And again!

Yatchpath has pushed the load date back yet again. The new date is June 23rd. After about a week of trying to resolve the issue with numerous emails, calls, text messages, I heard back from the head of the company. They have 15 or 16 boats (4 to 6 in Victoria alone) that need to get to the east coast, and they are working as hard as they can to accommodate everyone. They estimate our probability of getting on this shipment as about 60%. Amazingly, the ship is the Ocean Titan!

We are now within two days of the “line drawn in the sand”– the last possible day we can load and still get the R/V David Folger up to Lake Champlain in time to get ready for classes (including Alumni College). These delays have already cost the College a tremendous amount of prescheduled research and personnel time. Many of the research programs have had to be postponed for a full year, and the time available for others has had to be severely restricted: one program has been cut from 12 days to three and most likely will have to be postponed for another year.

Becalmed again

The transport company has just informed us that they are delaying our load date again. Now it is scheduled for June 19th or 20th. If we don’t get loaded soon, we won’t get the vessel here in time for fall classes, and this is starting to be a real concern. If we do load on the 20th, then we will most likely have the R/V David Folger here around August 1st, which will give us just enough time to get the boat ready for the fall classes. We are currently trying to come up with alternative options.

In the doldrums

This week has featured some high peaks… and then abysmal deeps. First, on Monday May 22 Middlebury College took ownership of the R/V David Folger!

Since then, Tom and Richard have been getting it ready for transport. And transport is where we plunged into the deeps. The transport company, YachtPath, does not have a transport ship for us, although they had assured us that they could transport it on Thursday of this week. Venezuelan customs was the problem: the ship was scheduled to stop at a Venezuelan port, where no cargo can be offloaded unless customs has looked into the cargo holds. And of course with ships on top of the cargo holds, they wouldn’t be able to do this!

Numerous telephone calls to the president of the company resulted in this arrangement: the Folger is currently underway (under its own power) to Sidney, British Columbia, where YachtPath will pay for it to be held in a marina until the next transport ship is available. The schedule is still tentative; it could be picked up anytime between June 12 and 18. The transport ship, Ocean Titan, is in Seattle waiting for a multimillion-dollar yacht to arrive; then it will come up to Victoria to pick up the Folger and a few other vessels. So the Folger will be riding in style, with very nice neighbors.

Unfortunately, this delay affects all summer schedules. Once the Folger is loaded, it will take 20 days to get to Florida. The cruise up from Florida will take another 18 days. Given a June 18th pick-up, it will be July 8th before it arrives in Florida, and somewhere around August 1st when we finally get to Lake Champlain.

The Folger will still be here in time for Alumni College and classes in the fall, but this late arrival will severely handicap our research this summer.

Stable and substantially complete!

The builder has sent a revised stability booklet that allows eight passengers and one crew member on the upper deck in any condition of loading, including while the crane is being used. The US Coast Guard may not accept the total of nine because their deck-area rule probably allows only eight total. However, we don’t mind if the boat has a greater stability margin than is needed in service! Dave Weed recommends that the College notify AAM that we consider the R/V David Folger substantially complete.

Countdown to transport

The transport ship will load the R/V David Folger on the 24th or 25th of May in Victoria, British Columbia.

In order to get the zillion things done on the vessel that we need to do before transport, Richard and Tom will fly out to AAM on Friday the 18th. They’re hoping that the boat transfer papers can be completed by or before then so that they can take the vessel out for “stick time” and equipment testing. They plan to do that every day for at least two hours daily, possibly multiple times per day, until they leave for Victoria.

USCG inspection complete!

Two minor issues remain. The inspector is wondering whether the DC power system provides suitable emergency lights. Because the R/V David Folger’s power system switches from house to engine banks automatically if the house side goes dead, she believes that our setup satisfies the auto-on requirement in the CFR, since the lights would never go out.  She is checking with her boss.  If the decision is negative, we may be able to install some of those battery-powered tap-lights in a few places and meet the requirement.

The other concern is the position of the starboard engine-room fire extinguisher, which is mounted above the port side unit on the house aft bulkhead near the ladder. It’s no more than five feet from the engine hatch, though, so she said she will accept the install if USCG Vermont finds it acceptable.

Vessel speed, loaded to the contract performance weight simulating 8+2 persons (plus gear) and running at 90% power, was 23.5 knots — well on the high side of the 20-24 knot range stipulated in the contract. However, the port-engine maximum RPM reached 3305 upwind and 3310 downwind at the simulated 18+2 persons weight. We’ll have to watch this, because these readings are slightly over the Yanmar warranty limit of 3300.

Dave signed off on 95% of the electrical checks this afternoon.  Lights, outlets, all exterior lighting, and so on…  A few other items yet to go, but manufacturing is close to complete, too!

Let’s make it official!

The R/V David Folger will be a documented vessel, meaning essentially that it will be registered. Vessel documentation is one of the oldest functions of the U.S. government, dating back to the 11th Act of the First Congress. Documentation provides conclusive evidence of nationality for international purposes, provides for unhindered commerce between the states, and admits vessels to certain restricted trades, such as coastwise trade and the fisheries.

The U.S. Coast Guard assigns all documented vessels an “official number,” which is somewhat like the VIN number in a car. The official number is preceded by the abbreviation “NO.” and must be marked in block-type Arabic numerals at least three inches high on some clearly visible interior structural part of the hull. The number must be permanently affixed so that alteration, removal, or replacement would be obvious and cause some scarring or damage to the surrounding hull area. Today the USCG notified us that the Folger’s official number will be 1238983.

Of course, it has to pass inspection first!