Bosunlocker
Active Member
RESCUE IN THE PACIFIC.
After purchasing a Bill Lapworth Cal 46 in American Samoa in February 2007 and getting the yacht ready to sail to Fiji with a professional Captain and crewman and myself as a passenger helper. We departed Samoa in good weather the Cal 46 Motorsailor sailed beautifully and proved what we were told she was a thoroughbred yacht. We covered the 850 miles in five days arriving in Suva we encountered wind on the trip of 20-30-40 knots the only problem we had was a blown headsail.
My wife and children arrived in Suva and we sailed to Nandi for the first time to Vunda Point Marina a hurricane proof
man made marina that had all the facilities including a 60 ton travel lift.The staff were lovely people and it was well managed by Melika the marina manager. My partner who was the owner of the yacht paying for it out of the proceeds of the sail of her 44ft Bill Lapworth yacht. My partner arranged for the slipping and work to be carried out by Brian Smith a South African who started Baobab Marine services. Osmoses was repaired the bottom repainted the top sides, and deck, for a tidy sum of $26.000.00 the work was supervised by Willy Amor a Fijian and a good person.
The yacht was up on the hard for over three months and looked like new when finished. New navagation GPS Plotter,Autopilot,battries,The only problem we had was with Brian Smith" Sheila paid in advance prior to the work been finished a mistake" as Smith took his time" costing her more hardstand fees. Apart from this a supposed reconditioned marine generator was purchased for the sum of $6000.00 including the Onan trade from Brian Smith this was to be installed by him in the purchase price this was done but when tested it would not generate electricity Smith accused the electrician who reconditioned it stating that they did not do a proper job. I don't believe this as the people from Western Electric state otherwise and fixed the problem. I would recommend them to any one who needs electrical work they are cheap and do a great work.
Brian Smith refused to do the job he promised stating that it was the ships electrical fault, Apart from this he was paid cash and would not provide a receipt for the Westerbec. Willy Amour is a top person and a partner to Brian Smith.
.
Departure
As I had a heart problem and was on medication and hurt my knee I was not in the position to sail to Auckland
Sheila engaged a captain and a engineer to sail her to Auckland as we were let down by the third person to crew
I ended up having to go this was okay but I was not much help We departed Nandi on a fine day armed with a 7 day weather report supplied by Bob McDavit the best weatherman from New Zealand. We were well equipped and ready for the voyage and in good sprits after sailing 300 miles from Nandi in 20-30 knot winds with the yacht handling well. later on the third day in the afternoon we herd a huge noise, thud" on the Port side stern the mizzen forestays broke falling to the deck shaking the mast the captain was steering at the time he shouted out we have no steering can not go South he handed the helm over to James with instructions to turn the wheel when we went down below to inspect the rudder post. We found that the rudder post turned with the wheel but there was allot of water in the steering well approx a full bath load this was sloshing around. After some time trying to fix a problem that could not be fixed the rudder we beleave was gone
The captain and engineer myself concluded we lost or broke the rudder and had no way of steering.I went down below to radio a pan pan I could receive but not transmit on the SSB ,the yacht was rolling violently
throwing me around I hit my back on the mizzen mast. The floor became so slippery that I had to crawl around.
The wind had come up to force 5.The three of us sat in the cockpit deciding what to do our motor was not going as we had took on diesel at Vunda Point and it turned out that there was a lot of gunge in it. James the engineer had changed the filters and changed tanks. Starting the engine became pointless as we had no steering. While seating in the cockpit James asked me what were the chances of the yacht capsizing he was getting very worried . A decision was made to turn on the Eperb I attended to this and while I was crawling over the cockpit I was flung violently across the deck hitting my back on the mizzen mast and nearly went overboard I managed to switch it on and crawled back into the cockpit.
Rescue
After approx four hours I switched on handheld VHF and herd a voice from a ship that was only 12 miles away this was the Matice a 150 mit container ship I spoke to the Captain he had been alerted by Wellington search and rescue they gave our position. The captain asked how many was on board and switch all our lights on. At this time
The weather and wind was up to force 6 and it was not pleasant. On one of the calls to the captain I asked him if he could tow us, he said he would consider it he also mentioned that he may be able to lift the yacht onboard he asked me the weight this was 24 ton. The Matice arrived and stood approx three hundred yards away the ships lifeboat made its way towards us and threw us a tow rope they then started to tow us towards the ship. The wind was getting fresher and we had to hold on to the life lines tight. The life boat was making good headway towards the ship
towing us from the stern the tow line broke. It was later on that I found out the captain ordered the end of the tow and ordered the lifeboat to pick us up from the yacht. On a couple of occasions the life boat hit the yacht really hard on the amidships (Read the forum of the captains report.
After purchasing a Bill Lapworth Cal 46 in American Samoa in February 2007 and getting the yacht ready to sail to Fiji with a professional Captain and crewman and myself as a passenger helper. We departed Samoa in good weather the Cal 46 Motorsailor sailed beautifully and proved what we were told she was a thoroughbred yacht. We covered the 850 miles in five days arriving in Suva we encountered wind on the trip of 20-30-40 knots the only problem we had was a blown headsail.
My wife and children arrived in Suva and we sailed to Nandi for the first time to Vunda Point Marina a hurricane proof
man made marina that had all the facilities including a 60 ton travel lift.The staff were lovely people and it was well managed by Melika the marina manager. My partner who was the owner of the yacht paying for it out of the proceeds of the sail of her 44ft Bill Lapworth yacht. My partner arranged for the slipping and work to be carried out by Brian Smith a South African who started Baobab Marine services. Osmoses was repaired the bottom repainted the top sides, and deck, for a tidy sum of $26.000.00 the work was supervised by Willy Amor a Fijian and a good person.
The yacht was up on the hard for over three months and looked like new when finished. New navagation GPS Plotter,Autopilot,battries,The only problem we had was with Brian Smith" Sheila paid in advance prior to the work been finished a mistake" as Smith took his time" costing her more hardstand fees. Apart from this a supposed reconditioned marine generator was purchased for the sum of $6000.00 including the Onan trade from Brian Smith this was to be installed by him in the purchase price this was done but when tested it would not generate electricity Smith accused the electrician who reconditioned it stating that they did not do a proper job. I don't believe this as the people from Western Electric state otherwise and fixed the problem. I would recommend them to any one who needs electrical work they are cheap and do a great work.
Brian Smith refused to do the job he promised stating that it was the ships electrical fault, Apart from this he was paid cash and would not provide a receipt for the Westerbec. Willy Amour is a top person and a partner to Brian Smith.
.
Departure
As I had a heart problem and was on medication and hurt my knee I was not in the position to sail to Auckland
Sheila engaged a captain and a engineer to sail her to Auckland as we were let down by the third person to crew
I ended up having to go this was okay but I was not much help We departed Nandi on a fine day armed with a 7 day weather report supplied by Bob McDavit the best weatherman from New Zealand. We were well equipped and ready for the voyage and in good sprits after sailing 300 miles from Nandi in 20-30 knot winds with the yacht handling well. later on the third day in the afternoon we herd a huge noise, thud" on the Port side stern the mizzen forestays broke falling to the deck shaking the mast the captain was steering at the time he shouted out we have no steering can not go South he handed the helm over to James with instructions to turn the wheel when we went down below to inspect the rudder post. We found that the rudder post turned with the wheel but there was allot of water in the steering well approx a full bath load this was sloshing around. After some time trying to fix a problem that could not be fixed the rudder we beleave was gone
The captain and engineer myself concluded we lost or broke the rudder and had no way of steering.I went down below to radio a pan pan I could receive but not transmit on the SSB ,the yacht was rolling violently
throwing me around I hit my back on the mizzen mast. The floor became so slippery that I had to crawl around.
The wind had come up to force 5.The three of us sat in the cockpit deciding what to do our motor was not going as we had took on diesel at Vunda Point and it turned out that there was a lot of gunge in it. James the engineer had changed the filters and changed tanks. Starting the engine became pointless as we had no steering. While seating in the cockpit James asked me what were the chances of the yacht capsizing he was getting very worried . A decision was made to turn on the Eperb I attended to this and while I was crawling over the cockpit I was flung violently across the deck hitting my back on the mizzen mast and nearly went overboard I managed to switch it on and crawled back into the cockpit.
Rescue
After approx four hours I switched on handheld VHF and herd a voice from a ship that was only 12 miles away this was the Matice a 150 mit container ship I spoke to the Captain he had been alerted by Wellington search and rescue they gave our position. The captain asked how many was on board and switch all our lights on. At this time
The weather and wind was up to force 6 and it was not pleasant. On one of the calls to the captain I asked him if he could tow us, he said he would consider it he also mentioned that he may be able to lift the yacht onboard he asked me the weight this was 24 ton. The Matice arrived and stood approx three hundred yards away the ships lifeboat made its way towards us and threw us a tow rope they then started to tow us towards the ship. The wind was getting fresher and we had to hold on to the life lines tight. The life boat was making good headway towards the ship
towing us from the stern the tow line broke. It was later on that I found out the captain ordered the end of the tow and ordered the lifeboat to pick us up from the yacht. On a couple of occasions the life boat hit the yacht really hard on the amidships (Read the forum of the captains report.
