AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s the only word fitting enough to describe 19.5 kts with a crisp wake, a quarter wave starting six meters from the stern and a glorious day.
Finally the Maltese Falcon slipped her lines and gracefully made her way out of Tuzla harbour and into the Sea of Marmara to begin the first of many sea trials. At around eleven o’clock the pilot disembarked and the Falcon was now in the hands off her crew led by Captain Chris Gartner. As this was a motoring trial we gradually brought the engines up to temperature and started to do our trials which consisted of running the engines at various degrees of power and ensuring the relationship between the engines and propeller pitch unit was harmonious, whilst all the time recording data for future use.
We did have a couple of problems but they were dealt with quickly and competently, one was a dirty hydraulic line that lowered but did not stop, the pressure in the pitch control unit and the other was the set up of the shaft braking system. At the end of the day though that’s what doing sea trials is all about.
So at full noise we can make 19.5 kts which was a knot above the specification speed, this means that when there is no wind to sail well, we can still cover a lot of ground comfortably and at a cruising speed off around 16 knots which gives us good fuel economy.
Lots of smiles all round for the people onboard and a great first maiden trip for the Falcon, the feeling you get onboard her is one off a hull that just wants to go, everything she does appears effortless and it bodes well for our sailing trials which will be beginning shortly.
On a separate note, the crew and in particularly Timmy, Sam, Lahrim and Graham were involved in the rescue off a deckhand off a tanker. The unlucky guy got a line wrapped around his legs and was pulled through the aft Panama and into the water forty feet below, as luck would have it the boys were sea trialling the rescue boat that day and quickly moved into position to assist as the tug boat had too higher freeboard to pull the guy onboard, he was hauled into the rescue boat with some severe injuries and taken ashore by our crew, and as you would expect from a superyacht crew, all done calmly and professionally.
Hope everyone has a good week.
George Gill