Well we are now deep into Spirit's refit. Over the last few weeks we've been able to make great progress into the works lists. The main items we have on the list are: Interior - full refit and rebuild. Everything has been removed, paint sanded back to timber and glass in most areas and then it's been redesigned and rebuilt out of 60HD foam with a layer of 400gram double bias on each side. We're building the fridge into the hull under the entryway and also making two beds either side of the centreboard case. New storage and shelving and the instruments and electrical panel will be on the port side. The deck-head or ceiling is being raised a little also giving head room of 6'6 in the galley area. Exterior - removal of exterior cockpit back to the hull. Removal of all plywood and fittings. Make new rudder box and new deck and seating on either side of cockpit and build out new flange to mount winches on. Instal jammers nearer the outside of the hull and make new spray dodger. Beam and nets - Make new aft beam that's full width and can accommodate the mainsail traveller. Increase the size of the aft nets and remove all old net fittings and attachments. Install new netting attachments via PVC piping and fibreglass to allow for lashing. Other items - remove engine and replace with outboard. Install anchor winch and bow roller. New prodder 8ft in length. Remove rig and test all rod rigging, paint mast. Fit new Ropeye for deck attachments replacing the old and heavy pad-eyes and u-bolts. Install totally new solar system that can accommodate all onboard power situations. This system will be applied by Solbianand will be around 740watts!! We have planned for the months of to work like this January - interior. Feb - cockpit and march beam and small items launching by April sometime we hope. So far this months we've just about done the interior and have only now to glass in the furniture and raise the deck-head. There's a few photos below of the goings on. Will post some more news and pics as we get on. We update out FB almost daily so if you'd like to keep a better eye on what we're up to check out the link to our FB page here. https://www.facebook.com/trimaranspirit
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Over the last few weeks Spirit has slowly been getting transformed from a 1990's designed two-handed racing formula 40 to a modern day fast cruising and racing trimaran.
Over the next few months (we hope by April 2015) she will have a large amount of work done to her that will improve her sailing by making her lighter and simpler to sail and by also opening up her interior and exterior spaces we hope that will improver her cruising comfort. Here will be the place to keep an eye on things as she progresses we will post photos and news and we will also update our facebook page daily with what's going on. We're working with some great companies and in the near future will bring updates of how they are involved and how we will implement some great products into Spirit making her a top cruising trimaran. Here'a link to Spirit's Facebook page Some photos below of the refit so far and Spirit's rig removal yesterday. Well it's coming close to the time when we'll be heading home to Spirit. Over the last six months I've been thinking of what to do when we return. There seems to be so many questions and it's only time that seems to answer most of them. It's hard to stop planning everything, to let go and let time decide plans as it passes and like most people I do a lot of daydreaming, which doesn't help. Daydreaming of the places we could visit of the places I've always dreamed about visiting since I was sailing as a child with my mother and father, those distant places you read about in magazines while a kid are always the first on my list as they seem so exotic and far away. One thing were learnt when we crossed the Pacific in 2011-2012 was how vast and huge this body of water is. There is so many small Island chains both north and south of the equator and they all seem to have there different qualities. With all this in mind we have made a rough plan for the next few years. and that's to sail back out into the Pacific. But with the trade winds mostly from the north east to the south east how is one to do this comfortably on a little trimaran that get's incredibly wet once you have more than 15kts of wind forward of the beam? The last few weeks have been spent studying the weather patterns for the different times of year. And one of the benefits of Spirit is that she loves the light airs. So the plan is simple..... find the lightest airs from any direction preferably forward of the beam to increase our apparent and head east!! So far it seems the most enjoyable way to do this would be to head north from Australia through to Indonesia. Maybe taking part in the Darwin to Ambon yacht race next year and sailing up to Ambon. We always love a little race along the way as well and that's one race where the winds are normally on the quarter making for some seriously enjoyable sailing. From there we would head up to Raja Ampat and then onto Palau for December when it's cyclone season in the southern hemisphere. We'd pick our way east along the Pacific Island chains starting with the Caroline Islands, which is all part of Micronesia then onto the Marshall Islands and down into the Kiribati's and Samoa for the southern hemispheres winter season. During that time we'd do Tonga again as last time we left most of it out due to time restraints and it was one place we promised ourselves to go back to. We hang out around that area until the cyclone season again in November/December and head north again to Samoa. From Samoa it would be north to the Line Islands and Kiribati. Then down to the Marquases Islands and back down to Tahiti for the start of winter again. It's way to hard to plan something like this and what will decide our final arrival point is always the weather. Before we make for another Island we will watch the weather intently and depart with light winds from a favourable direction. Should things change on passage we will adapt to them as they happen. But one thing is we will always have plenty of other options with so many islands there will always be one that is in the correct direction for the weather we have. So in the end this is all a dream. It's a dream of places we'd love to go to and a direction we'd like to head. In the end it will be mother nature that decides where we visit and when. So in a few years it'll be great to look back and to see where that is compared to where we were aiming today. Well it's been over three months now since I left Australia and Spirit sitting on the hard at the Whitsunday Sailing Club and time has flown by. Hopefully in another six months I'll be back home with Spirit readying her for the water once again. I can't tell you how much I miss sailing on her and being free upon the ocean. Unfortunately we have to work occasionally and I can't complain my work is pretty cool. Here's a bit of a breakdown of how the last three months have been for us here. I arrived in St Maarten at the start of February and took over the yacht I work on every few years when funds run low. She's been here since coming down from the US east coast in December. She's an 80ft ketch that was originally built for the 1979 Whitbread around the world race. She was a little to heavy we hear and because of this she was turned into a luxury yacht. She was then chartered around the Caribbean and sold to her present owners and my boss's in around 1984. Since then she's been privately run and does the Mediterranean, East Coast US and Caribbean. So after I arrived we sat around St Maarten doing odd jobs and getting the boat ready for the owner to come down and enjoy. We did a one week trip around the British Virgin Islands before heading to St Barths for a week. We then did another three one week long trips around St Barth's before heading back to St Maarten where we had a week to recover. After a weeks rest we did another seven days around St Barth's and then dropped off in St Maarten again before heading directly down to Grenada where we did a two week trip around the Grenadines dropping off in St Vincent before heading straight back to St Maarten where we've been for the past week. So with all that sailing and travelling time has just flown by. As you can see we're really just a fancy bus on the water travelling from place to place for a week or so at the time. At the moment we are getting ready to cross the Atlantic. Our delivery crew are all arriving over the next few days and then we'll haul the yacht clean her bum with some new anti-foul applied we'll be fresh and ready for the crossing. We're hoping to be in the Med by the first week of June all going to plan. Then it'll be a few months around Italy and the Amalfi coast before taking the yacht to Holland where she'l go into a yard period. From there I'll be heading home to Australia and Spirit again. I've put in a few photos of our travels around this part of the world. We've been fortunate enough to see some beautiful places this year and we were also lucky enough to be in Bequia during there famous easter regatta, which was a blast to see. Sorry again for the lack of updates and the length and quality of the text but it's pretty busy here at the moment. I'll be sure to update from the Med once we get there with some news about the crossing. We'll things have been all over the shop as normal. Just before Christmas 2014 I was offered some work back in the Caribbean and with the wet season upon us in North Queensland I thought it sounded like a great idea to head back to work for a while. The next question was what to do with Spirit? after a week of running around all over the place and ringing people and asking friends for help. The Whitsunday Yacht Club offered to put her on their property just beside the yacht club. It was a great surprise and it all happened so quickly and easily. I can't thank all those involved with Spirit enough. One minute your worrying about what to do with your home and boat and the next thing it's all ok and you couldn't have found a better spot for her. Actually a shed 50ft x 40ft would have been perfect but that's out of the question. After a few days getting all the crap off the boat, mostly pots, pans, food, fridge, clothing and everything I could remove it was time to haul her out. Sitting on the tailor ready to be wheeled over the old volleyball courts Rupert King who owns Overdrive offered the use of his trailer and also his forklift. Spirit fitted perfectly on the trailer. After hauling her out we then drover her over to the patch of ground she was going to live on for the next eight months. Rupert helped organise some tires and we bought four two ton concrete blocks for her to sit upon. One being put under each float where the beam bulkhead is. We then put the tires upon the blocks and also some under the main hull until she was sitting straight and steady. From there we jacked one side up and removed the trailer. After that we removed the tires we placed under the float to jack her up and then lowered her down onto the single tires, which we had place upon the concrete blocks. We bought some two ton straps and strapped her down to the blocks so at the moment she's holding fast to eight tons of concrete!! We had a pretty close call at the end of January when a cyclone crossed the coast just north of Airlie Beach in Bowen. It just happened to cross at the same time as the years highest tide which brought the water level up to near where Spirit was. There were a few days there where we didn't know how bad the cyclone was going to be or how Spirit would cope with the wind and water. Thank goodness she came out ok in the end. There was a bit of water damage to the ground around where the concrete blocks were but nothing too bad. Spirit is all fine and with my parents living in Airlie Beach it's great to know someone is popping down regularly to keep an eye on her for me. Along with a few local friends that have also been a great help. So I'll be updating the blog from the Caribbean for the next few months. We're going to be based around here until May when we hope to sail over to the Med and Spain and beyond...... who knows?? I'm now on a very luxurious 80ft ketch with ever mod con and more. It's one extreme going from Spirit to this yacht Zanabe. I do miss Spirit's simplicity and her turn of speed. She has proven over the last three years to be a great little boat and a perfect platform to cruise on. I can't wait to get back to her and have more adventures up and around Asia. |
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