It’s always been a dream of mine to do a World Circumnavigation, so after Simon and I sold Delphin during Covid I started looking for a new yacht that would be a capable blue water sailor. I have always loved the quality of Swedish-built yachts so preferred Malo, Najad or Hallberg-Rassy.
Unfortunately, they don’t come up for sale very often in Australia, but after a couple of months of looking, I saw an HR 38 advertised in Port Douglas. Well with covid and the lockdowns and the Queensland lockout I was not able to get up and inspect the boat although chatted to the owner a couple of times and he said he was in two minds about selling as he was halfway through a circumnavigation. The ad for the yacht disappeared so I thought he must have decided to keep sailing.
As covid was coming to an end in 2021 and the Queensland border was reopening I thought I would just text Wayne the owner and see if he had sold the boat. He texted back to say no but was concerned about the prospect of sailing back to the UK without the ability to stop on the way because of covid lockdowns around the world, so I made him an offer sight unseen which he accepted. On the 19th of December the day Queensland opened I flew up to Cairns to inspect the boat.
When I arrived, the yacht had been well maintained in so far that the owner had replaced the engine, the teak decking, the rigging and sails, new instruments and 240-volt power throughout the boat. He had receipts for over $176,000 of work for the 5 years that he had been based in Australia.
Unfortunately, he was also a FIFO worker so did not use the yacht very much at all which I was later to find out was a big problem. The boat was very unloved and needed a thorough clean and lots of minor maintenance. I decided to look past all the minor issues and bought Viking III.
As anybody who has been to Cairnes in summer would know it’s hot and humid and mould is a massive problem, but I set about getting Viking III ready for the first leg with Dallas and Simon. The plan was to wait till towards the end of Cyclone season and head south. It took me a full month of cleaning and minor maintenance to get the yacht to an acceptable level for the big journey south.
In early March 2022, Dallas and Simon arrived for the first leg which was planned to be Mackay.
Sunrise on the day of Departure at Yorkeys Knob Marina
We set off without much wind and quiet oppressive heat and motored for the first day to Mourilyan harbour, a well-protected sugar port with posts for visiting yachts with fore and aft tie-offs.
Storm at the entrance to Mourilyan harbour, on our arrival at dusk.
Unfortunately, the next day we again had little or no wind, so we motored towards our next planned overnight stop at Orpheus Island. It was during the morning of our second day that the engine started to splutter every now and then which was a concern given there were less than 400 engine hours on the nearly new Volvo D2 75 turbo. We spent a lovely night on a public mooring close to the eco-resort on Orpheus.
The following day as we motored towards Townsville the spluttering got progressively worse, especially at higher revs to the point where we thought we would need a tow. We were able to contact a mechanic who was able to look at the problem at short notice. The problem got progressively worse as we approached the Townsville yacht club so much so that I was concerned that when I brought the yacht into the berth that the engine might stall when I put it into reverse to stop the boat. Simon and Dallas stood ready with mooring lines to jump off and secure the yacht if
we stalled. Fortunately, we docked safely.
The following day the mechanic came and identified that the fuel filter was full of water, he changed both filters gave me a couple of spares and suggested that I may need to change the filters a couple of more time on the way home.
We set the following day to Magnetic Island marina, on arrival I checked the filter and noticed that it was again almost full of water. I drained it and we set sail for Mackay. Two hours into our trip I noticed that the filter was again full of water, so we made the decision to return to Townsville yacht club to have the problem properly assessed.
The mechanic recommended that we drain the primary fuel tank, which we did and found that over half the tank was infected with fuel bug. The diesel fuel was literally a murky milk colour. We drained the tank entirely hit it with a litre of “Fuel Dr” then drained it again the following day.
I also had the mechanic look at the saltwater cooling of the engine. What he found was distressing. The new turbo had seized, and the elbow needed replacement. The engine although almost new had sat idle for almost two years. I was able to source a new stainless-steel elbow from the States and yes, I know there are issues with dissimilar metals but the reports that I read online are that with a separation gasket, this was not an issue. The new turbo was not cheap.
After a very expensive couple of weeks, the yacht was ready for the next stage of the voyage to Townsville that I will cover in the next instalment as the trades had well and truly settled in.
/Gavin Randall
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