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Firecracker of St Peter Port – Gallery

Firecracker of St Peter Port is a Swan 46 MKI .

Racing was always important and I have taken part in the Swan Europeans in 1989 – ´05 (bar ´99 and 01) and in the Swan worlds in 1994 bringing a 5th place overall and the Highland Fling Trophy for best owner helmed boat.

When I bought Firecracker in 1988, she was a very standard 46 in very good condition indeed. The only unusual ‘extras’, as I remember it, were a bulky inverter and a hydraulically driven water maker. Soon I added a battery charger and in 1994 in preparation for the ARC I had the old Perkins 4.154 taken out and completely overhauled.

In 2004 I decided, that the original teak decks of 10mm had done their job and they were replaced with 12mm – still looking good.

More and more I took to single handed sailing and hence installed a MaxPower bow thruster – following Lars’ advice. All in all I have – particularly in the early years – enjoyed the service from Nautors aftersales, not least the ever ready good guidance from Lars !

As I prepared for my second ARC in 2005 I undertook a major refit. I replaced the Perkins with a Volvo D2 75, and the two blade MaxProp with a three blade. Remembering how unpleasant passage from the aft cockpit to the main hatch could feel in pitch dark and heavy weather, I bought an aft entrance kit from Nautor and had it installed at a local yard – the best improvement of all undertaken ! The bulky inverter and likewise the old water maker were replaced, the latter with a SeaRecovery Ultra Whisper Modular 24 volt with energy transfer device and stashed away in different spaces in the boat. The Boat was ‘extended’ with a bowsprit to ease flying an asymmetrical kite and aft to horror of many, I placed a swimming platform designed to be able to be lowered to just above water and to ‘home’ at deck level ! As you can see from photos, it doesn’t look too bad. Another improvement together with a modern 2,5 kW inverter was the addition of a 230 V driven refrigeration plant. The standing rigging was replaced following demand by insurers – no surprise; it had by then done double the milage of that to be expected.

Again in the name of convenience I lately had the bow sprit extended so as to make space for a furler for the gennaker.

Firecracker is now like Europe: scarred by many wars but still beautiful ! – and she will no doubt continue be so for a good number of years, touch wood !