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4,370 man hours

Report by Builder Mark Stephens
The world's second Visionarry has been launched in Urunga, Australia following a very tense 30 minutes of craning over high trees and a neighboring house. Despite the possible precarious nature of the lift we decided to have a crane raise the 15m x 8.3m Visionarry over the trees behind the shed where she was built, rather than have her transported in pieces and assembled elsewhere. It was tight, the trees lining the riverbank provided a challenge for the crane driver who very skillfully put her down awfully close to the oyster covered bank. She did get a bit tangled at one stage removing some antifouling and a little bit of foliage. All was forgotten as she touched down into the river causing a big cheer from the excited and relieved crowd of onlookers.

I was very happy with the way she floated with 150mm of antifouling showing on the windward hull and 50mm on the leeward hull. This results in an empty displacement of 2.55 tonnes. Even accounting for the rig, which is yet to be stepped, this is a very pleasing weight for a boat of this size. Along with Blind Date's displacement of 1.7 tonnes this proves our original claim; a Harryproa can be built very lightly by concentrating all the sailing loads between the two beams in the leeward hull, instead of throughout many heavy bulkheads as in other multihulls. I don't know of any 2.5 tonne multihulls sailing on a 15m length with the comfort and accommodation of a Visionarry.

Once she was sitting happily in the water we unhitched the lifting straps and motored her up the river a little way. Although we didn't go far she responded very quickly to her two Honda 15HP four stroke outboards and sliced through the water easily. She is now anchored fore and aft outside the shed awaiting her rig, which will be built shortly. The owner, Johnny Richards, is a very happy man and is now busting to get her out into the ocean and sailing.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up drinking champagne and eating the delicious food Michele had prepared for the large crowd.

Mark

Photos courtesy of Sue and Dan Maher, Mark Giles, and Michele Balharry.
Click on image to enlarge

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