Serenite

A Beneteau Oceanis 400 – Jenni Lincoln and Gerald Nicholls

Serenite is a Beneteau Oceanis 400. She was launched in 1996 and is a three cabin, two head configuration, originally delivered under the Moorings programme for charter work in the Whitsundays. Jenni and I bought her from the second owners in March 2017 in Airlie Beach, at that time she was named Wara Wara Dreamtime.

Unfortunately, cyclone Debbie hit Airlie beach a few days after we settled the purchase so whilst she was in the Coral Sea Marina and so a bit protected, she did suffer some damage with the headsail coming unfurled and shredding and damage to the stern and starboard side after impacting the pontoons. The toerail on the starboard side was partly torn off and this let water below so the interior was pretty mouldy by the time Jenni and I were able to return to Airlie. This was our first claim on the insurance policy.

The original owner was a Sydney Barrister and he owned her, I think, through until 2011. A box of paperwork I was given when we purchased her includes a history he had written up of his ownership and copies of a lot of emails to people he’d had work on the boat. Some of those emails suggest he was a difficult customer but the work seems to have been done to a pretty good standard. After 5 years in charter, he brought her back to Port Hacking and then cruised her extensively up and down the east coast of Australia and across to Lord Howe and New Caledonia in 2007.

She was quite well set up for cruising with HF radio, radar, safety gear and quite good electronics (for the time), including twin externally regulated alternators charging a fairly large (480ah) house bank of batteries. The addition of the stern arch with dinghy davits and solar cells (360w I think) and things like twin redundant fresh-water pumps and crash pumps for the bilge made her that little bit more friendly/safe to cruise.

After the damage from cyclone Debbie we had some repair work done in Airlie but the waitlist was 12 to 18 months so we brought her to Sydney in July of 2017. I sailed her down with; our eldest son, a friend and a hired skipper. I’ve done a fair bit of sailing on the Parramatta River and the Harbour with occasional trips to Pittwater but I’d never sailed outside overnight so the experience was a new one for me.  The skipper told me the best way to find a fault with your boat is to take her to sea and he was right, we found a few but nothing too serious. We essentially motor sailed straight through other than 24 hours in Yeppoon. Total of just under 9 days to do the 1,000 nm but it was definitely the wrong time of year to do it with headwinds pretty much all the way.

Jen and I renamed her Serenite and kept her on a swing mooring at Putney and then at Woolwich. Most of our sailing so far has been weekends on the harbour with trips to Pittwater, Hawkesbury and Cowan Creek but these mostly at Christmas time. Favourite spots to anchor on the harbour have always been Chinaman’s or Clontarf which is what led us to looking into membership and a berth at MHYC,

In February 2022 while on the swing mooring at Woolwich Serenite was struck by lightning which took out a lot of the electronics. Both radios (HF & VHF) Chartplotter, MFD, wind, autopilot, radar, tacho, Trek (alarm system), inverter/charger, fresh and black water tank gauges and some of the interior lights. So off to the insurance company again and after a lot of negotiating we’ve now replaced everything except the HF Radio and took the opportunity to upgrade a few things including the battery bank to 480ah of lithiums. Engine is a Yanmar 4JH4AE (55hp) and this is the second engine which was installed by the first owner in 2007.

She’s a long way from new and certainly a lot heavier and slower than the new model Oceanis’ but we find her comfortable to cruise and stay aboard now that everything electrical is working again. There’s plenty of space for the two of us (sometimes Harley the dog too) and maybe one or two of our 4 children overnight. We’ve had 6 people overnight in the harbour (New Year’s Eve) and I think 14 or so aboard at the Tapas Tie Up recently. We carry about 500 litres of water and 150 litres of diesel and with the cockpit and galley fridges we’ve plenty of space for chilling food.

She came with air-conditioning installed which is handy to keep the cabin dehumidified in the marina berth but otherwise not really necessary in Sydney. The Headsail was replaced in 2017 on the existing furler and the main in 2019 which sits in lazy jacks on the boom. I do have a spinnaker which I bought a sock for but we’re yet to fly it.

Jen calls Serenite her happy place and when we have a bit more time we’re (I’m) keen to start wandering up and down the east coast but for now we’re pretty much restricted to weekends.