Built in 1963 by the Griffin Brothers in Sydney for Club racing and Cruising. 30' long 8'beam
3/4 keel with the rudder hanging off the keel. 5' draft. Beautiful lines.
5/5/2013
Purchased Norrie 11 from David Woolcock.
Previously owned by:
Robert Ashworth
John Fay
The Yacht is in Tim Phillips's pen at Blairgowrie Yacht club. It was rescued from sinking at Davids swing mooring and dragged to the pen.
The bilge pumps are badly connected, the wiring is like rusty spaghetti, There is a small leak around the area of the mast-step that will need to be addressed.
15/5/2013 Enlisted the help of Dave Connaughton and Ken Hetherington to help me sail the boat back to Sandringham. Great autumn day not too cold. The wind NNE means that we will have to zig zag close hauled for most of the trip. Blairgowrie to Sandringham via Mornington is about 30Nm so if we average 5Knots we should make it in 6 Hours.
After setting of on a close hauled port tack we settled in to a nice cruise. I was so pleased to see how nicely we were sailing in my new yacht. All I could think about was the sailing I would be doing in the classic series and the trips to wooden boat shows.
Time to wake up from my daydream and check a few things!
I popped down into the cabin to do my normal peek under the floor boards. This is not my first wooden boat!
Water! Water! like a couple of garden hoses on full blast from the area of the mast step on the port side. Not Good!
Decision time! Not half way to Mornington so Drop Sails to relieve the tension on the port side of the boat. Engine on. Turn around and motor back to Blairgowrie.
Bilge pump not keeping up so time to take turns with the bucket!
Got back to the pen in Blairgowrie. The bilge pump was now keeping up with the leak.
By dropping the sails and relieving the tension on the port side, the gap between the top of the garboard and the first plank sealed up a bit so the water was not gushing in as much.
Decided to go to Bunnings and get some sikaflex. Shoved 2 tubes of Sikaflex mixed with bits of wood and rags into the leaking area and managed to slow the leak enough for the bilge pump to cope until the boat could be slipped and the leak investigated properly.
18/5/2013 Went down to the boat with Roger to fix the bilge pumps and wiring. Roger hooked up a couple of pumps one on a float switch the other on a switch with independent wiring from the battery.
Thanks Roger!
20/5/2013 Bernie from Blairgowrie finally slipped the slipped the boat after a weeks wait. Blairgowrie's slipway is right next to a pier and cant be used when there is a strong westerly. We had a 20 to 25 Knot westerly all that week.
21/5/2013 Wayne from Tim Philips's boat yard put a lead patch on the gap between the planks. He felt that that was the best temporary solution as the boat is splined and any caulking could swell and cause gaps to develop further along the board
22/5/2013 Back in the water. After some head scratching I decided that the weather was favorable enough to head off to Sandringham. There was still a bit of a leak around the mast step but I had 2 electric bilge pumps one manual one and just for safety I also borrowed another one from Wayne with a separate battery.
I set of into a fairly calm sea which quickly developed into 15Kn Northerly and half to one meter waves. A fair bit of spray soaked the cockpit and the stupid cargo pants I was wearing. Luckily I had my yummy yellow Musto to keep me warm from the waist up. I rigged up my autopilot ( bit of rope tied to the tiller) and made all my under floor checks. Few leaks here and there but the bilge pump was keeping up OK.
3 hours later I was abeam Mornington with the weather improving, the leaks diminishing so decided to keep going for Sandringham.
4 hours into the trip the bay glassed over. It was quite eerie with the glassie water, overcast sky and a whole lot of nothing. No boats no planes,weird. I would have felt lonely if I wasn't so cold. In the distance I could see the silhouette of a rather large see lion rolling on his back and raising his flippers. I passed right by him. He did not seem to mind. Neither did his friend a few miles further on. I found that my string autopilot holding the tiller was doing a pretty good job so I found a spot over the top of the engine to sit on and try to dry my pants. I checked the radio and found out that it completely failed!
Then my phone ran out of batteries. Luckily I was only an hour from my destination, the weather was OK and the leak was minimal.
Arrived at Sandringham, 32 Nm 6 Hours total
23/5/2013 Helped Buyers of the old boat to get it out of my pen and onto the fuel pier. Finally put the new boat into my Pen. Only took 18 days since purchase!
29/5/2013 Starter motor removed after it failed. Opened up and its full of rust and salt water. Must have got wet when half sunk at mooring. No idea how it lasted this long. Just glad it failed when it did. Ordered a new one.
May 2014 boat sold to Rob from Williamstown
Rob has plans to completely refubish the boat and race it in the classic. I wish him luck and look firward to seing it finished. I am sure that he will make a great custodian.
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