Centurion

She was a real luxury yacht and no expense had been spared in her refit however the run of bad luck that had affected her early voyages was far from over.....

After the majority of her refit was completed on the Isle of Wight we came back across the Solent to berth in the Ocean Village Marina. This put us in a better place for the amenities needed to finish her off and also provided a better base for sailing trials which at first all went off without too much drama.

In all the time I was aboard, the owner, John Millar, only came to sail on her once. It was for the start of what was then called 'The Whitbread Round the World Race' We sailed from Southampton the day before the start of the race and anchored in a prime spot in front of the Royal Yacht Squadrons clubhouse at Cowes. Mr Millar was a member of RYS so he and his guest went ashore for dinner at the clubhouse. The following day we watched the start of the race and after waiting some time for the huge flotilla of small craft to disperse the order was given to haul anchor (hydraulic powered windlass obviously) We had recovered a small amount of cable when it just stopped. Our chief engineer Mark Prangnell went below to the engine room to see what might have caused the hydraulics to stop and was met with the sight of hydraulic oil dripping all over the place. The swaging on the main hose from the hydraulic pump which was attached to one of two I.H. generators had split and dumped high pressure oil everywhere. Mr Millar, the owner, was extremely knowledgeable about hydraulic fittings having made some of his wealth by supplying such equipment to the aircraft industry. Under his experienced eye several other fittings were cut in half which revealed that almost all the hoses were defective and needed to be replaced, so it was better that we discovered this in home waters rather than mid Atlantic or some other far flung place..

The failure of the hose and subsequent loss of hydraulic power left us with the small problem of being stuck at anchor and having to retrieve it manually. The solution we came up with was to attach a hook to a length of rope, clip the hook in to one of the anchor chain links then manually winch the rope in as far as we could which was about only about 5 meters, then choke off the anchor chain and repeat the process until we had it all in. There had been a strong blow the night before and so we had a huge length of chain out, it took us over two hours to recover it all and be on our way back to Ocean Village.

Over the next couple of weeks we gradually ironed out a variety of minor issues and on 30th September 1989 we sailed from Southampton with a crew of five bound for Falmouth where we arrived late the following night. The next day the skipper and our chief engineer dived the hull for a final inspection and to check the sacrificial anodes. They declared everything was in order and we were good to go. We departed Falmouth bound for the Canaries on October 3rd and all was looking good. The Canaries were to be our staging post for the journey across the Atlantic, our ultimate destination being Antigua. We sailed with a crew of five, comprising Skipper (Simon Borrett), Engineer (Mark Prangnell), Chef (Sarah ?), a Kiwi traveler called Alan Heijl and myself.

For the first couple of days we kept ourselves busy doing odd jobs around the boat and of course standing watch. We were approaching Biscay and of course the weather was starting to get up a little bit but Centurion was riding it well. I was on night watch with Simon when, in the early hours of one morning, the generator shut down. The chief engineer was off watch and asleep so I asked Simon if I should start No2 Generator and he agreed. Within an hour or two that one also shut itself down.

So there we were heading into the notorious Bay of Biscay on a vessel with hydraulic sail handling gear and hydraulic helm control but with a complete absence of hydraulic power. By this time it was light and the engineer was up and about so over the next couple of hours we managed to put a jury rig together using turning blocks and most of the extra ropes and lines we had on board which we led back to the large deck winches on the aft deck. This gave us a degree of manual control over one of the headsails and the main. As for steering, there was a wheel at the rear of the aft deck which had a physical link to the rudder, though it was usually disabled by means of a 'dog clutch', Helm control was normally handled from a position in the deckhouse but the link was an hydraulic one so was now inoperative. We re-enabled the aft deck wheel so that we had steering and now we were back in control. The only trouble was that there was a lot of open deck between the deckhouse and the wheel, so with the heavy weather we were now subject to it was a perilous trip when it was your turn to helm, which we did in two hour stints.

The weather was really starting to blow now and seas were getting big, but the boat drove through it all very well. Fortunately there was a good reserve of battery power on board so we were able to run some essential things like nav lights and an occasional look at the radar, this was good as by now it was getting dark. We carried on that night and all next day and into the following night during which time our engineer had got to the bottom of the generator failures. Both of the I.H. generators were fitted with rotary injection pumps and on each of them, the drive shaft which activates the fuel injectors had sheared off.

The shafts had suffered what is known as  'varnishing'. This is where a layer of residue solidifies on the shaft making the diameter of the shaft gradually increase. When it reaches a certain point the shaft seizes up and snaps. There is usually only one reason for this happening and that is contamination in the fuel. It was at this point that the skipper, ever one to save a few quid when he could, owned up to having topped off the diesel tanks in Southampton from a fuel barge which had a bit of a reputation for sub-standard fuel.

Concerned that we might be literally dead in the water if the sail handling rig failed, our engineer went to check that the main engine was in order. This engine had a different type of injection pump so was much less likely to be affected by the poor fuel. He hit the starter and it jammed, Fearing the worst he checked the starter motor and found it was working fine, so that meant engine trouble. He then removed the injectors from each cylinder and found several cylinders filled with salt water. With the injectors removed a few cranks of the engine pushed out the water and, after rebuilding the fuel system, the engine came back to life, much to everyone's relief. Sarah the chef had some pies in the store room so these were wrapped in foil and placed on top of the now running engine to warm through. It was the first warm food we had eaten in a couple of days as the galley was built to run on electric power.

The decision was taken to set course for Vigo, this being the nearest large port and the most likely place to be able to get repairs sorted. This was another potential problem as we had no charts of the entrance to the channel into Vigo and nobody wanted a repeat of the Lisbon incident. As it turned out it was a tricky entrance with small islands on the approaches but it was a deep channel. That area of Spain has very rugged coastline with some spectacular and beautiful geography. It was very dark when we arrived off the coast of northern Spain so we 'hove to' and waited for daylight. As luck would have it a large trawler was making its way in to port in the pre-dawn light so I suggested to Simon that we follow in its wake. Trailing behind this trawler we made our way up the Ria de Vigo and eventually found a suitable place to go alongside.

We arrived in Vigo on the 7th of October '89 and this was to be our home for the next few weeks whilst the various issues were sorted out. The owners agent flew out and brought some spare parts for the generators along with a sixth crewmember. The fuel tanks were opened up and it was soon evident what the problem was. There was a kind of sludgy fungal growth on all the internal surfaces of the tanks so they had to be completely emptied and thoroughly cleaned by hand to make sure all residue was removed. The reason for the main engine flooding was determined to be as a result of sea water running back up the exhaust pipe when the boat heeled as there was nothing to stop it from doing so. The answer was to install a 'butterfly valve' into the exhaust which could be closed once the engine was finished with, and then re-opened when the engine was needed again. Not exactly convenient as you had do go in through a deck hatch to access the valve but it solved the problem.

There were of course a multitude of other jobs to be done both practical and cosmetic so we kept fairly busy but also had time to go exploring. It really is a beautiful and unspoiled part of Spain. One day Alan Heijl and I rented a car and went of to see what we could find. Because of an almost total lack of tourism in that area there were very few English speaking people about but we managed to muddle through and found some beautiful places.

On October 23rd all repairs and rectifications were completed we were ready to put to sea again. We planned to just make a short hop down the coast to Bayona where there is a decent yacht marina. The short distance would be a good opportunity to check that all was well with the boat. The short sail proved uneventful, so we spent the night in Bayona and the following day set sail for Gran Canaria.

We had a brilliant sail for the next few days, the weather was lively but not uncomfortable or threatening. Keen to test the limits of the boat we would use the radar to spot squalls and then head for them to pick up the stronger winds to test the responsiveness of the boat. You will see from some of the the photos above just how far we pushed her.

On Centurion's very first voyage from America, where she was built, across to England, it was discovered that her original design left her under ballasted, as a result she was top heavy making handling difficult. It might have been a design issue although the owner had added a lot of solar panels to the topsides which might have had some effect. The answer to this instability had been to add a bulbous and winged section to the bottom of the keel and it was this that Simon wanted to test. Well she passed with flying colours and as the weather mellowed we settled down to a steady and uneventful voyage arriving in Las Palmas on October 28th.

The final crewmember joined us here, and after final provisioning and bunkering was complete we once again put to sea on the afternoon of October 31st bound for Antigua with the intention of being there in time for the forthcoming charter boat show. During our seventeen day journey across the Atlantic life on board settled into a gentle rhythm. The weather was favourable although wind was sometimes a bit light so we motor-sailed now and then, according to my sailing log we motored for only one and a half days. One day I was out on deck having a cigarette. I was sitting in one of the little seats at the back of the deckhouse watching our wake when I heard an unusual noise, a bit like a loud gasp. Then I spotted two whales about 20 metres off our starboard quarter just popping up to see what we were. I ran inside to get my camera but by the time I got back on deck they were gone.

I got into the habit each evening of going all the way forward to the end of the bowsprit and sitting with my legs dangling over. If I leaned right through the rail I could get to a position where I could see no sign of the boat. It was as though I was just flying along, hovering above the ocean, it was a really magical experience. It was one of the most peaceful feelings I have ever experienced being over 1000 miles from land. One evening I was 'flying along' when I spotted something in the water a little way ahead. As we got closer I saw that it was a huge red channel marker buoy just bobbing along right in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. We weren't on a collision course with it thankfully, though it could cause some serious damage if a boat were to hit it.

Finally we arrived off Antigua at about 1.30 am on November 17th. Rather than wait for first light Simon decided we were going in to tie up. I remember the stillness descending on the boat as we slowly entered the calm waters of English Harbour and the sound of the Gecko's echoing across the water to meet us. Thankfully Simon was no stranger to the harbour so under his instructions we set to work and between us we were able to pull off a perfect 'Mediterranean moor' positioning ourselves perfectly between two other yachts and stern to against the dock.

There had been a few fractious moments between some crewmembers on our journey, so four of us left the boat a couple of days later and rented a house between us. After a couple of weeks I set off to find the brother of the best man at my wedding, he was managing a charter boat operation up in St Maarten and he had been able to offer me a job as a boat mechanic so I moved on and since that day I have never seen Centurion again. I have no idea if she is still afloat though I do know that her original owner John Millar died in 2006 at the age of 103.
 He was a remarkable man and achieved many remarkable things in a full life. His obituary is on his page in this database.