2004 Charter Stories
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Engine Breakdown
24 July ~ 6 August 2004
The cancelled trip was supposed to be with Johnny Alvaraz and mates. All return customers. The captain set them up on the Indies Trader 2 for a different look at a place some of them had been before. He then dived into the engine room with Australian mechanic Brian Harrison for the next 2 weeks.
The plan was simple. Buy the old Indies Trader 1 engine. A Gardner 6LX. A stalwart machine that had driven the original surf charter boat to places most only read about. The job…a little more involved than cut and paste
2 weeks to remove the old Scania and gearbox, rebuild engine mounts, bilge systems, replace with new engine and gearbox, align everything and make sure it all worked. The job done on a secluded island in calm water. No mod cons. Just forethought and sheer bloody hard work. No way possible without Brian “Spanner” Harrison’s ingenuity.
And yes, she purred to life one hour before the next charter.
A big thanks to Martin Daly and his team for helping us out.
The Barrenjoey was back in business.