxing purposes. You must consider the rules and licenses required when choosing the country of registration. Flags I considered were:

Hong Kong

Hong Kong registration is (was) my first priority. I have permanent Hong Kong Residency and I am a Hong Kong citizen at this stage.

Most licenses I hold were issued in Hong Kong, thus from legal point of view the easiest option.

I am holding a Hong Kong pleasure vessel operator’s certificate grade 1, which allows me to operate any private yacht. No length-, no tonnage limitation!

My radio operator’s license (SRC/LRC) is issued in Hong Kong.

Any country where a license is required to operate the vessel will want to see at least your operator’s license of the country in which your boat is registered. The same rules apply like in aviation and vehicle driving.

Sail vs Power

Here we go again. See previous blog about that topic.

Hong Kong Marine Department (MARDEP) differentiates private vessels (Class IV) into: -Auxiliary Powered, -Cruiser, -Open Cruiser. That compares roughly to -Sail, -Motor Yacht, -Open Power Boat.

Eternaut is a hybrid between Auxiliary Powered and Cruiser. I personally prefer Auxiliary Powered (Sail) for this boat as this nicely combines with my RYA Yachtmaster certificate. The original insurance offer I received was also certified for an “Auxiliary Power” vessel.

Unfortunately the shipyard insisted of grading the yacht as cruiser. All my requests, all the letters of the insurance company were neglected. I had to change all my documents and insurance cover to “Cruiser”, as it is a requirement for the import permit that all documents align.

That was until four weeks ago when I had visited the Hong Kong Marine Department:

No authority is an authority if it cannot empower authority

Maybe I was just unlucky as I showed up in a hurry one hour before office close.

Or was it that the officer was young and inexperienced and never seen one of those Seahorse Marine boats before (there are a few registered in Hong Kong).

Whatever the reason, the empowerment of authorization meant in my case the officer saying to me: “Looking at the photos the boat should be auxiliary powered, not a cruiser. Also, why did it take six years to build that boat? Not that I question the shipyards ability, but we better run a survey on your vessel.”

Had Seahorse Marine listened to me or to the insurance I would have one worry less. Now I have to await outcome of the survey, time required unknown. Or look for a different flag.

Further the HK MarDep demanded a seating plan for the 3.3m inflatable tender. Are you serious? Can you imagine telling your wife to get soaked in the spray because the seating plan does not allow her to move to a different seat?

Jersey registration it is:

Quick update: I received confirmation that provisional registration in Jersey has been granted. The tonnage survey required has just been completed.

Actually Jersey registration had been my goal after one year HK registration. That is because it is so easy to maintain the registration. A few companies have specialized representing the owner and help getting registration and radio station license in order. The registration is valid for 10 years, how nice, easy and cruiser friendly is this! I have used Oceanskies for this service and can highly recommend them. But if you want to shop around: there are a few companies offering help with this registration.

I still do not have any update regarding Hong Kong Marine Department. And to be honest… I’ll stick to Jersey!

Other options I looked at:

After I realized that HK MarDep gives me a hard time I had also looked into Langkawi and Panama registration. Both countries offer registration for private persons and there is (like Jersey) no need to open an offshore company.

Short excursion to EU VAT and why I did not pursue an EU country registration:

Cruisers beware: If you pay VAT in Europe and subsequently decide to go on a long cruise outside Europe you should return within three years: After that time the VAT status is void and you will have to pay VAT again! So, even if accepting paying EU VAT once, for sure I am not willed to pay twice!

Electrics and Electronics

Jesse and Jarred from OBMG have checked and partially repaired/replaced the electric installation during the first two weeks the boat was in Hong Kong.

I cut it short, time permitting I’ll add up photos and comments. Here just a few things you might expect getting a boat from Seahorse Marine:

• Data cable bent by 90 degrees, meaning that chargers do not communicate with Lithium batteries.
• 220V socket not wired to earth
• Non standard color coding of 220V wires. SHM must have used whatever wire they had available. Forget green color for earth! (shocking!)
• Main battery bus bar fused after the wire run: 8.8kWh not properly fused: that could do some damage
• Unclear labeling of breakers and fuses

Fuel tanks

It took me several days to open the inspecting hatches for the five underfloor fuel tanks: Partially due to difficult location (- under the staircase, – under the kitchen sink), but mainly due to the fact that SHM had painted over the gaskets. The paint had the hatches nicely glued to gaskets and tanks. I virtually had to chisel them off!

In the meantime I had new gaskets out of Nitrile Rubber custom made. For all those of you who don’t know Hong Kong: It requires days wandering the streets of Mong Kok until you find a shop selling the items you need. If you ever need nitrile rubber gaskets: the shop I went to is on the corner Dundas Street/Canton Rd in Cheong Wah Commercial Building. It sells mainly steel pipes, so it not obvious they’re making rubber gaskets.

Anyway, another two days work and I had the gaskets re-installed, but not before treating them nicely with Permatex non hardening gasket dressing (Permatex Form-A-Gasket No2). A pretty dirty and sticky job!

Engine

Last week I managed to get someone over to have the engine commissioned. Not a Gardner specialist, but Jack Tam from Bretter Engineering is one of the most trusted persons regarding marine engines in Hong Kong. I make it short:

• Engine is not properly mounted and sits too high on the studs. I do not know why SHM did not adhere to installation instructions, but at this moment the engine should run only if absolutely necessary. This must be fixed before we can set off!
• SHM additional coolant expansion tank installed with a hard wired hose on top of the engine. In conjunction with severe engine vibration due to improper engine installation (see above) this has caused the engine mounted main coolant tank to loosen.
• One de-compression handle for the engine valves broken off: SHM has the tendency to break owner supplied items, pretends nothing has happened, and the moment you need it you figure out that it does not work as expected.
• Cylinder head gasket leaks oil: Although this slight bubbling in the corners of the engine block is confirmed “normal” for the Gardner engines due to the metal cylinder head gasket.

Air conditioning

SHM had installed a coolant expansion tank which had been leaking. Culprit was a not properly welded tank connection. Now, that must have been obvious to SHM as the cooling liquid dripped onto our fridge in the kitchen after it had soaked and flooded insulation of the pilot house air conditioning unit.

Why they have not rectified the issue… who knows.

A local shop did the welding within a couple of minutes.

I had spent a whole removing the reservoir and re-install it as it is located behind the air conditioning unit.

Fresh Water System

I knew I should clean the whole system with bleach or another germ killing substance before activating the water maker to have water of drinking quality stored in the tanks.

There were some adjustments I wanted to perform as in the setup the boat came out of the yard the fresh water strainer had been sitting straight on top of the pump. No smart setup as cleaning the strainer will require de-installation or at least proper covering of the pump.

In the process of re-doing the water hoses I found that a 5/8″ hose had been squeezed onto a 1/2″ water pump fitting. Finding and fixing all this improper yard work keeps me busy.

Back to the water tanks: While fixing the pump fitting and adjusting the water strainer I found mysterious dark objects floating in the strainer. I dismantled it and went outside to have a better look: Those dark pieces were remains of corpses insects!

Cleaning the water tanks moved to top priority on my to-do-list.

Time permitting I’ll keep updating this post as work goes along.