Ione Repaired

 

It has been a long time since our last blog in mid July when we had left Ione sitting sadly in Ciutadella awaiting repair after our encounter with the uncharted rock on 3^rd July. Well at last Ione is repaired and we had our first sail on 30^th November round to our winter berth in the Sunseeker marina in Mahon.

 

For the sake of the record, some pictures of the damage:

 

 

The uncharted rock. Position 39 degrees 55.27 North; 003 degrees 50.60 East.

 

 

Damage to the front of the keel.

 

 

Damage at the rear of the keel.

 

 

Delamination around the stringers internally.

 

In addition to the boat damage cousin Dennis was thrown forward and cut his arm on the hatchway, cousin Dereka was thrown onto the wheel, cracking her cheekbone, Tony ended up with a bruised hip and the only one unscathed was Sarah. Amazing how much damage can be done coming to a full stop from only 5 knots!

 

We have been insured for decades with Gallagher Heath in Liverpool with a policy underwritten by Allianz and both have been extremely helpful and efficient. Allianz have a nominated surveyor for the islands, Ross Wombwell,  who unfortunately was having a break in Madrid at the time, but who soon turned up to do a thorough inspection. This revealed some delamination between the hull and cross stringers and the obvious need to have Ione lifted for further inspection. Essentially what had happened was that a shock wave travelled through the hull causing this cracking.

 

Luckily there is a very competent yard, Astilleros Llompart, in Ciutadella. Many years ago, when owning Nautica Mahon, Dennis had done a lot of work with the yard and so knew Jaime Llompart well. We were soon lifted to allow Ross to do a further inspection. The two visible keel bolts seemed OK, but the rest of the keel bolts were hidden under the bottom water tank and so invisible, however later Ross was able to obtain an endoscope to inspect another couple of bolts.

 

At that stage we had to return home, obviously with some concerns, but with a high level of confidence that the yard would take good care of Ione. Jaime Llompart, as a personal project, is building an 8 metre traditional wooden boat and the standard of his craftsmanship, mixing and blending different types of wood, was amazing.

 

Of course the Malo yard in Sweden was on holiday at the time, but with some difficulty we did make contact and explained the situation. They said that in such cases they had never found any damage to the keel bolts but did describe perfectly the type of delamination that we could see. Ross was also able to get a lot of technical detail about the type of fibreglass, flow coat specification etc.

 

Finally a specification was agreed, with provision for removing the mast if necessary, at almost €24,000.  The vast majority of this cost was for labour as most of the internal woodwork in the saloon (hand crafted mahogany) would have to come out to get access to the stringers and the bottom water tank which needed to be removed. This was rapidly approved by Allianz and work could commence.

 

Ross, together with Dennis, visited the yard again once the internals had been removed from the saloon and reported that the work was progressing well and that huge care was being taken to avoid damaging the woodwork.

 

 

Keel to hull join repair.

 

 

Bottom water tank removed.

 

Overall it was a frustrating summer however we did manage a couple of trips to France (one sailing) and a visit to Istanbul. Finally in mid October we heard that the work was almost complete and so flew out for a pre-launch inspection. We were amazed – the standard of workmanship was superb and one would never have known that the internals of the saloon had been removed. Even the paint in the bilge had been matched perfectly. On Friday, October 18^th we launched!

 

 

Repaired stringer.

 

 

Launched at last!

 

Then problems. All looked fantastic until we spotted a tiny water drip from somewhere under the engine. This turned out to be fresh water and came from the very aft end of the hot water tank. Such a tiny drip that it would have been almost impossible to spot with any damp in the bilge when Ross first surveyed the boat. However much more obvious on a clean, dry and freshly painted surface.

 

 

The hot water tank is supported on metal straps at the very rear of the engine compartment.

 

 

When we hit the rock, the tank must have swung and made a dent in the rear, whence came the leak.

 

A replacement tank was quickly identified in Barcelona and flown in overnight – but then this was found to be damaged in transit and so useless. Sarah then found an identical tank from Force 4 chandlery in UK at a lower cost than the Spanish tank and with a shipping cost from UK to Menorca of only £21.50 so this was ordered. Unfortunately we did not have the time to wait for delivery as we were due to fly to Nepal on 1^st November for a 10 day visit to Simon & Aurélie, so we had to fly home.

 

We returned again on Friday, 15^th November for a planned fortnight in which time we intended to sail to Mahon, perhaps visiting a cala or two on the way. We arrived in the pouring rain to be greeted by the whole yard team who had cleaned the decks particularly for our return. Everything on board was sparkling and working well, so it was then just a matter of sailing round to Mahon.

 

 

We lived here for a couple of weeks!

 

Easier said than done! For two whole weeks we had either howling gales or torrential rain or – more usually – both together. Everyone was saying how unseasonable this was. However this was not the time to take a newly repaired boat to sea! Still hoping for a weather window, we forwent our Monarch flight and booked for 3^rd December with Vueling.

 

Finally – the last throw of the dice – the weather eased briefly on Saturday 30^th November and we made a dawn start for the 35 mile passage to Mahon. It was a broad reach in a NW 4-5 for most of the way and Ione behaved impeccably. A superb sail and wonderful to be back on the water again. We were met at 1300 in Mahon by Dennis and are now moored in the Sunseeker marina on the front which will be our winter quarters.

 

Tony & Sarah

 

Mahon – 2 December 2013.