This is a bit of a long-winded story, but bear with me: I’ve somehow regained ownership of Constellation, the boat I sailed from Europe to Australia, and I want to tell the story from the beginning – I promise it’s interesting, and it all starts at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, 55km southwest of London…
Next to the training ship Wishstream, a Camper & Nicholson 43, lay Prince Hamad, a Jeremy Rogers Contessa 26. Prince Hamad had been given to Sandhurst by a Middle Eastern prince as a leaving present for his son, who had done a course at the facility. The purpose of Prince Hamad, was to let competent cadets take her out by themselves, rather than sail Wishstream, which required an office to accompany them.
Unfortunately Prince Hamad broke free from her mooring in Alderney, when the crew were ashore and was a complete loss. Fortunately, Prince Hamad was replaced with a second Contessa 26, the aptly named Prince Hamad II, a baby-blue yacht launched 1972.
Prince Hamad II lived the life of a training ship for many years, before being bought up by a young family in the Southampton area, where she was sailed on weekends, and occasionally tacked across the channel to France. Renamed to Constellation, I like to think she was sailed to France purely for the purposes of loading the bilge up with Sauvignon Blanc and Gitanes, perilously returning on a lee-shore past the the foggy white cliffs of Dover…
Some years past, and Constellation ended up in Bursledon, a for-sale sign hanging from her bow: This is the bit where I come in. One cold day in Berlin, I called the yacht broker and offered them a quarter of the asking price, and a promise to pay the rest every month until the transaction was complete. The owners were romantics at heart, and decided it would be nice to have their old boat sail such a long way, and so the madness began. From that day in Berlin, until the day I arrived in Sydney, was very close to four years.
Constellation went on to: Sail through storms in the North Sea, ply the canals of Holland, cross the notorious Bay of Biscay, sail over the waters of Spain & Portugal in winter, voyage across the Atlantic ocean, visit the West Indies, haunt the Bermuda Triangle, anchor out front the Statue of Liberty, and hop a truck across the Rockies to 10,000ft, eventually arriving in Berkeley, California.
Re-assembled, she sailed to Hawaii, came within 50meters of being run down by a Korean tanker, dodged hurricanes en route to the mysterious Palmyra Atoll, survived a tsunami in Samoa, brought emergency rations to a stricken South Pacific Island, and eventually made her way to Sydney.
While my arrival in Australia was anti-climatic to say the least, it wasn’t long before the deluge of red tape and paperwork weighed me under, and I put Constellation up for sale, despite her charismatic sense of adventure. The combination of shear tiredness, and the monies needed to import the boat were beyond me – I sold Constellation in Sydney to a man named Chris, and six months later, Chris asked me to re-advertise Constellation, which is where Dave appears. Dave had a great sense of adventure, and dreamed of sailing to New Zealand. He bought and trucked Constellation to Melbourne, renamed her to Constellation II (for federal registration purposes), and we were all oddly re-aquatinted again. Dave worked on Constellation for a year, replaced the engine, installed a life raft, bought all the necessary accoutrements for offshore sailing, and set off for New Zealand.
Unfortunately the voyage didn’t go as planned, and Constellation II ended up being salvaged by fishermen in Bass Straight. Requiring emergency assistance, Dave was rescued by a Japanese grain tanker, and Constellation II was strapped to her tall sides. Unfortunately the speed of such a large vessel tore the cleats off, and Constellation II was set adrift, without her captain into the feared Straight.
Salvaged and returned to Dave after much negotiation, Constellation II has sat on her hard stand on the outskirts of Melbourne for over a year, in a dilapidated state. This is the part where I come in again…
Due to personal reasons and to ensure Constellation II might live on, Dave generously sold Constellation II back to me for $1, in the kind hope that I would have the energy and resources to revitalise her – he recognises she’s a special boat with a special history, and wishes her to live on as much as I do:
This is very exciting, surprising, and very generous – however Constellation II will take many man-hours, and many thousands of dollars to bring back to life, coupled with some immediate storage issues in her current situation. I cannot afford to do a refit at the moment, never expecting to be the owner of two ships – barely able to afford the fees to keep her locked up in the few greedy Australian marinas (that’s another story I might go into some other time)… So I’m not really sure what to do… However, I’ve vowed to make sure this old boat will live!
I think there are few boats on this earth with such a great story, although perhaps I’m biased…
What would you do? Any bright ideas?
Nick, What about setting up a consortium of folks who can contribute to her recovery / refurbishment, with fractional ownership (Good pun, no?)? Else a Sailing Academy / School prepared to take her under their wing?
All good ideas Edwin – I’d had a think about a sailing academy before, but not the idea of fractional ownership. Perhaps a small consortium of young folk with time and a few dollars could actually pull together to learn and work on her, coupled with fractional ownership… I like it.
Nick,
I’d ask some mates to buy shares in the boat and help out with labour in restoration. Then the boat will get a chance to live again and most likely get a good amount of use with multiple share holders. This would help lift the financial burden from you too.
I live in Horsham at the moment, but may be moving back to Melbourne soon. I’d happily aid you with some free labour.
Joel, shoot me an email, and we can chat more about ideas.
I just tried to email you Nick, but the server rejected it…hmm.
Oops, my bad! Could you try again? I’ve just fixed it.
Of course you could turn her into a floating gin palace and charge high rollers a squillion to fluff at a very unstable roulette wheel…
Personally I like the idea of ”build your own home”. Offer people willing to put in some serious hours of restoration time an opportunity to become members and part owners of their own floating “club”. Preferably with adequate “profit” to afford professional over-site of restoration, effective management, and a succession strategy that might allow for growth of the “club” and continuity of service beyond just C2.
Thus Nick might retain ownership and control of the boat in the short term, while creating an on going social and educational entity which is self sustaining and expandable in the longer term.
Nick, Think back to your own history and keep a weather eye for the aspiring sailor who, like you needs an unconventional way to acquire a boat and set off across the wild blue sea. What goes around, comes around.
More importantly, this illustrates how strong our little boats are. Think of all that Constellation (II) has been through and what she could do again.
Absolutely Michael – as far as I’m concerned, the greater number of people who can benefit/enjoy/experience dear old Constellation, the better. The trick will be how to do that. The work and commitment required in her current state is too much for a single person without significant knowledge & funds to manage, so we’ll need work out how to make the most of it and get the ball rolling.
And yes, she’s a strong old boat!
I have been looking at blue water boats to purchase and I am on a budget. I have looked at all sorts of blue water boats I love. Then I look at the price and think to my self Why don’t I get a little Contessa likes Nick’s boat. I have seen them as low as $9000 are they really as bullet proof as they seem to be?
Curtis
http://www.livingaboardboats.com
Curtis, the Jeremy Rogers CO26 or the Canadian version? The Jeremy Rogers version with self-draining cockpit is the boat to have – the Canadian revision; not so much.
There are plenty of good boats though on the West coast for ~$9k…
Here’s an idea, Nick: Sell fundraiser t-shirts for $50, which includes the future release of Between Home 2. I’ll buy at least three…
Haha, Between Home damn near killed me! Between Home II would definitely be the nail in the coffin!
If I sold 100 tshirts it would definitely solve some immediate problems, but I don’t think I actually could even if I tried!
If you don’t think you could sell one hundred t-shirts, then you won’t. But if you believe you could sell a thousand, then you will.
JM
Do you have any options to move Constellation to a place without hard stand fees? At least this would prevent ever higher costs if restauration goes slow…maybe one of the future shareholders has a big garden and a shed full of tools…off course moving a boat around on land is hassle and also costs money…though you have experience in that department!
Nick,
I have stopped in on the blog from time to time over the last,ooo, two years at least I would say, and its such a sweet story- I am glad to see Contessa back with you although her sorry state is a little disheartening.
Maybe get onto a social site like gumtree and see if some good soul has an extra bit of back yard you could stick her in for the refit.
Once that is sorted, try Gumtree or Couchsurfing or the likes and advertise her as a place to stay in exchange for some labour – which backpacker wouldn’t want a ‘free’ place to stay with some serious character? Pretty much like Wwoofing (Willing workers on organic farms – kind of a labour for accommodation swap that runs the world over).
In any case, if for some reason she returns to Sydney for the refit, drop me a line, I would be happy to come help out.
All the best
Tim