Trawler News #113/New from Nordhavn, news from Akama

[Trawler News Desk]

Proud presenting sponsor of West Marine Trawler Fest
   http://www.trawlerfest.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
T R A W L E R   N E W S 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Broadcast on the Internet 03/02/04
Read this edition online with photos and additional text at 
   http://members.rogers.com/waterworld/tnews_temp_113.html


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IN THIS ISSUE #113
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New 55 and 64 from Nordhavn
Voyaging aboard Akama: Greetings from Papua New Guinea
Classic trawler yachts to rendezvous in Seattle
Brief but noteworthy
If you would like a FREE trial copy of Power Cruising
How to reach us
How to unsubscribe


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEW 55 AND 64 FROM NORDHAVN
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Blake August
Even before its new 43 and 72 have been launched, 
Pacific Asian Enterprises has already announced 
two additional Nordhavns in its line of power 
passagemakers: The new 55 will offer enhanced 
interior accommodations while the new 64 will be 
sleek as only large yachts can be.

New for Nordhavn will be a steering wheel on both 
models that tilts 45 degrees, making it easier to 
make quick turns in tight quarters.

A surprising feature on the 55 is a private 
stateroom complete with a double-sized berth 
adjacent to the already spacious pilothouse. PAE 
received more than a dozen orders for the 
$1-million trawler yacht within three months of 
its announcement

The 55 is slated for launch late in 2004 while 
the 64 will first hit the water in 2005. The two 
new models will bring to 12 the number of 
long-range cruisers available from Nordhavn.

   Pacific Asian Enterprises
   tel: 949.496.4848
   http://www.nordhavn.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VOYAGING ABOARD AKAMA: GREETINGS FROM PAPUA NEW GUINEA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Maurice Nunas
My wife Louise-Ann and I have put nearly 6,000 
miles on Akama, our Krogen 48 Whaleback, since we 
bought her in January 1999, most of them since my 
second (and final) retirement in January 2002. 
She had less then 900 hours on her and now has 
well over 2,100. While working in Singapore, we 
used Akama as a live-aboard, only going out every 
few months, racking up only 200 hours and 1,100 
miles in three years. Boy, did that change with 
retirement! We've not stopped going places since 
then.

Our short-term cruising plan is to continue on 
our way from Malaysia to New Zealand, arriving 
sometime before the end of October. We plan to 
spend several months in the remote areas and out 
islands in each of the following countries: Papua 
New Guinea (where we are now), The Solomon 
Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. There is no 
fixed itinerary for this; we will go where the 
winds and seas suggest is best, wandering gently 
towards our goal. We've found that this is far 
superior to trying to meet a fixed schedule. Few 
cruising boats make this passage.

We made the 50-mile trip from Ninigo Islands to 
Hermit Islands (Latitude 01 degree 33 minutes 
South, Longitude 145 degrees 02 minutes East) in 
Papua New Guinea in 9 hours. It would have been 
delightful, except that our hydraulic roll 
stabilizers have died, due to a leaking ram seal. 
So, we roll more than we should.

We arrived at the Hermit Islands just in time; 
the weather turned bad very quickly, with winds 
over 30 knots, choppy seas and lots of rain. For 
three days it blew like stink and we hunkered 
down in our relatively peaceful anchorage in the 
lee of an island, reading and doing a bit of 
maintenance. The biggest bit of maintenance was 
to pull the water pump off of the generator set, 
in preparation for getting it rebuilt, hopefully 
in Medang. Because we now have no generator, 
while at anchor we must run our wing engine most 
of the time to keep the batteries charged. 
Without the generator, we cannot make water with 
the desalinator-Fortunately, there is lots of 
rain-nor can we use the clothes washer. Needless 
to say, we're anxious to get it fixed.

We are rather unhappy about our generator, which 
is made by Westerbeke. Not only have we had a lot 
of trouble with it, but the service from 
Westerbeke and its Singapore agent has not met 
our expectations (no stock, not responsive). Our 
latest gripe with KUT Diesels, the agent in 
Singapore, is that their inattentiveness resulted 
in receiving the wrong heat exchanger. Our latest 
gripe with Westerbeke is that we could cut parts 
off the old heat exchanger and weld them onto the 
new one and get this thing going as good as new, 
but the company refuses to tell us what material 
it is made of so that we can weld or braise it 
properly.  Their only proffered solution was to 
buy yet another heat exchanger from Westerbeke, 
with no mention of taking the old one back. 
Still, we are anchored in what Jacques Cousteau 
classified as one of the great paradise spots, so 
enough whining.

Hermit Islands is a delightful place. It is quite 
different from the Ninigo Group, even though the 
people are intermarried and the two atolls are 
not far apart. The village here is very clean. It 
appears to be a bit more prosperous, with a few 
more timber buildings. They even have a generator 
set hooked up to the church.

The villagers farm about the same crops as 
Ninigos, except that here we don't see anyone 
eating mamy, which is a variety of coconut, 
apparently only grown in this area. What sets it 
apart is the fact that they eat the whole darned 
thing, except the outer green skin! The outside 
of most coconuts is fibrous, relatively dry and 
not very sweet. The mamy husk is sweet and juicy. 
They chop off a bit of the end with a bush knife 
(machete) and then using their teeth strip off 
the outer layer. Strong teeth! The inner husk is 
chewed, like sugar cane, and the fiber spit out. 
The inner nut has water and meat that is also 
consumed. In the Ninigos, we were told that the 
ancient voyagers put a big stock of these in 
their canoes before setting out, as the mamy 
provided both food and drink.

One of the habits that the people have around 
here is chewing betel nut. They mix a little lime 
(usually ground coral) with the nut and chew 
away, spitting out the juice. The lime turns the 
juice brilliant red, which stains their teeth and 
lips. The Palauans also mix in a little tobacco 
when they have it, the people in the Hermits and 
Ninigos don't. We were amazed to see that not 
just the adults but young children, mostly boys 
also chew. Betel nut is a stimulant and a tonic, 
at least according to our Funk and Wagnals. 
Goodness knows what the lime does; it's highly 
caustic stuff.

Also in contrast to Ninigo, most of the boats 
here are fiberglass, although the young folk do 
have small dugout canoes. There is a fleet of 
small Hong Kong-built fiberglass boats for 
catching and keeping live fish, but none are in 
use. Several explanations were given; one was 
that the outboard engines all failed; another was 
that there was some rivalry with the people from 
Ninigos and the market dried up. Neither 
explanation seems quite right; more than likely 
they simply fished out the area, used cyanide or 
bombs.  Most of these boats are now used as 
containers or, inverted, as shelters for various 
other purposes. For fishing and inter-island 
travel they use 20- to 25-foot Japanese-designed 
fiberglass boats with 40-hp Yamaha outboards. 
These are open boats, fairly heavily built. To go 
to Manus, the nearest big town, about 130 miles 
away, they put two outboards on them and run for 
about 8 hours in the open ocean.

The villagers have several pet seabirds, which 
stay around simply because they are being fed. 
They also have a couple of brightly colored 
parrots and a pet crocodile. Well, the crocodile 
is not really a pet, as eventually it will be 
killed for its skin. There are plenty of wild 
crocodiles around these parts and we have to 
inquire about their whereabouts before venturing 
in for a swim or to do underwater maintenance. 
Our anchorage was supposedly crock free.

We did some snorkeling, the first in a long time. 
The coral near the village is a bit worn, but 
there were some colorful fish. One of the other 
yachties in the bay, the owner of a French boat 
called Fogo, reported seeing several small 
sharks. We were not so lucky and had to be 
content with sighting a turtle.

Here we are, about 1,400 miles from our last 
fuel-up and miles to go before the next one. 
Having enough fuel to get to the next port is a 
major consideration for passagemaking under 
power. A great number of things conspire to make 
it difficult to calculate just this, yet it is 
imperative to be able to make the calculation . . 
. and get it right.

The first problem is, knowing how much fuel there 
is. We can read each tank from the pilothouse, 
using a remote gauge. It is a pretty slick 
gadget. A puff of air is sent down a thin tube 
that goes to the bottom of the tank. The pressure 
of the fuel trying to rise back up the tube is 
proportional to the height of the fuel, and this 
pressure is measured by a contraption that is 
nearly identical to the bellows and escapement in 
a barometer. The gauge is calibrated in inches of 
diesel and we use a conversion table to convert 
the number of inches of diesel into the number of 
liters.  It reads accurately to about 10 liters 
per tank, except if the boat is getting bumped 
around a lot in a bad sea. For the metrically 
challenged, 10 liters equals 2.6 gallons U.S.

A trawler yacht is usually run according to 
engine speed, not boat speed. Under load, diesel 
engines burn fuel dependent upon engine speed. We 
ran tests and created a table of fuel consumption 
versus engine speed in RPM.  For example, Akama 
uses about 5 liters per hour at 1,000 rpm, 6 
liters per hour at 1,200 rpm and 13 liters per 
hour at 1,900 rpm. So, we can calculate with 
reasonable accuracy how long we can run the 
engine.

Determining how far we can go in this running 
time is a much thornier issue, which is dependent 
upon the sea state, the wind and the tide. 
Through flat water, with no wind, at 1,200 rpm, 
Akama moves at 5.6 knots. However, a moderately 
choppy sea will reduce this to 5 knots, and if it 
is really sloppy we might only achieve 4.5 knots. 
The wind has less influence although we have not 
yet been able to compute its effect. Water 
currents further complicate the matter. Finally, 
the weight of the boat is also a factor; but we 
have not yet calculated its effect. Full up, we 
carry a ton of water, several tons of diesel oil, 
and who knows how many tons of provisions and 
spares. Every ton depresses Akama about 3/4 of an 
inch deeper into the water, increasing drag.

The bottom line is that powerboaters must be very 
tuned in to not just their boat and its 
performance, but also to the many environmental 
factors that affect fuel consumption. There are 
no filling stations in the middle of the ocean, 
and no towing services.

Our next stop, Medang, is not on our original 
itinerary, as it was not considered to be 
particularly safe. We have little choice now, as 
we have to go to a major center to repair the 
generator set and the stabilizers, and Medang is 
the only one. Fortunately, recent reports from 
other yachts say that it is OK as long as we lock 
things up and do not leave the boat unattended. 
We'll see.

   http://www.nunas.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CLASSIC TRAWLER YACHTS TO RENDEZVOUS IN SEATTLE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you're interested Romsdal and Malahide trawler 
yachts and other classics, the second annual 
Classic Trawler Yachts Network Rendezvous will 
take place April 3-4 at the Center for Wooden 
Boats on Lake Union in Seattle, Washington.

Myles Stapleton, designer of the Malahides, will 
be present to share history and stories. Boats 
confirmed are Ursa Major (a Malahide), Sovereign 
of Malahide, Eagle Mar (a Malahide), Radiant Star 
(a Scottish trawler), Seaquest, Torsk (a 
steel-hulled Romsdal) and, probably, Norwesting 
(wood Romsdal) and Explorer, another Malahide. 

Joyce Gauthier, owner of Ursa Major and the event 
organizer. reports that owners "will be coming 
from around the globe with records and photos of 
their Romsdals (Oceanquest, Viking, Little 
Sindbad, Delfin, Little Sindbad, possibly Sindbad 
and Discovery, and Ulysess) and Malahides 
(Marcellita, Lady Faye, Saorise, Connda Vennessa, 
Oceanic Pearl) and we will have several other 
vessels celebrating with us, including Westward, 
a classic wood yacht."
   
The event will coincide with opening day of the 
North-to-Alaska Cruising Season promoted by the 
recently formed Alaska Charter Yachts, a 
consortium of 10 charter yachts with heavy 
trawler representation.

   Classic Trawler Yachts Network
   http://www.classictrawlers.net
   tel: 206.310.2309

   Alaska Charter Yachts
   http://www.Alaska-Charter-Yachts.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BRIEF BUT NOTEWORTHY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* The fourth annual Northeast Nordic Tug 
Rendezvous will take place July 21-24 at Essex 
Island Marina in Essex, Connecticut. Information 
is available from Wilde Yacht Sales in Essex, 
exclusive Nordic Tug dealer for New England, New 
York, Northern Pennsylvania, Northern New Jersey, 
Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and Canada. Wilde Yacht 
Sales will also host an open house April 17-18.

   http://www.wildeyachts.com
   toll-free: 1.888.447.6944

* Here is an URL guaranteed to make you gulp:

   http://tv-antenna.com/heavy-seas/

* Goodbye, cotton, hello, micro fiber! Swobbit 
Products is introducing a product it calls the 
miracle marine cleaning cloth. Micro fiber is the 
result of a trick manufacturing process that 
creates a fiber 1/100th the width of a human 
hair. The unique starburst-like shape of each 
tiny fiber reportedly lifts and removes dirt, 
grease and grime without smearing, streaking or 
scratching-without the use of chemicals and, in 
some cases, without water. Swobbit manufactures 
micro fiber cleaning cloths under its First Mate 
brand name.

   http://www.swobbit.com
   toll-free: 1.800.362.9873

* Is Stuart, Florida, becoming the center of our 
universe? Hinckley Co. of Southwest Harbor, 
Maine, has established its first brokerage office 
outside Maine in Stuart, at Hinckley Yacht 
Services, the full-service yard the company 
acquired in 2001. The first West Marine Trawler 
Fest in Florida was held in Stuart in 1997. Then, 
Kadey-Krogen Yachts relocated its head office to 
Stuart from Miami, and has since acquired its own 
marina. Last year, Pacific Asian Enterprises 
opened a Nordhavn facility in Stuart. This year, 
Trawler Fest returned to Stuart. Until recently, 
Stuart was home port for the historic trawler 
Rekord, while another noteworthy trawler yacht, 
Mark Richter's Winnie the Pooh, still calls 
Stuart home.

   http://www.hinckleyyachtservices.com/hys/01/

If you see news in the making anywhere in the 
world of trawlers, please let Trawler News know 
via <mailto:editorial@trawlersandtrawlering.com>. 
Items are selected for publication on the basis 
of the newsiness and interest to the readership. 
No payment is required or accepted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IF YOU WOULD LIKE A FREE TRIAL COPY OF POWER CRUISING . . .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you would like to receive a free trial issue 
of the new magazine Power Cruising, please 
complete the request form at

   https://secure.palmcoastd.com/pcd/document?ikey=0897ZHAAA

If you had requested a trial edition of Trawler 
World, or subscribed to Trawler World, there is 
no need to also request Power Cruising. You will 
be sent the premiere edition of Power Cruising in 
late March, not February as announced earlier.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HOW TO REACH US
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trawler News, an e-newsletter about voyaging, 
cruising and living aboard under power, is 
distributed free of charge by 
TrawlersAndTrawlering.com as a public service to 
the trawler community. To subscribe, or 
unsubscribe, go 
<http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/trawler-world-news>. 
We do not sell, rent or trade addresses of our 
subscribers without their permission.

   Editor: Georgs Kolesnikovs
   E-mail: georgs@trawlering.com
   Telephone: 866-865-2628
   Facsimile: 866-865-2729
   Web: <http://www.TrawlersAndTrawlering.com>.

This edition was broadcast to 6,073 subscribers 
and posted on the Web. You can read earlier 
editions beginning at 
<http://www.trawlerworld.com/twnews_101.htm>. We 
place pictures only in the Web edition in order 
not to overload subscribers with limited e-mail 
access.

Water World Productions, formerly known as 
Trawler World Productions,  respects your time 
and privacy. If you prefer not to receive further 
communications, please hit the reply button and 
send the word DELETE.

T  R  A  W  L  E  R     N  E  W  S   
Powered by Apple Macintosh iBook G4

Copyright (c) 2004 Water World Productions. All rights reserved.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.samurai.com/pipermail/trawler-news/attachments/20040303/8a0025f7/attachment.html