Multihull World Launchings

Ara Leonis

This beautiful Spirited 380 was launched in Hervey Bay in October 2009. Built by boat building company FCCM, this is their second 380 and the quality and finish is high-class. Jeff Anderson reports “Ara Leonis is very fast and light, she is floating high and level”. This boat was built for a Swiss client who has recently spent a few weeks aboard familiarising himself with his new pride and joy. Although still working he plans to fly into Australia as much as possible to use his boat. Ara Leonis is well fitted with cruising gear and a sail wardrobe to match so is ready for the owner’s next adventure.

Heroco

Another Spirited 380 recently took up residence on Port Stephens. Heroco is the second Spirited 380 to be built by John Querns of The Bay Boatshed, Salamander Bay. Owners Rob and Helen Cooper interest was aroused in the Spirited when Multihull World magazine included their photo in the January 2006 edition. “I naturally bought a copy,” says Rob, “and in it I read about Craig’s new design. So after attending a couple of his workshops and watching progress on the prototype, I was keen to build one myself. Unfortunately I had to abandon that idea when I had a brush with prostate cancer!” Fortunately Craig had introduced Rob to John Querns at one of the workshops where they saw John working on a 380 for a customer in Indonesia. “I was impressed with John’s workmanship and the fact that someone overseas had entrusted construction to him without having actually met him!” says Rob. Rob was also impressed that Querns had built at least four other cats using ATL materials before this one and he’d also built an 11m ‘rowing’ boat for a 2200km, Trans-Tasman expedition from New Zealand to Sydney! Building the second 380 had its advantages as, working with John, it was possible to ‘personalise’ the boat. “I was able to build some of the furniture myself off site and with John’s experience I could bounce my ideas off him and we could decide whether they were any good! John also made a few suggestions that we incorporated,” says Rob. For example, a couple of drain holes were built into the mast base area early on, escape hatches were built into each hull and the engine hatches were made larger to simplify access to the hydraulic steering. The build was basically to motor-away and Rob will undertake the internal fitout himself. The launch was not without its ‘moments’ as Rob recounts! “The boat had been loaded onto the back of a tow truck for the ride to the launch site and the first hitch was that the tow truck refused to start. Hmm, what do you do when a 4T boat is mounted on the back of a towtruck that won’t start? Fortunately a booster pack arrived and we had ignition! Also the police escort had unfortunately been called to another job but we had permission to proceed without them so we were on our way (luckily we weren’t going along any major roads). A letterbox drop had been done along the route to ensure people didn’t park on the roadside (Yes the roads are not that wide!). We sailed through the shopping centre and a couple of tight roundabouts and then came to a halt: two people had managed to park their cars directly opposite each other tight on the road. We tried folding their side mirrors in and possibly could have made it, but it was too close to call so instead the owner of one vehicle got a 5am wakeup call! He wasn’t very pleased until he saw what was overshadowing his vehicle! Fortunately the launch at Soldiers Point was a pretty straight forward crane job. A minor leak was discovered in the water inlet on the starboard toilet. Only half a bucket of water had managed to get in so everyone stood on the back of the boat to tip it up while a nut was re-bedded and tightened. Engines were trialled without any issues, and a few last minute fittings were installed via dinghy under the bridgedeck. Then we were ready to head off to the mooring on the other side. Underway we cruised nicely at 6kts with a few short bursts at full 3800rpm – 8.4kts over ground against the tide so possibly closer to 9kts. Wow, that’s fast. Now safely on her new mooring we’re looking forward to getting stuck into finishing off the todo list and hopefully a rather cranky car owner will remember to check his letterbox in future!”