GULF STREAMER yacht
Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 8:01 pm
Built in 1972 as a trimaran at a yard in Mattapoisett, Mass. for Philip S. Weld from Gloucester, Mass.
Launched as the GULF STREAMER.
Length 18.29 x 9m. Draught 90 cm.
Fiberglas construction, she had two centreboards in the centre of the hull.
Rigged with a Bermuda rig, could make a speed of about 20 knots.
The yacht was designed by Dick Newick.
Philip Weld needed time to get familiar with the singlehanded yacht and made first short coastal voyages along the American East Coast.
In 1975 he won the multihull Bermuda regatta.
20 April 1976 she left from the USA under command of Weld and 1 man crew to take part in the Trans Atlantic race which started that year from Plymouth, U.K.
25 April the yacht received a storm warning and the next day she was in a severe storm.
The wind speed reached 60 knots and under a storm sail her speed decreased to around 8 knots.
27 April in a position around 400 miles north of Bermuda she met a monstrous high wave with a height of the length of the yacht.
The lee swimmer dived deep in the wave and the trimaran capsized, both men were inside the hull and it took the two men almost three days to cut a hole in the bottom of the hull of 40 by 40cm to get outside. It was now possible to erect a 2 metre high radar reflector, so the trimaran could be picked up by passing ships on their radar screen.
In the meantime the yacht drifted northwards by the strong Gulf Stream and wind.
After two days the two men crew were picked up by a British freighter and the yacht was abandoned.
After drifting around for three and a half month the yacht was spotted by a Russian freighter which hoisted the yacht on deck and brought it to Odessa in the Black Sea.
After the owner of the Russian ship got in contact with Mr Weld he had already received the insurance payment and was not more interested in the yacht. Also the insurer of the yacht was not interested to get the yacht back, most probably the salvage cost was higher that the value of the yacht.
The Soviets decided then to give the ship to the Black Sea Yacht club in Odessa.
The yacht was refitted by local craftsmen in Odessa, and after the refit she was for many years the best and fastest yacht in the Black Sea.
During the winter the yacht was in storage, but when the storage got on fire the yacht got on fire also and all wooden parts of the salon got lost and the heat deformed a little the fibreglass hull.
Under many Russian skippers she sailed for years around in the Black Sea.
When the Soviet state collapsed the yacht was taken over by a private person or persons (name unknown) and with the help of the Nikolayev shipyard she was again in use as a yacht in 1994.
All radio and navigation equipment was renewed.
During the trials after her refit everything was in good working order.
2011 The yacht is seen in Malta, so most probably she is still around in 2013 under which flag and who owns the yacht is unknown for my.
http://www.yourboatphotos.com/picture/number4771.asp
Grenada 2001 $6 sg? scott? (The double hulled canoe in the back of the stamp is a DRUA in use in the Pacific. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drua )
Source: various web-sites.
Launched as the GULF STREAMER.
Length 18.29 x 9m. Draught 90 cm.
Fiberglas construction, she had two centreboards in the centre of the hull.
Rigged with a Bermuda rig, could make a speed of about 20 knots.
The yacht was designed by Dick Newick.
Philip Weld needed time to get familiar with the singlehanded yacht and made first short coastal voyages along the American East Coast.
In 1975 he won the multihull Bermuda regatta.
20 April 1976 she left from the USA under command of Weld and 1 man crew to take part in the Trans Atlantic race which started that year from Plymouth, U.K.
25 April the yacht received a storm warning and the next day she was in a severe storm.
The wind speed reached 60 knots and under a storm sail her speed decreased to around 8 knots.
27 April in a position around 400 miles north of Bermuda she met a monstrous high wave with a height of the length of the yacht.
The lee swimmer dived deep in the wave and the trimaran capsized, both men were inside the hull and it took the two men almost three days to cut a hole in the bottom of the hull of 40 by 40cm to get outside. It was now possible to erect a 2 metre high radar reflector, so the trimaran could be picked up by passing ships on their radar screen.
In the meantime the yacht drifted northwards by the strong Gulf Stream and wind.
After two days the two men crew were picked up by a British freighter and the yacht was abandoned.
After drifting around for three and a half month the yacht was spotted by a Russian freighter which hoisted the yacht on deck and brought it to Odessa in the Black Sea.
After the owner of the Russian ship got in contact with Mr Weld he had already received the insurance payment and was not more interested in the yacht. Also the insurer of the yacht was not interested to get the yacht back, most probably the salvage cost was higher that the value of the yacht.
The Soviets decided then to give the ship to the Black Sea Yacht club in Odessa.
The yacht was refitted by local craftsmen in Odessa, and after the refit she was for many years the best and fastest yacht in the Black Sea.
During the winter the yacht was in storage, but when the storage got on fire the yacht got on fire also and all wooden parts of the salon got lost and the heat deformed a little the fibreglass hull.
Under many Russian skippers she sailed for years around in the Black Sea.
When the Soviet state collapsed the yacht was taken over by a private person or persons (name unknown) and with the help of the Nikolayev shipyard she was again in use as a yacht in 1994.
All radio and navigation equipment was renewed.
During the trials after her refit everything was in good working order.
2011 The yacht is seen in Malta, so most probably she is still around in 2013 under which flag and who owns the yacht is unknown for my.
http://www.yourboatphotos.com/picture/number4771.asp
Grenada 2001 $6 sg? scott? (The double hulled canoe in the back of the stamp is a DRUA in use in the Pacific. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drua )
Source: various web-sites.