Picking up the Jarcat from MIRRAT (Port Melbourne)

After lots of ringing around and emails, I had decided to bring the boat from Perth to Melbourne via sea. The ship bringing here got delayed so the Jarcat spent about a week sitting in the terminal car park at Freemantle. Finally I got news (after pestering them) that the boat was arriving and would be ready for pickup today.

It's amazing the stuff that goes on that, until you have a need, you just don't know is happening.
Take MIRRAT - Melbourne International Rollon-Rolloff Automotive Terminal, for example.

The guys at MIRRAT appeared to all know about the "Jetcat". The paperwork I submitted said "Jarcat", but somewhere along the way the boat got a lot faster... I imagine they thought the Jet engines would be fitted later. Anyway, after watching a 20 minute indoctrination (safety) video and doing a questionnaire I was allowed on site. The Jarcat was sitting all alone in a very large warehouse awaiting pick-up.

My MIRRAT guide and I connected the trailer up to my tow-car and tested out the lights on the light-board (detachable trailer lights that mount on the back of the boat during towing). The right indicator started smoking then went out - other wise all was well - my adaptor purchased a few weeks earlier FITTED!. After I got out of the MIRRAT complex I stopped in a large parking bay and checked everything out. Sure enough the right indicator globe glass envelope was broken. No spare, so no right indicator for the trip home - unless I could find a service station along the way. I checked all the tie downs and ropes then started for home - what a stressful journey that was!

The Jarcat is 2.5 meters wide and has to be the scariest thing I have ever towed. Our caravan is 2.2M but the extra 300mm makes a big difference. On my trip home I managed to miss getting on the M1 Freeway and ended up going up St Kilda road - an overcrowded road near the CBD of Melbourne. The traffic lanes there were just a tad narrower than the Jarcat trailer. At one stage I had one wheel running along the kerb and the other running over the cats eyes between the lanes. I managed to swing a right turn near the Melbourne War Memorial and after a few more stressful moments (remember no right indicator) was back on the freeway. It was better from that point on.

I was very glad to get home unscathed.

Your Boat is on its way

The seller, Roy, had gone overseas for a few weeks over winter so we both decided that we would leave getting the Jarcat to Melbourne until he was back and settled. This would give me enough time to chase various shipping options.

The Jarcat was picked up from the sellers home in the outer suburbs of Perth today.
It will be coming to Melbourne by ship.

Quick trip to Perth

On June 10th, William (18 year old son) and I flew to Perth for a day.
Jetstar there and Tiger back (cheapest flights available) - no luggage.
Roy (the seller) picked us up at the airport and drove us out to his rural(ish) property to have a look at the Jarcat.

Roy and I had already come to some understanding about price so we both knew that unless something was obviously wrong we would be signing up to buy the boat on the day. William was immediately struck by the Jarcat and he had no qualms spending someone else's money - I held out for at least another half hour.

There were a couple of things that bothered me but nothing a little re-organizing/fabricating couldn't fix. Roy pointed out some of the things that hadn't been done and had good reasons why he left it to a new owner - more on that in later posts. Roy's wife had a prepared lunch for us which was gratefully received.

I got into trouble for the lack of pictures that I took while looking at the boat. I was really glad that this was one of three that I took as it allowed me to purchase the correct adaptor to go to the 12 pin flat socket on my tow vehicle (outlander PHEV).





Once the deal was done and a deposit paid via bank transfer (I showed him the transaction on my phone), Roy drove us back into Perth and showed us around a bit. We quickly realised why Perth is such a favourite place for sailing (despite the bridges).

Some Background

I had been looking on and off at various Catamarans over the last one and bit years but had never seen the boat that would suit my needs. I wanted something more than a "beachcat" but nothing that I had to leave moored somewhere. Why a Catamaran? I pretty much learnt to sail in my late teens and 20's on a wooden hull 16 foot Cat.

A couple of years ago we finally took the plunge and hired a bareboat (skipper yourself) 36 foot Fountaine Pajot for 7 days on the Whitsundays.
Even though the trip was a somewhat mixed bag with two of the crew staying behind in Melbourne for the first couple of days due to illness, I got hooked. My family and I hadn't realised just how much I loved sailing...

So it wasn't a huge surprise when I found Jarcats on the web. Jarcats come in 5 and 6 meter lengths and they are a trailer sailer - meaning that you can drag them around behind your car, sleep in them on land, launch them into the water and stay on them for a week or so - going somewhere!

Somewhere in the first part of 2017 I stumbled (searched and found?) upon a Jarcat that had been almost finished but never launched - but it was expensive AND in Perth, nearly 3500 km from our home in Melbourne.

It was all the more interesting because the hulls had been extended to 6.5 meters*** (they are normally 6) - a real plus for something like a Whitsundays visit - without the huge expense.

(Picture from seller's advertisement with protective paper still on acrylic windows.)


*** This turned out to be 6.1 meters bow to transom (top of rear of boat - in fact standard length for a Jarcat 6).