Hello Antara

Antara came into our lives by a lucky quirk of fate, in early 2018. Her hull was ready but we needed to dress her and drape her and make her seaworthy. An easy task for a circumnavigator you would say. It took us about 10 months to go from hull to sailboat; and, she is still work in progress!

Initiation
The first thing we had to do was get her sale deed registered, and the boat officially transferred in our name. It took us longer though, for it to register in our heads, that we were the owners of a yacht! 

Hello Antara

Only once we had the sale deed, did we go down to the yard, Ratnakar Dandekar's Aquarius Shipyard, to have a first look at our boat, in October 2018. I was terribly excited and couldn't wait to get there, whereas Dilip, the resident stoic, quietly drove to the yard and parked the car. 


Antara was in an enclosed shed, with work material from the yard strewn all around. We used a couple of drums, placed handily near her stern to clamber up the transom to have a first look at our baby. 

She is a resplendent blue 40 footer yacht of Van de Stadt design. At that time, her hull and inside woodwork was almost complete. The mast and rigging as well as the rudder and keel were ready and a - waiting. 

Galley space

To work on her we needed to move her out of the shed, almost as if to breathe new life into her. She was placed on a trolley and moved out into the sunshine with the help of a crane. We then had a good look at her. She has a single, hydraulic steering wheel with a main and a genoa, a 4 ton keel and a rudder. Inside, she has place to sleep 4 comfortably and 2 not so comfortably. The galley is tiny, placed on the port side. The navigation table is to starboard. The head, as the loo is called in boatese, is to the right of the navigation table. The same space on the port side is a storage area. The social space is in the centre of the boat with additional sleeping space towards the bow.

Of needs and wants
This first visit helped us draw up two lists - one of need to have equipment and the other, a wishlist. For Antara, like her Skipper, the world is her oyster and all the seas her playground. We intend for her to play host as frequently as possible to friends, family and all sailing enthusiasts.

For starters, this has meant a fair amount of remodelling of her interiors. We are putting in a gimballed galley and reducing the storage space there; we're adding a couple of bunks to increase sleeping space, we're moving the pot and the washbasin around and putting in an additional door on the other side of the head to provide access to the rear engine area.

The Indian regulators insist on some very specific equipment on board, including two very bulky SOLAS liferafts, to be placed above board. To keep the deck free and meet these regulations, we decided to put a roll bar aft; it has been designed to carry the life rafts on top and later, a dinghy can be slung under. The dinghy leads our wish list.

Checking the rigging

Along with working on the boat, we had to register her as a pleasure craft with the Directorate General of Shipping. She is the first personal craft built and registered in India for personal use.

If you love it, it's not work
Throughout that month we made daily trips to the boatyard, doing odd jobs, discussing changes and listing requirements. On October 26th, we put up her mast and boom and most of her rigging; a temporary set up to help us figure deck fittings. It also helped us check available fittings and list the additions. Then a detailed email to our favourite boatbuilding expert in Holland, Johan, to help review our rigging and general boat layout. He suggested the roll bar design.

This is when I discovered how fibreglass, used for most boat construction in Aquarius Shipyard, can really get under your skin. It has a way of creeping into your exposed skin and raising a bloody rash that lasts for days and roughens the skin before wearing off in layers of dead skin. Boat rig was quickly supplemented with sail sleeves and socks, so I was covered from head to toe.

Scratching that Itch

The roll bar placement led us to look at a split backstay to provide unimpeded access to the transom. To keep the area around the steering wheel, the cockpit, open we decided to remove the main sheet traveller and place a block on the top of the cabin roof instead. Johan Vels suggested a traveller instead of a block, on the cabin roof, so that was that.


On measuring the furler and opening out the genoa, we realised that the pulpit height and the furler needed some change. The forestay fell short of a length and was reassigned for the split back furler, and a new forestay reordered. 

Some of these things we could help with, some we had to wait for the experts at the yard and some for delivery from abroad. Often we had time to spare, and to scratch an itch, we would invariably spend that time removing the masking tape from the hull. The tape is used to demarcate paint lines and on Antara, had been left there post her paint job, for almost a year! 

Pondering on the Head

As October segued into November and then eased into December, I learnt the value of patience. Each change on Antara was first trialled, using sample material or minimal tack welding to attach a piece of equipment, like the roll bar, eyeballed, mulled over, slept on for a few nights and then signed off for final creation.

Ferry Frame

I look forward to every day, waking up in anticipation of what the day might bring. The location of the yard and the drive there are the icing on the cake. A 45-minute drive that involves a slow single lane crawl on the 'Causeway', sighting egrets, cranes and herons; then a 7-minute ferry ride to Divar island followed by a  scenic drive across the island to the yard in Naroa. 

With Antara you now have the opportunity to sail, safe in Covid times - on a large sailboat, along the coast, in the deep blue yonder! You decide and we'll design a sail just for you. 

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