Tait gallery
WHILE working aboard a tourist boat in Airlie last year I saw an ad for a 50 foot steel expedition cutter for sale down in Sydney for a ridiculously good price. I just could not resist flying down to take a look.
When I arrived in Double Bay the sight of Finesse of Tasman swinging on her mooring made my heart beat like a drum and caused that all too familiar feeling of anticipation for adventure to well up inside me. There was a well-established northerly swell in the bay and every other yacht was rolling side to side to the swell. Finesse seemed anchored to the wind, always looking it straight in the eye and her mast straight and steady enough to balance an egg on.
When I went aboard and met the owner my hopes were confirmed, she was a seaworthy, heavy, safe cruiser with the capability to go anywhere; although she needed a lot of work. Nothing was working on her. All the batteries were dead, the engine was dead, the rig was looking worse for wear and the hull could have single-handedly stopped global warming with its barrier reef of growth.
But it was a starting point, it was the first foundations of the goal that I had in mind. But I still did not truly know what I was getting into.
My plan was to use the sails that she did have to get her up to Airlie Beach where I could work again and slowly save money for her restoration, but then a good friend of mine saw what I was doing and got excited and wanted to help; he was an engineer and an electrician! Plus we had sailed together around the Whitsunday Islands plenty of times.
Over the next few weeks Raffy and I replaced the starter motor, adjusted the timing and cleaned out the coolant side of the motor and managed to get her running. We dropped the mooring in Double Bay and headed north, tempted by the promise of good food and a solid bed for a few weeks at my grandmother’s house in Pittwater.
After our rest we took on a new crew of backpackers and set sail with a beautiful south easterly for Port Stephens. The plan after that was to push further north to Brisbane where we would slip and do the necessary work on the hull; but heavy winds and waves forced us to stay in the Port Stephens area for a few weeks.
After the bad weather had passed we headed
