Thinking of Richard Woods and Jetti Mantzke

UK. Falmouth Coastguard co-ordinates international rescue mission off Mexico  
Thursday, 19 January 2006
Coastguard news:

Two people aboard a 33 foot catamaran off the coast of Mexico requested urgent
assistance in extreme weather conditions of Force 10 - 11. They battened
themselves down in the boat whilst the waves washed over their boat. The
alarm was raised at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening by a transferred '999'
call from a friend who had been contacted by the crew of the British
registered catamaran 'Eclipse', informing Falmouth Coastguard that the vessel
was 90 miles from Haultuclo, in force 10. The vessel had no life raft other
than a hard dinghy, a handheld radio and flares and the EPIRB had been set
off. The two crew on board the vessel were a male from the UK and a female
from the USA. Falmouth Coastguard contacted its counterparts in America and
Mexico in order to pass co-ordination of search and rescue onto the Mexican
Coast Guard. The vessel by this time had issued a 'Mayday'.
Martin Bidmead, Falmouth Coastguard Watch Manager, says: "Rescue authorities
in Mexico were contacted through a link call with United States Coast Guard
NORFOLK and a Mexican interpreter. Mexican authorities assumed coordination.
We continued to get positional updates from the vessel. The Mexican Coast
Guard sent two 100 foot patrol boats and a helicopter to search for the
catamaran, but was unable to locate them. Fortunately an American war ship
was in the area and was able to launch a helicopter to continue the search.
The crew was told to be prepared to abandon their vessel and listen to
channel 16 and put the vessel lights on. Communications were made via
Falmouth Coastguard throughout the incident.
I am pleased to confirm that the two crew have now been air lifted by the
United States Navy and will be taken to the warship and will hopefully be
landed safely ashore in the next few days. This incident demonstrates the
international role played by Falmouth Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre,
working with foreign search and rescue authorities to bring about a
successful conclusion to a serious situation."

For Evan - for the days when he wonders why...

Up in the bridgedeck cabin. Visualize if you will comfortable seating for 6, a chart table, and a wet locker/closet.

Looking down from the bridgedeck cabin into the port hull. The head is through the arched doorway and Maia's cabin is aft of Evan. The area he is working in will be Maia's school area.

From the galley looking forward in the starboard hull - currently the settee area/rubbish heap but imagine it as a future cabin for Ev and I. Aft of the future gourmet galley is the starboard guest cabin.

The view from the port hull, across the cabin, looking to the starboard hull. Spacious, modern, carbon-nomex comfort to come.

The view from the starboard hull looking across to the port hull.

Some day we will call all this home...

Absolutely nothing to do with the boat, but I liked this photo I took of a foggy Vancouver from midway up Cypress Mt.

Not much to report on the boat building side of things - I was in Baltimore last weekend and this past weekend we went to Port Townsend, WA to buy some materials. A long day of driving and ferry lineups but it was worth it.

Another multihull boat builder had a shipping container full of surplus aircraft carbon fiber/Nomex cored panels. These were "scrap" in the aircraft industry but fine for boats. His boat is a work of art but it's taken him 9 long years to get to where it is nearing completion. Anyway, he had a bunch more panels than he needed and I kindly offered to take them off his hands for what seems like not enough money. He was super generous and was glad to see them go to a good home; and I gave him all the cash we had brought.

Now if I can just convince Di that an all black carbon fiber saloon seating would look really cool....

Ceilydh's Particulars and other stuff that boat owners might find interesting

Length Overall 40'
Beam 23'
Draft about 2'4" with daggerboards up, about 5' - 6' when down
(haven't got around to checking)
Weight 4 tonnes (empty)
Displacement ~6 tonnes (full up)
Sail Area 877 square feet (main + genoa)
Rig traditional cutter

Water 2 x 40 gallons
Fuel 1 x 27 gallons diesel, 1 x 6 gallons gas

Motors Yanmar 3GM30, 27 HP diesel in port hull
17" Autostream 3 bladed feathering prop
Yamaha 9.9 High Thrust 4 stroke outboard against the starboard hull on the aft beam (the docking motor/auxiliary auxiliary motor)
Motoring speed ~5 knots with one Yamaha 9.9,
~7.5 knots when we had two of them,
probably about 7+ knots with the Yanmar but only had it running once back from the shipyard and the pitch was wrong (4 knots @ 1000 RPM)

Sailing Speed quite quick. Top speed reaching so far is 15.4 knots but have hit 11 knots
very often. Faster than typical condo cats :)

Anchors 33# Aluminum spade, 22# Danforth, Fortress FX-37
Rode 5/16" chain x 80-100' + 5/8" double braid on the primary anchor. Still trying to decide how little chain I can get away with for South Pacific cruising

It's been a busy weekend. Diane and Maia are visiting cousins, great-grandmother, aunt, and grandmother on Vancouver Island. That leaves me free to stay up late, work extra hours on the boat, and make some progress.

So... the deck over the hulls has been cut away on both sides now and it appears super roomy (until all the main saloon furnishing go in). All the inside seam taping is just about done. Tomorrow will finish it off. Then I either start bogging the inside seams or build a nice carbon fiber transverse beam across the saloon roof. Probably do the beam first since it will cover up some areas that will otherwise be bogged.

The inside finish of the saloon will be painted in a mat or satin white paint (no lining like "gerbil fur" carpeting). This saves weight & cost and is simple but it does mean a bit more fairing. Having a non-glossy paint hides a lot more than the exterior, which will be glossy like shiny new car glossy.

I've got one little damp spot that keeps coming back - I suspect a pinhole leak from the gutter just aft of the aft cabin bulkhead. Will try to isolate the source with some water and food colouring tomorrow.

N.B. A Saloon is the part of the boat where you go to sit down, have a few too many drinks, smoke and generally misbehave. A Salon is where women go to get there hair done. There ain't one on a boat.

- Evan

A badly done composite image of the starboard hull. I hate digital cameras that have a 38mm equivalent "wide angle" lens.

The deck above the hull, inside the cabin, has been cut away so you can see down into the hull rather well. This won't last forever as there will be a refrigerator forward and a chart table midships that will block the view. There will still be 9' of headroom in the hull under the cutout though!

Lots of nasty grinding to smooth out the join between deck and cabin side. After I took this shot I spent about 1/2 hour vacuuming the dust.

I have about 1 gallon or less epoxy left, from my original 55 gallon drum + 15 gallons of hardener. Time to order some more!

-Evan

We haven't updated for a bit but progress is continuing. All the side windows are installed, most of the seams are taped and the cabin is now more or less waterproof. Evan spent more than a few demoralizing days bailing the port hull and trying to figure out where all the gallons of water were coming from. Eventually he discovered that one of the original ports had it's seal broken during the deconstruction phase and water was pouring in.

We are at the stage where nothing dramatic will happen for a while. The windows will go in over the next week or so, then a door, then it will be time to sand and fair - again and again. I guess we will just work away at it then suddenly it will be time to rebuild the interior, and sew curtains. I like making curtains. We did buy the oven though! I've told Evan he is now formally banned from ebay until we rebuild our savings. He has to use up/install everything else he bought first.

I have a story out in the September Pacific Yachting which is nice to look at when the work gets me down and I would rather be sailing. It all has a purpose.