Wednesday December 7th, 2011

An exciting boat transfer - Sailing a new Corsair 28RS from Vietnam to the Philippines. Part 1

Hi, it’s for sure already exciting to get a new boat. But it’s definitely something else to take delivery of a new boat on another continent and to then start a transfer journey from there… This is a little story about such an exciting and very nice adventure which happened two months ago in October 2011.

We bought a CORSAIR 28 RS from CORSAIR MARINE INTERNATIONAL in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam. But who are “we”? So, let’s begin with a short introduction of ourselves. We’re two German guys.

First, there is Jörg. He’s 59 and the owner of the boat. Jorg decided to relocate after his retirement in Germany, together with his wife, to the Philippines which is where her family lives. For many years, it has been Jorg’s dream to explore the Philippines’ waters with his own boat. Inspired by the Philippines’ multihull tradition, he focused on a multihull sailboat. While following this idea, he became infected by the amazing sailing potential of trimarans. So this led him finally to the fantastic and well proven combination of speed, performance, safety and durability which is offered by the CORSAIR trimarans.

Me, I’m Ralf and I’m 48. For the last 25 years, I have had a lot of experiences on sailboats - but only on monohulls and only in Europe! I own a small, strong 24 footer, which is based on the Baltic Sea. At the end of 2010, Jörg asked me if I would like to share the boat transfer from Vietnam to the Philippines during the autumn of 2011. What a great offer! And challenge!

After seriously thinking about threats like typhoon season or piracy (from the perspective of good old Europe) I finally took the chance. We agreed that I would be the skipper on this journey plus having the overriding voice concerning the needed equipment and other measures of preparedness.

So we started at the beginning of 2011 with our preparations. Loads of details about the equipment, what to buy, where to buy and how to get it to Vietnam in time. And also other aspects needed to be decided. But of course, we had loads of time for this... Nevertheless, the time ran at the end and “suddenly”, it was already the end of September and we were in Saigon.

Jörg had arrived in Saigon two weeks earlier than me so that he could start work on the boat - e. g. the installation of some electric and electronic features. Also he had to buy the last parts of the equipment. That was good because what happened, almost always, happens in such situations. A couple of subjects took simply more time than expected!

And after my arrival, we still needed a whole week to be ready for the great journey. We had to put all the equipment on the boat, organize it, transfer it by truck to (the coastal port of) Vung Tau, drop it into the water, rig it, do a test sail, calibrate the tiller pilot, arrange and finish last details including food and water… and (of course) to have also some sightseeing and fun in the meantime…

During all this, we appreciated great support from CORSAIR MARINE and its staff. It began already with the first sympathetic personal contact of Phil Johns (Corsair Marine’s Marketing Manager) at the Dusseldorf Boat Show in Germany (January 2011). Later, when we arrived in Vietnam, we really got treated like good friends! The very most of all the efforts of local organization, e.g. our accommodation, the truck, the berth in Vung Tau etc. has been, as far as possible, taken away from us.

A special note should be given to the paperwork required by the Vietnamese regulatory authorities. This really seemed to be a special subject. We were surprised to learn that even though we were sailing under the German flag (we had a German flag certificate) we were going to sail under Vietnam’s registration. So, the local authorities were seriously interested in our safety equipment for the boat and each crewmember as well as in our skippers’ licenses.

In this context, it was definitely not a natural subject to get the sail permission in the context of crossing the South China Sea. Furthermore it seemed to be not as easy as expected to find a berth in Vung Tau for the time of the test sailing and in obtaining the regulatory permits from the authorities.

But this shouldn’t scare anybody who is thinking about doing something similar! Because all this complicated paperwork was solved by Ms Van Nguyen. She’s a member of the CORSAIR-Team over there and she acted very kindly and was a pathfinder. Ms Van did actually almost all the work which made it very easy for us. We just had to fill out some forms here and there, answer some questions, listen to the state of play and then wait for the needed permits. And fortunately we got the important permission of leaving the country in the intended way at the same time that we really felt ready and able to start the journey…

On Saturday the 8th of October 2011, we finally started the cruise under a fantastic blue sky. After very calm conditions in the morning where we had to use our engine, the wind became a slight breeze after the noon. In the mouth of the Saigon River, we met busy traffic. Big container carriers, hydrofoils, offshore supply vessels and fishing boats in many different sizes gave an interesting mixture.

The South China Sea said hello to us with a long and very slim fish, which danced directly in front of our boat for 30 meters on his tail fin. Totally great!!!

For the first days we headed in a south east direction. The plan was to pass the big sea area of “dangerous grounds”, which is placed between Vietnam and the island Palawan, southerly in a respectful distance of minimum 60 nautical miles. There are loads of small islands and also uncharted reefs. Only 10 days earlier on this route, there was a SSW gale blowing more than 40 knots. It was the footprint of the typhoon Nesat which crossed the north of the South China Sea. And a new typhoon for the area of north Philippines / north South China Sea was already announced. We didn’t feel like trying similar conditions while having this dangerous area nearby in lee…

*** To read Part 2 of Ralf's story, click here. ***

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Ralf promises to write Part II of his and Jorg’s journey from Vietnam to the Philippines shortly. Stay tuned!

Please note:

• The writer volunteered to write this article and accordingly, has written it independentl

• Corsair Marine has not given or offered any financial or non financial inducements to the writer.
• Some parts of this article have been edited by Phil Johns of Corsair Marine, a native English speaker, to clarify meaning. Every attempt has been made to retain the original intent and tone.
• Corsair Marine thanks Ralf Kock most sincerely for sharing his and Jorg's story on this website.