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Rebuilding a part of History – “Lord Jim”
By CruiseDirector | October 3, 2008
Being a yacht Captain, returning home to Australia from the Caribbean and the USA for the past six years, I quickly found work in Brisbane Ship Yards.
I was approached to captain a ship the “Lord Jim”, that was leaving after four years, the fellow who approached me joined as an unpaid deck hand and ended up as the only one left on board.
The Boat was at Able Point Marina. Whitsundays, Queensland. It needed a available Yacht Captain to go to Phuket Thailand via Cape York, Bali ,Indonesian. Singapore and Malaysia. It had a brochure that looked fantastic.
It was an old steel hull ketch with aluminum super structure, riveted together, and built in the UK by Camper & Nicholson in 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.
After driving north for two days I arrived at the marina and saw the boat, I realized I’d been conned. The yacht was a mess.
It turned out it was completely un seaworthy and most systems broken down, With the Australian Cruise Permit expired, Ships Registration in Gibraltar expired, the hull and crew insurance expired, radio licenses expired. Added to this, all the safety equipment was out of date.
The captain of the ship quickly left unfortunately for him the owners were disputing his return ticket home.
As a relief captain Phuket started the rebuild paying bills with my own money to save face, as the promised boat money and boat credit card never arrived.
Some 19 month later we arrived at Yacht Haven Marina, Phuket Thailand. I continued to restore the vessel to her former glory with all systems running with a limited budget and lots of mind games for seven more months.
Refitting this boat has bought great happiness to me and I am Proud of my efforts.
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