I’ve posted a couple of reply’s on this forum and shortly was asked what happened to “Dearie” N36 #25. Well, here’s the story!
First let me tell you who I am. I’m 41 years old and crossed the Atlantic on my 62 year old aluminium Ketch 4 years ago. I rebuild that riveted ketch in a period of about 10 years time and promised myself I would never take on another extensive project like that… The boat was my second skin, not everything I ever wanted but mine and somehow everything I needed. Sailed from The Netherlands (Europe) to Florida (US) and further with that boat. It did let me down but nothing unfixable. We and she made it!
Guess what happens… Somewhere along our journey we come across a devastated bay, completely wrecked by hurricane Irma. Hundreds of catamarans flipped over, it looks like a war zone. In a corner of the bay only one boat is still afloat with what appears to be cosmetic damage only. Railings bend, some serious scratches but afloat. She looks seriously neglected though… This is Paraquita Bay in the BVI’s.
I tracked down the owner and made an offer. She did not agree with what I thought of the boat and turned the offer down.
We continued our journey and set sail to florida. This was just before hurricane season 2018.
We spend a couple of months in Jacksonville trying to decide where to go next. Some time to kill, I read anything and everything I could find about Nonsuches. Asked a few sailor friends and decided to contact the owner of “Dearie” to ask how she and the boat is doing. My offer still stands I told her. Come and collect her, as is where is, minus personal items was her reply.
That meant going down the Thornypath heading for the BVI’s for us. Is “Dearie” worth that? This is around Christmas time 2018.
We decided to GO!
Obviously this is not the end of this tale. More to come when I feel like writing in a foreign language to me. So excuse and bear with me, the story is far from over.
I’m rusty with Dutch (learnt it while living just north of The Hague for 5 years in the '90s) and it was my official working tongue when I was working in Brussels, so feel free to write in Dutch.
You see, not only will it be good practice for me, it’ll also pay for my beer when at Nonsuch gatherings. Yes, I’m cheap, and hopeful that nobody here has heard of Google Translate.
(actually, to tell you the truth, I stream Radio 2 in my workshop, and at times I think that the language has changed greatly since I was surrounded by it, or the slang is stronger, or…)
You live in a great country, and have one fantastic boat now on your hands;
I know a few Dutch “special” words (gleaned while working with Dutch stagehands on tour in Holland, a few times). I even know how to say “Hello” in Fries ( a LOVELY area to rent a houseboat). I adore the Netherlands. I love the way the Dutch complain about 4 million Dutch supporting 14 million …
Anyway, that is one hell of a story and, by your photos, that’s one hell of a nice restoration that you are undertaking.
Will the engine tick over? Is there Irma damage under water and what about the balsa hull? How do I get the purchage sum to the seller from a foreign bank account? What about paperwork? How do I get the boat to the Netherlands? What did we got ourselves in to? And these are not our only uncertanties because one of our biggest concerns was, will we get Dearie out of Paraquita bay since Irma threw a lot of sand in front of the narrow entrance. Salvage teams dug a trench through it to get acces to the bay with a barge and a crane but those steel structures are shallow. Above that, I didn’t know if N36 #25 was equipped with a shallow or normal keel…
Next to that, the Thornless Path is far from thornless and got nicknamed the Thornypath not just by us. It’s a route to get to the Caribbean islands, coming from the US, going directly into tradewinds and Atlantic current. Bruce van Sant wrote a damn good guide which we followd up to the letter and it helped a lot. The waves however did not get any smaller by doing so.
To top it of, we had to arrive within a timeframe. Beginning of May there will sail a yacht transport ship from st Thomas, USVI’s to the Netherlands. We didn’t want to mis that since I prepaid half the transport fee upfront ($6k).
We raced through the Bahama’s, Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic - Mona Passage - and Puerto rico to finally get back at Paraquita Bay, Tortola BVI’s.
The Nonsuch was still there, afloat and not looted! The day after we arrived, I got my snorkeling gear out and scraped about 1 full inch of foul of her bottom. In the murky waters of the bay I couldn’t see much but at touch I could tell: no further damage. So far so good. I still couldn’t see the shape of the keel, shallow or not. The keel was just hoovering above a very dirty bottem of the bay. Soft mud and lots of grass. Very dark brown murky waters.
We agreed on as-is-where-is, so I arranged a money transfer to the sellers bank account. Meanwhile, we start echoing the trench with our dinghy to get her out of the bay. 5ft2 at best in high tides. No waves allowed. We could not get into the boat to work on the engine or do anything else. Pretty tense because we had enough to do for her trip from BVI’s to the USVI’s to get her on the freighter. Without a working engine that’s sort of a problem.
I’m another big fan of The Netherlands - my son lives and works in the Hague with his French wife and we visit as often as possible. Last trip was last October to sail in the KilpperRace, which was great fun. There is a large Nonsuch way up in the north - do you know them? they only got the boat and imported her in the last 2 years or so. If you don’t know them I’ll try to find for you (Facebook sailing group friend)
We are in the very north so chances are that you are referring to us. As far as I can tell there is not another Nonsuch 36 in the whole of Europe. There is some info on facebook and instagram about our story but this is the first time I’m sharing the complete sequence of events.
Dearie! I saw her for sale on-line before the hurricane and debated about going to take a look at her. I had returned from St. Martin in May before the hurricane in in Aug/Sept. I wondered what happened to her. Hope you can both have a happy ending.
After payment and signing the bos we finally have access to her belly!
Getting the engine started is a priority, so I start dinghying in 12V batteries out of my aluminium ketch. The batteries that were in the Nonsuch are all bursted open and the battery boxes are full of acid.
During checking of all vital parts necessary to fire up a diesel I discover that the gas throttle cable has snapped. Everything else looks like it should work. I don’t know how the sturdy Morse control cable broke of the Edson controls but it could have something to do with the wishboom lying very close to it during Irma. Easy fix considering you’re in a bay full of parts screaming to be reused someday… (don’t ask)
I can’t say that the diesel started right up but it didn’t take all afternoon either. Once singing, it actually ran pretty good. Thank God.
We waited for a couple of days (weeks?) for the wind and the waves to be at their absolute best en decided to motor Dearie out of Paraquita bay through the trench and over the sandbar. A couple of anxious hours later she’s on open water. We anker her next to our aluminium ketch and watch her roll in the waves while our ketch isn’t moving at all. We wonder if the keel is still part of her hull…
In clear water, where we are anchored, I can have a better view of the hull. No damage underwater and surprise surprise surprise, she’s shallow draft. Not an option I fancy but hey, she has a keel!
Next step is to get her to the freighter to bring her far from home and close to our home! Work to be done
Always good to hear about another Nonsuch rescued from becoming trash in some landfill. There’s more than one tale of abandoned and wrecked Nonsuch’s that were rescued and lived to sail another day.
Once freed out of Paraquita bay and anchored next to our ketch, we faced the next challenge: getting her from the BVI’s to the USVI’s. Sevenstar yacht transport made it clear that they will not wait one minute on a boat that isn’t ready when they’re boarding yachts. Oh, and we got a deal on boarding both yachts so I’m not skippering our ketch across the Atlantic back home.
The plan we came up with was to split up. My girl will skipper the Nonsuch as I will sail my ketch. Doing so creates a backup. If an engine fails a tow line is easily deployed.
The trip from Tortola to st Thomas went without much problems. The engine works like a charm and the temporarily batteries out of the ketch are holding charge, they even seem to be charging. Don’t hold your breath because the positivism is short-lived.
stay tuned as I’m searching for appropriate pictures to add
Good luck with this adventure, keep us posted. We chartered sloops a couple of times near that bay and saw pics of the Nonsuch on the right side of the surface.
Alan & Tracy, Corvus NS30C #216, Toronto
If you want to have the same view on your next charter, book a flathull leeboard boat to explore the Waddenzee. Hopefully the Nonsuch’ll be afloat by then. She’s still under construction now and will be for coming months. We hope to have her in the water next year (or so)
I hope anyone is interested in “the restoring” part of this tale. I was planning on adding it.
As Mark P said, I too would follow the restoration and more about sailing and boating in the Netherlands. Although bit less sunny than BVI, new territory for chartering.
Alan & Tracy, Corvus NS30C, BPYC Toronto
We drop the anchor of the ketch in Caybay st Thomas which is about 20 minutes away from the loading dock. The plan is to use only one anchor because the windlass on Dearie doesn’t work and her chain is super rusty. Above that, boarding is only a few hours away.
We tie Dearie to the ketch to discover that the holding in Caybay isn’t great. We drag. I deploy a spare anchor of the bow of Dearie and reanchor the ketch, leaving Dearie at the spare anchor.
Dearies spot isn’t all that great. She’s very close to, or in the waterplane landing zone. So we turn the key to start the engine to move her… Engine does not turn over. Batteries flat. Somewhere along the trip the alternator stopped charging. This Westerbeke 52 consumes electrical power during operation. There is an electric fuel lift pump and I think the stop solenoid is also powered. We are only a couple of hours away from boarding time.
The only solution I can think of is to get the batteries of Dearie and recharge them on the ketch. Dat means disconnecting, getting them in the dingy, out of the dinghy, into the ketch, charging them which obviously takes a while and return them to Dearie. We have about 4 hours to do so! I can’t remember having worked that hard and don’t ask how but we pulled it of. I also took a big solar panel of the ketch and tied it on Dearies cabin roof to keep the batteries charged. It worked!
A couple of hours later we’re being hoisted on the freighter. Dearie first and after that, the ketch. We made it! The Thornypath, Paraquita bay, Tortola to st Thomas. Quite a ride.
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