"Lord Jim" Rebuilding a part of History

As a yacht Captain, returning home to Australia from the Mediterranean, Caribbean and the USA for the past seven years, I quickly found work at Brisbane Ship Yard refitting a large sloop.

A young English Captain approached me about a British Flagged yacht called "Lord Jim", which was leaving after three years, He then joined as a deck hand and ended up as the only person left on board after crossing the ocean.

The vessel was at a marina Marina in the Whitsundays, Queensland. It wanted an available Yacht Captain take it to Thailand via The Great Barrier Reef and Cape York. The brochure looked great, as they always do.

It was an old Camper & Nicholson made in 1977 it had a steel hull with aluminum sub structure which was riveted together.

A CV was submitted and forgotten about but then I received a call from the owner who consequently was a psychologist in the motivational business .Of course I was very quickly convinced and took the job.

Arrived at the marina I saw the boat, an quickly realized I was Conned It was very badly looked after, which presented some problems.

The Boat was completely un seaworthy and most of the systems broken down. The Australian Cruise Permit was expired as well as the Ships Registration, the hull and crew insurance expired and the radio licenses expired. Also to this the safety equipment was way out of date.

The old Captain left two days later with the owners disputing his return ticket to England.

As a relief captain Phuket started the rebuild paying bills with my own money to save face, as the promised boat money and boat credit card never arrived.

About 19 month later I arrived at the Yacht Haven Marina in Phuket . I even continued restoring the vessel to her former glory with all systems up and running within a limited budget.

Being Part of the nautical history of this magnificent boat has given me a great sense of pride and I am glad that I finished the Job.