LES CROISIERES DANAE
Claude, Claudine et Richard Goche
UTUROA, RAIATEA
POLYNESIE FRANCAISE

Uturoa, July 26, 1994

GLEN-L MARINE DESIGNS
9152 Rosecrans
BELLFLOWER CA 90706 USA

Dear Sirs,

You remember that we bought from you in 1990 a file of plans for the KLONDIKE to be built in plywood.

We are very pleased today to let you Know that the boat has been launched the 29 th of march this year. Please find enclosed a few pictures of the various stages of the building.

It took me 2 years and 10 month of work full time to complete the undertaking. I worked alone for the first 10 month to build the hull. One of my sons is the manager of a boat yard, so I could install the set up in a corner of the yard. My wife joined me to work once the hull was turned right side up. I used the facility of the travelift of the yard to straighten the hull up. I followed exactly the plans for all the structure specifications and used marine plywood and a complete epoxy system: epoxy glue, epoxy resin, epoxy fairing system. We worked with EPIGLASS Company (Courtaulds coatings from New Zealand) 'The wood structures are made of ordinary fir which is easily available here-The major problem was the supply of all the items needed such as silicone bronze ring nails or finishing hardwares. We had to order much of the stuff from the US. But this was rather easy to do as long as we were taking good care of the delay of shipping.

As I wanted to make a charter boat, I slightly modified the inside arrangements. Instead of the kitchen in the port side part of the deck house, we built in a guest room and the fire place is now the galley installed lengthwise. We managed to set a bathroom in each cabin, the front one, the owner's and the deck one. All arrangements are nicely made with precious tropical woods and the floor is parqueted. All the deck is covered with teak that we glued (epoxy) over fiberglassed plywood.

The boat has a very lovely look and has a wonderful seagoing ability. She is equipped with a 250HP Volvopenta TAMD 70E, reduction gear 1/2, 4 blade prop 26/20 that gives 10 knots at 1500 RPM and 14 knots at 2100 RPM. We put in a 14KW ISUZU generator, she is air-conditioned and shows all the modern comfort and electronics. She is very stable even in heavy seas and does not excessively pitch or roll. We have already taken a few charter guests and every one has been thrilled with her comfort as well at sea as anchored.

If you are interested in more building details, or if you want some pictures of the interior, we will be very pleased to send you some. We really want to thank you a lot for this perfect design. We surely are going to be very successful in chartering here.

This type of boat is not common in our waters, although it is the perfect boat for the beautiful lagoons as for the open choppy seas in the channels between islands.

One of our friends has also bought from you the plans of the VIGILANT and he is actually finishing the building of the frames. He will pretty soon put the set up and my wife and I are going to give him a hand for he helped us a lot too.

With many thanks,
Claude Goche

Danae in the Pacific WebLetter 3
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