Le Bateau for sale. A Covid 19 Casualty

In 2017 we purchased our Neptune 99, Le Bateau. 

The long term goal was to cruise European waterways, then cross the Atlantic to the Caribean, and then via Panama to cross the Pacific home to Australia. The plan went well and in January 2020 we put Le Bateau on the hard in Trinidad with the intention of returning for the Panama Pacific leg in November 2020.

Then along came Covid 19!!!

Back in Australia whilst waiting for things to change we purchased a Duncanson 26 trailer sailer for Ants's boating fix. Decided a few months later when the borders were still closed to upgrade to an S S 30, more of a proper yacht. Our borders still firmly closed (and our government saying international travel from Australia is unlikely before mid 2022) we sold the S S 30 and purchased a
full replacement for Le Bateau, a NZ built 1985 Lotus 10.6. Now Jane is doing a full time Art course and we have a part time Manager role in outback locations with The Nature Foundation.

Getting antifoul in Netherlands, 2 more solar panels added to arch later,

 With all that we have come to a point where we have chosen to try and sell Le Bateau.

 So following is some detail and old blogs to describe her.

She is on the hard at Coral Cove Marina, Chagaramus, Trinidad.

When we left her last year all cleaned up, all sails and ropes and dodger, dinghy, outboard etc stored down below we fully intended to return so plenty of personal gear on board as well.

So someone who is a combination of sailor, adventurer and risktaker could buy her from us for

Selling Price,  Sterling 18000, Euro 21000, USD 25000 or AUD 33000. I put British Sterling first because it is the smallest number!  The hardstand is paid up till November 2021 and if someone does buy it for them to package and send some of our personal stuff to Oz would have to be negotiated.

From Trinidad choices are varied from a Caribean cruise, to USA then up the Intracoastal Waterway, or across the Atlantic to Europe or of course via Panama to the Pacific.

Below is the Ad from when we puchased her in Hoorn, Netherlands in 2017. Following that is some of our 2017 blog describing the boat and why we bought her.

Neptune 99 used year 1979

Friesland (Netherlands)

Neptune 99

Sailing cruiser from the year 1979 - 10,3m length - in Friesland (Netherlands)

Used boat

Features of Neptune 99:

• Year : 1979

• Length: 10.3 m

• Location: Friesland (Netherlands)

• Shipyard: Neptune Marine

Dimensions

• Beam: 3,53 m

• Draft: 1,05 m

• Ballast: -

• Displacement: 6000 Kg

The last couple of weeks has been getting Le Bateau set up for us and living aboard. We have been back down through Amsterdam to a Chandlery. On the way there we got pulled over by Dutch Customs for a checkover (they said a Dutch boat with an Australian flag and a French name up a small canal at sunset seemed unusual?) and we suppose really it was!!!! anyway they were polite, apologetic and in the end it was all fun. The next day we were in and out of the Chandlery buying lot of bits and pieces to improve Le Bateau. So easy to walk 20 metres to spend money on bits and pieces and they let us and 3 other yachts stay overnight on their secure pontoon.



Since then a quick trip to Friesland, back down to Enkhuizen to fit our Dodger/Sprayhood, to Edam (the cheese place), and then back to Hoorn to a safe mooring for an unseasonal Force 10 storm.

Andre fitting the new dodger

So why did we buy Le Bateau (the new boat):
1) Ocean going, so home to Australia is a real possibility
2) The centre plate, so also a canal boat, draft 1m - 1.9m
3) Great engine, 13 years old but only 22 hours on the clock.
4) Seems to do 4.5knots at about 1litre/hr
5) The biggest 10m boat that Ants has ever been on. He measured it twice!
6) A saloon under the cockpit with a large table and seating for 8!
7) Pilot berths behind the saloon seats, look at photos
8) Price, under $1,000AUD/ foot which was the standard in the 70's
9) Big bathroom/head next to centrecase
and a fridge, oven, fair sails, and we now know it sails well!
A boat that was loved but underused in the last years....
PS good looking as well

Up a creek

At museum courtesy mooring

And her new anchor

The necessary new dodger

Looking aft, 2 pilot berths, table over engine, seats for 8

Fwd from saloon to galley and chart table

Looking fwd to chart table,wet locker and the head

Since buying Le Bateau we have made many improvements and hope my inventory below covers some of that.

Australian registered.

Engine, 30hp Volvo now 16 years old but only about 400 hours with 3 blade folding prop.

Aluminium mast and boom with Plastimo furler and new forestay and backstay in 2019.

2 mainsails , 2 jibs for the furler, 2 spinnakers and a spinnaker sock.

3 water tanks (flexible) of about 300 litres total.

90 litre stainless diesel tank,

4 x 100 watt solar paels on stainless arch to 3 batteries.

500 watt pure sine wave inverter.

3 autopilots, Autohelm 1000, Autohelm 2000 and a new American Pelagic all of which easily handle the steering in all conditions.

Manual anchor winch, very good (and hardly used before us)

14kg Plastimo Kobra anchor on new 40 metre 8mm chain.

French spade anchor with chain and rope.

Flexiteak deck. Very expensive, feels great underfoot and looks great.

3 burner gas stove and oven, with 3 gas bottles in draining locker.

Speed and depth with cockpit repeaters,

VHF radio Standard Horizon with inbuilt stand alone AIS.

HAM/SSB radio with automatic attena tuner (Australian Barrett 950 with frequencies unlocked).

 2 folding aluminium bikes in aft lockers.

Folding 10foot Porta Bote which rows and motors, holds 4 people and fits on side decks easily.

Honda 2hp aircooled outboard.

4 person life raft new in 2019.

406 EPIRB.

Flares in date.

Numerous spare ropes blocks fenders etc.

The boat was set up for the Pacific leg and except that the batteries may be in trouble (18 months just sitting, but connected to solar system) should be ready to go sailing.

On board are 6 full tins of antifoul ( We bought a decades supply of good stuff!) so maybe some negotiation on them.

In 2018 we sailed up the Kiel Canal so Netherlands, Germany and Denmark before back down to France and the canals. Some blog extracts follow.

After the Friesan Islands we sailed into Cuxhaven prior to the Kiel Canal. We stayed at the American Harbour Yacht club. Located next to the wharf where emigrants left for America/ Australia and the New World. A lovely little yacht club with an honour payment system, free "hire" bikes and the best shower/bathroom I have ever experienced in my  cruising time. The Kiel Canal runs for about 100km from the North sea to the Baltic sea. The Kiel Canal motor/sail was much more rural than we expected and actually quite pleasant. And plenty of big ships close by.

The revamped spinnaker 

Kiel Canal about halfway passing under the famous Rendsburg Transporter Bridge without its Transporter!

So in South Netherlands we "dismasted" the yacht and became a canal boat. With a centreplate even the shallow bits of the French canals were manageable and Le Bateau is actually a very capable motor boat.

So below just a little of the French Canals.

The three tunnels we traversed were well controlled and lit and all of us enjoyed the transits. When you look at the engineering it is pretty special.
 

Tied up to steep bank at a friendly private place.

After traversing France to Bordeaux, the mast was restepped and then via Spain and Portugal to the Atlantic crossing.

Below is some of the Atlantic crossing blog which shows more of the boat and how it sails.

 

 

25knots of breeze leaving Santa Cruz

As we cleared the Southern corner of the island we entered the aptly named Wind Acceleration Zone caused by the high island. Eventually 30 miles from land were clear of the Zone but in the zone experienced wind up to 35knots gusting 40. And then no wind and had to motor for an hour to again be in 25knots.

Double reef main, handkerchief of jib doing 8 knots in 35knots

Life settled down to watches of 3 hours on and 6 hours off. Any of the three electric autopilots could handle the steering so watch keeping came down to looking out for passing ships (or watching for alarms on the AIS, an electronic ship watcher!) and adjusting the sails and steering for wind shifts.

Russell with 12 kilos or so of Yellow Fin Tuna

Fishing was an important part of the trip and on the second evening just while discussing dinner we hooked a decent size MahiMahi so the menu changed fairly abruptly.

As the trip progressed we caught more Mahi, a lovely Yellow Fin Tuna, and a Wahoo. The tuna eaten as sashimi was the pick of the fish but we enjoyed them all.

We saw very few ships on the crossing. The AIS alarm let us know of ships up to about 10 miles distance and we could see them visually at about 8 miles. Without the AIS our sightings would have been less.  We actually saw 6 ships and until the last 24 hours no yachts. But on closing Barbados we crossed the route from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria to Martinique. We saw 4 yachts in a few hours and talked to a couple. A big lonely ocean!

A typical meal. Fresh bread, Tuna steaks, coleslaw , tomatoes and olives

The crew getting stuck into some serious reading

We flew the spinnaker for 5 days which was great for keeping the speed up in lighter winds in the middle of the crossing.

We also had the kite for five nights including one 49 hour stretch. Pretty unusual for a cruising yacht but we had good up to the minute forecasts via a Garmin satellite communicator and gave us a lot of confidence to leave it flying

Beautiful sunsets were a magical part of the trip


A bit of detail for the sailors. The wind was mostly NE to E at 12 to 20 knots. The first days were stronger. We only motored for 3 hours and a few hours of engine to charge the battery bank (in hindsight the batteries were fine) so after 2600 miles 7 litres of diesel filled the tank.
The trip took 19days 18 hours and arrival at Port St Charles in the dark was fine. Customs and Quarantine couldn't have been easier the next morning.
As I said the autopilots handle the steering easily and with the centreplate up it is light 2 finger steering most of the time, even under spinnaker.
Daily runs were all 120nms or longer and the last day was 150miles. The average was about 135miles a day. If you could only plan for that all the time!

The skipper steering for a while. I still really enjoy the tiller even if the autopilot can do the work

The photo above shows some of the arch with the solar panels and the (grey) antenna tuner for SSB radio.

Link   https://lebateau2019.blogspot.com  will show you where we were in 2019.

So after 3 months sailing The Caribbean we parked Le Bateau in Trinidad and that is where she is for sale.

As an experienced sailor I can truthfully say Le Bateau is a good sailing boat. The first French owner sailed her in the 1980s from the Med to South Africa. In the 1990s the next (Dutch) owner sailed her to Scotland. The third owner loved her, maintained her but used her very little over nearly 20 years and ourselves as the fourth owners used her well.

 

So if you are the adventurous sailor with 18000GBP (there is that small number again) or 33000AUD and want to buy a very capable ocean going yacht just get in contact with us at antsandjane@gmail.com or Ants on +61456390656   in Oz 0456390656 and discuss the possiblities.

Le Bateau parked up in Chagaramus as we left her in January 2020