vrsar – Voilier 'HIR 3'

My friend Charlie & me

A few weeks ago when we were cleaning the boat for the first time, on our lunch break we went to the supermarket to buy something to eat and Maja spotted a dish washing detergent ‘Čarli’ (Charlie:) on sale. I thought we could use it to wash our hands, but as it turned out, it does so much more…

16/04/201416/04/2014 sasaLeave a comment

This time I couldn’t find anyone to help me. Everyone was either working or sailing, so I went to Vrsar on the boat by myself… Charlie was the only one who was helping me. After seeing what Maja did with the kitchen, I decided to clean the whole boat. I tried to apply Čarli to see how it would work… and it was doing a great job, so I used it for everything. I have to admit that cleaning the locker in the bathroom was one of the scariest experiences I had in a long time. IT was completely covered in mould. It was really disgusting, but it had to be done.

I borrowed from my friend Davor a sander and a hot air blower, so I wanted to try how they work, so I can prepare myself for what will be another big job on my list – stripping what is left of the paint and varnish in the interior.

I sanded the main bulkhead. It was going slow and it was actually much more difficult than I thought it would be. I stopped sanding because I realized that I will also need a vacuum cleaner, otherwise the whole boat would end up in a complete mess.

I then tried the hot air blower. I was told that it should strip down the varnish easily, but I had a different experience with that. It worked really well on some places, not so well on other, but I learned that I will have to sand all areas anyway… but I found another great use for it. The interior is all very wet and humid, so the blower worked wonders to for the wood that would otherwise take forever to dry.

Sometimes it was really difficult to find the motivation to keep working because all I see is more work and not much results. I guess it’s always easier to work with someone, so next time I’ll try harder to find some company other that Charlie… 🙂

With a little help from my friends…

Last weekend I drove down to Vrsar with my friends to see the boat. She looked in even worse condition than I remember from last time, so it was time to get to work!

24/03/201407/04/2014 sasa4 Comments

Last weekend I drove down to Vrsar with my friends to see the boat. We went there on Friday afternoon after work and stayed with my friends (Andrej & Jelena) who live in Poreč. We had a great dinner, spent the night and on Saturday morning Andrej, Tomislav, Maja and me drove to Vrsar.

She looked in even worse condition than I remember from last time, so it was time to get to work! First, we took down the genoa that was in really bad shape, we removed all sheets, halyards and lines from the deck and started cleaning with a high-pressure cleaner which worked great. Andrej volunteered to do it. As soon as he started, he fell in love with the machine and he didn’t let anyone near it. Tomislav and Maja were fighting to try it. They got their turn after only two hours when Andrej got tired.

We took one short coffee break in the bar nearby and one for lunch. We went to the supermarket, bought bread, cheese, mortadella, mayonnaise and beer (of course). We made sandwiches and drank geek on the waterfront and had a great time:)… but soon it was time to get back to work.

I was the only one who dared to start working inside the boat. I had to put the mask and rubber gloves for protection and only then I could enter inside the ‘boat of horror’. First I used a professional vacuum cleaner to take the water out (probably 300+ liters), then we took out everything we could from the interior and the guys started to clean them, while I was removing the mold inside. Working inside was really hard, so every so often, I had to get out of there and take a break.

We worked all day long and wanted to continue on Sunday, but the weather forecast was really bad – gale force southerly wind and lots of rain, so we knew we had to do as much as we possibly could. On the outside she looks much better now, it’s still a mess inside (maybe a little bit better than it was before, though) and we took parts of the wooden interior back to Zagreb, so I can work also at home now.

In the evening we went for a pizza and beer and then back to Andrej and Jelena where we talked, had a few grappas and went to bed. It rained during the night and the wind increased, so we treated ourselves with a long sleep, coffee and breakfast. Jelena’s mom invited us all for a big Sunday family lunch which was great. We had a great meal and really enjoyed the company.

That was unfortunately all the time we had this time, so we headed back to Zagreb to start planning the next steps…

Getting closer…

I looked inside and entered in the cabin. I was shocked. I expected she was neglected, but I never could have imagined the horror inside… I decided to go back and have a second look. This time I was alone and this time I actually saw some potential and started thinking that there might be a chance for a restoration…

19/03/201419/03/2014 sasa1 Comment

Everywhere I go I like to look at boats, so when I came to Vrsar in November 2013, I went to see if ‘HIR 3’ was still there. When I saw her it was a bit disappointing because she looked in really bad shape. We stood in front of the boat for probably half an hour and commented on how she looked, where she has been and everything we knew about her. We discussed about how it was a disgrace that a boat of such a pedigree is abandoned, I took a few pictures and posted them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter later.

Next few months I would occasionally remember what we saw in Vrsar, but that was it. Until one day I spend more time thinking and I decided to try to find the owner. I have quite a few friends and colleagues that might be able to find out who he was, but first I tried google, of course:).. and I found an old ad from 2007 on morsko-prase.hr. Back then she was in top condition, but very expensive. After a while, I wrote an e-mail and sent it, but it came bel because it was an old address which was not used anymore, so I googled the name in the address and eventually found another e-mail and sent it again. This time it seemed that it went through. The next day I got a reply from a guy who said he was still the owner and that he was very sad that the boat was in bad shape and that he wanted to sell her.

We met next week in Zagreb and a weekend after that we went to Vrsar to have a look at the boat once again. We were there early in the mooring. It was a cloudy day with strong ‘Jugo’ (southerly wind), low pressure and everything looked very depressing. When we finally made it to the boat, he opened the hatch, I looked inside and entered in the cabin. I was shocked. I expected she was neglected, but I never could have imagined the horror inside. There was water all over the remains of the floorboards, everything was taken out (which was actually a good thing), all wood in the interior was wet and full of mould. Everything looked like from a horror movie. I lost the will to take pictures and my first instinct was just to get out of there and never look back.

We didn’t stay for long on the boat. I left the port and kept thinking if there is any way to save her. I decided to go back and have a second look. This time I was alone and this time I actually saw some potential and started thinking that there might be a chance for a restoration…