Hi there H3LlIoN
She is a William Bollard Gipsy Wave 28", originally designed in the late 60's. I have only ever seen three of them with mine being one of those three.
I know that by 1975 she was mostly complete as the
sails that came for her with my
purchase were from Lee
Sails in
Hong Kong and Lee Sails tracked the
serial numbers on the sails to that date.
Back then you bought the plans and built them yourself.
I have attached an original magazine article about her design, as for pictures of the build, yes i took photos all along the way.
The story was that the original owner/builder made her for his own boat, but prior to completion he died and the boat was left land locked in a field here for over 40 years until the second owner bought her and moved her to the local slipway and did nothing with her. About 7 months after that i happened along to look at another boat in that yard, saw her, saw value for
money and purchased her as the third owner.
Guess that the saying is true, that it takes three owners to launch a boat.
I will be doing my own personal
record of the boat once i get a new
laptop, and as i dont have much left in the way of close friends or
family so i dont feel that i need to put all my personal life out there on the web.
Apart from that my only crew cant read and she is already part of the journey...haha
The
hull is home built but to a very professional standard, all cor-ten
steel in the
hull, anything on the hull is stainless, very very straight
single chine, no distortion waves, every plate section has an edge that is like a jigsaw pattern were its welded, not just straight plate edges (can you imagine how accurate you'd have to be to do that!)
As the hull was such a neat and tough little bugger to start with i have done what i can to make everything else a little bit of overkill to follow suit with that philosophy.
Also i wanted a go anywhere, take anything sort of boat, hence the name "DEFIANT"
Rigging is all 10 mm stainless, lowers are 8 mm as there only 4 meters long.
Anchor winch is a vetus alexander III 1500 watt with 10 mm chain.
Lifelines are all 8 mm same as the lower shrouds (they cam become my spare jury rig if need be)
Part of the cement ballast under the
motor, next to the
mast was jack hammered out and made into a water proof
battery compartment for my
AGM battery's.
All
tanks fuel 70 l / water 100 l x 2 etc, spare chain or heavy loads are at or below water line and secured from rollovers
Completed boat is setup for
single handed sailing, twin furlers up front, all lines to cockpits.
Electronics are all big colour (12" & 6") screens that are easily seen from the
cockpit. 48 nm
radar chart plotter, 1000m sounder, st 4000 tiller pilot.
Power wise im totally self sufficient got 700 watts of
solar over two separate banks and two regulators plus the little
wind generator.
My only deficiency here is that i need two more
AGM battery's (making a total of six 120 a/h) to store all the excess
power i make for a rainy day
.
Rear
solar panels act as rain catchment and a power survivor 35 desalinator should take care of the rest or my water needs, plus all fresh water is on manual hand pumps so there's no wastage.
6 Extra lockable water tight hatches
cabin x 1,
head x 1,
saloon x 2, lazarette x 2) were scattered all over the boat to make it light and airy and have great ventilation as well as 2 extra fixed windows and 2 fan fitted cowl vents (chain locker and
galley vent).
Primers &
Paint is all Jotun 2 pack
epoxy, about 8 layers above & below water, plus some all over the inside too.
Ohh and the 5 sails and
motor were all new.
Head is a dry room, i dont have a
shower in the boat only in the
cockpit, and yes i can have hot water,
salt or fresh, but i plan on making the head into my grow room for some plants and veggies.
I'm fairly proud of what i have achieved, as i did it in a tough way financially and location wise. But all in all i think that i got a good result for my efforts.
Lastly thanks for your interest in my boat, makes me feel proud that i have made something that others take notice of. If you have any other questions let me know.
Good luck to you and your hairy crew, fair winds to you.
Matthew
Re: Splash. 40 years in the making.
.
Linear Mode
Recent Discussions