Look who pitched up for lunch on saturday after the Puerto Solento BBQ

mjf

mjf

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Well after a nice evening on Friday, several of the party continued on D pontoon until 0300hrs.


Then a trip to Alum Bay where these guys turned up to join us for lunch on Saturday

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Note the hull reflection and the palm tree – I previously thought you had ‘arrived’ if you have an 8 seater dinning table and chairs that move on your boat – now I think you have to have this plus a palm tree and room for a small band for afternoon tea!


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The assembled Alun Bay fleet……



All in all another great w/e. Even saw the fine vessel Toscana on our return heading East just West of Cowes on Saturday evening.
 
And the silver palmer johnson 120footer (who originally posted on here that it was about 60foot?!) is definitely the former Cover Drive, now renamed. Still has the orange boot top line!
 
Who built her and year pls?

Yes, we thought it was coppercoated so blasted over to see.

It is not, it is exactly as you say, painted.

Frankly speaking the baot looked a little 'tired'. Under the name is some sort of odd painting and the colours all look dull.

Compared to Leander....... Anyone know which yard built the Leander and when? Certainly I have seen her many times over the years and she always looks 100% even after a transatlantic job. Full credit to the owner/skipper etc.

In fact when they decided to mothball HMS Britannia I thought this boat would have been a very suitable replacement candidate. Timeless elegance IMHO.

Very interesting selection of tenders too!
 
Re: Who built her and year pls?

Sir Dons (owner Leander) narrow boats are also as shiny and sit at the bottom of his garden in Hampton Wick.
 
Leander, and fairing of hulls

Leander was built by a naval shipyard known for warships not megayachts, Peene Werft in Germany. 1992. I forget the story but someone else commissioned her and then died or went bankrupt or something, and Gosling (Mr NCP) stepped in and bought her as an about-to-launch project. Soemthing along those lines anyway.

Her paint will be much more recent than 1992 of course. And even when new you can be sure the fairing and painting would have been contracted out to specialists - fairing a steel hull is a big $$$ bit of the subcontracting in a yacht build and is done by specialists. It is done by careful anglegrinding of the welds, then loads of special epoxy filler (called "bog") applied to the hull surface, then sanded, rather like a massive car body shop repair job. Then primers and awlgrip to give a perfect finish. Would cost a couple of mill dollars to do from scratch on a new build Leander's size, but pretty essential of course. That "new" luxury yacht Titan, just launched and in the med now, has been made from converting HMS Devonshire. She has a very good interior and you wouldn't think she was an ex warship, but the owners chose not to fair her hull as they felt this suited the slightly rugged /explorer styling of the yacht. Bad mistake -this is her a few weeks ago in Monaco.

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Leander is timeless in external style, but a bit oldfarty furniture/fitout wise, lots of powder blue velour frexample....

Sounds like the silver paint on Cover Drive wasn't up to much and has gone dull. I saw her last summer a lot in the med, she was berthed permantly in Nice on the west side of the port, and the paint looked shiny and fresh then, although the shade of silver was slightly too dark imho. The orange boot top always looked bad imho, it is only a boot top and the antifoul under it is black
 
Re: Leander, and fairing of hulls

Thanks for the builder info - it was not in any of my books.

I must have seem here first 12 years ago so about newish then. Was she always Leander G. I do not recall the 'g' bit before?


I agree with you seeing the frames throught the hull plating is rather bad form. The 3 engine Gas Turbine jobbie in Gunwharf has the same issue, as do very many modern commercial ships where the scantlines are pared right down.

The ex-Cover drive looked like a warship (battle-ship grey) when she arrived and that was in brilliant sunshine!. Clearly these silver bullits need some special care to keep the gloss

Yes the boot top was a stripe coat just above the w/l with black antifoul
 
Re: Leander, and fairing of hulls

AFAIK she has always been Leander G, with the G painted in a very small letter (mebbe to encourage its non use, and to encourage her just to be called "Leander"?). In any case, the name Leander was "taken" by the royal navy for HMS Leander which was hull #1 of the Leander class of frigates. I think the G is just a sequence letter. Whereas most folk call their successive boats 1,2,3 etc, he uses A, B, C, etc

The bowing of the hull plates such as on Titan (pics above) is partly caused by shrinkage when the welds cool. Serious high end builders like Feadship use a technique where they chill or heat the plates, then weld them, and when they settle back to normal temperatures the weld shrinking and bowing is much less. They still have to fair the hulls of course.
 
Re: Leander, and fairing of hulls

The lids on the anchors is a nice touch. Only other boat I have seen with that set up is Lady Moura. I think the new Rising Sun has them too, but not sure. But very few boats have them. Sailboats have hidden anchors more often, eg the fantastic system on Tiara where the whole anchor swings back 180deg on a huge arm and disappears under a lid on the foredeck
 
Re: Leander, and fairing of hulls

Yes; saw her anchored off Yarmouth yesterday. Absolutely beautiful.

Wasn't Gosling's previous (smaller) yacht built somewhere up the Thames? I seem to remember major dramas getting her down river for fitting out.....
 
Re: Leander, and fairing of hulls

Brave Goose was built at Toughs of Teddington bout 15 years ago then had a very narrow squeeze through Richmond Bridge. Boat still around and I understnad rolls quite a bit. The boat yard has gone though and is now a very nice resturauant.
 
Re: Leander, and fairing of hulls

Interesting enough, Rising Sun was off St Barths before Christmas and I couldn't help notice that the Anchor wasn't used at all. Very cool anchorless system based on your GPS, would still make me a little nervous at times.
I dropped two very attractive middle aged ladies off to Rising Sun in an 18 foot Dinghy. They boarded from the transom but the crew had to remove the fender as it was bigger than my dinghy!!! At night she has coloured neons over the decks that constantly change colour IMHO a little tacky!!
Leander is one of my four favourite mega yachts out there, the other three being Talitha G and the Amnesia (recently renamed a name which I can't remember!!!) and of course M V Delphine.
Leaner should be pretty clean, when I had dinner with some of the crew in Antigua a couple of years back, they were telling me that at that time they had 25 crew. With that many crew and such a well kept boat it justifies the $250,000 a week charter fee.

Chris
 
Re: Leander, and fairing of hulls

Are you sure Titan is ex Devonshire?I believe she is ex survey ship Beagle converted here in Poole over the past couple of years, in fact if anyone can tell me how to post pictures I have some as she was towed out through Poole lifting bridge if anyone is interested...Iain
 
Re: Leander, and fairing of hulls

Sorry, you will be right. i was mixing up the names. Beagle it is. Was definitely done in Poole as you say
 
Re: Leander, and fairing of hulls

The most recent Amnesia (sold in 2004) is now Altitude. If you mean the previous Amnesia (one of 7 Golden Bay series Benettis) she is now renamed Aquila and hull painted Blue like Jo. A new Amnesia is being built at Benetti AFAIK
 
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