A new chapter of the Magayon II Chronicles
July 1, 2024
But let me first recap what happened in the last years:
The last few years were not so good to our little Wharram Tiki 26 Magayon II. First there was COVID causing a two year sailing break, during which she was moored at the Puerto Galera Yacht Club. Once traveling was possible again we assessed the situation and wanted to participate in the PGYC Christmas Regatta, but, the port rudder fell apart, water had entered the wood where we had made some beach repairs after getting shipwrecked on Pandan Island, and needed to be fixed. When fixing the Pandan Island battle wounds of the boat in Papaya Cover in 2019 we had decided against making a new rudder, so now we had to deal with the consequences of taking shortcuts. So no regatta this time. We figured that with the kids now grown up we are not going to Puerto Galera very often anymore. Keeping the boat there would only result in 2-3 sails per year. Miriam and Martin with help from Regis and Mavic therefore moved her to Zambales, the idea was to use her for sunset tours as an offering to Sundowners Villas guests, but after some piloting it became clear that was not viable for different reasons. The wind and waves are usually too strong, to launch out of the shallow river mound where she was anchored. And far too strong for tourists, who might even not be able to swim. For anchoring her in the open sea the waves are too high. The Iba beach is a surfers beach because of its waves.
Another problem was the 8hp Yamaha outboard motor, which by now Matty had donated to us. It was totally unreliable, would often only start under heavy protest, and at the end did not start anymore at all. Martin decided to convert it into an electric outboard motor. This took some time during which we did not have a suitable motor for the boat. The electric motor was finally tested on the Bangkal River with very good initial results.
After some vandalism occurred on the boat in the river mound and some damage became visible, we took her out of the river with the electric motor and pulled her up the beach for repairs. It was time to discuss options, including sale, scrapping, moving back to Mindoro, or exploring moving her to the Subic Bay Freeport Zone (SBFC). Since several members of the family are moving to Subic, and there are several options to moore boats in the SBFC, a plan was drawn up to move Magayon II to Subic. For keeping her in the small marina Watercrafts next to the Subic Bay Yacht Club, some documents are needed, among them a boat insurance policy, which so far we had not needed anywhere. In addition, Watercrafts is quite busy, so we asked to be put on the waiting list while sorting out the insurance and the move from Los Banos, Laguna, to our new home in the SBFZ.
End of June 2024 the typhoon season was approaching, a space in Watercrafts became available and Miriam had travel plans for the whole of July, so on very short notice we then launched the little boat from the beach and moved her the about 100 nautical miles south to the SBFZ. It worked out OK despite high waves during launching and the inability to raise the main sail because the night before some more vandalism had taken place by some lowlife land pirates and all halyards and some other parts were stolen. It took us two half days, most of the time the gigantic, totally oversized 15hp Yamaha outboard motor was running a bit above idle speed giving us 6 knots cruising speed. In Subic Bay we had the wind from the back, so we killed the motor and did a bit of sailing with the Wharram jib and a Hobie main sail that we had improvised as a main sail since we could not raise the Wharram main. We arrived in the early afternoon of July 29 and were assigned a space at the old pier in the shallow part, just at the outlet of the Subic River.
Where from here?
Some repairs and upgrading are needed and then we can just hop on the boat for a weekend or short overnight cruise. We are very much looking forward to that.
- Make battery boxes for the electric motor batteries
- Make a LiFePo4 battery, 12V, if possible 100-120 Ah
- Rebuild the rig, replace parts that were canibalised
- Fix the solar panels and the electrical system, replace the speakers, check mast top light
- Fix the tiller system
- Fix ventilation blowers
- Transfer the swimming ladder to the bow
- Lots of small things
Stay tuned for updates.
Once she is ready for sailing, we will be taking guests.