White Maiden History
January 2017 White Maiden II, the future
White Maiden II is now my
future, having only been running her since 18th January 2017. I had a
great time with 'White Maiden' (see history below) but this 'new' vessel is my
last chance to go from a mid-range, inshore vessel to a top of the range,
offshore vessel, should the need arise. I'm not going to chase the horizon,
I like what I do but I love Sharking, Bassing, Flatfish and St Catherine's area on
the South tip of the Island. In my new vessel we can head down that way on
forecasts with a bit more wind in them.
'White Maiden II' post launch day, when I first tested her back in 2009.
October 2007 White Maiden, the recent past
Was this a dream boat or a reality? I was excited
about White Maiden when I first set eyes on her and so I had to show the
real boss, Mrs Jones, as soon as I could.
'Due South was my current charter boat at the time.
She was a great boat but she
was a bit tight
for me standing at 6'3" full stretched and I wanted the stability and
safety of a twin engine Catamaran.
Anyway I went for a quick test run, from
Wicor Marine up to Portsmouth Harbour and back, with the family. There were
no definite plans at that point but 14 knots on twin 25HP outboard engines
was an incredible economy and nearly unbelievable at only 1.4 litres per
mile.
February 2008
February
is a bad time of year for charter skippers, as the weather can be poor and
the fish are often well offshore which allows too much time to ponder on how
to improve the business.
So in February
2008 I started getting more serious about White Maiden. I organised a
Skippers test run. It was flat calm on a twenty mile round trip, out to Bembridge Ledge Buoy
and back. But we witnessed a
measured and incredible economy
and speed from the two tiny 25Hp engines.
I
got a follow up call from Ben at BWSeaCats, giving me first refusal over
their test boat, 'White Maiden', labelled a 'Classic 995' Displacement Catamaran.
So aiming for a quick project
turnaround, I paid the deposit and took the dive! As soon as I told friends
that I was buying White Maiden, Due South was practically sold. This
certainly helped the money situation but the whole thing was and still is a
massive financial commitment.
March
2008
Next, was the preliminary MCA surveyors
report and stability tests, which soon followed the fitting of the new and
latest Yamaha 60 HP Long Shaft Eco Tech Outboard Engines (I now have the
new 70's fitted since April 2015).
Then she came indoors for completion and modification to my
turn key options that I had selected.
On the whole I am very pleased with the layout and only a few
minor things would be different, if I were to start all over again. So no
complaints.
April and May 2008
'White Maiden', in the BWSeaCat boatshed. Note that all boats look much
bigger out of the water but 'White Maiden' looked huge! Next to 'White
Maiden' is 'Aristocat'.
Mine powered by petrol outboards and Denis' powered by 60Hp inboard diesel Nannis.
Another BWSeaCat Classic 995 built at the
same time was 'Aristocat'
Here is Denis Froud's 'Aristocat', with out-riggers fitted and the copper bottom applied. 'Arsitocat' is the same
Classic 995 vessel as 'White Maiden' but she is fitted with twin inboard 60 Hp Diesel Nanni
engines, has a range of about 700 miles and is being setup to catch the
very first Rod and Line caught Bill fish from a UK Port.
I still think that what I have is a great
and economical boat, ideal for my needs and I wrote this up three years on in 2011.
BWSeaCat now build a much bigger and heavier
boat; the new SPEED 11. They are much more expensive too! I never believed
that I could have own but now I do.
Handover Day - 12th June 2008
The 10th
to the 12th of June 2008 was the Sea Work 2008 commercial boat show, at
Southampton. Both 'White Maiden' and 'Aristocat' were starring for
BWSeaCat- http://www.seawork.com .
Thursday 12th June was the 'White Maiden' handover, during the
last hours of Sea Work '08. Ben and Iain are toying with the keys even
though they know I have purchased their baby, along with 'Aristocat' this is
just the beginning of a long BWSeaCat story. I am sure White Maiden means a
lot to them, and they should be pleased to know she is still both lovely to
fish from, look at and incredibly frugal on the fuel!
It is my honest opinion that the design is just about right
for my crew (payload), sea area and part time business.
Thursday Evening 12th June - 1 hour
after handover:
We tested the windlass in 25' of water to have a fish just
off Sowley piles, why not, it was a lovely evening! We immediately caught
the first Black Bream and a few Mackerel, seemed like a lucky boat. The
first trip was just as lucky or are the Trident SAC simply really good
anglers, see week ending 16th June at this Fishy Grapevine page
report of the first
full trip.
Before White Maiden, September
2005
I first tested Due South in September 2005,
with Ted Entwhistle and the Trident SAC aboard, we spent the day round the Light. Ted
insisted that I did not fish at all and just skippered the boat. That was
hard as we had a couple of Congers and a nice Cod. She was an 8m South Boat, built and designed specifically for Ted and Mike Hannam. Ted
had decided to retire from Skippering and Mike
retired from the Police about the same time, so Due South was up for sale. Ted was a well known angler in
the 80's, fishing for England, writing a Sea Angler Magazine column and was
a well respected EFSA sports angler. However their loss was really my gain
and Due South got me into looking after crews,
allowing them to sample what I love, a good days fishing in the famous
Needles area.
Due South is still local to me as I sold her
to three fellow members of Ashlett Sea Angling Club and she is heavily used
privately and running very well too! While South Boats, now owned by another
company is still a major employer and business for the Island.
