SEQUANA
Sequana is an uncharacteristically round bilged Boro designed masthead sloop. She is 28 feet long, has a beam of 10 feet and is shallow draft – drawing three feet with her centreboard up and five feet with it down.
She was amateur built by the late Murray McDonald in the front yard of his house in the 1962 Commonwealth games village in The Boulevard City Beach. She became a local landmark during her 14 year building period and the locals lost all sense of their navigational bearings when she was launched on 31st December, 1991.
Sequana has been in the water now for just over twenty years and I have owned her for the past seven years.
She has a fibreglass hull that was constructed over a male mould. This technique involves the initial construction of a strip plank male mould over timber frames which are assembled on a building jig upside down. The mould is faired and finished to provide a satisfactory surface on the inside of the final hull. After treatment of the surface with a wax or appropriate release agent, the fibreglassing process begins. When complete the outside of the hull can then be faired and finished prior to the entire assembly being inverted to bring the hull right way up. The timber mould is then broken up and removed to leave behind the inside surface of the fibreglass hull reflecting the outside of the mould now removed. Work can then commence on the cabin, deck and fitout below.
The male mould for Sequana included the wide deadwood which is an integral part of the hull. This was subsequently filled with lead ballast separated down the middle with a 3/4 inch glassed in slot to take the ½ inch steel centreboard which is completely ‘housed’ in the deadwood when raised.
Sequana’s deck, coach house and fitout are constructed of timber along ‘WEST’ system lines. The deck and much of the coach house are marine ply with a vertical stripping system used to mould the curved surfaces at the forward end of the cabin trunk. The deck is finished with two pack paint with non skid grit over the glassed ply – now due for some TLC. She has a built in anchor locker on the foredeck and four lockers accessible from the cockpit. The largest of these, under the port side cockpit seating, provides climb in access to the diesel below the cockpit sole.
In designing the internal layout of Sequana, Murray applied his skills as a very experienced architect to make the best use of her relatively high beam and freeboard. She has a double/V berth in the forward cabin and two other oversize berths – one formed from a slide out base under the starboard cabin settee and the other a quarter berth to starboard. The settee to port is shorter but suitable as a berth for a small child due to the walk in head aft of the forward cabin. Sequana is slightly different to the norm for this size vessel in that the companion way hatch is off centre to accommodate the design of the galley which has a sink, drainer and large ice box that runs athwartships immediately forward of the cabin rear bulkhead.
At the business end, Sequana’s ‘iron topsail’ department is an almost identical Volvo MD2B, 25 HP, 2 cylinder diesel to that installed in Peter Leggatt’s Restless III. However, in Sequana this drives a 16 inch two bladed folding propeller which produces a somewhat lesser result than the same engine in Restless III. This converts to a need for more intensive prayer whilst passing under the old Fremantle traffic bridge with the mast down against a flood tide!
Despite her shallow draft, Sequana has proven to be a good all round performer under sail. Her beamy hull provides her with excellent stability in all but a clearly over canvassed situation. With her plate down, she is only marginally lacking in her upwind pointing ability compared to fixed keelers of similar size. And in an ocean swell, she rides superbly with a balanced helm and an easy motion through the swell. There is no doubt that whilst some will either love or hate the numerous hard chine yachts of Boro design which were typically amateur build several decades ago, Mr Boro knew his naval architecture.
In the twenty plus years since her launch, Sequana has perhaps not sailed quite the distances that Restless had logged in similar time. However, Murray and his wife Rosemary cruised in Sequana down the coast to Geographe Bay and more locally to Rockingham and Rottnest as well as on the Swan.
During the past seven years, Sequana has provided our family and friends with countless opportunities to enjoy the best that sailing on our beautiful Swan River has to offer. We have also enjoyed many holidays on the moorings that Peter and I share near the old army jetty in Thomsons Bay at Rottnest. All in all a testament to Mr Boro’s good design and Murray’s construction of such a sound vessel.
