… about best laid plans? Alas, Thursday’s scheduled weigh-in and mast foot repairs were indeed hampered by strong winds. The very thing we didn’t need or want we got big time. In fact things got off to a very inauspicious start when, having motored Butterfly around to Trawlers Wharf, we find a dirty great Dutch trawler moored in the very spot we needed for her crane work to be effected. We arrived about 7.30ish a.m. and the skipper of the trawler emerged half-dressed, befugged by sleep and in a filthy temper, to answer our polite enquiry if he would mind moving. He did and he wasn’t and that was that. Slamming the door behind him he disappeared again into “Flintstone” (the name of his vessel, replete with cheerful garish cartoon of Fred Flintstone himself) amid a torrent of bitchin’ and cussing. So that really was, indeed, that. Time for Plan B.
Plan B was to send Steven and Kyle in their car, to motor around the dockside to find another suitable mooring. Which they did. Although this was far from perfect – the new site being direct on to the rising wind – effectively turning it into a lee shore, as it were. But beggars can’t be choosers, so we moored alongside the two enormous, filthy tyres hanging from the dockside. But the change in plans meant the arrival of the crane was delayed – and with every minute the wind speed was increasing rather alarmingly. To be honest, it would have been best to abandon the exercise at this point and book it for another day with more clement weather. But sometimes events can take on a life of their own and Gideon was particularly keen to at least get the weigh-in done, if not the mast foot and plate replacements. The hope was that the boat would only need to be lifted for a few minutes – and just enough to clear the water – and that doing so wouldn’t be too risky, in spite of the rising wind speeds.
But already much time had been wasted looking for a new mooring site. And once arrived, the crane guys had to search around to find a suitable link to attach Gideon’s load cell. Also, much messing with Gideon’s calibrated load cell printer – the paper roll being a sod to fit. So by the time the strops were on the boat and she was ready to be lifted, the wind had strengthened significantly, and she was being continually buffeted by strong gusts. So much so, that much effort was expended on keeping her own fenders in place to prevent damage from the wharf’s tyres. In short, the situation had swiftly become pretty chaotic. Furthermore, because of the need to manually secure protective fenders in place to protect her rubbing strake from the crane’s strops, and the fact that some of the CTC crane staff were still aboard the boat ensuring the strops and lifting equipment was also secure, Butterfly at last rose precariously from the water, swinging alarmingly as gust after gust pummelled her flanks, still with 8 people aboard. Without them, she may well have been damaged, so calling them off, while desirable for accuracy, wasn’t really an option.
And the result? Well, as Dick and I stood side by side with Gideon, peering over his shoulder at the load cell computer screen – we watched the count rise till it hit 9475 kg and climbed no higher- both of us calling it out together. Had I not been so keen to view the figure for myself, I’d have taken a photo shot of it. Wish I had now! But we both saw that 9475 for ourselves, clear as daylight. Anxious to get her safely back in the water – she really was swinging wildly straining at her mooring lines – we knew we’d have to deduct a rough allowance for the extra weight of bodies aboard. But for all the chaos, the reading, carried out in far from ideal conditions, was good enough.
Checking with CTC Cranes, their equipment had registered 9300 kg. The canvas strops that go under the hulls, hadn’t been tared into Gideon’s load cell, so those too would make a small difference between the two readings. So Butterfly’s approximate weight? Well, allowing (a slightly generous perhaps?) 80 kg per body, let’s deduct 640 kg from 9475 to eliminate the impact of having 8 crew aboard her, and we arrive at 8835 kg. Deduct a further 200 kg for the diesel aboard (one tank only) and we get 8635 kg. A vacuum generator unit was left aboard, too, so knock of another 35 kg and that brings us down to something around the 8600 kg mark.
Ought to mention that on Wednesday, the day before, Gideon had arranged for her extra sails to be removed (leaving just the main and jib), and the water tanks had been completely emptied. The Jordan Series Drogue and chain had also been removed – another heavy item.
It’s also worth mentioning perhaps, that when Butterfly was last lifted from the water, to repair an engine compartment leak, CTC cranes had used two cranes – one to lift her, one to return her to the water. Both times their cranes had registered 10 tonnes. Given that she had her full complement of sails aboard then, and full water and diesel tanks, this figure appears to be fairly reliable. In other words, there doesn’t appear to be too much discrepancy between any of the CTC Cranes readings – either then or now – and they certainly appear to be fairly reasonable. So well done CTC then!
Once she was safely back in the water, it became clear that action was needed to get her away from the mooring and fast. Without human interference, her own fenders were being squeezed out and she would receive a nasty bruising on the old crude tyres as the wind slammed her into the dockside. Getting her away was going to be the challenge – and while heads were scratched, I slunk off, unhappy to see her stranded so and wishing to goodness the exercise had been abandoned once the wind started rising. But five minutes after I’d found a quiet spot and gained a curiously sympathetic feral cat for company, I see out of the corner of my eye, a broad white streak vroooming off into the distance: it was Butterfly, with Gideon at the helm, (and Dick beside him); she had broken free from the bullying wind and was roaring away into the distance to the safety of the marina. And all credit to Gideon for having the skill to unpin her – that wind was one mean and determined cuss. Can’t begin to tell you how it cheered me to know she was happily and safely at sea again – even though I was now minus transport!
But gallantry is not dead, not by a long mile, and with the offer of several lifts back to the marina I took the dusty, congested route back in the happy company of Paul and Kyle. Just in case you think Mr Meredith and Mr Goudsmit ungallant for leaving so suddenly and without notice to your ever-so-’umble scribe, rest assured they thought I was on board somewhere. And who the hell cares anyway – that wind was getting worserer and worserererer and action was needed fast.
Heigh-ho. Soooo, time to put this weight thang to bed once and for all. Now that we know what she weighed yesterday and what that weight did and did not include, we can load her up for our liveaboard life with far more accuracy and peace of mind. In fact, our wish was only to establish her true weight – well, truish – we’re not interested in splitting hairs on how much this warp weighs, that shackle, etc. The facts are that Gideon’s load cell came up with 9475kg; CTC Cranes with 9300kg. Give or take the odd strop not included here or there, these two figures are near enough to be considered realistic.
Of course, this weight includes many extra items we have added - all the optional extras we chose, and those items we’ve specifically asked for. This list is long – too long to be bothered with here, that’s for sure – but here’s the bottom line: Gideon’s contractual weight for the boat (without any extras – and excluding things like the hard-top bimini) was 6500kg; Dick’s estimate is that once we deduct our add-ons, we are within +5% of that – which is more than okay by us.
In fact Butterfly’s weight sits very well with us, to be truthful. For while we like the idea of a lightweight catamaran (for all the obvious reasons), topping our list of must-haves has been strength. And if she is a little heavier than predicted, it seems to be because she has had extra strength added in terms of kevlar and carbon. Certainly our surveyor, Jon, has been at pains to praise her solid construction – and he’s been able to view her in her entirety out of the water. Also, we saw for ourselves during the early construction processes that she had been well-beefed up in many areas and that the infusion appeared to be sound throughout. Only time will tell, of course, but certainly on the aspect of her strength, we think we have good reason to be optimistic.
——————–
Footnote: More about the surveyor’s report coming shortly … internet connection permitting, of course!
RSS - Posts