CA to HI Delivery of Powerboat

[mvweebles]

The now infamous USCG 200t delivery skipper Capt Ray McCormack, has done it again!! Hot off his sinking of Boat Bum Gal while cutting the corner entering Turtle Bay Baja; and still licking his wounds from losing a lawsuit against an owner who's boat he damaged and abandoned in a desolate location 100 nms from its intended location, Capt Ray has delivered a Sunseeker 54 Predator from Long Beach CA to Hawaii, about 2300 nms.

The owner was reportedly thrilled at the condition of his boat upon arrival. Apparently, he missed the 100-200 gals of diesel Capt Ray reports leaked out of the bladders stored in the toy garage, stateroom, and saloon.

Here's a picture McCormack posted showing the condition of the Sunseeker upon delivery in Hawaii - I'm surprised the barrels stayed put, but they did.



Capt Ray, regaling FB with his experience and responsiveness, describes picking up the boat in Ensenada in prep for the trip but apparently does not properly clear from Mexico and cancel the TIP, a sure-fire way to get the boat impounded should it every return to Mexico.

Incredibly, the engines were inaccessible due to fuel bladders and barrels - the first delivery attempt was aborted due to a hose-clamp breakig allowing the engine coolant water to flood the engine room which required the fuel to be off-loaded to gain access!

The sunseeker delivery started in the spring. Owner contacted me about buying the boat and delivering her to hawaii. They spent all spring and summer working on the engines and there were haul outs. In Beginning of September, right around labor day weekend we did a sea trial to avalon and back from MDR. This estiablished initial conumption numbers for the delivery. I worked on planning the implementation of the fuel bags, fuel transfer system, and stability calculations.

End of september flew down to take the boat out of the MDR slip as the lease was ending. Crew and I moved daily between the MDR boat ramp and the park at MDR for two weeks. During this time we had to fix the auto pilot, the 12 volt system, and do many sea trials. End of these two weeks we provisioned, fueled up the boat, and departed for hawaii only to have a cooling hose clamp break which flooded the engine room just south of san clemente island.

We got quotations to move the fuel out of fuel bag above the engine room, store, fix the hose clamps in engine room, and then put fuel back on board. These quotes where about $22k. Ended up moving the boat to san pedro, cabrillo marina, went home and regrouped.

In October got notified by the owner that the sunseeker needs to be out of california by dec 16 due to a california law and loyds of london insurance.

In mid November we came up with a plan where my wife and I would fly down. We rented a uhaul truck and bought an IBC tote. In the evening moved the boat over to the san pedro boat ramp as well as the truck and tote. Removed all the fuel from the aft fuel bag and fixed the hose clamps in the engine room. Then my wife and I took the boat to catalina, then down to Ensanada. Wife and I made are way back home. Plan was to deliver the boat from ensanada to hawaii in early january.

November 24 I was doing christmas ships on the nova out on the columbia. Get a call from the owner asking me if I could go tet the sunseeker before 2 pm saturday november 25th. Booked a late alaska flight to san diego, stayed in hilton, got up at 4 am and took the trolley to the border where I walked across. Jumped in a cab and got to the sunseeker at 8 am. 30 hrs later was back in the slip in san pedro. Flew home ....

Two days later crew and I flew in, we quickly provisioned and fueled the boat up as well as putting 7 barrels on deck.

3 days after leaving we started having 24 volt voltage issues, pretty sure the regulator bit the dust. So we created a patch cable and tied the starboard start batteries to the house so that it would get a charge from the alternators.

2 days later we discovered the bags starting to leak, the corner seams where breaking down.

2 days later we discovered a low sagging down from the north pacific, this would generate 3 days of west winds with the first day having breaking waves going over the boat.

After the westerlies died down the trades filled back in and gave us a half knot push into kona. We caught 17 mahi on my hand lines, and ate good.

Delivering a power boat like this with all the fuel for sure has its challenges, and makes a sailboat hawaii delivery look simple. Would I do it again, probably not ...... and I learned a ton about fuel bags and fuel transfer systems . We started with 2300 gallons, arrived in kona with 110. Probably lost about 100 or 200 gallons from leaking bags, and we sped up a little coming into kona. "

Here's the sailboat as he left it in Neah Bay - note unkempt sails and lines that bear a striking resemblance to the unkempt Sunseeker. Note, these are his pictures - he's proud of the condition.

[Cargile]

But not the first to "cut a corner". Oh say 1979 while assigned to Oceanographic Unit 4 on board the USNS Chauvenet surveying the Makassar Strait, Indonesia our ship's Master attempted the same feat. Entering Balikpapan Harbor (Kalimantan/Borneo) he cut the first channel buoy to slip in ahead of another ship entering port. Doing so he ran the ship over a WWII wreck slicing a hole in the hull. The flooding was contained and we made it to the pier. He was relieved and the ship sailed under it's own power to Sembawang shipyard in Singapore for a 2 month dry dock. On $120/day per diem + hotel, Singapore was my oyster!