Brisyboy
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2015
- Messages
- 423
- Location
- Australia
- Vessel Name
- Malagari
- Vessel Make
- Island Gypsy 36 Europa
Well not brand new, I have been a member for a couple of months or so now but a month ago we bought the boat so now I feel that its time to introduce ourselves.
Winding back the clock a touch, my wife and I have been sailors for the last 30 years, owning three boats in total which got progressively bigger – as they do –starting with a trailer sailer and finishing with a medium sized keel boat that we cruised and raced. We both have some serious blue water time in both Australia, New Zealand and the Mediterranean.
We sold our last yacht about 5 years ago and as luck would have it one of the guys who crewed with me had a 36ft Fairway (a local design –semi displacement flybridge cruiser) which he wasn`t using enough and he gave us use of it in exchange for keeping it in shape. We used it for about 2 years before he sold it (bugga) but by then we realised that the “dark side” of boating wasn`t such a bad option.
Zing forward a few years and we had narrowed our search down to either a Grand Banks or an Island Gypsy. In the end the IG Europa 36 won because of its covered cockpit and covered side decks. Not too many in Australia and the one we settled on was in Victoria – we live in Brisbane – about the same distance Washington DC to Orlando.
So… we consider ourselves lucky to have found her – she has a v berth fwd, second cabin to stbd opposite the head. Two FL 135s with low hours and pretty much everything as original – even still has the original electric hot plate cook top and convection microwave oven. ( Works well with the Westerbeke gen set but is a bit of a pain if you just want to make a cup of tea) The only real mod has been a platform added behind the top of the rear deck “roof” to hold the dingy with a manual crane.
Getting her home was a bit of a drama – in the end we decided to truck her – we don`t have the equivalent of an inland waterway system up the east coast and where she was located, in Westernport Bay, opens into Bass Straight – a notorious waterway. Not the best option for an unfamiliar boat.
IG 36s are tall – so tall that the props and rudders had to come off to fit on the trailer plus everthing had to come off to get her as low as possible – even the four wooden brackets that support the windscreen. We made the height limit by about 100mm (4inches) – that’s not a legal limit – its set by the lowest bridge!
She is now safely in her pen in Manly Queensland. BTW, Brisbane is on a river about 20k inland. Boating for people living in and around Brisbane is centred on Moreton Bay with a very large marina at Manly, a bayside suburb of Brisbane. Moreton Bay is at the northern end of a waterway that stretches about 60km south to the Gold Coast and I imagine has elements of the ICW.
This forum has (and is) given me a great resource, not only for the technical topics but also reminiscing about our time living in the US – I was in the Aust Army, on exchange at Fort Lee – Virginia for 2 years and we did a lot of travelling up and down the east coast. Our sailing life started there.
Cheers
George
Winding back the clock a touch, my wife and I have been sailors for the last 30 years, owning three boats in total which got progressively bigger – as they do –starting with a trailer sailer and finishing with a medium sized keel boat that we cruised and raced. We both have some serious blue water time in both Australia, New Zealand and the Mediterranean.
We sold our last yacht about 5 years ago and as luck would have it one of the guys who crewed with me had a 36ft Fairway (a local design –semi displacement flybridge cruiser) which he wasn`t using enough and he gave us use of it in exchange for keeping it in shape. We used it for about 2 years before he sold it (bugga) but by then we realised that the “dark side” of boating wasn`t such a bad option.
Zing forward a few years and we had narrowed our search down to either a Grand Banks or an Island Gypsy. In the end the IG Europa 36 won because of its covered cockpit and covered side decks. Not too many in Australia and the one we settled on was in Victoria – we live in Brisbane – about the same distance Washington DC to Orlando.
So… we consider ourselves lucky to have found her – she has a v berth fwd, second cabin to stbd opposite the head. Two FL 135s with low hours and pretty much everything as original – even still has the original electric hot plate cook top and convection microwave oven. ( Works well with the Westerbeke gen set but is a bit of a pain if you just want to make a cup of tea) The only real mod has been a platform added behind the top of the rear deck “roof” to hold the dingy with a manual crane.
Getting her home was a bit of a drama – in the end we decided to truck her – we don`t have the equivalent of an inland waterway system up the east coast and where she was located, in Westernport Bay, opens into Bass Straight – a notorious waterway. Not the best option for an unfamiliar boat.
IG 36s are tall – so tall that the props and rudders had to come off to fit on the trailer plus everthing had to come off to get her as low as possible – even the four wooden brackets that support the windscreen. We made the height limit by about 100mm (4inches) – that’s not a legal limit – its set by the lowest bridge!
She is now safely in her pen in Manly Queensland. BTW, Brisbane is on a river about 20k inland. Boating for people living in and around Brisbane is centred on Moreton Bay with a very large marina at Manly, a bayside suburb of Brisbane. Moreton Bay is at the northern end of a waterway that stretches about 60km south to the Gold Coast and I imagine has elements of the ICW.
This forum has (and is) given me a great resource, not only for the technical topics but also reminiscing about our time living in the US – I was in the Aust Army, on exchange at Fort Lee – Virginia for 2 years and we did a lot of travelling up and down the east coast. Our sailing life started there.
Cheers
George
