AIDEEN
The Irish chick on board and
part owner/builder. I
was born in the West of Ireland in a place called Sligo and emigrated
Down
Under in '99. Before I landed I didn't know anything about
sailing. I probably wouldn't have been able to differentiate the
front
end of a boat from the back end of a boat, but thank god thats
all
changed now. I met Ric in Port Douglas in 1999 and thats when all
of our
sailing adventures began. The biggest one of all, building 'Hard
Yakka,'
began in our backyard in Perth in and around August 2001.
I am a qualified secondary school teacher and hope to use this
qualification to
finance our travels.
RIC
Ric is and part owner builder of Hard Yakka. Ric has extensive sailing experience having sailed around the Solomons, New Calendonia, New Guinea and Australia. This is his third boat to build for himself having built boats for other people. This is his second catamaran and he has being sailing forever. He has worked in the mining industry for many years and now works full time on Hard Yakka. He hopes that this will be the last big project he will have to undertake before taking on the lotto life.
SHREK
Shrek is our 6 year
old dog.
He is a bitza - combination of staffy and blue heeler. He unlike
us has
no sailing experience to date unless you call going out in a dingy
sailing
experience. He however is very confident on the boat on the hard
and he
loves the water so it will be interesting to see how he copes. We
worry
about sea sickness, clearing into and out of various countries and most
importantly who is going to clean his ablutions of the deck. ( I
think
Ric should do it!).
HARD YAKKA
Finally
our home a
13.3m F-41 catamaran called 'Hard Yakka'. Owner/builders will
understand
where this name originates. Usually after a 12 hour day fairing when
your
having a beer and you can barely raise your glass to your mouth for
that much
needed sip. We have spent three and a half years building 'Hard
Yakka'
and now that we're on the homeward leg of finishing her its worth every
cent,
ounce of pain, frustration, no social life and no money.
Construction is of foam sandwich, Kevlar inside skin and 1200gm glass
outside.
The boat is 90% finished on the outside and 90% on the inside.
Ric
started working on her full time over the past year and we hope to be
in the
water mid 2005, however its a bit touch and go at the moment.
Its going to be very simple with very little timber trim which saves
upkeep.
Everything will be easily maintained. All bedrooms will be wall
to ceiling hull liner. Only the bathroom and saloon will be
painted. There
are two
queen size and two double cabins. The two queen size have
toilet/shower
en suite. We have taken the option of the galley up as we feel
its
more
social and easier to cook when on the go if your not stuck down in the
hulls. The propulsion is primarily by wind having a 16.5 meter
rotating
wing mast and we will be using a fat head main, working jib, screacher
and
assymetrical. Engines will be 2 x 27hp Yanmar's. It will
carry approx
500 litres of diesel and 600 litres of water.
We
launched 'Hard Yakka' on the 15th of June 2005. She wasn't
completely finished but we had enough. Things that need finishing
were a few painting jobs, handles fixed onto doors, bow pole needed
finishing, starboard toilet need to be completely plumbed in,
daggerboard raising system needed finishing off and other things like
the stereo needed to be installed. But we decided to launch her
and get moving North to warmer climates and do a few of these jobs on
the way. Its now the 5th of August and I'm updating this website
as I sit in Abrohlas Islands of the coast of Gearldton, Western
Australia and I'm glad that we launched her when we did. No
regrets!!
OUR PLANS:
2006
Our
original plan was to head South toward Brisbane and spend Winter in
South Queensland. But by the time we got to leave Airlie Beach
for the trip South the South Easterlies had come in with a vengance so
we decided to turn around and head North. We sailed to Cairns and
that is where we are at the moment (July). Aideen is working as a
relief teacher in Cairns and getting plenty of work which is
great. We are also finishing different parts of the boat off such
as hot water system, watermaker, daggerboards and a few paint
jobs. Depending on work we hope to stay here until
October/November and then sail down South to Brisbane. We
deffnitely don't want to be in Cairns for the wet season. We will
spend the Summer down in Brisbane and again work for a few months
before heading back up North right through to Darwin where we hope to
join the Darwin-Kupang rally. And from there keep heading West.
Our plans like many cruisers changes regularly (thats the joy of
cruising). But we are itching to head overseas with Hard Yakka
and next year is the year!
2007
We
have registered our interest with the Darwin-Kupang rally which leaves
Darwin for Indonesia on July 21st. We hope to be apart of this
rally for our first adventure on Hard Yakka overseas. At the
moment we have left Southport and have started our SLOW!!! trip North
to Darwin. Its still the wet season so we don't want to arrive in the
tropics prematurely in case of a cylone. We are very excited and
looking forward to cutting the
umbilical cord which seems to keep us tied to Australia and
experience some overseas cruising. The safety and security for
our first overseas trip was the main reason of joining this
rally. We also talked to quiet a number of yachties who did the
rally in 2006 and loved it.
We hope to get a couple of months work maybe in Gove before we
leave. Good friend from Tasmania the ever mad Peter Lord and his
gorgeous wife Mal have decided to cut their own umbilical cord with
Tassie(at least for a couple of months) and come on the trip
overseas. They cruised with Ric 25 years ago on his first
monohull when he went overseas to the New Hebrides. Hopefully it
will be a more comfortable experience as we at least have a fridge and
a radio.
We left July 21st
on our first trip overseas.
Its now October 1st we have checked out of Indonesia and plan to spend
the next year around Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Hopefully
Aideen will find some work to build up the kitty again.
2008
This
year started off alittle unsettled and a few things didn't work out for
us. But these things happen in life. So we continued
cruising during the start of the year. But the SW Monsoon is fast
approaching and we don't really want to hang around on the West coast
during this time of year. We have made a tentative plan to head
back to Australia and stay for a few years to get some money
together. If we could afford it we would be off through the Red
Sea and into the Med next year(2009) with our good mates Serenade. So
we hope to start to head south through the Malacca Straits early June.
We went backpacking through Northern Thailand, Laos and Cambodia for 6
weeks. Left the boat in Port Dickson marina. Its now mid
July and we are leaving Pt Dickson in two days and heading for Johor
Bahru where we are picking up a great friend of mine who is brave
enough to come sailing with us for a month. We plan to head for
Borneo.