Gourmet Cruiser Rendezvous

With Walt in San Diego, me in Hong Kong*and Andy in the UK, I guess this is about as close to a Halvorsen Gourmet Cruiser rendezvous as we are gonna get!

Andy, how are things with your boat? Would love to see some more photos. Care to post them here?

Attached are a few that show how we spend our time on board our flybridge "special edition"!

(The wife won't be happy to see her pregnant belly of last year featuring on*the internet!)

Mark

Mark: As usual, the photos look great! Getting your family out on the boat frequently will pay big dividends in the future. You realize, of course, with three boys as crew, an even bigger boat is in your future! It's great to see "Beluga" packing the family around.

The water is starting to warm up here and is about 58 degrees as of this writing. About the end of April, the fish will perk up and SeaHorse will be turned into a halibut boat for 2 weeks. That's just drift fishing, good food and beer aboard, with my best friend. I look forward to* it every year.

I am wondering if you ever got the St. Croix gear mounted and how it worked?

We visited the grandkids in Seattle the middle of February and are expecting them here in San Diego in two weeks. Then, in July I go back to Seattle to the Wooden Boat Festival and build a 12' sail boat with my grandson. He's 6 and really excited as the whole boat (kit) is built in 4 days and splashed on the 4th day. Should be fun!

Walt, the davits are still not fitted. Have finally received quotations to get them fitted, but now still waiting to find a solution to a problem... The forward lifting eye in the RIB is UNDERNEATH the inflatable tube which is fine for single-point lifting but no good for vertical lifting lines from davits.

I haven't yet been able to find someone who can weld a new lifting eye into the aluminum hull of my RIB. Will keep looking elsewhere here in Hong Kong. Until I know exactly where the lifting points will be, I don't wanna be fitting the davits. Will let you know when done, but won't be until well after Easter.

Water warming up here in HK too as my 3 year old found out when he fell off the swim step at the weekend. We were pottering around at our mooring in normally toxic Aberdeen harbour. Fortunately it was as clean as I have ever seen it... and he was of course wearing a life jacket! He was "cleaning" the transom with seawater - as usual!

Mark

Mark: I understand the problem but am having a hard time remembering how my tender bow was attached to the sling. I had an Avon 10' center cockpit (helm) and the sling was attached to the transom eyes but I can't remember how it was attached to the bow. I suppose, other than attaching it on the outside of the boat, an inside the boat (seats, hull, etc) "eye" might be easier.

What 3 year old do you have? I thought the twins were about 4 and, of course, the baby.

Walt

I suspect I will find someone to weld a new lifting eye but will proceed with an interim solution in the meantime.

I plan to drill a hole in the front edge of the RIB's deck, which is about 2 feet aft of the forward lifting eye. I will run a mini lifting sling between that new hole and the forward lifting eye, with a lifting ring positioned just over where I plan to weld the new eye. The davits should be fitted next week and, with any luck, the davit lines will hang vertically directly over the lifting points in the RIB.

Yeah, the twins are 3 years 10 months, so I suppose I should start saying 4 years!

Mark

Well, the Easter vacation has come and gone and my grand kids are back in Seattle. Ryan, whose 6, has taken to the boat in a big way. He was barking all kinds of orders to the remaining 5 people on board and is making progress in his helm duties. It's great to see this kid growing to love boats.

On the 1st May long weekend, we had hoped to motor up to Hong Kong's best cruising grounds up in the north east, just shy of the Chinese border. Strong easterly winds and nasty seas forced us to turn around after 3 hours, but our "Plan B" wasn't disappointing. We back-tracked 30 minutes and turned in to Port Shelter where the waters are well protected and the boating is dependably very good. Stayed the night and had a great time with the wife and kids. No photos of that, but the following are pikkies taken during a 15 minute period as we passed through Hong Kong harbour on our return voyage home. Lots of fast moving vessels to dodge which is difficult when trying to take in the sights and observe visiting vessels! Check out the satellite tracking ship alongside the terminal. The Halvorsen Island Gypsy 44 in front of the exhibition centre is the boat I spent my childhood on.



-- Edited by boogiediver on Monday 11th of May 2009 07:42:51 AM

And here are a few from last weekend to show what my new St. Croix davits look like in situ... plus the lads having a bit of fun with probably our most important piece of equipment on board: the aqua bazooka!

Mark:
Great shots of the St. Croix lash ups. I'm curious, however, as to the "underneath" hardware that you used to secure the davits. I can see that you added some teak under each davit support. Also, the sitting benches in your cockpit wrap around and come back towards the transom door. I like that, as well as the SS rails at the transom. I also noted that you secure the transom door with a sliding bolt, same as my boat. While running, however, the sliding bolt often comes open (vibration) and when I look aft, there's the transom door hanging open! I'm going to change that out to a spring loaded bolt.


Walt

-- Edited by SeaHorse II on Monday 11th of May 2009 09:38:41 AM

-- Edited by SeaHorse II on Monday 11th of May 2009 10:00:23 AM

Me too Walt! My transom door would also swing open whilst underway which is not a good way to be motoring with kids on board! The wooden backing that you see behind my bolt is new. I added it two weeks ago with a view to fitting press studs (?) either side of the latch which would allow me to stretch a nylon strap across the latch, thus stopping it from opening (see sketch).*I got the idea from my old Sea Ray which was rigged like that. As it happens, the bolt doesn't open with new arrangement, so no need for the strap anymore!

The underneath hardware under the davit shoes comprises*a single reinforcing rod (made to measure by St. Croix, but adjustable) which is connected at top to the forward end of the davit shoe and at bottom to the cockpit deck. Whilst the transom wall is under compression, the rod is under tension, so there is a hefty backing plate at the bottom end of the rod under the deck. I hope that answers.

The teak block added under each davit shoe doesn't look quite as I envisioned it, but that is because the davits extend out parallel to the centreline of the boat rather than perpendicular to the slightly rounded transom. The workmanship isn't up to my expectations, but it never is! Note that I had grooves cut into the bottom edges of the teak blocks so that water could drain from one side to the other.

BTW, my cockpit*benches don't*wrap around. They are rectangular (actually slightly quadrilateral) and extend*from the inside coaming to the transom door.*They are in fact hinged boxes, so I keep cleaning materials in one and small collapsible coffee tables in the other.

The forward cockpit bench doesn't open easily - the lid always has to be lifted with two hands, which is a PITA... have you got a solution for that? It's design does not lend itself to fitting hinges.

Mark