Jonathan Paarman Featured in The Surfer�s Journal

This is the tale of the South African Navy's minor warship P, a fast patrol boat that proved to be one of the more spectacular failures of naval planning during the s. One of a class of South-African built wooden motor launches used by the South African navy until the mids, when HDMLthe last survivor of the class, and all remaining spares, were sold off.

HDML was the last survivor of a class of eleven wooden launches built in various South African boat-building centres in She was serving as a range clearance vessel for the gunnery school and was based in Simon's Town. However, on 12 March she was transferred to the Military Academy in Saldanha Bay as a training ship. She was ideal for this purpose as she had accommodation for two officers and twelve ratings, was 21 ,3m 75 ft long and, at ten knots, could not really get into much trouble.

Unofficially named Disaafter the Military Academy's crest, she served the Academy well untilwhen her keel and bottom planking became waterlogged and she was in imminent danger of sinking at her moorings. She was put up for disposal and was sold for the princely sum of R1 'as is, together with all relevant spares' to a Mr Charles Bates.

This generated a lot of controversy in the press as 'all the relevant spares' at the Naval Stores Depot at SAS Wingfield included all the remaining spares for the entire class. Among these were spare diesel engines and even the ship's bell clock in the Academy classroom, which a stores officer had placed on the ship's inventory by mistake and which Mr Bates insisted on receiving. This left the Military Academy with no seagoing training ship.

Before being handed over to the South African Navy, the completed P went through acceptance trials. Malawi The s were, of course, a period of severe international isolation for South Africa as a result of her 'Apartheid' policies. The only black African country, apart from her immediate neighbours, which maintained diplomatic relations with her was Malawi under the leadership of Dr Hastings Banda. In fact, a large part of the funding for his new capital of Lilongwe came from South Africa.

As a result of this friendship, Malawi felt threatened by her neighbours and, as a large part of her frontier is formed by the waters of Lake Malawi, she decided to establish a navy with South African help. The group arrived carrying a varnished set of ship's nameboards with the name ' Simba ' etched thereon in gold paint, but where was the Simba? She was certainly not in Langebaan.

She was, in fact, in Durban. Dorman Long had obtained the plans of a very successful metre patrol boat from Brooke Marine Ltd of Lowestoft in the Boat building companies in durban journal Kingdom and had re-designed the ship for service on Lake Malawi. They reduced its length to 27 metres and refined the design to come up with a ship that would be inexpensive to build and would be simple to maintain with a minimum of skilled back-up.

She would be all-welded mild steel construction with a round bilge hull, and not flat-bottomed like most fast craft; would have a beam width of 5,33 metres and a shallow draft of only 1,7 metres. A sketch of HDMLlast survivor of its class.

The ship was laid down in and completed in and looked a lovely little ship. Of 80 tons, she had boat building companies in durban journal and air-conditioned accommodation for her crew of.

She was an attractive and powerful-looking ship with a pronounced wave-deflecting knuckle forrard and, once she was armed with a hand-operated 40mm Bofors gun forrard and a single 20mm mounting aft, would have been a formidable warship on the Lake. Getting this ton ship to Malawi would be an adventure reminiscent of similar efforts in the First World War.

She was to be steamed to Beira, taken up the River Pungue, transferred by land to the Shire River and then sailed down to the Lake to be based at Monkey Bay on the southern end of Lake Malawi. Alas for the best-laid plans of men As P58, she was left to languish in reserve at Bay Head and her disconsolate crew at Langebaan returned home to Malawi. This map shows the proposed route by which the patrol boat was to be delivered to the Malawian Navy.

As fate would have it, at this time the South African Naval Staff Course No 7 was in Durban, visiting the naval installations there, among them the shipbuilding facilities at Dorman Long. While being shown around, the party was taken aboard P58, where the executive showing the group around remarked that they were now stuck with this white elephant, which was completely surplus to the SA Navy's requirements. Among the group of students was a certain Commander Little, based at the Military Academy and whose training ship, HDMLhad just been disposed of.

A new training ship Two days before Christmaswhen Cdr Little was back at the Academy, his telephone rang. Did he really want P58? His answer in the affirmative stirred P58's completion and trials and, in Januaryshe was officially completed and taken over by the SA Navy, which stored her up and berthed her at Salisbury Island to await the crew for collection.

SAS Saldanha sent one representative, Cdr W J de Lange, to act as second in command and to get to know the boat, so that they too could use it. The Academy, in its usual inimitable fashion, sent along its version of a deck crew - one nautical science lecturer, a physics lecturer, a sports officer, four midshipmen, a barber and an army cook. The latter two contingents were sent up in the Orange Express, via a scenic tour of the Karoo and Natal, joining up with the others in Durban.

The weather in Durban was perfect on the boat building companies in durban journal the crew arrived - hot and typically humid - with the sea like a mirror. For two days they laboured at getting ready for sea by taking on bunkers, rigging awnings to keep the blazing sun off the steel sides of the ship, doing engine trials and taking on victuals.

Note that the writer refers to her as a 'ship' rather than 'boat', for the new acquisition was in every respect a ship. Twenty-seven metres long and built of steel, she was built like a ship, even to the funnel, and it was as 'the ship' that the boat building companies in durban journal now referred to.

Sailing day dawned cold, rainy and blustery. The ship was due to sail at first light and, as the first grey tinges lit the sky, the crew cast off and the ship backed out into the harbour.

On the quay to see her go was a solitary oil-skinned figure, Cdr Matt Heyns, who, as Officer Commanding Salisbury Island considered it his duty to be there when she sailed.

There was a vicious sea and swell running across the bar and as soon as the ship rounded the breakwater, the boat building companies in durban journal found themselves rolling and plunging horrifyingly. Wave after wave thundered onto the foredeck and up against the bridge windows.

Rain poured down in torrents. Water entered the ship through the spurling pipe, the ventilation, the air-conditioning and the engine room intakes. To close the openings meant to stifle; to leave them open meant being flooded. From the enclosed bridge nothing was visible at all - it was like standing in an elevator moving rapidly up and down under a shower! The situation aboard was rapidly becoming chaotic.

With all the water coming in everywhere, it was literally raining in boat building companies in durban journal engine room and, as the crew were unable to see the fo'c'sle of the ship, Cdr Little decided to return to Durban. Watching the behaviour of the ship very carefully, the crew turned her around and began a swooping, surfing ride, with the sea behind. At that moment Cdr Little glanced boat building companies in durban journal and found that they were on a collision course with a tanker.

To turn once boat building companies in durban journal head-to-sea was dangerous, so they kept on going across his bow, thus forcing him to give way to port. The writer has often wondered since then what his opinion of the SA Navy was just at that time.

Back alongside, the crew mopped up and had a postmortem. On the debit side, P58 had been forced back after only twenty minutes. On the credit side, she had been thoroughly tested in heavy weather. Cdr Little and the crew now knew her weaknesses and could guard against. More importantly, the crew had performed well and confidently boat building companies in durban journal again the next day at noon.

It had stopped raining and blowing, but the swell had to be seen boat building companies in durban journal be boat building companies in durban journal. Nothing daunted, P58 once again rounded the breakwater and set off down the coast. This time, the crew took it slowly and carefully and the absence of rain made all the difference. Midshipmen at work With boat building companies in durban journal this eventuality in mind, the Academy's sports officer, Lt Cdr John Page, who was acting as first lieutenant, had drilled the crew on emergency steering procedure.

What they did not know, however, was that the printed instructions, as supplied by the makers, bore little or no resemblance to the actual sequence of operations needed to engage the emergency steering.

Nothing appeared to be of any use in restoring the steering and, until they got the emergency steering operations, the rudder stayed locked over to starboard.

Every time the crew tried to move, the ship would go around in crazy circles and if she lay still she fell into the trough of the waves broadside on. Eventually, by trial and error, they got the emergency steering operational and ran back to Durban for repairs. Leaving a skeleton crew of engineers behind, the remainder of the crew returned to Cape Town on the Orange Express, with tails between their legs, there having to face the friendly gibes and insults of their friends.

However, without exception, the whole crew volunteered to go back again to try and fetch the ship the following fortnight. This was not possible, however, as, learning from experience, the number of deck crew was reduced and the engine crew increased. This time the odds were on their side as boat building companies in durban journal breathing space had been used by Durban Naval Command to carry out exhaustive tests and modifications.

When the crew arrived at Durban, they found their ship lying alongside with engines running and ready to go. Two hours after arriving in Durban, the crew set off again by sea. Once again the boat building companies in durban journal was rough and once again it was raining cats and dogs, but doggedly they held on at a steady five knots.

As they progressed away from the land, the swell eased. The crew had SAS Reijger in company and although she left them behind in the beginning, they slowly began to gather speed until, at nightfall, they were going eleven knots and abeam of. By daylight the next day boat building companies in durban journal weather had changed and was blowing strongly from behind and the crew found themselves throttled back to 'dead slow ahead' just to boat building companies in durban journal back to SAS Reijger.

This was clearly ridiculous so, after saying 'goodbye' to her, the little ship went up to 'full ahead' for home. This was a most interesting arrival, being a Tuesday night coinciding with a Citizen Force parade at SAS Donkin and the little ship was scheduled to act as an enemy infiltrator that they had to prevent effecting a boat landing on the beach.

The crew darkened ship and came stealing in toward Deal Light with all hands boat building companies in durban journal lookout duties, as they endeavoured to close the beach as rapidly as possible. To stop them doing this, a trap had been set by the seaward defence boat, SAS Oosterlandwhich, also unlit, was lying in hiding off St Croix island and watching for the 'enemy' on radar.

However, P58 had a secret weapon system, in the form of excellent radar manned by Major P de Villiers and his trusty HP computer, so that as SAS Oosterland rushed down to intercept her, she was able to keep track of her and use her superior speed and manoeuvrability to avoid. Somehow or other she could just not shake the SAS Oosterland off so P58 'surrendered' and, after being boarded by a fiercely armed and tin-hatted bunch of National Servicemen, the crew were taken in to Port Elizabeth under guard.

It was only at the 'wash-up' later that night at SAS Donkin that the crew found they had brought in the Army as well and P58 's every move was being watched from mobile radar stations ashore! To Saldanha Bay Leaving Port Elizabeth the next day, once again in company with SAS Reijger whom she outran in the first half hour and did not see again for the rest of the voyageP58 had an uneventful but bumpy passage around to Saldanha.

The opportunity was taken to clean her up as much as possible while lying there until, at 4 o'clock on Friday, 12 March, the crew entered on the final leg of the voyage by steaming across the Bay to SAS Flamingo at Langebaan. As she steamed up the channel there, with her hooter blasting, P58 was welcomed by boat building companies in durban journal salvo of Verey pistol flares and boat building companies in durban journal enthusiasm of a large group of VIPs.

Alongside at Langebaan, P is ready for christening after sailing from Durban. There to meet the crew when they came alongside were their own Officer Commanding, the OCs of the local units, the Mayor of Langebaan, and other local dignitaries, while SAS Flamingo had made a charming effort at decorating the jetty and giving a welcoming party for their arrival.

This she graciously consented to do and the highlight of the week was reached when, in a clear voice, she pronounced, 'I name this ship P May God bless her and all who sail in her' - the traditional prayer. With one clean swing of a heavy chipping hammer, she thereupon broke a bottle of champagne over the ship's bows.

In actual fact the ship also received the unofficial name of Susan in keeping with the tradition at SAS Flamingo to name all their launches rather than just using the prosaic numbers allocated to them by the Navy.

13:05:

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If you know the boat design name, use our Alphabetical Design Index Design Characteristics � Boat drawing with all parts listed. Order a Hard-copy of the Catalog Click here for more information about our plans and kits. January 30, at pm. Connect with us:. Customer Builds. Copyright Info. Copyright by Glen L Marine Designs. All rights reserved.

Mailing Address: East Park Ave. Many materials, including fiberglass, come from China. Shipping of those materials also is much cheaper to here than Miami, he said. After he bought the 10,square-foot building at Forest Ave.

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Eight layers of fiberglass are used to make a hull, which typically is an inch thick. Four workers with various skills are needed to build a boat. One must have carpentry skills, while another must have fiberglass expertise. The first boats we built were ideal for a family of 4, and soon the range expanded. After introducing the Sensation Boat range at the Floating Boat Show in Denmark in , and at the Dusseldorf Boat Show in Germany in , the international orders started pouring in.

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