My Maxi 77 Yacht (1996 to 2002)

The Maxi 77 yacht was designed by Pelle Pettersons an Olympic Champion sailor. This yacht was initially built in Sweden. Towards the mid 80s a company in Singapore started to manufacture under licence the Maxi 77. Over 3500 units of these fine sailing yachts had been built. After I had sold off my twin engine rescue boat in 1996 I decided to get another sailing yacht and this time I bought a "pre loved" Maxi 77. The Hull number is 2988 and it comes with a Volvo Penta diesel engine.

This is how my boat looks like. The Navy in Tg Gelang has a yacht club and I had been a member since it was formed. This time I decided to moor my boat at the Navy Yacht Club in Tg Gelang

Owning a boat involves a little bit of work if you do not want to spend a lot of money.

This is not an airship but the undersurface of my boat. The photo was taken after a bottom job and I had to hire a crane to lift it down again. Notice the mass of the ballast at the bottom of the keel. It makes the boat very stable but at the same time if you go aground it acts like a big anchor!

The previous owner of the boat (a German) Mr H Heyer named the boat "Moin Moin" but when I bought it I renamed it "CAKRA MADA". If anyone of you can guess the meaning of this name I will give you a present!

When I have time to wait and if I want to save money, I will dry the boat out in a specially constructed dry out area in the Navy Base. Easy. Just wait for the tide to go down, work on the boat then wait for the tide again. Save RM 400.00 on crane charges!

I always take my son Alwin along and he enjoys catching the small fishes near the boat. This picture was taken 13 years ago.

That is my son Alwin on Cakra Mada in 1997
RM 400 per lift in 1996 when diesel was 60 cts per liter. I will be blogging about some of the adventures I had on Cakra Mada later.

Rafting Down Sg Sematan and Sg Pahang in 1975

I looked back at my old photo albums and found some of these old photos. It was one of the expeditions that I went in Dec 1974 and the trip was a rafting expedition down the semantan river starting from a small village called Kg Mempateh. It took us a few days to cut the bamboo at Bukit Tinggi and when the rafts were built we realised we needed more bouyancy. After alot of brainstorming we came out with our Air Scouts designed rafts as in the picture.

It was hard work using bare muscles to get the drums attached to the rafts. I managed to get hold of my father who was working as a carpenter to come over with a big strapper to strengthen the rafts. When he saw the swollen river due to the annual flooding he was most unhappy that we decided to continue the journey.

Ahh.smooth sailing again.

After another accident for speeding round the river bends, the rafts had to be repaired again.

Look at how the river has swollen due to the floods. The level has rose about 15 ft! Anyway, we managed to make it to Temerloh after roughing it out for 2 days.

Canoeing Down Dungun River

I had wanted to make a canoeing trip down the Sg Dungun river from Kg Pasir Raja to the Dungun rivermouth. We had been "messing around" this area many times ..both to Cemerong waterfall nearby and to Pasir Raja. The river here is so inviting with its untouched sand banks and relatively fast flowing water. So....I managed to get hold of Cheong, Min Chee, Robin and KC Wan to come along. I own a Pelican Dare Devil canoe (which I bought for my wife as a birthday present about 10 years ago) but the rest of the guys have no canoe. Our masterboat builder Robin Tan quickly built a Red Indian canoe within a few days but by the time we started our trip, KC 's boat was still not ready!



We were supposed to meet on 5 Jun 2009 at lunch time but it was delayed for another 24 hours. The meeting did not take place until 7 PM on 6 Jun 2009 due to various technical reasons ..one of which was following the Garmin GPS to the meeting point which resulted in extra 50 km of travelling!

No problem..we are on holidays so instead of starting at Kg Pasir Raja, we drove to Kuala Jengal which is near where we were supposed to camp for the first night.

The golden sand bank at Kuala Jengal where we launched our canoes after a night of camping .

Min Chee doing the "war dance" to please the River Gods on the night before the start of the trip

And Robin Tan had to do some last minute sanding of the canoe that he built . This boat is named "Pocahontas 1" or P1 in short. notice how slim her waist line is! Like a lady with a slim waist line, she will be difficult to handle!

Myself on my Pelican Dare Devil. This is a Canadian built PE boat. It has a broad 40 inch waist line and is a joy to handle. The extra comfort makes up for the lack of speed.

Now..if only we have a can of coke ...

KC Wan looking very wise

Cheong busy at work

Robin thinking very hard how to increase the stability of his creation

Min Chee thinking how to improve his Red Indian Canoe

A fish trap

I told you this is a fast boat!

Finally we arrived .

We paddled a total of 28.5 km on the first leg to Jerangau and from Jerangau we did another 20 km to Kg Kemudi near to Dungun before we called it a day. by then it was getting dark and the tide was coming in. It will be another long drive for my friends back to KL to work next day.