Antipodean Boats Connection

[RFNK]

Very nice!

Phew! What a stinker today and predicted to be much hotter tomorrow!

[skuthorp]

top 26 down here with a blustery Sth Wester. Warm, humid and a light drizzle at midnight, forecast similar with thunderstorms tomorrow. I do not like sailing in a thunderstorm.

[John B]

Te Rapunga. Quite the significant boat.

[WX]

Te Rapunga. Quite the significant boat.

It really does encompass why people build boats. That was my thought when I saw the photo.

[skuthorp]

Rain and gale force gusting wind this sunday morning 6am. Does not look good for sailing.
And mildura 18 degrees above the November average at 46 yesterday?.
Climate change anyone?

[WX]

Dry as a camels armpit and far too hot but it looks like its going to rain on the day i haulout.

[skuthorp]

Club has initiated Wednesday evening social sailing. From next week to the end of February for a start. I'm sure someone will organise a race, some cannot do anything without a competition.

[Bruce Morley]

IMG_20201203_084838944.jpgA new yacht arrived in the yard in Newcastle, a Ringle 39 built in Burma and finished off in Morriset NSW

[Thad]

Pity the whales and look out for kelp.

[RFNK]

IMG_20201203_084838944.jpgA new yacht arrived in the yard in Newcastle, a Ringle 39 built in Burma and finished off in Morriset NSW

Are you sure it was built in Burma, Bruce? It looks just like Van Munster's boat that he built in Morisset. His has a problem with the ballast positioning.

[Bruce Morley]

The yacht was built in Burma and shipped to Australia in a HiTop 40 foot container. The owner was not pleased with the yacht and transported it the Van Munster for modification with 150 mm added at the front and 600 added at the aft end. A new deck and internal fit out was completed at Morriset. It is all electric with cooking, winches and sail drive run from lithium batteries

[RFNK]

Thanks, I should have known. Van Munster's boat is not 39' or painted black. Just a coincidence with that offset bulb sitting nearby.

By the way, I was told Anitra V was on the wharf there. Is she still there?

My father crewed on that boat many years ago.

[Bruce Morley]

Hi Rick. You are not thinking of Keith Van Munster own yacht launched some time ago.

Bruce

[Bruce Morley]

Hi, Anitra V and owner Phil is now back in Sydney. Phil and a group of timber yachts from Sydney would normally head for Lord Howe in November for the BBQ but this year due to Covid 19 the all headed to Port Stevens. We first met Phil at Kermandi on the Huon River.

Bruce

[RFNK]

Yes. I saw it being built and saw the launch. The naval architect made a serious mistake with the positioning of the keel and Keith has had to distribute internal ballast to compensate, as far as I know. He did a beautiful job on the build.

[RFNK]

Hi, Anitra V and owner Phil is now back in Sydney. Phil and a group of timber yachts from Sydney would normally head for Lord Howe in November for the BBQ but this year due to Covid 19 the all headed to Port Stevens. We first met Phil at Kermandi on the Huon River.

Bruce

Okay, thanks. Yes, I met Phil in Hobart years ago. I'm guessing you met him when he was having his prop shaft repaired?

[Bruce Morley]

Hi Rick That offset keel is from a 44 foot yacht that grounded on a reef in Sydney and was a write off. Joe purchased the yacht and will rebuild the keel support structure and interior.

Bruce

[RFNK]

Hi Rick That offset keel is from a 44 foot yacht that grounded on a reef in Sydney and was a write off. Joe purchased the yacht and will rebuild the keel support structure and interior.

Bruce

Right, just an odd coincidence - sort of similar boat, same builder, and an offset bulb sitting nearby. Are you around this arvo?

[Bruce Morley]

Hi Rick, yes we are on board

Bruce

[RFNK]

I'll call in this arvo if I can get out of gallery duties quickly enough.

[WX]

Getting organized for Mondays haulout. Milk crates and dilly bags with lists of what's in which.

[RFNK]

Where's Tom? Okay I hope?

[WX]

Where's Tom? Okay I hope?

Building a house on Lamb Island I think. I have a feeling he is single...no offense Tom.

[WX]

Very hot and very humid. One new garden bed and I'm knackered.

[skuthorp]

Mid 20's and humid annd blowing a near gale. A big but very short storm about 6pm yesterday. I have to go to the club this morning but not much sailing I think.
ed. Blowing hard and gusting from the SW, mostly. Trees down in the compound but no boat damage. Cleared it up, pulled the stumps with the tractor, more boat storage available……….
ed 2. Squalls on and off all day till wind dropped about 5.

[Bruce Morley]

20201206_122736.jpgHi. Just leaving Newcastle heading north, hull built of Port Kembla pine and superstructure of Tomago marine ply.

Bruce

[WX]

Busy morning with gardening, packing the car for the haul out tomorrow and making a mozzie screen for the galley hatch. Humid as.

[WX]

Its going to be a wet day for a haulout but its my only chance this side of February.

[Chris249]

Mate just got pulled in off Tassy. Can't believe he tried to sail Bass Strait alone in a 30 footer without proper storm sails. I rang him to give him a lecture after we lost Yatesy trying to do the same thing two weeks ago, also apparently without proper storm sails and with a similar level of experience. When I found out the Clansman had no storm sails I express posted the excellent storm trysail off my 28'er, which would fit, down to him but he left before it arrived, in a very narrow weather window and despite the fact that such a narrow window was too narrow.

I got a call from AMSA on Sunday morning, asking me for information about his level of experience and the boat's equipment. It was a nasty two or three hours till I got the call saying that they'd got him. Even AMSA were saying it was thoroughly nasty out there, but you can handle 35 knots westerly (ie gusting 50) there in a 30 footer if you have good storm sails and long offshore experience. I assume that his "storm gear" of two-reef main and roller furler headsail wouldn't take him upwind, and that the professional propshaft repair failed when he tried to motor in.

On a much brighter note, our dinghy club is going gangbusters. We now have more regular junior sailors than we had total regular sailors two years ago, and the membership and regatta attendance have doubled. Most of the core racers were away at a regatta this weekend (our northern NSW Laser Interclub series is getting 14-23 boats, making it probably the biggest regional class-racing series in Oz) but my wife still got 6 boats, about 10 sailors and a windsurfer out at the club. The kids and their parents are loving it, and we are loving getting them into a sport that can give them joy for their entire life.

[Bruce Morley]

Hi Chris, Back in 2014 my wife and I departed Eden in our 26'Vertue class yacht heading for St Helens with a forcast of northerly quadrant wind for the next 3 days, we departed with 4 other yachts, About 2 and a half days out from Eden the wind changed around to the southwest with up to 58 knots. We were abeam and about 20 nm east of Banks Straight. We deployed our sea anchor and drifted around for 4 days untill the wind came back round to the north and then sailed on to St Helens.
What that experience told us you should be prepared for the worst. Due to the shallow depth of water in the area off the NE tip of Tasmania the wind picks up a very nasty sea in a short time.

I hope your mate is ok. The photo I looked at showed the yacht under tow was that correct.

Bruce

[WX]

Well the weather stayed good for the haulout and the hull was surprisingly clean. Not many barnacles at all. Pretty good for 2 years mostly static. Little bit of worm damage in the wooden shoe on the skeg. 20201207_152735.jpg

[WX]

That's my son Donovan.

[Chris249]

Hi Chris, Back in 2014 my wife and I departed Eden in our 26'Vertue class yacht heading for St Helens with a forcast of northerly quadrant wind for the next 3 days, we departed with 4 other yachts, About 2 and a half days out from Eden the wind changed around to the southwest with up to 58 knots. We were abeam and about 20 nm east of Banks Straight. We deployed our sea anchor and drifted around for 4 days untill the wind came back round to the north and then sailed on to St Helens.
What that experience told us you should be prepared for the worst. Due to the shallow depth of water in the area off the NE tip of Tasmania the wind picks up a very nasty sea in a short time.

I hope your mate is ok. The photo I looked at showed the yacht under tow was that correct.

Bruce

Yep, the yacht was towed in and he was taken to hospital for a checkup. I haven't called him as he probably wants time to recover and he'll see my missed texts and calls on his phone. I'm glad he's OK as I'm his executor on his will and since he sold his Laser, I can no longer strip it of the good spars and sails before I sell it. :-) One lesson he'll learn is that he should not have given his ex-wife as his EPIRB contact, because she'll give him much more hell than I will. :-)

It is a nasty place, and as your experience shows you can't rely on weather reports too much. Last time I crossed it, in the 2000 Hobart, all the professional weather routers and the bureau forecast a nasty WSW with a change to the SE. The veterans sniffed the air, tasted the seaweed, said "nahh, it'll stay in hard from the west for most of the Strait" and went on to beat the pros who were there as part of the Volvo Round the World race and who therefore listened to the pro forecasters.

I;ve never spent much time under sea anchor; it could be quite comfortable in the lovely little Vertue.

[Bruce Morley]

Hello Chris, I can say that being in a Vertue (Tui of Opua no 167) being comfortable is a state of mind, my wife Thelma found it hard to read her Kindle but was able to continue to knit the truma teddies for the childrens ward at our local hospital. We remained on the parachute anchor till the wind went back to the north. We could have started sailing after 3 days but it would have been hard on the wind so we waited rested and had some good meals.

Thelma and I owned the first Laser sold in Australian, purchased from Rob Mundle inabout 1974? Rego number was 9039 and green in colour.

Bruce

[RFNK]

Parachute anchor off the bow, bare pole, Bruce?