Building the LAR Keels for my Gypsy catamaran

In between building the hulls I had to build the LAR Keels. LAR is Low Aspect Ratio . The plan says I can either build the keels from flat panels OR make a small mould. Considering the keels to be quite narrow I would have imagined that it will be difficult the lay up the few layers of 600/225 matt. ( I do not have small hands!). So it was decided that I would make the flat panels and then shape it to the required profile. BUT BOTH THE KEELS MUST BE IDENTICAL! And I do not want to mess around with the keels as both these small keels should be able to take up the weight of the boat when beaching!First the shape and size of the panels are marked on the melamin chip boards. A releasing agent is applied to the surface so that the sheet produced does not stick on to the wood.. To speed things up I made a double sized panel so that it can be cut later and becomes two panels.Next gelcoat is applied. This was followed by the required number of layers of appropriate glass as per Richard Wood's plan.The flat panels are then clamped together and shaped using pieces of wood at the correct positions. The dimensions are given in the plans.After that the required layers of 600/225 biaxial are glassed inside the panels.As added security, I added another two layers of 600 gm CSM on the outside for some extra reinforcement. As you can see from this picture both the keels are almost ready. Maybe a layer of PU paint will complete the job.
This is another tick on my plans. A tick indicates a completed section of the plan.

My Friend Trevor, the Traveller

Trevor Hinwood hails from Tin Can Bay, Queensland, Australia. One fine day in June 2000 I met him at the waterfront in front of my shop. From his looks I knew he was a yachtie so I went up to him and asked if he was from the sailboat anchored in front. I was still in my white shirt and blue pants and looked very "official". Trevor looked up and enquired if I was the local harbour master coming after him for anchoring fees! Well he looked friendly enough and I invited him to a coffee shop for some toast and coffee. I told him I am a sailor as well and that I will be sailing to Pulau Tenggol over the weekend. Well, he was going to Tenggol too but will be a day ahead of me.When I reached Pulau Tenggol he was already there with his boat " Blueswift". About an hour before my arrival I radioed him on VHF and he prepared a lovely breakfast for me and my crew. I did not even anchor on that trip but just rafted next to his boat.We went shore Pulau Tenggol with his dinghy and had a good time at Tenggol. I remembered paying for lunch at the resort (cost me a bomb!)I sailed back to Chukai in the evening and Trevor continued his journey up North until Koh Samui.

Somewhere around end October he returned to Chukai and decided to stay until the monsoon is over. His 35 ft Blue Swift aqlmost looked like a town feature, being anchored in front of my shop for the next 3 months. At the end of the 3 months he decided to engage Bruce the Goose to sail his boat back to Australia.During his stay in Chukai I invited to my house and we became family friends. I was forever digging his brains as he has a wealth of experience on boats. He came sailing with me and taught me the best Man Over Board drill. So much more practical and easier to the textbook drills.At that time I was still the owner of a Maxi 77 named Cakra Mada. After Trevor returned back to Australia we kept in contact and he went round Australia two time by campervan (an old Toyota Coaster bus conversion). Towards the end he felt he needs the good Asian food and decided to come over to Malaysia to stay on a tourist permit. So in 2009 he came over to Cherating to stay at Kampong Inn. From here he wanders around the country by bus and train. One fine day he met a Thai lady and he decided to go and stay with her. So after that it was the Thai adventure. I believe Trevor is a SIGNtist as the Thai lady does not speak English and Trevor does not speak Thail...so it has to be international Sign language!

While he was with me managed to create a blog for him but unfortunately he did not master the skills required to maintain a blog so there were only limited entries. Visit http://trevortravel.blogspot.com/

He was my support driver when I did a solo cycling trip fron Sg Gawi round Kenyir lake to Gua Musang

Trevor is now in Vietnam with his Thai lady friend underrgoing some prostate treatment. Till today he blames meeting up with me as the downfall of his life!

Building The Second Hull

The thing about building a catamaran is that you have to make the hull two times. I am now in the process of building my second hull. With the mistakes that I learned from building the first hull building the second hull seems a bit easier and a lot faster.The second hull will have to be exactly the same shape as the first hull so I have to use the same bulkhead support as the first one. All the markers were already inm place from building the first one. The bulkheads were also made together whe I made them for the first hull.Even the screws were "used screws " removed from the first hull.By now I have a "part time" worker. He is Cik Wan who works as a postman by day and when I needed an extra hand at night I will call him in.Actually he knows nothing about boat building BUT he is willing to learn.Despite of all my other adventures it doesnt take me too long to come to this stage. Building the bow requires some patience as we have to "shape" and bend the flat panels . A sort of Stich and Glue method is used.

The nose had to be shaped with foam again. I am hoping to have the hull turn over in about 10 day's time when I have my days off from flying again.

Ferrying a Super Puma L2 to Vietnam

Once a while I get some interesting job instead of just flying to the oil rigs. This time it was to ferry a Super Puma L2 helicopter that we had leased for the last 22 months for our operation in Timor Leste and also Kerteh. The date of departure was 28 May 2011. I was to fly the helicopter with one Vietnamese pilot and two engineers from Kerteh to Ho Chi Min city (Tan Soon Ngat International airport).This aircraft with the yellow star, callsign VN 8610 is a beautifully maintained machine. I used to tease the Vietnamese engineers that they have some well kept secrets on keeping the machine tip top that they do not wish to reveal to us.Capt Quan was the Vietnamese pilot to fly with me for the trip. He is an old friend of mine..we had been together for many occasions and he is a competent and good pilot. One problem solved for me. The aircraft was loaded to its max take off weight with spares and aircraft equipments that had to be returned to Vietnam. After a delayed Customs inspection we took off at 1130 hrs. The distance between Kerteh and Ho Chi Min City is only 900 km so the flight should take us about 3 hrs 20 mins. During this period we had tail wind "pushing" us faster.

About 150 km before arrival at Ho Chi Minh city we overflew the Mekong delta
. This area is very flat and there are padi fields all along the way.
At Tan Soon Ngat airport in Ho Chi Minh city we had a company rep from the SSFC to help us sort out the piles of paper work. There were some very serious looking government officials all around.
At the same time we topped up our fuel for the short flight to Vung Tau..the homebase for SSFC.
By the time we took off from Ho Chi Minh city there was a thunderstorm in our flight path. Apparently this is the rainy period in Vietnam.The biggest surprise was when I landed at Vung Tau airport. We were ordered to taxy to the hangar where there was a reception waiting for us. The whole management staff of SSFC was around. After the engines were shut down I received a bouquet of flowers to welcome us to Vietnam. At the crew room there was a reception party,. Champagne was served. Here I met a lot of my old comrades.There were some exchange of presents.Later that night we had a grand dinner in a 5 star hotel. All on the house.And next morning we were taken out for a good Vietnamese breakfast before we boarded the ferry to Ho Chi Min city for a city tour.

Vietnam is a fine place. People here are friendly and the food is lovely. Most important you will not get your wallet burnt on a visit to Vietnam. Next trip I will come with my family OR my bicycle for furthur adventures in Vietnam.

A trip to Kelah sanctuary in Kenyir Lake

There are three Kelah sanctuaries in the country . The most successful one is located in Sg Petang which is a river within Lake Kenyir. For those of you who are unaware, Lake Kenyir is a huge lake with an area of 225 sq miles. Kelah(or Mahseer ) is a breed of fish which require clean streams which are highly oxygenated to survive. If the rivers are polluted they simply disappear. The government has been wise to set up a sanctuary in Sg Petang to allow this species of fish to breed in it's natural environment. The sanctuary in Sg Petang is only open to public from March to OctoberWhen my partner in crime Cheong decided to come over to pay a visit to our parent in laws last week I snatched him away for a trip to visit the sanctuary. If anyone wants information on the sanctuary by googling he will be quite disappointed as there are not much informations of the place. I took along my inflatable hoping to get the coordinates of the place so that we can get there in our own boat. I know , sometimes the boat operators might want to make a quick buck out of us and i am not going to allow this to happen to me.The entry point for the sanctuary is at Sg Gawi. The entrance permit costing RM10 per person had to be purchased at the Tourist Information Centre Tel 09 622 1276/ 019 943 9168). No one here can give me the coordinates for the place. I am now at the mercy of the boat operators! Luckily there is a boat going in the next morning to pick up some tourist. The clerk here (picture above) arranged for us to hitch a ride on the boat at a reduced rate. Each of us had to pay RM 100. Not too bad but it would have cost me RM 10 for fuel to my Yamaha 2 hp!The state government has decided to allow the locals to operate the boat service in the lake. This gentlemen, En Hassan is one of the contractors and he will ferry us to the sanctuary early next morning. Just for your info, no one is allowed to stay overnight in the sanctuary. Only day trips are allowed . This En Hassan is a good guy and he can be contacted by HP no 019 984 3291/019 966 3075/ 019 943 8303By evening we decided to camp outside Lawit Resort . They have a shelter ready and it comes together with a table as well. Of course we had to cook our own yummy meals.Our excellent campsite has a beautiful lake view and it gets very cold in the early hours. We cannot ask for more ...fresh air, birds singing, nice view and all for free!By 0815 hrs next morning we were at the jetty. We waited a few minutes and were off by 0830 hrs.We had the whole boat for ourselves.The boat was doing about 20 knots on a 75 hp engine. These people obviously do not know much about fuel consumption verses speed. If only they throttle back to 15 or 16 knots they could save 50 % fuel! All along the way I was getting GPS fix for the turning points so that the next trip I can come by kayak or my sailboat (no fuel required!)We arrived at Petang Island Resort in bout 40 minutes (10 nm miles from Sg Sawi jetty) to pick up 5 more passengers. Petang Island Resort to me is almost haven on earth..pristine, well kept, little outside influence, surrounded by forest and it is an island on fresh water. Next trip I will camp here. I think the adjective to describe this area is PRISTINE.From Petang Island Resort to the Kelah sanctuary headquarters is another 4 nautical miles. This is a floating office where we have to give our licence to enter the sanctuary. Informations about the Kelah fish could be found here. From here the park rangers will escort the visitors to the streams and luboks where the kelahs are abundant. No fish could be taken out dead or alive. The penalty is RM 10000 fine. Cheong cheekily asked if we could take just one small fry home as a souvenir.. Answer was a firm NO.From the park HQ it was another 2 miles of boat travel. The river was shallow and there were a lot of logs. Being a boatman myself I had to jump down a few times to assist and tow the boat away from the rocks. Each time I jumped off the water I told the boat operator he owes me RM 50. for the effort! At the designated parking place for the boat we had to start trekking.Clear water, shaded jungles and no noise pollution..hmm this is going to be a nice trek.The place is clean too. From the park HQ onwards visitors are not allowed to bring in food and there is even a No Smoking restriction. Good work Ketengah, the body entrusted to the project.The trails are well maintained and marked. I think anyone below the age of 75 has no problem on this trail.All the park restrictions are up on a board. Make sure you obey the rules otherwise you will be fined and maybe banned for life to visit the place.Soon we spotted some schools of kelahs in the clear river. Actually Sg Petang is only about 21 km long and has 91 streams feeding into this river.Then when the fish hear that there are visitors around they come by the hundreds to welcome us! What a lovely sight.We were allowed to swim with the fish. The only discomfort is the fish keep nibbling us. I had camped in this part of the river about 25 years ago. Of course we did managed to catch a wild kelah and had a good meal (it was not protected then) . Now 25 years later with "self enforced discipline" we can actually swim with the kelahs. This I give thumbs up to the authorities.Soon it was time to say good bye. As General Macarthur once said and I will say the same.. " I shall return......(pretty soon)!"

USEFUL GPS WAYPOINTS



Sg Gawi Jetty N05 08.193 E 102 48.270

Route Check 1 N05 03.632 E 102 48.840

Route Check 2 N 05 02.768 E 105 47.132

Route Check 3 N 05 00.560 E 102 47.126

Route Check 5 N 04 59.056 E 102 46.831

Petang Island resort Jetty N 04 58.802 E 102 47.021

Route Check 6 N 04 58.277 E 102 46.665

Route Check 7 N 04 57.380 E 102 47.164

Route Check 8 N 04 55.466 E 102 47.867




Now, any takers for a canoeing trip to the sanctuary?