Illusion Plus

26.12.2018 - 08.03.2019

14.06.2018 - 17.12.2018

m/y Illusion Plus (today Eternal Tsingshan)
Captain

Illusion Plus

Having signed on Illusion Plus, as she was named, we had to go on seatrials straight away. The trials were wholly programmed and coordinated by the CIMC yard personnel. There was number of expats in the team but general manager was Mr Shao and under him there was a number of other Chinese staff. The organisation was quite huge taking space for a whole floor in the building that incorporated the build shed. When I arived ot the yard the vessel was not anymore in the shed but floating alongside under a gigantic crane that could lift tops off drilling rigs. The 89m Illusion Plus looked minuscule in comparison below it.

Illusion Plus

CIMC yard view

CIMC yard view with the massive crane

As we entered the yard and the office floor there was a big billboard in the lobby with the number 86 or something signifying the days left until our departure. After having seen the condition of the yacht I thought to myself that that date will never stick. Subsequently I had a meeting with the Manager that told me that I have to find the crew for the yacht. Oh well, I better get cracking because time was very short and I only had a chief stew so far as far as crew was concerned.

Illusion Plus

We went for trials but having done one recently on other newbuilds I thought they didn't know what they were doing. E.g. the diesel electric powerplant wasn't pushed to the max in order to ascertain performance. We had in ER a Rolls-Royce package that comprised of 2 medium speed Norwegian Bergen gensets coupled with 2 fastspeed Caterpillars, in essence they divided the propulsion between port genset and propulsion genset. Bit different from ABB setup where you have many same size generators and everyone is identical, one just puts more online when one needs more power. The Bergens sounded cool though when running, not the usual high-pitched scream as from Caterpillars. Other than that I thought the seatrials were badly organised I also didn't get to put my hand on anything let alone try a bit of maneuvering. It was almost as like they were afraid to use the yacht to the max.

CIMC workplace safety, useful advice even in general

The hull design looks great and she's very spacious with a +3000GT, this makes her unviable for the yachtie cowboys with their 3000GT tickets. The propulsion is a Rolls-Royce azipull solution that makes her very maneuverable. She's also equipped with a decent bowthruster so with this one should be able to park her anywhere without any assistance. The yacht also features special design features like a corridor between the main engines with viewing windows and a 2 floor atrium in the aft. When we operated the hydraulic gear that was a product from Taiwan it became pretty quickly clear that that it was the weakest link in operation of the vessel, e.g. there are no steps to the swim platform where the mooring gear is and if one can't open the lazarette it is difficult to come alongside without any tarzanesque gymnastics in the aft.

Illusion Plus one foggy morning

The guest areas are very spacious with only 6 guest staterooms and principal suite. The design is by Sinot and maybe not everyone's cup of tea. The crew cabins are quite spacious considering other yachts. Also all technical areas are finished to good standard. She's also equipped with state of the art "yacht standard" gear, like Heinen & Hopman A/C etc, the unfortunate thing is the installation of these equipment that have some shortcuts which already gave indications of future issues. Operation wise it was weird that there was no pantry on the same deck as the dining area, the distance from galley to dining area is a bit far as well.

Foggy morning

Yard bridge crew during seatrials

Seatrial yard crew on bridge

Sunset after seatrials

Next in my to-do list was the crew. I had no time starting haggling over a cheap Filipino crew as getting crew out from there would take weeks if not months. Summer was fast approaching and Chinese embassies were getting long queues for visas. So with help from Burgess we nailed down the safe manning crew and the scales and I sent off mails to ex crew I knew looking for work that would get the job done and the show on the road even if not very well paid, it was an adventure and the off chance that the yacht would sell and things could then improve. As I got my core crew established they brought more candidates to the table and fairly quickly I had a crew assembled. I think I was a bit surprised myself how quickly it happened.

Anchor winch solution

Stern swim platform

CIMC client, oil rig

Having got the crew we started digging in to get the vessel seaworthy and started compiling lists for LSA/ FFA and whatnot needed for the safety survey (and our safety). C/E had the biggest headache convincing the yard he needed a bit more than a rusty shifter to cross the ocean, nevermind spare filters etc. among things. They did not want to put any tools onboard. During day we kept patrols onboard to see whats going on and whats happening. After the seatrials they lifted the vessel up on the hard as they needed to do some underwater works that they had discovered pending (or leaking). Unfortunately we still had full bunkers on from the seatrial, the yard had wanted the vessel to be as close as possible to full condition (lot of weight was missing as she was not completed yet) so they resorted to fill her up. After the seatrial an inclination experiment was carried out.

Paint repairs after hull has lived a bit

Fire locker before wall panels installed

Propaganda out in Yantai

Corridor between main engines

Tenderbay

Meanwhile getting the plans for getting her ready the big billboard in the lobby kept ticking down and I compiled the passage plan which went as follows: departure Yantai, visit to Shenzen for public relations at head quarters of CIMC, then onwards to Galle, Sri Lanka to pick up security and provisions + bunkers, then bunker again at Al Salalah, Oman, continue to Suez Canal, then bunkers at Bizerte, Tunisia, enter EU in Antibes, France, attend Monaco yacht show. As I presented it to the yard manager I got questioned of emergency ports etc. I was a bit perplexed and asked them to tell me of a better route because once in the Indian Ocean there are not many friendly places until you reach Mediterranean so you better gotta have working systems and all spares at hand, as simple as that. Should you try any zig -zags you won't end up in the Med, but you might end up attacked by pirates on the African coast or shot by the Iranians on the Asian coast so go figure, better go straight as the others do. 

Taking a break

Our open tenderboat

Illusion Plus on the hard

Illusion Plus on the hard

Crew dinner outside

Crew dinner outside

Monument in Yantai

Engine room, Bergen in front, CAT behind

Illusion Plus

Illusion Plus

Illusion Plus

I also pointed out that in Suez we may get compelled to get a tug (extra cost abt 50.000USD) to follow us as we don't have an open boat with inboard engine as per their canal rules. For this the yard bought a small open rescue boat for few thousand, very cute and nice, working on diesel. Then as the days were ticking it became obvious that the carpentry wouldn't be completed by the time it came down to zero plans were made to put on materials onboard as well as carpenters, had to look at our LSA and number of berths for that too as ideas starting flying for having ppl on mattresses and using bathrooms communally. No, not a good idea, luckily I got the yard to see sense in this idea.

The small rescue boat, Suez cost saver

Crew dinner out on town

Then one morning the Cook approached me and said he could not take it anymore and wanted to bail and go home. Maybe the cultural shock had been too much for him. He had been taken by one of the secretaries to a local open market where animals were slaughtered and lay on display all day fr the flies to feast on. I've never seen a cook so shocked after he came back from that excursion and managed again to persuade the yard to provision from a wholesaler like Makro. Despite getting this confirmed the cook still wanted to go home and so he went.

CIMC yard team

Our (my) problem was now from where to find a cook. I don't recall how but a candidate was found in Sri Lanka but problem was that there was no visa available so he could only join when we called Galle as planned. Meanwhile, who would cook? I recall it was Friday and as we traveled back to our lodgings at the expat hotel with Yantai's only expat bar (Chris's) my C/O suggested we have a few pints and think about it. As we sat there and grumbled of the quandary we were in we sat down to talk to 2 local ladies, or so we thought. It turned out they had come to Yantai to look for work and one of them was a cook. Well then, there was our answer and we asked Lala, the cook, if she would be interested to cook for a bunch of foreigners, whatever she could do. She was. Next day at the yard I asked the crew if they had anything against Chinese cuisine for the trip as that was the only option on offer and everyone was for it.

Cause for celebration

Last hurdle was to get the yard manager convinced and he actually was happy about it, we had also employed a Chinese stewardess to help our Ch Stew and our NZ stew. There was a lot of cleaning to do after the yard had removed the protection and works were going at the same time so it was an ongoing chaos keeping the clean areas clean and apart from the worked on areas.

Cannons for salute

Undersigned and Arwen from build team

Then the yard manager was asking when we were gong to move onboard and I told him when it was safe. We drew up a list of safety items we needed working before it was safe to move in. Like fire detection, fire fighting gear, sprinkler system, ventilation, freshwater etc. The basic things to control an accident and be able to evacuate safely. At first it was like they didn't understand but as we didn't move in they got going as the bill at the hotel was piling up day by day. When I was satisfied that everything was in order I got the crew to move onboard. As we had moved onboard the C/E noticed that yard personnel kept switching off critical equipment as they finished for the day and we still stayed onboard leaving us sort of unprotected, of course we switched the equipment back on and raised the issue that systems have to be kept on 24/7. It was another hard pill for the yard to swallow but swallow they did.

Tenderbay with building materials

Art

Work going on

The billboard counter in the reception got down to zero, we didn't depart. The yard managers office was dark. Issues were with flag and class to get us certified. The next day the counter stayed still at zero, it didn't go -1 but we kept counting. Every weekend when there was time on Sunday (we had been told by the manager to take off) we went somewhere close by to look at local sights. Below is a temple we visited that was a few hours drive away from Yantai.

Chinese temple

Chinese temple

Chinese temple

Chinese temple

CIMC yard team

Then finally, about 2 weeks after D-day we got to depart, the day before there was big festivities of our departure with an orchestra playing music, cannons firing salvoes of salute, sparkling wine spilled on the stern and speeches were held. Clearly this was a big achievement but we departed as a private yacht under Marshall Island flag so there was still more to be done. We cast off and departed for Shenzen where public relations events were going to be held. I was a bit worried as the time was growing short for us to reach Monaco in time.

Festivities

Champers for good fortune

CIMC yard team

As we left all was good, we headed out to sea and also had 2 yard workers onboard. As soon as we started moving a bit the yard workers went down below in seasickness. Our stabilisers were put on but the other was stopped immediately as C/E found water in the system, so we worked on one only. I needed to get south fast as I was juggling between 3 typhoons in the area, big swells were rolling in from the Pacific. Then as to not make things too easy the C/E reported that they're using filters at an alarming rate, the purifiers were blocked and he could not get fuel sucked out from storage. I asked how long do I have fuel to steam and he replied 24h. 

Hong Kong cargo handling by barge

I reported to yard and told them I'm heading for Shanghai where the problem can be looked into. C/E got into communication with yard and they started bombarding him with ways to get fuel pumped into the day tanks. It looked like we had gotten the fuel bug. Not surprising as we had been fully bunkered on the hard for 6 weeks during Chinese hot summer so pretty sure the bacteria had grown well in these conditions. We kept going towards Shanghai and C/E kept trying ideas with the yard. About midnight we arrived to the Shanghai bar and anchored, I had just heaved to and we were rolling like pigs in the swell from the open sea as the C/E came up on bridge and told us to continue, they had managed to find a way to pump fuel to the engines. I didn't need telling twice, up the anchor came and off we went, away from the typhoon.

Shenzen pilot "boat"

After Shanghai and Taiwan the trip went pretty smoothly, we almost entered Hong Kong waters as we were approaching Pearl river pilot station. The pilot boat was a massive tugboat and we steamed up the river to Shenzen and moored at the CIMC facilities. There we were few days cleaning up with caterers and areas still under construction was fenced off to not show the dignitaries that came to visit us. Big shots came every day, we were not involved as crew, only our Ch Stew gave a hand keeping the show going on. We could not do any tank cleaning where we were so obviously the showing off was more important than fixing things. We did however achieve the commercial yacht class from Marshall islands. 

Cooking food in galley

When the PR events were over we finally left and went a few miles more north into the Pearl river delta to another CIMC shipyard, all the contaminated fuel was pumped out, several hundred tons of it and then tanks were opened and cleaned inside. They had teams of 20 women armed with rags put into a tank at the time. Didn't take them long to have everything done, then we got a bunker barge alongside and we fueled up once again. Our concern were the pipes that probably still had the bug and the residue left and what it would do to the engines if it reached that far. The weather was fair and finally we steamed for Sri Lanka minus a stewardess, the Chinese stew could not take the seas so she opted to get off asap. 

Lala cooking food

Propaganda

Meanwhile as the festivities carried on I had the chance to visit the "silicon valley" of China with my C/E. It was big malls full of electronic components, cables and other paraphernalia. Other shops carried products ready for sale. I also visited the "Apple" of China, Mi shops. For those that don't know the DJI quadcopters are manufactured here, didn't get any though. I bought a new mobile for my C/O who needed new comms. As we were driving to and fro (with an all electric taxi) I noticed piles and piles of rental bicycles in many places, they were not there recently but could see rust and decay that they had lain there longer. Seems the rental idea of bicycles had not worked out or the production was so vast that there maybe was no idea to go find any bicycles abandoned by their users in the gutter.

Shenzen electronic market

Port clearance from China

Sri Lankan fisherman

As we left Shenzen we had an easy sail south, then went past Singapore and continued up the Malacca Straits, I saw on the chart all my favorite places I had used to frequent on another yacht. Then as we approached Galle it was a bit swelly but nothing serious, we tied up in good order and also because it was Sunday the bunker barge had invented an excuse why he could not be there on our arrival (although promised), anyway tied up and settled in for waiting. The port was calm apart from some heaving. Suddenly one of our new mooring ropes gave away, it was no problem as our bosun was good in splicing so he made a new eye in no time. Next day we received bunkers, our Chef and our security detail and we departed for Oman. The Chinese stand-in cook Lala continued as help for Interior and Galley as we had loads of stuff to do.

Galle

Apprentice position fixing

Taking visual bearings

Fisherman catching squid

The transit over Indian Ocean from Galle to Al Salalah was pretty easy, weather was relatively good but got progressively worse as came more west. We tied up in Salalah easy, there was hardly any vessels in port, outside was quite a swell going on but inside just a small gentle heave. Here the bunkers came faster as agreed and we didn't tarry long here before we were on our way again. Incidentally we broke a mooring line again that our bosun spliced together.

Al-Salalah port

Al-Salalah port

Cargo ship carrying cranes

Having left Salalah we were venturing into dangerous waters as we sailed by the Yemeni border, through Bab-el-Mandeb and up the Red Sea, our security detail had to earn their money and shortly after the Hanish Islands we veered off North of the Eritrean archipelago and discharged our hardware there to a floating armoury, the security followed us to Suez. Weather favored us somewhat as we could do exercises on the open decks. The Chinese yard engineers had also at some point found their sealegs so they were also a bit lively.

Al Salalah, wooden dhows

Then it was once again time for the Suez passage, the same inspections. Luckily we had the orange rescue boat as the inspector really went into out tender bay hoping he could slap another 50k on our transit fee. Unfortunately he had to approve our small boaty. C/E was already so much in love with it that he wanted to buy it in case yard would want to get rid of it in Europe. The transit went ahead as usual with gifts of cigarettes divvied out over the transit to various individuals, there was no hassles along the way.

Suez Canal, wooden dhow

Suez Canal, victim

Suez Canal pilot

Suez Canal

Suez Canal

Suez Canal, fishermen

Suez Canal, monument

Suez Canal, monument

Suez Canal, monument

Suez Canal, fishermen

After Suez we were a bit low on fuel and not to let cheap opportunities pass by we bunkered again in Bizerte, Tunisia. After clearance they also gently reminded me that clearance is done and the officials would not say no to monetary presents. I kindly explained I don't have any ships cash with me, everything is paid provided for by the Owners office but I could offer a few cartons of cigarettes in case they were smokers. They declined (as both departments of immigration and customs was present) and left in a huff. After 30 minutes one of the guys came back and collected the cartons.

Bizerte

Illusion Plus in Bizerte

Having left Bizerte we steamed on and passed Malta, our Maltese Ch Stew and Bosun were crying on the phone as they talked to their families. Not sure but perhaps they could spot us going by, in any case both crews were happy to have been able to talk to their loved ones on the phone, our satcomm was not that strong to support voice over IP properly.

Passing Valletta, Malta

After Malta we headed for Antibes, France to check into EU and to clean up the yacht after so many weeks. It was really nice to heave to off the marina and let the boys get into washing down her from all the salt and grime from the Red Sea. We eventually got a berth and moved in a bit later. had a few busy days cleaning her up and setting her up for the show. Staff from Yantai turned up and also carried their share of organising. YCO was our sales broker at the time so they also came with bandoleers to hang  and other stuff for the clients visiting us.

Running the small rescue boat in Antibes

Classic yacht Talitha (built 1929) entering Antibes

Then it was time to move to Monaco, we had timings given when we should be there as they filled up the port to the max. No problem there, tied up easy and put out the passarelle and settled in to watch other yachts coming in and tending to matters as they came up. The next day, just before the show was about to start there was blowing a hooghly outside and the sea was heaving inside the marina, as being stern to our ropes started snapping every 30min or so, te bosun spliced as fast a she could and we realized the rope we had been given from Yantai was too weak or defective somehow. I spent the afternoon in my office chasing suppliers for a coil of normal cargo ship mooring-line and eventually I found one and had it delivered onboard. The bosun quickly cut lengths and spliced them up so we could moor the stern properly and avoid any damages to yachts beside us for example.

Illusion Plus in Monaco

The show went by in a buzz, I met a many familiar faces that walked by and many unknown faces. Also saw some old bosses and even the Russian buyer from before came by to gloat, I don't know what was said for sure but as the conversation went in Russian every other word was a swear word so I guess they were not impressed. It can be mentioned here that Illusion Plus was a new vessel but still 10years old, the history was a bit odd as the yard ad been owned by a Singaporean chap that wanted to build a yacht for himself and started building Illusion Plus, but at some point the business must have gone sour as he sold the yard and left it lock, stock and barrel. The hull sat there abandoned with engines inside for some time until one yard manager had an interest to revive the project and sell it. After many turns a Russian client turned up and he paid the down payment and signed the contract. Somehow the yard could not reach the deadline and the Owner exercised his right for a return + interest. Yard paid him and then they had a 80% completed yacht, as they were so close they decided to complete the vessel but without the frills that had been planned by previous buyer. I guess at this stage I had come into the plans and came down to China for the delivery to Monaco. Well, here we were and during the show we were the most visited vessel, unfortunately the keen eyes of the connoisseurs saw immediately that she was not completed so this marred the popularity of the yacht and came out as a negative in the media.

Illusion Plus in Monaco

After having concluded the yacht show we headed for airport marina of Genoa to decide where we'd go for long term and what should be done. As crew e had already communicated to yard all short comings and repairs required etc. so it was all in hand, the yard only needed to make up their mind. Unfortunately in Genoa we became victim of a sudden fallwind just hours from arrival and the wind pushed our passarelle onto a pillar and the hydraulic ram was bent into a curve. Luckily our C/E knew a shop just outside the marina that fixed up the ram n no time. 3-4 days later we had a working passarelle again. By that time I had orders to sail for Tarragona in Spain. 

Illusion Plus in Tarragona

Port Tarraco was the traditional base of the Qatari fleet and I think they have some finger in the pie with the ownership too. The marina has tried for years to attract yachts there and I reckon it is a popular marina to prepare for the winter in the Caribbean. Yachts come there to refit and do maintenance and then they're off before Christmas and the marina is empty bar the usual suspects. Hence the marina fees are very economical. We arrived Tarraco in good order and moored stern to beside the royal yachts and others and started cracking on with jobs as we could. The yard was not very fast in approving jobs even with the personnel present at all times onboard. I guess issue was financial as the yard as per hearsay was in dire straits and taken up by the China merchant bank.

Falmouth

Then our last tender was getting ready for seatrials and I was tasked for flying over to inspect and commission the boat. Getting to Falmouth was a bit tricky and I ended up flying to Newquay and renting a car for the remainder of the trip, there was no trains going. I stayed in a room above a pub so it was convenient to get to the yard close by. Funny enough the landlady was from Denmark. Cornwall is also famous for their cider so I got a few pints of local brew to taste in the evening. The yard personnel for Cockwells was extremely friendly and showed me around few places. We took the boat out for seatrials, went a bit out to sea to sea and up the river where one could still see the mooring buoys where ships used to lay up in bad times. Also had a 3rd party naval architect to join me for reviewing the documentation of the build. The last day I had some time to look around so I visited the local maritime museum, very interesting.

Falmouth

Falmouth, low tide

Falmouth

Falmouth, Cockwell tender

Falmouth castle

Then works were going on to finish the build, Carpenters worked every day down in the spa area and others that needed detailing. It became clear the yard was not going to give better working conditions than we already had and the 1st one to leave was our C/E who was a family man with young kids. I made the gravest mistake and employed in his stead a guy that completely went by my radar in the interview event and also had good references. I never seen such a "professional" who had the slightest  regard for ISM procedures and safe working practices, of course the next to follow was our junior engineers who could not work in unsafe conditions. I failed the trial period and yard employed him as "owners rep" the same day so I guess they made their bed. After that I had deckhands and mates resigning for better jobs, I employed other people I knew and accepted the terms, the delivery crew had dispersed and the magic was broken.

Illusion Plus in Tarragona

Illusion Plus in Tarragona

Illusion Plus in Tarragona

Tarragona

Stad of Amsterdam in Tarragona

Then it was time for me to leave because the project stagnated and I thought it best to move on and leave for greener pastures. Handed in my resignation and then signed command over to my Chief Officer and disembarked.

Footnote: As of 2023 Illusion Plus sat in Tarragona waiting for somebody to buy her. After I left they changed management to Hill Robinson and reduced the crew down to skeleton. Over the years I've seen her advertised for sale by a multitude of brokers but looks like nobody took the bait, maybe due to the high price they kept for her. Eventually at end of 2023 yard seems to have made the decision to bring her back to China for a potential client. She left EU in Sept and reached Yantai in Oct 2023. Vessel was sold to an Asian client, renamed Eternal Tsingshan, and sent to Indonesia. Time will tell what is in stock for her future, I hope all the best.

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