Monday, 9 February, started with getting a still tired and worn-out Mary Ann off to school and Marilyn's sister departing for her home. Luggage was unpacked and clothes washed. I downloaded the pictures and videos to the computer and plugged in the cameras and spare batteries to start charging.
Received an email from Terry Sargent, sent the previous night, notifying me that a guy named Jonathon Bentley-Stevens provided an estimate to repair Indra's tiller handle plagued with wood rot for US $45.00 and was waiting for Margie Jesson's approval to proceed with the repair. I had discussed many of the issues discovered aboard Indra with Terry, it was interesting to know he had informed Margie Jesson of my opinions and findings.
Terry forwarded another email from Margie where she responded about other issues/questions, "The hull number is ON000092 or something like that,. It is on the inside of the hull where you lift up the floor between the bathroom and the wardrobe. That is full of paint and epoxy tins etc, so you'd have to pull all that out to see it. But is definitely there. The computer is a Toshiba, would have thought it would have been in the nav drawer, or maybe I put it in one of the clothes drawers in the forward berth area. It has OpenCPN and charts loaded and I have the portable hockey puck GPS with me and will bring it back."
There appeared to be some confusion on their part as what number I was unable to locate aboard Indra. I had already discovered the number NO 600692 NET 9 under the floor boards in front of the head they referred to - this was not what I was looking for. I was looking for a Hull Identification Number (HIN). Per the US Code of Federal Regulations 33 CFR 181.23, all boats manufactured or imported on or after November 1, 1972 must bear a primary and secondary HIN. A HIN is a 12 character serial number that uniquely identifies the boat, usually permanently affixed to the rear of the transom on the upper right corner and on another location on the interior of the boat. Australia has a very similar requirement. See HIN example below.
At the Coast Guard Maritime Information Exchange (CGMIX) website performed a vessel search on number "600692" and the results below confirmed Indra was previously registered in the US.
Also performed another search on the NOAA Vessel Documentation Search website which provided the following results.
Based on these results downloaded from the USCG National Vessel Documentation Center website and submitted USCG Form CG-7043 request for Abstract of Title on ship Indra, Certificate of Documentation Number 600692. This was submitted electronically on a PDF document to email address "NVDC.PDF.FILING@uscg.mil" and cost US $25.00.
From the hundreds of pictures taken on Indra and recorded notes, started making a very detailed inventory list of "all" items aboard. As an item was identified and added, searched and downloaded from the internet any manufacture's manuals and literature that could be found. Determined if the item was still available for purchase, its price, and source. In many cases, determined that the item was obsolete and no longer procurable. Reviewed the manufacture's installation documentation and compared it to Indra's pictures to determine if the item was actually installed correctly - in many cases they were not. Also identified manufacture's recommended preventative maintenance inspection and component replacement requirements and intervals. These results were compiled into to different lists that made sense to me. The goal of this effort was to determine what was wrong aboard and an estimate of what it would take to fix it and the cost associated. This would take some time as each picture was magnified to scrutinize everything that was shown.
An example of this was most of Indra's thru hull seacocks were identified as Philmac ball valves. Downloaded the Philmac blue handled ball valve technical manual from the Philmac website. It revealed that these ball valves were not marine rated and were designed for use in the rural, irrigation and plumbing industries. Further its chemical resistance table, shown below, identified these ball valves were NOT RECOMMENDED for use with brine liquids - brine is also defined as salt water. Indra had aboard a plastic container with five previously used Philmac ball valves. These unserviceable ball valves all had barnacle encrustations on their interior surfaces and plastic balls - it appeared when the ball valve handle was attempted to be rotated, the plastic material gave way (split) since it was not hard enough to scrape off the concrete-hard barnacle encrustations. Indra has nine thru hulls in its hull of which three were missing required seacocks. All the thru hulls were of plastic construction of unknown manufacture. Based on the use of non-marine rated seacocks, assumed it was just as likely the plastic thru hulls were also non-marine rated. This meant that nine complete marine rated thru hulls and seacocks assemblies (to include new marine rated hoses and double clamps) were needed to correct these deficiencies - an expensive proposition in itself.
On 10 February, downloaded from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) Ship Registration website, Form AMSA 204 Application For Current Title Extract. This was filled out using ship name Indra and Australian registration number ON 858927. It was submitted electronically on a PDF document to email address "sro@amsa.gov.au" and cost AUD $50.00 (US $39.13).
Surprise, about 3 hours later the AMSA title extract on Indra was received by email. The information on this title extract mirrored the Australian registration we had found and took pictures of aboard Indra. This also confirmed the validity of the registration.
To verify Indra had no mortgages or liens outstanding performed a search on Australian Personal Properties Security Register (PPSR) website which cost AUD $4.00 (US $3.14). They issued a Search Certificate, shown below, which indicated no securities were recorded.
The review of Indra's pictures and internet researched continued.
