A Report from Morning Tide

The story begins at a New Year’s Eve party in Trinidad on 31^st December 2004 when the previous owner was speaking about a yacht he owned that he had been unable to sell for more than 3 years.  The story sounded intriguing and it was suggested that an inspection of the yacht take place the following day.

What a surprise, as we arrived at the boatyard it was immediately apparent that this was one of the world famous Sparkman & Stephens 34 yachts that are one of the fastest boats in the world to windward (for their size) and the outside seemed in fair condition. However as we climbed aboard it was obvious that there were major problems, rotten timbers, corroded spars, non-functional electrics, broken winches and the like – it was reaching the point at which a decision to cut her up was not too far away.

After viewing some 30 used sails the owner was asked if he would consider a low offer for the yacht as it needed a great deal of work and he said he would consider anything. A price was suggested and immediately accepted and the renovation began.

 
The new owner, Peter Morris, and a local joiner called Victor Nicholas with his wife stripped out all the rotten timbers, corroded parts and the like and over a period of approximately 6 months the yacht was almost completely re-built.

The re-construction included a lot of new joinery, but because of budget considerations a lot of items were repaired or refurbished. The hydraulic backstay was non-functional and the manufacturer out of business many years previously but an old employee of the company was tracked down by email and the unit reconstructed so that it worked perfectly. A photo of the new interior is shown below:

 

The yacht was re-launched in May 2005 and everything seemed fine, but the next morning it was half full of water – a seacock having failed during the night. The boat was hauled out again and all of the underwater fittings replaced to avoid any further recurrence of such problems – to be re-launched again a few months later.

When the racing season arrived in Trinidad in December 2005, Morning Tide was entered in the Cruiser Racer Division and she performed well as yacht and crew started to tune themselves for competition. After one event the topic of conversation was the Grenada Sailing Festival 2006 and Peter Morris decided that Morning Tide would make this her first overseas regatta following her re-construction.

The crew for Grenada comprised the new owner, his daughter, two experienced crew from the USA and a guy from Canada, none of whom had sailed together as a crew previously.

With everything in place we were concerned to hear on the day of our departure that all of the ferries between Trinidad & Tobago had been cancelled due to extremely rough seas and most of the other competitors from Trinidad indicated they would defer their departure to Grenada until the weather improved. Morning Tide was not to be deflected and we advised everyone of our intention to leave on schedule as we were confident our yacht could handle the conditions and we cast off around 9.00 pm at night.

 

The passage to Grenada was fast and rough, with winds over 30 knots from time to time, and next day we made landfall off Prickly Bay – using our GPS to navigate into the harbour. It was warm and sunny and we were delighted to arrive into such an idyllic setting.

The skipper, Peter Morris, had previously competed in many major yachting events, including two Admiral’s Cup competitions, many years of RORC Offshore Racing and the Quarter Top Cup, but he had not sailed competitively for some 20 years. So we were all a bit concerned as to whether or not Morning Tide would be competitive and if we could get the best from her.

This was our first time racing in Grenada – so we took care to use the GPS to avoid rocks inshore and to navigate around the courses. The format of two or three races in a single day was unusual but worked very well – giving a chance to recover from mistakes and increasing the excitement level.

Almost as soon as racing started our questions were answered, we were right on the line at the start in a great position and Morning Tide was streaking away into the wind. As each race passed our performance improved and by the end of the first day we were shown in provisional 1^st place. What a revelation.

 

The wind in Grenada was firm or strong most of the time and in these conditions S&S 34 yachts are known to excel – especially if well trimmed. We soon discovered that we could more than hold our own and crew morale was very high.

But, on visiting Race HQ at True Blue Bay next day we were shocked to hear we had been disqualified from Race 3 on day 1 due to a protest from another yacht. We did not know a protest had been lodged and we had not had any opportunity to refute whatever was being protested. We appealed to the Race Committee asking for a hearing, but our request was denied – and our crew felt very aggrieved.

But the skipper was very experienced and he advised that we all re-double our efforts to overcome the disqualification by sailing even faster in the upcoming races – and that’s exactly what we did. By the final race from Grand Anse Bay back to Prickly Bay our yacht Morning Tide simply flew past to windward of larger competition and was even giving the Racing division boats a surprise.

By the end of the week we were absolutely thrilled by our achievement, we brought back a derelict yacht to racing condition and we sailed her expertly to a magnificent result.  The crew were fabulous and my daughter who was previously into computers is now an avid sailor who cannot wait for the upcoming Grenada Easter Regatta.

Special thanks are also due to the two Norwegians – Henning and Lars and to Dave from the USA who joined us some days to help with grinding winches. Everyone worked very well together and we would all like to sail together again.

We should also congratulate Hood and North for their magnificent sails which performed so well – despite the fact that they were marked as “Manufactured in 1985”.

Whilst we were moored in Grenada several people informed us they remembered Morning Tide from years ago, and we understand she won Antigua Race week under a previous owner many years before. Morning Tide was built in 1969 and was the next boat out of the mould after Morning Cloud – the famous yacht owned by British Prime Minister Edward Heath who used her to win the Sydney Hobart race in Australia.

Morning Tide had a fast trip back to Trinidad where she is being fitted with a new twin spreader mast and a new suit of modern sails – so watch out – we are coming back at Easter to win the Round Grenada Race if possible. The new rig should improve her light weather performance and improve reliability – at least we hope so.

In May, Morning Tide will be at the Angostura Race week in Tobago and she will remain in Trinidad in regular use for the coming year. Needless to say the current owner is delighted with his purchase and well rewarded for all the hard work to restore her.