ORCV Melbourne to Vanuatu (M2V)

Doing the hard yards.

Brian Pattinson's new Gusto arrived back in Melbourne a little while ago after a marvellous trip down from Queensland and went straight to the shipyard. They had to motor some of the way, but had plenty of fun when the rags were up. 'Nine hours - Prom to the Heads - we'll take that!' was one call made when I popped down to see the crew hard at work with the final items. Let's have a look at some images of the very focussed crew getting her sorted...

There's no cradle for her, so she sits in the travel hoist

What a prodder!

Flat and fast!

Designed to do just one thing...

4.1m draft. She'll only be doing the longer distance stuff, no 'round the cans in Port Phillip on the weekends for her - I'm told. Freeboard would indicate that anyone who ever went below on Helsal II will think that "Joe Adams must have had hand in this", as one person put it...

Perspective: Angus, in the bottom LH corner, stands a mighty 2m tall and is roughly in line with the tip of the prodder...

Your first indication that going below is still all about the business of speed. Huge water ballast transfer pipes dominate...

This is the galley.

The view aft over yet more pipes and the propellor shaft retraction controls. No scurrying back there to your bunk - thankfully.

The view for'ard - great ringframes! Plenty of strength there...

One Tony Fowler, who did in fact have claret on his hands, to show he'd been hard at it. Nav 'desk' immediately behind...

"We had a list of one hundred things to do when we started", said Tony Fowler and they were just smashing their way through everything from new numbers on sails to preparing for the Cat1 Safety Audit, which all occurred with no fuss. Brian has been around the boat for a month now, including a couple of weeks bringing her down. There wasn't anything significant that had to be done. Simply, the boat had just not been used for quite a while, so it was more about sealing this and greasing that. The water ballast pump was sent away for a service and 90% of the parts were airfreighted down immediately. Pity about the remaining 10%, which the bright spark at the parts company then sent down on a truck... At any rate, they got the stability test underway eventually and with it, crossed the last big item off.

So then, here are the pics of the stability test.

Yes that is rain!

Just can't help getting into a pirate voice and saying 'Arrgghh. It's time for ye to walk the plank!'

You first.

Everyone scurries away and Peter is left carrying that torch. Nice one. Have a good swim.

The boat lovingly known as the skiff on steroids, now even has wings! Red Bull anyone?

Ah yes. The Men of Science with inclinometers and all that stuff (Peter Colemand and John Duffin)

Caroline Killick and Peter Coleman - not sure why they're smiling, at least one of them would have had to walk the plank out to the end of those ladders....

Team Gusto's determination to get to the start line on time has been monumental and clearly inspirational. If it is all about being first to the pub at the other end, I'd say you'd better get the drinks lined up!

By John Curnow