This project took place last year on a classic yacht. The owner wanted to change the legacy layout for something more practical. We did the design studies with him, and once everything was validated, well, it was time to get down to it.
We first started by dismounting the existing furniture.
To make sure everything would perfectly fit, we did a mock simulation.
Drawers installed, the project is moving along as planned.
Our best moment, when we deliver the new installation with a little Sicilian twist 🙂
You’re looking for the perfect time and location to organize some boat work ? Look no further, Licata in spring is the place. Check it out …
Agrigento is certainly famous for the production of its cannoli siciliani, cassate, and other local foods, but there is another thing this area is known for: almonds. More than the fruit itself, Agrigento is renowned for the festivals celebrated in its honor, a true touristic attraction with Sicily almonds. Two events are of particular interest: the Sagra del Mandorlo in Fiore and the Mandorlara (the almond on the table), both taking place annually between February and March. Over the years, the festival has increased its cultural significance sending peace messages to all populations.
This year the Sagra del Mandorlo in Fiore will take place between feb.28th and March 8th.
It is an opportunity to celebrate the coming of Spring. In Sicily, February and March are the months when nature wakes up and almonds trees, with their light pink, fragrant blossoms, make this moment of natural rebirth as special as the cherry trees’ of Japan.
During the festival, the Valle dei Templi, framed by a mantle of almond trees, becomes a striking scenery for some of the most picturesque parades, with many other events taking place all over town.
The event begins with a walk at sunset, in the Valley of the Temples and continues with the lighting of the torch of friendship in front of the Temple of Concord. The most important event of the festival occurs during the closing, when the folk groups parade with Sicilian carts and musical bands from the city to the Valley of the Temples. In addition, an art conclusive exhibit is always held at the foot of the Temple of Concord and you can see, in front of the Temple of Hercules, the award ceremony of the Golden Temple, a prize desired by everyone, depicting the temple of Castor and Pollux, which is delivered by an international jury to the selected groups based on dancing, singing and typical costumes.
Every year there are many other events, such as “Miss Spring” (rewarded to the most beautiful girl of the groups), and the most beautiful flowered balcony of Via Atenea (the main street of Agrigento). In addition, recently awarded were new prizes, such as “Gian Campione” and “Casesa” two icons of Agrigento folklore that died a few years ago. Another trophy, the “Criscenzo”, is awarded during the children of the world festival.
Event end date: 28/02/2022
Event start date: 08/03/2022
Name: Festival of Almond Blossoms
So if you ask us, this period is the perfect one to plan for some boat work with us. Licata is a 40mn drive from Agrigento, and we definitely can help you with the logistics.
After working during nearly two weeks on its hull and propelling system (we’ll come back to this in a later post), today was a big day for m/v Jua’s owners, as we put her back in the water.
For the 300 tons travel-lift this was a piece of cake, although it’s always a moment of great attention, and you can see me, a little stressed, checking that the travel-lift operator doesn’t flinch. Of course he doesn’t flinch. It’s Paolo, he’s done this many time and everyday as far as I’ve known him.
This was a very challenging project which we could only complete thanks to the very experienced mechanical skills we can find in Licata, traditional fisher harbor for decades. It’s quite easy to work on recent Volvo Penta, Yanmar and the likes which can be found on recent sailing units.
But this one was of a special breed: a 35 years old Perkins engine which needed some cajoling.
And this is when we could proudly set back the old timer to its rightful place 🙂
This has been an interesting side project, enlightening how the mass-construction boat yard would do their best to reduce their production cost, with no regard for the future maintenance life of the boat. But who are we to judge …
On this 450F, the main task was to take down the Yanmar Sail Drive as we needed to bring it to our workshop for a complete overhaul, together with the seal change.
So after taking the catamaran out of the water and on the hard, we had to access the sail drive locker space, beneath this original Lagoon panel.
And there came this really bad surprise. Not only wasn’t this panel screwed one way or another, allowing for the necessary future maintenance, but it was glued in such a way that we could only break it to access the Sail Drive space. Of course we asked the owner, but it was quite a rhetorical question as we could see no alternative.
Plus, we came up with a solution: break down the original panels and use them to make new fiber ones, which we would fit with screws, allowing for future maintenance.
Here we show the finished job, with the serviced Sail Drive and the hull and propeller prepared for the sailing season.
This owner had a mooring accident, and not only did it break his cleat, but it did some significant damage on the deck gelcoat surface. The owner was desperate at the idea that this incident would leave a definitive mark on his deck.
Despite what I discovered, this was a fairly straightforward job, and the owner was happy that he couldn’t even see that something had happened there.
Being less than 70 nautical miles to the Malta archipelago, Licata is a good location to work on boat preparation for the annual Rolex middle sea race. Over the years, we have been selected to conduct rigging preparation (with Andrea, the owner of our partner’s Nautilhouse), or hull preparation.
And you can believe that when you get this kind of mission, the race begins right there, on the hard in Licata!
This is a short photo shoot of the S/Y Mirabelle (Elan Yacht 350) hull race prepping.
We’re not only showing this to you because the entire crew could shave using the hull as a mirror that morning. But also because they won the race in their category. They outperformed very competitive crews and boats around Sicily that year, and we like to think that we had a little part in this success 🙂
We don’t exactly specialize in those, but the fact is we’ve been repairing rudders many times over the last few years. Osmosis starting to show, obvious leak shown when lifting the boat out of the water, or dent which would happen any time the boat would hit something, including fishing line. And with the front mooring lines which are a standard in the Med, it happens quite often while docking out.
This is what this owner of a Lagoon 450F came to us with.
While getting out of his slip, they went too near another boat’s front mooring line, and the front of the rudder took a hit. Even at very low speed, obviously less than 2-3 kn, the damage needed to be immediately taken care off.
We were lucky that the yard’s crane was available on the spot, and we were able to book it, together with a very discounted 24h space on the hard.
So we got the boat out of the water and managed to do the repair by the next day, and the happy owner and his party could resume their cruising plans to the Egadi Islands.
A few months after its delivery, the owner of this Fountaine-Pajot Catamaran complained about a water leak. Our investigation concluded that the large window seals of this boat were the cause of it. This is a classic weak spot on these large modern GRP Catamaran, but this one was only a few months after delivery, implying a construction defect.
After some discussion with the technical support of the yard, it was decided that all these seals needed to be changed under the yard’s warranty.
We started by taking away the old sealant, which was in itself a very tedious task, also an important one as the old need to be completely gone for the new sealant to be effective.
This is a very delicate job, as the sealant, an expensive product, can only be used in so many atmospheric conditions, and the stakes were high for us, with all the yard’s specialists overlooking our job, on one side, and the disgruntled owner on the other. This was a time of well earned diplomacy, on top of perfect execution of the task.
Have you seen this old movie by Delmer Dave, titled “Dark Passage”? Humphrey Bogart escapes from a prison (is it Alcatraz or San Quentin?), and starts one of the longest subjective camera sequences, while meeting his girlfriend, Lauren Bacall, and having face surgery. It lasts and it lasts … and at one point in the movie, he takes away the bandages, and guess what: here comes Humphrey Bogart! Think of the luck: you get into face surgery looking like anybody, and when it’s all done, you are Humphrey Bogart.
Anyway, when working on this type of project, carefully removing the protection blue tape, we could only share the owner’s thrill that his boat was indeed looking like Humphrey Bogart.
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