Vob span: So

Showing posts with label So. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 April 2017

So it begins

June 17 2011

Well my final event as head of the Willowbank Raceway commentary team became a slight anti-climax as rain halted proceedings after two of the four days but I am very appreciative of the presentation made to me by Willowbank President John Winterburn marking the end of my 21 years on the microphone at the Raceway and over 32 in all. It was much appreciated.

Then we finally hit the “no days to go” mark and flew from Brisbane on June 15 to join “Nae Hassle” in the Marlin Marina at Cairns where we are now making final preparations to sail north around Cape York and across to Darwin for the Sail Indonesia rally. The last couple of weeks were a hectic schedule of last minute arrangements and farewell, dinners, drinks, lunches, more drinks and catch ups. We have been overwhelmed by the number of well wishes we have received and amused by the almost equal number of people who didn’t believe we were really going to go through with our cruising plan. A huge thank you to all our family who have been so supportive and helped us get almost everything done before we left and are dealing with lose ends left behind.

Karen with Milin on board Nae Hassle in Cairns

Nae Hassle is a Benateau 57 footer and we have settled in nicely. Owners, Colin and Milin have been welcoming and we have now also been joined by Marc, the fifth member of our crew. Marc is from the UK and is also embarking on his first cruising experience. Along with a German cruising couple tied up on one side of us, we all joined the Canadian couple on their yacht Gavia Artica for Sundowners yesterday afternoon. It was amazing listening to stories of different places all around the world they have experienced in their travels.

Nae Hassle flanked by Symi and Gavia Artica

We have spent the last couple of days settling in on the boat. For a yacht our cabin is huge as evidenced by the fact that we have even managed to fit all our belongings away. Despite our best efforts to pack as light as possible when you are going away indefinitely you do tend to end up with a lot of STUFF. Karen did incredibly well to get her clothes and gear (including 12 pairs of bikinis I’m told is the absolute minimum required number for the trip) into one duffle bag. By the time I included equally essential computer, camera and video gear, my duffle bag certainly ended up a bit lighter on in the clothing department so don’t be surprised to see the same t-shirts etc popping up in a lot of the photos we plan to post here.

Our GPS Spot tracker is doing its job perfectly and if you click on the link to the right and go to the satellite version you’ll see exactly where in the marina we are currently moored. We intend to update our fix each day that we are on the move so it will be possible to follow us through the whole route. Speaking of which, the current plan is to head off on Monday or Tuesday with our first stop being Lizard Island.

As much as we have been enjoying the start to our adventure today is a particularly sad day for us. Our wonderful daughter Yasmin has been so kind to allow us to store our personal goods in her garage while we satisfy our wanderlust. As a precaution against rodent damage we scattered a number of rat baits around the place before locking it all up so Yaz’s precious pups couldn’t get anywhere near them. Unfortunately it appears that little Baxter dog has got a mouse or rat that had ingested the poison and despite the vets best efforts passed away this morning. After living with Yaz and baby Lyla for the last month and spending so much time with Taco and Baxter we are devastated and know how much Yasmin is feeling his loss. Baxter took a particular shine to Karen while we were there, never being more than a foot or two from her wherever she moved. Despite her repeated threats to “unfriend” him facebook style when he was flatulent while sitting on her lap, Karen actually enjoyed his attention and has been particularly upset by this unexpected turn of events. Sometimes life is very unfair.

Sunday, 16 April 2017

So you want an enlargement of your anchor locker The doctor will be with you shortly

Like a lot of projects on a boat, it is not uncommon to run into the "Laws of unforeseen circumstances". The owner wanted an anchor winch installed. The problem was that the locker, although wide, was only about 16" deep. This looked, at a first askance glance to be a straightforward project. If the anchor locker floor could be cut away, the locker would then extend down to the bottom of the hull. I called the builder, and asked if this was the case, and they said "yes, and no structural issues would arise, the locker liner is part of the deck structure". You can see in the picture below, the original locker had hangers for a Danforth anchor (not my favorite type), and the pipe structure is where the anchor shank went. You can see on the right aft side of the locker a wee drain hole.

So off we go. I pop off the Beckson plate, and I'm chagrined to find the space below is full of water. What the heck is this? The only thing I am sure of, is that this is not likely the fresh water storage tank for the boat. I call the builder again, and tell them my problem. No problem they say, someone just forgot to drill the weep hole. When you cut the floor out, just drill the weep hole at the bottom center near the keel, and the water will drain to the amidships bilge. Okay, I can do this, and I have the technology. I drop my cool little Rule pump into the hole, and pump out the water.

I tape off the cut out, and Josh (a most excellent glass guy) is in charge of getting the floor out, grinding the edges back, and gel coating the exposed hull. With an assortment of ugly "Freddy Krueger" style tools, the locker floor is removed exposing the vessel's entrails.

You can now see the locker minus the floor below. The edges were ground back, and the pipe structure has been removed, The locker is now 36" deep at the aft end. But oops, see that grey blob hanging down on the right hand side? The good news is that we know there was enough hull bonding putty being used, the bad news was that it was very difficult to remove. Some improvised tools, a very sharp chisel, and several hours of hard work cleaned it off the hull.

Looks pretty good now in the picture below. Everything is now smooth and white. It's not quite factory, but making it look good was not that hard. You can now see the new weep hole drilled into the aft bulkhead. It's a nice hole if only it went somewhere. Seems the builder's provided advice, was not quite on the money. The place where they said to drill the hole, has a longitudinal stringer behind it. Wait, it gets better. When the hole was drilled, I had it done with a 1 1/8" bit. I had to do this because I needed to seal the exposed wood edges with epoxy. So when the bit hit the stringer, there was about 1/4" gap on each side of the stringer that was open to the next compartment. I stick my wire fish into one side, and swizzle it around, and I hear water splashing, and the same thing on the other side. Now, if we had some ham, we could have a ham sandwich, if we had some bread, or if we had a drain hole, the water could drain into the next compartment, if it had a drain hole.

The last twist to this story I haven't mentioned yet, is there was an anchor locker drain fitting going through the hull about 1" below the weep hole that was drilled into the locker floor. The stub of the fitting protruded about 1/4" into the inside making it impossible to attached a hose to it. The Solution to the problem here is to just ignore it, drill a weep hole in the locker floor, and get the boat sold before anyone notices.

So lets review this. We had a weep hole in the anchor locker, that was draining water into a sort of sealed compartment, a through hull fitting that was never connected, and couldn't be, water was where it shouldn't be in two compartments, and the builder really wasn't very knowledgeable about the product. The "Laws of unforeseen circumstances" have raised their many ugly heads here.

Here is the finished locker, and it turned out very nice. It currently has 400' of rode in the locker, and it barely reaches the floor of the original locker. A piece of starboard was attached to the back of the locker to cover the area where the pipe thingy was, and because the original anchor locker never had a tie off point for the bitter end, I thought it was prudent to add one. What's next is to have a little chute made to direct the rode back about 8" into the deeper portion of the locker, and to pull the winch wire, another odious task on this boat. The wire length needed is almost twice the length of the boat, and needs to be a #2. This is another place where some design forethought would have helped everybody. I have now been waiting for over two weeks for words of advice from this builder on how to correct the trapped water problem. I am hoping they will rise to the occasion, and not be weep holes about this.

Tuesday, 28 February 2017

So Fong Design 143

Of the very small number of schooners (I count ten) designed by Sparkman & Stephens, So Fong is a standout. I found the following history in our files.

The Beginning
So Fong is a topsail schooner built by Ah King Slipway Company of Hong Kong for Alfred Thornton Baker, a New York stockbroker who had commissioned the boat for the purpose of sailing around the world with his son. In the early 40s Baker sailed the boat to the U.S. via the East Indies, Suez, Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Following this voyage he sold the boat.

The name So Fong was given to the boat at the time of her launch as Chinese superstition would not allow a yacht to be put into the water until a name was given. In that the owner had not yet decided on a name for the boat she was launched as So Fong, the nickname for the owner of Ah King’s daughter. The name has remained throughout the fascinating history of this beautiful and exotic Schooner.

The Construction
Ah King Slipway Company built quite a few S&S designs. In fact, So Fong is a slightly bigger version of the famous Mystic Seaport Schooner Brilliant. The builder used ironwood for the keelson and floors, her hull is of the finest Asian teak, her upper sawn frames are teak and yakki (a springy Asian wood), and her deck beams are camphor and teak. The masts and rig were built in the United States and shipped to Hong Kong as were the blocks, which are lignum vitae with bronze or iron straps.

The War Years
During the Second World War, So Fong operated as a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, with a seven man crew. After the war So Fong spent time in the Caribbean and Main under the ownership of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Becton who raced the boat (very competitively) for many years on the East Coast of the United States.

Eventually, So Fong returned to Asia when she was bought by Bill Mathers who sadly used the boat as a salvage and diving vessel in the Far East until 1986 when the boat was siezed by Vietnamese militia off the coast of Vietnam. The boat was confiscated, the crew and captain were detained and questioned. Apparently the high tech navigation and diving equipment provoked suspicion that So Fong was being used as a spy vessel. After four months the crew were released and given a fine. Mathers was allowed to move back on board and was told that all charges against him would be dropped if he agreed to become a double agent. Nine months later he was freed after considerable intervention of the then United Nations Secretary General, Javier Perez de Cuellar. Unfortunately, So Fong was not so lucky and remained a trophy of the Vietnamese (in poor condition) until 1990.

Rescue Mission
In 1990, Robert Verschoyle, an Irish yachtsman was in Hai Phong, Vietnam, investigating a potential boatyard site for himself and his partner to start a new business, when he discovered So Fong. After much red tape he managed to negotiate her purchase from the Vietnamese government and sailed the boat to Saigon where So Fong was lovingly refit under his careful watch.

Increasingly irritated by the bureaucracy to allow the boat to leave Vietnamese waters, Robert and his Vietnamese wife managed to escape in the boat and sailed her to the Mediterranean.

A New Beginning
So Fong was acquired by a Canadian who fell in love with the boat after chartering her for a brief period in the spring of 2000. As a sailing and classic yacht enthusiasts he decided to return So Fong to her original glory and have embarked on an intensive refit which was completed in 2001. Today she is in pristine condition.

Here are the plans.

Principal Dimensions
LOA 70'-3"
LWL 54'-0"
Beam 16'-1"
Draft 9'-9"