Greetings fellow passagemakers. >I grew up in the heavy marine construction business and lived on >jack-up rigs in the Far East and the Middle East for many years. My >father was a Master Mariner for American President Lines turned >offshore construction manager and my mother was a civil engineer. >Both worked for DeLong Corporation, one of the world's largest >privately held marine construction companies, owned by my >grandfather who developed the world's first jack-up rigs and also >developed and implemented the concept of containerized shipping. > >I worked on harbor and ocean going tugs out of Singapore in my teen >years. When I was fifteen I moved aboard a boat that my parents had >built. > >The Wandering Star is a 68-foot steel-hulled Defever design built by >the Oriental Boat Company in Kurihama, Japan in 1972. Roughly 72 >tons in displacement and with an 18 foot beam she carried 4500 >gallons of diesel and was powered by two normally aspirated 6-71 >Detroit Diesels using V-drives in an aft engine room. The engine >room also contained two 20 kW generators, a 500 gallon day tank, a >centrifuge for fuel purification, a vacuum based water maker and a >hydraulic steering system coupled to a Hokushin ship's gyro. >Accommodations consisted of four double cabins and three heads. She >also has a comfortable bridge, galley, dining area and main salon as >well as a workshop and a utility room with washer/dryer, reefer and >food storage. A large flying bridge hosted seating, a second helm, >storage and a davit with 1800 lb capacity and tender. My family has >owned this vessel for 32 years. My first experience aboard included >an extended shake down cruise: Japan - Okinawa - Philippines - >Vietnam - Malaysia - Singapore - Indonesia - Timor - Australia - New >Caledonia - Fiji - American Samoa - Palmyra - Hawaii - Seattle. Many >other trips have followed over the intervening years. The boat is >now based in Anacortes, Washington. Flopper stoppers and a third, >quieter, genset (10kW) have been added as have Racor filters, >Purifiner oil filters, diesel hot water heat, a new watermaker and >smaller incremental improvements of less importance. > >My wife completed a circumnavigation on sailboats just prior to our >meeting 18 years ago. The vessels she sailed aboard include, Condor >an 80' maxi, an Ingrid 38, a CT 54 and a 60' Jungert. > >Together we have owned and sailed extensively aboard a Hardin 45 >(Pacific Northwest) and a Beneteau First 38 (Miami) in addition to >our experience aboard many submarines and submarine support ships, >commercial vessels and private yachts owned by friends and business >associates. Moreover, because of my work I travel extensively (over >100 countries to date) and have been able to research and experience >a broad array of both commercial and private power vessels of all >types in addition to our continued cruising aboard the Wandering >Star. I've been involved in the civil submarine business (http://ussubs.com) for 18 years and am active in the design and engineering of submarines and submersibles of all types. In fact, my preferred passagemaker is one of my company's personal luxury submarines, but alas, they are out of my price range. I also run a company building the world's first undersea resort (http://poseidonresorts.com). My main interest in the forum is two-fold. First, I have taken a sabbatical from work to write what I hope will be the definitive contemporary book on passagemaking, entitled, "Passagemaking: Practical Long Distance Cruising in Motoryachts" which will be published next summer, probably in two volumes comprising 47 chapters. My wife and I are also, with the assistance of a naval architect, designing an 85' passagemaker which is a long, slender hull with narrow beam and fine entry. With a D/L of just over 120, a displacement of 50 tons and a steel hull and aluminium superstructure one of the main goals for this boat is to reduce pitching moment as much as possible, even if we have to employ a little submarine technology. I'm grateful to be part of the group and hope to make what contributions I can. All the best... Bruce -- ======================================================================= L. Bruce Jones U.S. SUBMARINES, INC. President POSEIDON UNDERSEA RESORTS LLC Tel: 208/687-9057 Fax: 208/441-7478 E-mail: bruce@ussubmarines.com http://ussubs.com http://poseidonresorts.com "Design, engineering and construction of submarines and submersibles" "Submarine related consulting, sales and operations." =======================================================================