Arion returns

  • 01 Aug 2012 12:12
    Reply # 1027606 on 1025463
    Deleted user
    Great to have you (and Arion) back, Graham. Really pleased that you're not 'staggering around' too much now and we all look forward to those photos.
  • 01 Aug 2012 02:48
    Reply # 1027278 on 1026622
    Jonathan Snodgrass wrote:A most moving statement of your position.  Thank you.  Something in the magazine or journal in due course would be very well received.  jds

    Thanks Johnathan.  I am going to buy a digital camera this week so I can get some photos and will happily write an article about Arion's rig conversion, lesssons learned - both practical and personal - and sailing trials, which will consist of a short coastal voyage from Townsville to Cairns inside the Great Barrier Reef in the next few weeks.  Assuming all goes well, which I am sure it will, I will then sail back to Townsville for more medical treatment before heading south out of the cyclone belt for the summer.  By the time I arrive in SE Queensland I should have the makings of another article for you.  I love writing and I love reading the journal so look forward to making a contribution.
  • 31 Jul 2012 09:57
    Reply # 1026622 on 1025463
    A most moving statement of your position.  Thank you.  Something in the magazine or journal in due course would be very well received.  jds
  • 31 Jul 2012 06:27
    Reply # 1026450 on 1025463
    Thanks to all of you who have welcomed me back.  I am still pinching myself to make sure it is really happening.  Arion always was a pretty boat and now, with Jay Reynold's artistic and technical input, it has become an absolute jewel.  Thinking of his generosity and friendship makes me misty eyed.  My health is always going to be a challenge I have to deal with, given that I have an inoperable brain tumour that is kept in check with powerful medication and regular hospital visits.  Other conditions, like getting shingles last year, place me at much higher risk than usual.  I have learned two lessons however.  One is to plan my projects more effectively so as not to reach tipping point in physical and emotional exhaustion and the other is to do a little bit each day until I get there.  I'd like to go offshore again and sail to New Zealand and the South Pacific one of these days but will have to see how things progress.  In the meantime I will sail up and down the Queensland coast, picking my weather and mooching along, building up experience with the rig until I can handle it with the same confidence I had in the old bermudian rig.  Now that I have regained my physical strength and banished the emotional exhaustion and depression that knocked my hat off, I am filled with enthusiasm for the project again.  For someone in my position, junk rig has to be the ideal solution to staying at the helm for as long as possible.  I always think of Michael Richey, sailing Jester alone across the Atlantic ocean in his 80s.  My next objective is to buy a digital camera, post some photos and write something for the journal.
  • 30 Jul 2012 12:41
    Reply # 1025694 on 1025463
    That's good new indeed Graham. I felt from your email you weren't finished with Junk Rigs just yet. We may yet meet up, I am hoping to sail up to the Great Sandy Straits around May next year.
  • 30 Jul 2012 09:17
    Reply # 1025598 on 1025463
    Deleted user
    That is awesome, Graham. I did see that your boat was sold and read a post somewhere about your health and wasnt liking the implications. But thank the devil you're back!
  • 30 Jul 2012 09:13
    Reply # 1025596 on 1025463
    Graham, thats fantastic news, I am totally delighted :-) Hope to hear from you soon.
  • 30 Jul 2012 06:10
    Reply # 1025486 on 1025463
    Welcome back, Graham.  Good news indeed that you have your beloved boat back and are once more living on board.  And it sounds like the rig should give you no more real problems.  I hope you have a good trip south and that the weather gods are kind to you.
  • 30 Jul 2012 05:43
    Message # 1025463
    I am pleased to announce that today I bought back my beloved yacht Arion.  I sold it in October 2011 due to chronic health problems, having just converted the rig from bermudian sloop to Hasler Mcleod style sloop.  I wasn't sure if I was going to get another opportunity to sit on Santa's knee, let alone go sailing but the Devil didn't want me and as I grew stronger day by day I began to miss the boat which has been my life and voyaging home for more than 15 years.  Luckily for me I sold the boat to a dear friend, Julian Reynolds, who both built the hull and deck all those years ago and who is an expert junkman.  In the last 8 months he cleaned the boat up so that its condition is as good as, possibly better than it was when I launched it in 1996, and he very generously sold it back to me for the same price he bought it plus his out of pocket expenses.  He also solved the problem I had with extreme negative batten stagger.  I will address that issue in the technical forum.  My plan now is to sail out of Townsville in three weeks back up to Cairns where I have been living since selling Arion.  I will load all my gear (tools and books mostly) aboard, clean the unit and then head south.  After my next medical session in Townsville in late October, I am going to sail down to the Great Sandy Straits and base myself in Tin Can Bay for the summer.  It is not completely out of the cyclone belt but they are pretty rare in those lattitudes and anyway, there are plenty of mangrove creeks nearby and I am something of an expert in hiding in them.
       " ...there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats" 
                                                               - the Chinese Water Rat

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