Impetuous Delivery
Recently I had the opportunity to help deliver one of Integrity’s flagship vessels, the 530 Grand Sedan “Impetuous”. Alongside owner Richard and a young crew member Nick, the boat was delivered from its Sydney base of Clontarf Marina to the home of Integrity in Queensland at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast.
After checking for a suitable weather window, a decision was made to leave Sydney on the back of a southerly front that had passed through. This meant leaving at 9:30 pm, so once clearing Sydney and logging into the Coastal Patrols ever watchful and excellent service, we set a straight course to Seal Rocks.
Adjusting our speed over the ground to about 10 knots, setting the stabilizer system to a mid-dampening setting and setting the Autopilot to a leisure setting gave us an extra 2 or so knots of boat speed. With the seas running at about 1.5 meters from the South East, we planned a course that kept us close to the coast during the day and further to sea during the night. Additionally, by setting a watch of one person on watch, one person on standby and one person sleeping, it wasn’t long before the sunrise brought on a beautiful new day featuring whales, dolphins and calming seas.
The hours passed with regular log recordings, engine fuel checks, weather forecasting and checking in with the Coastal Patrol. Soon another day had passed into night and a full moon, along with some distant thunderstorms present. We woke the next morning to find ourselves only a few hours from the Gold Coast Seaway.
After clearing the seaway and logging off we checked our progress, finding that we’d travelled from Sydney heads to the Gold Coast in 38 hours, averaging approximately 14 knots and only consuming ¾ of the 2000 litres of fuel onboard. Everyone on board was pretty impressed with the ease of which “Impetuous” had covered the distance and the level of comfort and safety the boat had provided.
After a few weeks on the Gold Coast and having some cruising additions added, the crew arrived to return the boat to Sydney for its Summer outings. Before departing, we once again checked for favourable conditions, which this time came in the form of a North East, 2-meter swell. We cleared the seaway at 5 pm and set course further off the coast to catch the southbound east coast current that was approximately 20 to 30 miles off the coast. This time we had more shipping traffic to deal with, but having AIS overlaid with radar gave us plenty of information to avoid any possibility of getting in another ship’s way. By following the coast and using the favourable currents we arrived 36 hours later. Once again using less fuel than expected, the boat arrived back into its berth at dawn with ease.
To sum up, this boat has been more than I expected and a real joy to go to sea on. It’s hard to remain unbiased, as I was involved from conception and remain involved in helping new owners Sue and Richard enjoy their boat to the fullest. I only hope that I get the chance to travel further and explore more on this very capable boat. If you’d like to view the mighty “Impetuous”, feel free to contact me and as long as the owners aren’t off enjoying her she’s at my Clontarf Marina address.
Yours with Integrity
Adam Workman
