How it started

HISTORY:

Sultana was build in 1969 at the “De Vries “ shipyard in the town of Aalsmeer, Holland.

Building number 598.

This yard is part of the combination of the trio companies: “Van Lent shipyards, “De Vries shipyards: and “De Voogt naval architects”. that form the “Feadship” brand of megayachts builders.

Feadship is known for their extreme high quality of workmanship.

In 1969 she was commissioned by a liquor manufacturer from Italy, who after delivery had her moved to Monaco, which became her homeport.

Initially she was baptized “ Din-Dina III” 26 meters long. 5.85 meters beam and about 100 tons.

Picture shows her maiden trip off shore ijmuiden Holland.

Her sistership, “Monara” was build at the same time, although “Din-Dina III” build as number 2 had some slight differences.

“Din-Dina III” had a longer upper deck and didn’t have wind doors as “Monara” did.

Technically they are both the same.

Equipped with twin “Gardner” 3LB 8 cylinder engines of each 245 HP.

Her design was a in house design from “De Vries” and not “De Voogt”.

Her lines were taken from a range of yachts that were built for “Carlo Riva” by “De Vries”.

These yachts were called the “Riva Caravelle” range, and were designed and built for the American market.

“De Vries” modified the model with a canoe stern and gave them a more traditional look.

From her history isn’t much known, apart from a few names that she carried throughout her live.

It is known that she has been called: “Bandol” and “Peer Gynt”

If you as the reader of this article know more about her history, please contact me at: hightide@orange.fr.

Picture: As “Peer Gynt” in Palma de Mallorca.

The recent history is that her former owner, a young Russian business man bought the then called “Peer Gynt” in 1999.

She was then based in Palma de Mallorca.

Her crew advised the new owner to bring her to the yard for a large service.

She needed sand blasting to repaint her hull and super structure.

This work was to be done at the shipyard in “San Remo” Italy.

After sand blasting, the hull was found in a bad condition, at a large number of places the sand blasting pierced her hull.

As she was cruising under the “Lloyds” register, these repairs needed to be carried out according to the Lloyds rules.

This forced the yard to dismantle a large part of her interior to reach the bad spots.

While dismantling, more and more bad surprises where discovered.

Up to the point where the owner decided to completely strip her down, and ordered a complete refit.

She was then completely stripped down….nothing was left inside and outside.

Just a bare hull, superstructure and a pair of engines….

The steelwork repairs were carried out, and a new remodeled wheelhouse build.

The owner wanted also a completely different interior layout, and ordered new designs to be made.

All together the owner had spend a large amount of money on the purchase of  “Peer Gynt”, the redesigning, stripping and partly rebuilding.

Up to the point where he decided that it wasn’t reasonable to continue the works.

This decision  ended up in a court case against the shipyard.

Whereby a financial agreement was found between the yard and the owner.

However, the relation ship was severely disturbed between the two, so “Peer Gynt” had to leave the yard.

As she was completely dismantled, she couldn’t even float on her own keel.

Quick decisions were taken.

All through hull fittings were welded water tight, her rudders welded in the straight forward position, wooden plates to cover the window openings and some materials like: anchor winch, 2 generators and more stored and fixed on the foredeck.

She was then launched into the sea, and towed by a tugboat to the Shipyard in “Beaulieu sur mer”France.

The yard pulled her out of the water, and stored he ashore, awaiting decisions from her owner.

The owner wasn’t keen anymore to rebuild her, and bought another yacht for his personal use..

Peer Gynt seemed forgotten and abandoned…for the years to come…

Picture: How I found her at the yard in “Beaulieu sur mer” France.

HOW IT STARTED

It was only in 2007 that I came across her in the yard in “Beaulieu sur mer”

I visited the yard with a yacht of one of my clients for repairs.

A yacht very similar to “Peer Gynt”, and of almost the same age.

Also equipped with two old “Gardner” engines.

These engines are of a very high quality, and are not build anymore.

Just a handful of old days mechanics can repair and service them these days.

However more and more people recognize the value of these old engines for their fuel economy and reliability.

( Just for your information: We consumed 33 liters total at 10 knots average speed. This is measured over the whole distance of 2400 miles.240 hours running time exactly.)

Mainly in England hobbyists restore and rebuild them for fun.

Luckily the molds for the parts are still there, and parts are remanufactured again by these Gardner lovers and Gardner as well.

Luckily the French “Cote d’azur” has one of those old days mechanics left…

An Italian man of a certain age named “Mario”.

There are only two things Mario speaks and knows a lot about: Wine and Gardners…

While we were on my client’s yacht we had a glass of wine in the evening after work on the aftdeck on the yard with view on “Peer Gynt”.

We both admired her classic lines for a moment, when Mario suddenly started telling me that he had maintained her engines for 27 years.

The way that he spoke about her was touching, he knew Peer Gynt in better days, and he was sad to see her slowly decline…

I didn’t need to ask why, she really was pretty…

Mario said that her engines should be in immaculate condition, as she couldn’t have done many hours after the last time he took care of them.

He wanted to recover the engines to use for repowering another classic yacht.

Well, then we needed to buy Peer Gynt, and recover the engines I proposed.

Mario knew the Russian owner, and communicated his contact details to me.

I had taken some pictures of Peer Gynt on my mobile phone to show to some friends.

One of them, a young entrepreneur and good friend fell in love with Peer Gynt’s lines after having seen the pictures on a warm summer evening.

Immediately we took the car to visit her at the yard before it was too dark..

When we came inside, it was a disaster…..nothing, and really nothing was left of the interior and technical installations.

The engines under a pile of rubbish..

Missing the last halfs of the prop shafts, the props, the steering pump, the steering wheel, the windows, water pumps…nothing was left.

Mario assured me that the engines were fine…..but no way to test this..

My friend asked me after having observed the disaster for a moment a very challenging question: “Do you really believe that you can get this going again??”

I didn’t answer immediately….just started to imagine what needed to be done…

It was simple….what people can brake…people can make…were my thoughts..

“Yes, I can get her going again”….was my answer.

He then proposed to rebuild her, instead of selling her for the kilo price of steel and recover the engines.

The idea was born…and she was saved from becoming a Fiat car or worse..….

The next day I contacted the owner to set a meeting in a hotel in Monaco

I couldn’t believe my eyes, a good looking young man of maybe 25 years old walked into the lobby, presenting himself as the owner of Peer Gynt.

He must have bought her when he was 19 years old !!! were my thoughts…

It was a very pleasant meeting, and it took only 30 minutes for us to conclude the purchase the remains of Peer Gynt.

ORGANISATION:

Next step was to decide where to rebuild her.

We didn’t have the budget to do this work in France, parking at the yard ashore is too expensive, and large jobs like this should be done at a building yard, not a service yard.

Many options were considered, other countries like Turkey, Italy or Spain were options…

But, Peer Gynt being a Dutch full blood Feadship deserves only the best…

Holland was decided…

We asked quotes to have her transported from France to Holland by cargo ship, or tugboat..

All of them way out of our budget…

One solution remained…...Get these old Gardner engines going again…

It had to be done anyway..

The Gardner engines after cleaning out the engine room.

THE WORK:

Work started….….

To be done: the engines, stabilizers, water pumps, temporary electrical systems, navigation electronics, hydraulics, props, shafts, paint, windows, security items, piping, fuel system, exhausts, generator, anchorwinch, ballast, etc…..

Many items purchased second hand on Ebay, navigation lights borrowed, some parts were given by friends as a present….

As props, shafts and more parts were missing….we tried to find them.

Having contacted the yard in “San Remo” to ask if they still had some parts, they answered: “Check the rubbish corner, maybe some left there”.

We traveled to San Remo, and luckily found the mayor parts in a corner of the yard.

The yard wasn’t very cooperative, they wanted money for these parts.

We paid…no other choice..

Found some important parts...

The engines were done by Mario, he was so happy to be part of the adventure, that he gave us the missing engine controls as a present..

Claude, “mister stabilizer” managed to fit a modern control system on our old stabilizers.

Jean Michel, my old time friend, made doors, windows, dashboard and more…

Ronald, a new friend made the exhaust systems.

Bart and Ed, from Navimarine in Cap D’ail, dear friends who helped me with the mooring and sea trials.

Nick from “Topcoat” painted her in a very ugly brown primer, to assure that she wouldn’t rust..

And last but not least: My kids , Keessie my son, who organized his friends from the rugby club to load 325 bags of sand into Sultana for ballast ( that is 8000 kilos ).

And Celestine my daughter and her boyfriend Gauthier who helped painting and organizing the domestic side. They also unloaded the 8000 kilos of sand in Holland.

Many more were involved….

And all this work done according to the safety rules, we wanted to have her insured her as well obviously…

Bernard Sivell Muller, my old time friend and Lloyds surveyor followed our work and advised were needed.

It was after about 6 months that she was ready for launch…

A very very exciting day….

We celebrated her rebirth by giving her the name: “Sultana”.

Starting up the engines for the first time after 8 years….they ran immediately !!

This was a lovely sound, especially for Mario…

Peer Gynt was finally back alive….

Another month was needed to fine tune her, sea trials and adjustments were carried out.

Picture: « Launch in Beaulieu » sur mer France.

Video of launch and trials



 BACK TO HOLLAND:

Finally, we left the port of Cap d’Ail next to Monaco the 7 of May 2008…

Destination: Holland, her country of birth.

We left the three of us.

Willem, an old and very experienced Dutch captain, Hans, the best cook in the Med, and myself for the technical backup.

First port of call was supposed to be Carthagena in Spain.

However, we ran into some heavy weather not far from Ibiza.

Willem decided to seek shelter in the port of Ibiza.

Not a bad place to stay for a while….

A few days later we arrived in Carthagena were Hans and I left Sultana to Willem and the final delivery crew.

I went to Holland to organize her arrival, and Hans went back home to France.
Video at sea

At arrival in Holland she stayed a while in the port of Volendam as the final rebuild yard wasn’t chosen yet.

A few months later an agreement was made with “United Shipyards” in the town of Enkhuizen to rebuild Sultana.

Picture: Arrival in Holland.

Arrival in Holland video:

 

During her trip to Holland ‘Sultana” was spotted by yacht spotters. These men and women are like plane and bird spotters, they keep track of yachts that pass by ports, shipyards, rivers and straits. 

Their pictures and comments are published on the internet.

Sultana was called in one of their forums the “Mystery” yacht, like a ghost ship with her strange brown color and little windows…see here:  http://www.yachtspotter.com/focard3.php?foo=FG002

This site too: http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/boat-shows-cruises/3199-yachts-gibraltar-15.html

Upon arrival I also published some videos and pictures on the internet that I have made. See here the videos: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sultana+feadship&search_type=&aq=f

And here pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/keesfrance/SultanaTheRebuildingOfAClassicFeadshipMotoryacht?feat=directlink

Picture: The voyage made.

UNEXPECTED TELEPHONE CALL:

One day I received a unexpected telephone call from a man called Vincent Sark.

He introduced himself as the responsible man for the after sales service at the “De Vries” shipyard.

His boss had seen the videos and pictures on the internet, and wondered what our plans where with building number 598…or, as we call her: “Sultana”

I explained our plans to Vincent..

He immediately, and totally unexpected reacted that he might have some archive material on building number 598…

I had  previously contacted the yards naval architect: “De Voogt” for archives and plans. They supplied me with just a few plans, but really little..

They also mentioned that this was al that remained, and that the shipyard didn’t have anything either.

So, I didn’t even bother to contact the yard.

It all became clear when Vincent told me that a lot of designing was done in house in 1968. And “De Voogt” couldn’t have much.

Vincent promised to check out the archives, and contact me at a later stage.

Well, he was quick….a few days later he came with great news.

The responsible man for the archives, Mister Huib De Vries, a retired member of the “De Vries” family had found 16 boxes of archive on Din-Dina and Monara…

And even better…….I was exceptionally invited at the yard in Holland to see for myself what was in the boxes….

The reception at the yard was the most warm as one can imagine…

They were all friendly, and very cooperative..

Going trough these boxes was like traveling in time……I recognized her systems, her lines, her everything…

All was there…even a piece of a carton ripped from a box on which a carpenter had made some notes, old pictures, (that you can see at the site), invoices, quotes, Lloyds certificates, designs, notes, correspondence with suppliers and sub contractors ….all was there !!!

A whole day to check it all out….I switched of my phone, for not to be disturbed in my time travel..

Picture: Digging the archives…..

Vincent allowed me to choose what I wanted to have digitized….well, this was quite a pile…

He did it at cost price..

Thank you very very much…..is all I can say…

The phrase “AFTER SALE SERVICE” is written in capitals at the “De Vries” shipyards…..

IDEAS AND ECOLOGY:

She isn’t original anymore, her wheelhouse and superstructure were modified in Italy, and actually we like it as it is.

So, we are not looking to rebuild her “original” but instead create a classic and modern mixed yacht.

Plans are to use Sultana as a charter yacht for guests.

She will be cruising the Mediterranean in the future, and we are also planning to put her at the disposal for scientists to study the sea and her environment once in a while when she is not “at work”.

She will be present at the yearly whale and dolphin counting. Which is called: “Operation Delphis” organized by the “RIMMO” Association.

In the modern days of “ecology” and “energy saving” to spare the earth were we live on, plans were made to meet as much as possible above mentioned.

The idea: A classic yacht with modern ecological technology and comfort.

A few points to share the ideas:

• Only use the teak that was still on board. No addition of teak taken from the rain forests.
• Usage of recycled materials like wood plates, steel and aluminum.
• The interior will be build from walnut wood that is taken from American plantations.
• Recover heat the from engines, exhausts and generator.
• Storage of cold generated by the engines when they run anyway.
• Usage of environmental friendly materials were possible.
• Reduction of fuel consumption by electronic surveillance of the main engines and generator.
• Usage of low consumption appliances: LED lighting everywhere, low energy consumption domestic equipment etc..
• Reduction of maintenance intervals by electronic surveillance: for less filter and oil changes.
• Permanent computer measurements to calculate exact performance measurements to find the best speed / fuel economy.
• Very high battery capacity to be able to run all the yacht’s electric systems for a minimum of 6 hours without starting the generator.
• Electric bowthruster that will be supplied with power from DC/AC converters in series with the generator. This allows a relative small generator to be installed.
• Generator will when in use run at 80% of it’s capacity to charge the large battery banks. This will reduce considerably fuel consumption and air pollution.
• Engine exhaust back pressure will be carefully calculated to obtain best performance.

PREPARATIONS:

With the paper plans of 1968 that we obtained from “De Vries”, we made autocad plans to be able to continue designing with the modern technologies.

A number of architects / designers were asked to help:

Marco Torrigiani from Genoa Italy who also worked for the previous owner.

He made some of the new interior layouts.

Robert Mc. Farlane from Monaco for the top deck arrangements.

Shane Smith from Switzerland for the exterior 3D designs.

And off course ourselves together with Hans Visser from United shipard in Enkhuizen.

It was of great importance for us to keep costs within reasonable limits, so detailing of the actual building plans were done in house at the shipyard. 

Picture: She will become like this….

THE UNIVERSITY OF ZEELAND:

Well known for their research on energy saving and extensive knowledge of everything that has to do with ships and the sea.

They are keen participants in the solar powered boat races. That they win every year….. http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-32334

The best team for the task…

As we had some quite unusual plans were it concerned the energy household on board, we asked the university of Zeeland ( Holland) to help us study the possibilities.

4 students: Roger Rabbeljee, Marcel van Haaren, Marvin Eleonora andThijs Muskens made it their study project, under the leadership of their professor, Arie De Groot.

They studied all solutions to our demands, while using existing technologies on the market.

The task wasn’t easy for them, as the questions were as follows:

• Regain as much energy as possible from the existing sources, to be reused at another appliance and / or time.
• Try to fit sustainable energy systems. ( solar and / or wind energy )
• Study the possibility of using / adding alternative fuel. ( biodiesel and/or hydrogen gas)
• Use as little space as possible.
• Keep the costs within limits.
• Reliability of eventual systems.

After one study year the report they presented was very useful to us.

Mainly to find that most of the systems are still in development and few are actually used and tested in practice.

Or they are only made for ocean going large cruise or cargo ships. And therefore too large for us to apply.

Nevertheless, we did take some of their ideas.

Like the battery banks, generator choice, and storage of heat and cold.

PROGRESS:

The works have started……keep you updated soon