Features
as well, but on a boat of about 24 tons with a bluff bow, she
was never going to be a speedster. The hull shape is based on
the Spray design of Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail solo
around the world, which in turn was based on New England
fishing boats that sailed in the North Atlantic. I was confident
therefore, that she would sail reasonably well. As it turned out a
boat by the name of ‘Hantu Laut’ or ‘Haunted Wind’ was due
to be scrapped, as its hull had rotted beyond repair. She was
of similar dimensions and had the rig we wanted, so we made
an offer on the masts, spars, sails and rigging and solved a
potential problem quite well.
During the early part of the summer, we worked on the
boat; cleaning, scrubbing, clearing out rubbish, painting and
varnishing; everything was hard manual labour. We were on our
anchorage but had no power, water or method of propulsion.
Everything had to be transported each way by our 8-foot dinghy
and then manhandled. Bernard had a couple of gantries, one
each side of the main wheelhouse doors, and so, with a block
and tackle, rigged up it made lifting and lowering stuff into and
out of the dinghy much easier.
It was hard, dirty, sweaty work but because of our programme,
we were frequently able to tick off the milestones so there was
always a sense of achievement. It would have been easy to
have gotten bogged down and drown in misery wondering
what we had let ourselves in for, but for us there was never any
doubt—we revelled in it. As we got to know the boat and her
history, we abandoned ideas of renaming her and decided to
keep her name—Planesong.
One day in August we got 2-hours’ notice from the HHYC
Marine Office that our boat could come out to be cleaned and
antifouled. Because of issues with the large crane, there was
a backlog of work but there had been a cancellation and we
48 Hebe jebes • Mar/Apr 2014
were given the opportunity. That ride from our anchorage to the
pontoon, towed by a sampan, was the first movement of the
boat. She glided along! When she was lifted out of the water, it
was the first time she had been out for eight years! The growth
was up to four inches thick in places and the propeller was
unidentifiable—just a mass of purple seaweed and shells.
Some of the boatyard staff came around to pick off the mussels
and oysters growing there! I employed a number of Sri Lankan
labourers to help scrape, clean and repaint the bottom. Beneath
that coat of growth, she had a great shape and the hull was
in exceptional condition. I poked around in the forepeak but
couldn’t find any weakness despite the large amount of rust
there, and decided I would need to remove the anchor chain
bins—later.
Our waterline was marked by weld marks, and so we painted the
antifoul to that level. I noticed a speedboat being painted nearby
and decided that it might help our performance if we too had a
go-faster stripe down the side, so I painted a bright red line along
what I thought was the waterline. Karen came down that evening
and declared that she thought the rubbing strake along the side
of the boat should also be painted, but blue not red so this was
duly done and with a slap of new white along the sides, she was
starting to look like a new boat.
During her time on the hard, w