Boats and me Part 1. Sun Odyssey 54DSs, Cello, Beneteau 57 CC Artemis

The idea of this blogpost is to present what I do as far as boats are concerned. Rather than start in a chronological order, I thought I would just go in a loose alphabetical order or as I find the respective photo folders.

Artemis a Beneteau 57CC

 Artemis was my first full time command. Before that I had been doing some charter skipper work. Artemis was a real globetrotter. With a full complement of courtesy flags to prove it. She was very lightly  chartered when I was in charge of her and I also took the owner and his family out. More importantly I did a lot of maintenance and minor repairs. We did a pretty major repair of the built in water tanks, which is a common problem in Beneteaus. they never leaked again. I also changed a complete A/C unit, serviced and fixed the davits, reconditioned the teak deck, removed, serviced and replaced the anchorwinch and a multitude of other work. It was very enjoyable, and she was a great boat to sail. Even in 4 knots true she would slip through the water... 

Cello III, a turkish Gulet, in Messolonghi

Cello, a turkish built, wooden ketch was my most recent command. I first got in touch with the owner last winter. They were looking for a full time captain. I was already booked for most of the season, so it was not going to be easy to work things out. in March, Cello had her wooden masts removed in order to replace some rotten parts. It took longer than expected and by May the riggers were too busy to put them back on. The owner asked if I knew anyone who could do the job. I had a week free so I offered to help together with my nephew Alex. We trekked down to Messolonghi Marina one day in May and were shown the two freshly painted masts lying on trestles on the dock. Main mast was 21 meters long and the mizzen was 17 meters. Also a couple of plastic tubs full of bits and loads of rigging wires. And four roller reefing systems and four sails.

The finished job

Mizzen up too

Main mast up

One of the two cranes used

Nearly there

Halyards and wires in place

Alexi putting in finishing touches

Bits everywhere, a wood and inox jigsaw puzzle

Tack fitting on main mast

One of the boxes of bits

Sails and running rigging

One of the booms

Main mast as we found it

Mizzen mast

 

 We had to figurte out where everything went based mainly on screenshots taken from videos taken during the removal of the masts. There were a number of marked parts but a lot of the marks on the masts had been removed during the wood repairs. 

When we finally had the masts up and tuned, the owner offered me the captain's job. 

I took over in September, moved her to Vliho for a month then did some charters. And in October, rushed to get through the Corinth Canal before it closed. Eventually she was lifted in Lavrio where I spent most of the winter on her, initiating the major repairs required to her woodwork.

It was an experience I wanted. To handle a big heavy (65 T) single prop displacement hull. Twin anchors, hydraulics, two generators, three crew... another "beast" altogether... 

Here is another boat I have spent quite a lot of time on...

 

Elegante in Psara

 My first contact with the owner of elegante was via the school I worked in as an instructor. They were looking for a delivery skipper to help the owner and his friend take the boat to Lavrion. I had a few days free so off I went. I was welcomed onboard in Nydri, Lefkas. We set off South, round the bottom of the Peloponnese as the Corinth Canal was closed. It was my fourth time round the south of Peloponnese, and my third time eastbound. We had a great trip and really got on well together. The boats final destination was Chalkidiki and as we were making good time we went all the way there. The owner took a liking to me, might have something to do with my expertise in repairing marine toilets for one thing, so I was booked repeatedly to do a few cruises of the North aegean, going to wonderful islands pff the beaten track like Thasos, Samothraki, Limnos, Lesvos, Chios, Skyros, Psara and all of the Sporades. 

Heading into Geraki bay in Alonissos

I had a really funny experience on Elegante. We had a couple of really sweet kids onboard. They shared one of the aft cabins. After a few days their toilet was getting noisier and noisier and not really flushing very well. So I got my gloves on, my tolls out and took it apart. Only to discover that... they had been eating olives and not spitting out the stones... 

A toilet apart

Stones stuck in the joker valve

The stones have broken the blades off the macerator impeller

Interestingly the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 54Ds is a boat i have sort of become specialised in. I have sailed or worked on another four different ones, Morpheus and Lady Stardust both of which I delivered from Croatia to Greece, and was skipper of, for a year, Bad Wolf which I taught a couple of courses on and Felicita on which I oversaw the removal and replacement of the mast. 

 

Lady Stardust sailing down from Croatia

 

 

Morpheus under spinnaker

Morpheus in the Ionian

And that is all for now, more to come soon...