Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi that last erupted approximately 4000 years ago. Mauna Kea has an altitude of 4,205 meters (13,796 feet) – much lower than Mount Everest. However, Mauna Kea is an island, and if the distance from the bottom of the nearby Pacific Ocean floor to the peak of the island is measured, then Mauna Kea is “taller” than Mount Everest, making it the “world’s tallest mountain.”
The Current Spelling of Mauna Kea is American and simply means white mountain, it is descriptive. However, “Maunakea” is a name that in Native Hawaiian tradition is short for “Mauna a Wākea,” the mountain of Wākea, one of the spirits of the Hawaiian people. Maunakea is believed to connect the land to the heavens.
MaunaKea, it is said, is where the Sky and Earth separated to form the Great-Expanse-of-Space and the Heavenly Realms. Mauna Kea in every respect represents the zenith of the Native Hawaiian people’s ancestral ties to Creation itself. When we relaunch her, she will be renamed Maunakea.
I can’t remember not wanting a Yacht, from my very early years I would always want to go look at the boats in the Marina. So as far back as I can remember, have always dreamed of owning my own sailboat and embarking on Sailing expeditions. There is just something about the simplicity and self-reliance a sailboat can bring.
Poole Harbour c1964
Little did I know that not too far up the coast, some 14 years later Camper and Nicholson would be starting work on my boat.
What type of boat was I looking for?
I finally decided to take the plunge and set about searching for a boat. Aside from the fact I wanted to embark on a Sailing Expedition, I didn’t really know what I was looking for, but I knew how it would feel and what it was about. I am a Landrover type of guy, I like simplicity and I like the capability of Landrovers. In fact, I spent 6 Months renovating an old Landrover with my Brother in Law, which we drove from our East Yorkshire homes to and around the West Coast of Scotland. Landrovers can’t go anywhere, they do have limits, but they are very capable vehicles, reliable, resilient and rugged.
What type of Sailing would I be doing?
I want to Sail around Britain and then across to the Norwegian Fjords so it made sense that this would be my first Sailing Expedition. Whilst I have always dreamed of owning my own sailboat, I didn’t really know what I wanted, I came across 20 small sailboats to take you anywhere, by John Vigor. This is where I came across Camper and Nicholson boats, sturdy, well built long-distance boats, and built-in England.
The Boat
I found Mauna Kea, in Troon Yacht Haven in the early part of 2017, a Camper and Nicholson 40DS designed by Raymond Wall, Mauna Kea was built-in 1978, hull number 5 of just 19 built. She is a strong and sturdy boat, a good long-distance cruiser, perfect for Sailing expeditions. I fell in love with her immediately and put in an offer subject to a survey which was accepted on the basis that post-survey there would be no further negotiations, thus I paid a deposit.
The Survey
I could well see that she had been neglected but hoped it was simply superficial, hopefully, the survey would report just that. Of course, the Yacht Brokers recommended several local surveyors which I declined, instead taking to a sailing forum to get recommendations. Several people recommended a chap named Ian Nicolson, coincidental name but nothing to do with Camper and Nicholson. Ian Nicolson has quite a pedigree.
Ian Nicolson was apprenticed to the famous yacht designer and surveyor, Frederick Parker. He then served his journeymanship with John I Thornycroft Ltd, the ship and yacht builder (later to become known as Vosper Thornycroft plc).
Ian Nicolson was a doughty pioneer in the field of ocean cruising. He emigrated by sail in 1952 to Vancouver where he worked under Canada’s greatest power yacht designer, Thorton Grenfell. Not wishing to waste money on airfares, he returned to Britain by hitchhiking across Canada and building himself a small cruiser near Halifax. He sailed this yacht home single-handed.
After a spell as a naval architect to the magazine “Yachts and Yachting”, Ian Nicolson joined Alfred Mylne II in 1959 and he took over the firm when Mylne died. He has written 23 books on the design, construction and handling of yachts, and he lectures to three universities on these subjects. He has recently won the Geoff Pack Memorial Medal for his contributions to yachting literature. Apart from the numerous dinghies he has built, he has constructed six yachts for his own use to his own designs. With Alisdair Reynolds, he won the RYA “Build a Racing Dinghy for £200” competition and has won boat-building races. During one of such competition, he and a friend completed a seaworthy dinghy from scratch in 57 minutes and 39 seconds – a world record at the time.
Ian literally wrote the book, one of Ian’s 24 books Surveying Small Craft can be found here. Ian’s details can be found at the International Institute of Marine Surveying here
Ian doesn’t do e-mail and so I called and spoke with him and he agreed to carry out the survey. Ian gave me strict instruction, lift the boat at 09:00 one hour before he was due on-site and do not tell the yard that it is Ian doing the survey. I called Peter, the broker at Trune Yacht Haven, passing on the instruction. No sooner had I told Peter, “lift the Yacht at 09:00,” he asked, “is it, Ian Nicolson?” Ian’s reputation precedes him.
Now, Ian had warned me not to expect a detailed description of the colour of the soft furnishings, more a list of everything that required attention or was an issue and boy did I get a list. The good news was most things were superficial issues, but the quantity of the issues came as a shock. One thing though that did concern me was the state of the teak deck, it was at the end of its useful life causing a lot of damp and water ingress. Although not about to sink the boat it was clearly the cause of a lot of damp and mildew. The teak deck needed replacing which was a considerable expense and something I was not prepared to overlook. Respecting the very clear instructions “no further negotiations” from the broker, I withdrew my offer. My deposit of £10,000 repaid without question, I disappointedly moved on. Now, boats do no sell quickly, they are expensive to buy, expensive to maintain and expensive to refit. I very politely left the door open.
