A part of History – The refitting of Lord Jim
Friday, November 14th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
When as a yacht Captain I returned home to Australia from the USA for the past eight years, I found work at an Australian Ship Yard working on a large boat.
I was approached to captain a ship the “Lord Jim”, that was leaving after four years, the fellow who approached me joined as an unpaid deck hand and ended up as the only one left on board.
The Boat was at Able Point Marina. Whitsundays, Queensland. It needed a available Yacht Captain to go to Phuket Thailand via Cape York, Bali ,Indonesian. Singapore and Malaysia. It had a brochure that looked fantastic.
It was an old steel hull ketch with aluminum super structure, riveted together, and built in the UK by Camper & Nicholson in 1977.
I submitted a CV and forgot about it till I got called from the owner who was in the performance coaching business . I was quickly convinced because of the owners skills.
Going North north for two days I arrived at the boat and saw it was a mess and I had a sinking feeling that i had been conned.
As It turned out every thing about the boat was expired from the cruise permit to the ships regulation. Even the safety equipment was way past its used by date and sad to say needing to be replaced. This was very upsetting because I wanted to go.
With the old Captain leaving two days later and the owners disputing his return ticket to England, this was a harrowing time for a new captain.
The Boat was desperately in need of repairs and I as the relief captain Phuket started on my own. I wanted to save face and get going but had no boat money or cards.
About 2 Years later I arrived in Thailand. I even continued to restore the vessel to her past glory with all systems running and on a limited budget and lots of problems for several more months.
I am very proud to rebuild a part of nautical history of this great boat.
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