Acrux
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The Acrux is a Norman Cross 42 MK II trimaran sailboat, modified
with a
sugar scoup (in 2004), which lengthened it to a 48' boat.
Acrux is a star in the
Southern Cross. This is the origional name of the boat, as far
as
I know.
I first saw the Acrux in the winter of 1988. I looked it over
and
decided that was the boat I wanted. So I kept an eye on
it.
The previous owner had not been taking very good care of it, and
during
the spring of 1989 he didn't pay the guy who was shoveling snow off
it,
and as a result a heavy snow pushed it beneath the water. I
saw
this when I was in Valdez caring for the Red
Rover. A couple years later, in October 1991, I noticed
an
impound sign on the boat; the harbor master was trying to collect on
unpaid bills. So I got the owner's name from the harbor master
and called him to make an offer. I told him I'd seen the sign,
and would give him $30,000 for the boat. He refused, saying he
was going to pay his harbor bill. Two months later when I was
in
Valdez again the sign was still on the boat, so I called him again
and
offered him $12,500. He refused, still insisting he would pay
his
bill. The next month I called again and offered him
$8,000.
He still insisted he was going to pay the harbor bill. By
February time was essentially out, so I called him and offered him
$5,000. He said he owed someone else $5,000 on the boat, I
replied it didn't matter because there wasn't a lien on the boat but
he
insisted the other guy had to be paid. So I got the
lienholder's
name and offered him a note for $5,000 or a check for $1,500.
He
said 'send me a check'. I called the owner back and he was
still
really reluctant to sell, but after talking with him for a half hour
I
managed to find a way to make it work: give him a buy-back
option. So he agreed to sell me the boat for $5,000 (less the
$1,500 I sent the lienholder). Of course I had to pay the
harbor
fees too, so by the time I had everything all cleared up I had
nearly
$7,500 into the boat.
The history on the boat is all hearsay. But I believe it was
built in Texas in 1978. It was bought (owned?) by someone who
had
worked on the pipeline (the lienholder), who sailed it down through
the
Panama Canal and then to Alaska (by way of Hawaii?). Then it
was
sold, I think to the guy I bought it from.
It was old and in very poor shape when I bought it in the spring of
1992. I warned the city of Valdez that I wasn't going to have
the
money to fix it up for 10-12 years, and they assured me that it
wouldn't be any trouble--I think they were so pleased to finally
have
someone who would take care of it they didn't care!! I ordered
a
new slip for it, one on the end of a dock where it wasn't occupying
2
slips. They were very helpful and soon I had it moved and
could
begin cleaning it up.
The Acrux had never been properly cleaned after being below the
water
(which I was informed had happened twice). So I cleaned it
out,
removed a bunch of the old wiring (which was bad), removed the old
stove and in general worked it over. It didn't have a motor,
so
for the first summer I used a rickety little dingy to pull it in and
out of the harbor with. This photo
is of my first sailing trip, in May 1992 (just a little over a month
after I got the boat). There was almost no wind so I left the
boat sailing herself, took the dingy out and snapped some photos of
it. This remains one of the best photos I have of the Acrux!
I used the Acrux extensively in Prince William Sound in the 1990's,
keeping
intermittent logs. In 2003 I sailed the boat to Seattle
and PMC totally rebuilt it, converting it into an essentually new
boat. While doing the rebuild I also added a sugar
scoup, which added 6 feet onto the length of the boat. This
makes
it easy to board from a dingy, and it also
improves the shape of the hull, making the boat faster.
My sailing main page.
Old logbooks from the 1990's.
In 2003 I sailed
the Acrux
to Seattle to have the proposed
rebuild project made into reality.
Photo
of the "new" boat.
In May, 2004 we took the Acrux out for a week long shakedown
cruise to test all
the
changes, putting
240 nautical (276 statute) miles on the boat.
In June (2004) we took possession of the Acrux from PMC and headed
north with
the boat. When we
got to Seward we turned south, and (with a stop in Kodiak) headed
for
Hawaii. We sailed a total of
5,105 statute miles over the summer. Our logbooks:
- To Ketchikan:
625 nautical miles (720 statute--normal--miles)
- To Sitka:
405
nautical miles (466 statute--normal--miles)
- To Seward:
726
nautical miles (835 statute--normal--miles)
- To Hawaii:
2,682 nautical miles (3,084 statute--normal--miles)
Between September and March we had some boat neighbors help keep and
eye on the Acrux for us. We'd call them occasionally to check,
and they always had a good report for us.
On March 1st, 2005 we flew back to Hawaii to do some more
sailing. We found everything in good shape, just as reported.
Our
log for the rest of the summer is in 2 parts:
The current copyright laws protect
this page, even though not specifically copyrighted.
However if you want to use portions
of
it feel free to do so, though I would appreciate it if you would
acknowledge my authorship.
Reviewed summer 2007. Modest
rewrite
spring 2010
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