Rebuilding a part of History – “Lord Jim
As a yacht Captain, returning home to Australia from the Mediterranean, Caribbean and the USA for the past seven years, I quickly found work at Brisbane Ship Yard refitting a large sloop.
A young English Captain approached me about a British Flagged yacht called “Lord Jim”, which was leaving after three years, He then joined as a deck hand and ended up as the only person left on board after crossing the ocean.
The vessel was at a marina Marina in the Whitsundays, Queensland. It wanted an available Yacht Captain take it to Thailand via The Great Barrier Reef and Cape York. The brochure looked great, as they always do.
The boat was a ketch with an old steel hull and was built in the UK by the famed Camper & Nicholson in about 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.
The captain of the ship quickly left unfortunately for him the owners were disputing his return ticket home.
Being the relief captain Phuket I desperately started the rebuild paying bills using my own money to progress, the promised boat money and credit card never arrived.
About 19 month later I arrived at the Yacht Haven Marina in Phuket . I even continued restoring the vessel to her former glory with all systems up and running within a limited budget.
Refitting this boat has bought great happiness to me and I am Proud of my efforts.