Refit/Restoration of 1985 62' Aluminium Yacht

[RozDev]

Hi All

New to the forum, and have decided to share the ongoing refit/restoration of my 1985 Aluminium yacht.

To start from the start as they say, a bit of history, the yachts previous owners had decided on some international drug smuggling, (one and a half tonnes of it) which did't go according to plan, culminating in the yachts interception and seizure 200 miles off the coast of Ireland in Sept 2014, by the Irish Navy and Customs officials.











The atlantic crossing didn't go to plan and the crew seized up the boats engine, and wrecked the entire sail inventory amongst other things. I will cover their attempt later on in my post, suffice to say they are all in prison now, and the boat was purchased by me at a state auction of seized assets in July 2015.

As you can see by the video and a few attached pictures, the overall structural condition of her was pretty good, although the auction was sold as seen, and I was unable to inspect the hull/keel for any major damage whilst she was in the Naval base, so there was a bit of gamble that the previous owners had done any catastrophic damage below the water line to the keel/hull/rudder.

The grey stuff covering the inside of the cabin is fingerprint dust if anyone was wondering!

DSC_7210.mp4

[RozDev]

Some more pictures of the exterior prior to purchase at auction.













Obviously after being lying up for over 1 yr whilst the criminal prosecution was being conducted, my concerns were, with no anti fouling evident on the hull that it was back to bare Aluminium, and all it takes is one rogue earth on the electrical system and the whole thing could have been fizzing away for 12 months causing so much damage to plate thickness under the waterline that it would be beyond economical repair.

[RozDev]

The interior had been pretty thoroughly searched by customs and they didn't mince about when it came to applying fingerprint dust and removing panels etc, pretty much every surface was drilled and every panel that could be ripped off, was, in the search for drugs.

The smugglers didn't exactly treat the yacht as if it was a long term investment either, looking at the state of the galley:

[RozDev]

There was also a fair bit of looting (Spoils of war and all that) of anything shiney and useful from the yacht whilst it was laid up, most of the electronics disappeared and unfortunately one of the stipulations of the auction was that the interior including all soft furnishings seat cushions inside and out and anything else of use, was to be disposed of before I could collect it.

The most annoying aspect of this was that there was numerous spares and bits of trim, such as off roof lining panels etc that were binned in the yacht clear out, with it being on a Naval base I was unable to oversee what went into the skip, and when I turn up to take ownership of the yacht I was hugely disappointed with the 'gung ho' nature of how this had been handled. The skip it was emptied into had already been collected and delivered to landfill as I was sorely tempted to go 'bin diving' or 'skip dipping' to get all my bits back, but hey ho, I got the boat at a reasonable price, so I decided to crack on.

[RozDev]

Without power and sales the next challenge was to get it moved from the Naval base, as a stipulation again on the auction terms and conditions had been 10 days from date of purchase.

Umm.. 35 tonnes, no sails, no power and a very dodgy repair to the steering quadrants below decks (the wire rope steering had been replaced with standard sheets at some stage, it looked like a sea repair anyway)...this was going to be fun!!!

My plan was to get it out of the Naval base in Haulbowline Co Cork to the nearest private marina with space for a 62' which turned out to be Crosshaven, hone of the world oldest yacht club the RCYC

Anyway the commercial tugs I had do the job, made a proper balls up of it, they damage the aluminium hull and managed to bend 5 of the stainless steel guardrail stanchions in its delivery (less than 5 nautical miles!), even with me at the helm directing them.

Still it was a nice day, and great to have to first sail (..well...tug then!) of my new purchase!

C0013.mp4

[brantleychuck]

Well, quite a interesting beginning . Now some elbow grease! And lots of $. Have fun


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[pesarsten]

Looks like a great project. Keep posting photos of your progress. Best of luck in a speedy refit.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Good luck with this. It'll be an interesting one to follow, for certain. And of course, you've got lots of support here; technical, & otherwise

[Snowpetrel]

Looks like it will polish up very well. I will enjoy following your progress.

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[CS Cruiser]

Look forward to your progress, thanks for sharing.

[S/V Alchemy]

Is it a custom job, or a Kanter?

[akprb]

What rings through your post to me is your attitude............and what I feel is it's a great one.

Hat's off for jumping in and giving it a go. Great opportunity to set her up just the way you want. My two cents, simple, functional, disposable.

Looking forward to seeing how she comes along. A name yet?

All the best!

[bsurvey]

it is mandatory to see this boat out of the water from the water line down it could be toast
you should also get a NDT guy down there is inspect the bottom along with a surveyor, one stray wire or lack of zinc for any period of time could wreck an aluminum boat and require extensive replating

[RozDev]

The former name of the yacht was the Makayabella, and if you google her she is infamous obviously for all the wrong reasons.

I know a lot has been said, and pretty much everyone has an opinion about the luck involved in renaming a vessel, but given her history I am currently pre-disposed to probably renaming her.

I can't seem to get the videos playing on my post? has anyone been able to view them? If not I post on you tube and include link instead.

The yacht is a custom built from French Antibes by a chap called George Auzpy Brenner, I don't have any further details on her, and no drawings either, so all I have is the drawing below and this report.



MAKAYABELLA1. spec.doc

[seaross]

What a great project, good luck and deep pockets for your project