Happy Xmas and a Prosperous New Year to you lot of speed freaks,

Well after 3 months of sailing, Im back to annoy the crap out of all of you, Hahahahahahaha.

Its nice to ride my Moped again, 4 knots against, (HAHAHA) Im not telling, But it does get the cobwebs out and the heart pumping,

Well I sailed my Catamaran from Fiji to Bundaberg in Qld, Single handed, Middle of Vanuatu and over the top of New Caledonia,
then straight down the Tasman Sea to Broughton Island, where a southerly wind storm blew me up onto the beach and onto the rocks, I now have a wrecked boat,

I was in there hiding from a severe storm from the North West the night before, Both anchors dragged,

Nearly 3000 Nautical miles up before I wrecked it, So I didnt do too bad, I still cant sail for shit, Hahahahahaha.

3 Feet of water through it, Both hulls have big holes in them, I stepped off the front of the boat onto the beach,

Another couple of weeks till I know whether they will write it off or fix it,

21 days Fiji to Bundaberg, 7 Days to Broughton Island, she was a slow old trip,

Would I do it again, No, I bloody well would not, Hahahahaha.

The Bird, after putting the battery back in it, Fired up first hit and kept humming along as usual, Thats 3 months, she has been sitting there undisturbed and totally neglected,



Cheers,
Brian,

Great to see you back safe and sound deadman!

Sorry about your sick cat.

Good to see you made it back in one piece, but why do you have to modify everything you own, and couldn't you have waited until you got back to your home mooring to start on the re-engineering?

Originally Posted by Nutter67

Good to see you made it back in one piece, but why do you have to modify everything you own, and couldn't you have waited until you got back to your home mooring to start on the re-engineering?

I was going to make my own anchors for a start, the 2 that came with the boat were useless, Even tho the front one was bent about 30 degrees, before it let go,

If they do fix it, It will be repaired to Australian Standards, Which are a lot higher then USA or EU Standards, So I will have a better boat structually than it already was,

The Hulls are basically a single sheet of fibreglass from one end to the other, No stiffeners or ribs,

How many times can you land a fibre glass hull on a hard sandy beach before it shits its self, With no ribs or stiffeners, It would crack up in no time at all,

Australian Standards have the stiffeners and ribs inbuilt into the fibreglass, Its a lot stronger than the single sheet of fibreglass, Wont flex as much either,

Ehh Ehh Ehh Deadman welcome back,stick to riding its safer.

nice picture, love the palm trees...no bike riding weather here in eastern canada, -18c yesterday morning, must go and visit oz sometime

Welcome back !! glad to hear that you avoided being a lunch for the local sharks....if your catamaran survives also then its time for some extra goodies..

Welcome back young man, I've heard sheepskin is excellent for plugging holes ............................

On the bright side, now you can say that you've been blown ashore

Nice one and welcome back Brian ... any landing or crash you can walk away from is a good one .... sorry, can't help with any boat parts .. although I've got a large tub of fibre-glass filler ...

That photo must be an early one as it doesn't show the helm riser mod that I just know must be there. Great to have you back around, Brian. Sorry about your new tub. Shall I assume it was insured against this eventuality?

Originally Posted by birdfarmer

nice picture, love the palm trees...no bike riding weather here in eastern canada, -18c yesterday morning, must go and visit oz sometime

The piccys in Fiji, +26 to +30, They dont know the meaning of the word cold, No clothes for 16 days and my all over tan is complete, Hahahahahaha

+22 here in Melbourne today, Might go for a ride again,

- 18, you can keep that, Brrrrr,

Originally Posted by Shewie

That photo must be an early one as it doesn't show the helm riser mod that I just know must be there. Great to have you back around, Brian. Sorry about your new tub. Shall I assume it was insured against this eventuality?

Had a cover note on it luckily, As I was in transit, the paper work was not filled out, and I could not get Blue water insurance, The cover note ran out in five days time,
The paper work was delivered to the post office in Bundaberg but I left before it got there,

Made my claim then filled in the paper work for the insurance policy, All done with a fax through a Newsagency,

The insurance company and the Broker have been excellent, They had a salvage crew out to the boat the next morning after the claim, on the Island, 12 miles off shore,

Just awaiting the assessors report to find out if they will fix it,

The Helm riser is there, Your not looking hard enough, Hahahahahahaha

Originally Posted by Scrappy

Nice one and welcome back Brian ... any landing or crash you can walk away from is a good one .... sorry, can't help with any boat parts .. although I've got a large tub of fibre-glass filler ...

Need two tubs, its a big hole in both sides, When I wreck some thing, I dont do it in half measures, Hahahahaha

Ouch - I saw the posts on the cruising and multi-hill forums and wondered if that was you....never a good feeling to go aground or have to abandon your boat. Hope the insurance sorts you out properly.

FWIW - You could have done a lot worse, so I still think this is a half measure :-)

I clipped a submerged shipping container on the way into Plymouth Sound in 45ft Beneteau that I was delivering from Antigua....the damn thing was gone in under 2 minutes from the time of impact, went down like a submarine...fortunately we were only about 2 miles away from an RNLI life boat headed out to sea, but we still took to the liferaft before they could get to us. We'd been out at sea for nearly a month, and lost the damn thing in the last few hours...very frustrating.