After their short sporting and media exposure, racing multihulls struggle to settle into a peaceful retirement. Their giant wings do not predispose them to a gentle confinement in a marina. And even if their sporting personality is seductive, they are notoriously uncomfortable and more often than not incompatible with charter or cruising use. The smallest units - from 28 to 42 feet - do however have a few arguments in their favor when it comes to justifying their survival: buying, refitting and maintaining them can be done on a reasonable budget. However, you have still got to find them in a recoverable condition... Stuart Rogerson, 72 is the dean of the Golden Oldies community and has become an expert in the rescue of endangered multihulls. A year ago, when he heard that the VAL 31 Wing Version Nandi was threatened with destruction on a beach in Sausalito in San Francisco Bay, he immediately jumped on an airplane. Having closed the deal, he set to work getting the Newick design back into a seaworthy condition. Then it was just a question of the 10,000 nautical miles to get back to Ibiza!
Ready for service!
After securing the purchase of the multihull in the port of Sausalito, Stuart took her out of the water in a small yard in Napa to change the deck of the floats, check the whole structure and repaint it. He chose to keep the «fortified castle» cockpit with the aim of bringing the trimaran back in line with the original plan during a later refit at the Sète base. On September 4th, Nandi was declared «ready for service» and left for San Diego where she arrived four days later. The first sea trial was very satisfactory with the trimaran behaving wonderfully. She is fast and in good shape. The delivery continued with a long surf down to Acapulco, which was completed in ten days. Ten more would be needed to reach the entrance to the Panama Canal. At that point, Nandi was out of supplies - no more water or food - and was the last leisure craft to transit before the lockdown. Gatún Lake, between the Pacific and Atlantic locks was crossed at an average speed of 10 knots with just a modest 9.9 hp outboard. Then for Stuart, it was a long starboard tack in horribly humid conditions towards Cuba where the ports were all closed. Nandi continued on to the Bahamas, where she was refueled by a Mod 70 which had been specially launched, before finally mooring in Key West. The Little Newick found herself confined in the far South of Florida, waiting to cross the Atlantic. A crossing which the skipper will most likely take on alone. A discussion is underway to try and find a simple and economical automatic steering solution for Nandi. The helm is very light, but the continuous spray undermines the reliability of tiller pilots. Silicone grease and plastic wrap should improve the situation... To be continued!
