Building in Vietnam

In early 2005, I travelled to Vietnam to assist a couple of Australians in setting up the construction of a 38-foot design. After a couple of trips to Vietnam and a visit to sailing to T37 Design Serena in San Francisco. After sailing Serena we decided a new production design based on Serena was required. To be built in Vietnam.

Shortly afterI moved to Vietnam and ended up designing the boat and becoming the project manager for one year. The company formed to do this was called Stompcraft, and the boats Stomp 38’s.

It was certainly a very interesting time with being the first to build high end yachts in Vietnam and having no trained staff. We started by employing 8 carpenters and after their initial training and finding some leaders amongst them employed another batch. We eventually ended up with around 50 employees, some of the best laminators and boatbuilders I have ever worked with.

Friday nights after work were always a lot of fun with all staff and management combining for week ending festivities, which included fun games and presentations to the workers.

By the time I finished with Stompcraft we had a full set of moulds and the second boat nearly finished.

Purchasing my Stomp38

The second boat was sent to Dubai and sailed there. After some time it was sold and sailed/shipped to Sydney Australia. I purchased this boat in Brisbane in March 2015. My son and I removed the mast, keel and rudder and refitted the boat ready for the sail across the Tasman to New Zealand.

My Fiancé and I spent a few weeks at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron marina in Brisbane getting the boat ready to go in early November 2015. We eventually motored the boat thru the inland waterway to Southport for our exit from Australia. No mean feat with a boat having 2.8 meter draft.

Sailing across the Tasman Sea

After getting the boat ready we sailed two handed, my fiancé being a novice sailor, was a real trouper handling the boat and Tasman sea well. We did the 1280nm crossing in 8 days contending with a standard Tasman sea. Caught in a front getting up to 50 knots of wind, the boat handled it well averaging over 250 nm in 18 hrs with not a lot of water on the deck. Sailing down the NZ East coast in a 25-30 know NE wind topped off the trip to Auckland.

We found a few leaks in the boat coming across and ended up with quite a bit of water in the boat at one stage. This required a bucketing out of water every few hours. The electronics became flooded so we ended up with no autohelm.

After settling down in Auckland we totally refitted the boat out for cruising in NZ.

Refitting and renaming Tom Tom Taxi

Next we refitting the interior with shelving and clothes lockers, all prebuilt outside the boat, painted and bonded in.

Replacing all the electrics including new fridge and freezer, instruments and lighting. Replaced the single wheel with twin carbon wheels, repainted the boat including mast and foils.

We have made a few great holiday trips to the Bay of Island, Great Barrier and the Mercury Islands and around the Hauraki Gulf in the boat and its well suited for us now.

Have a look at a couple of the videos I have made of the finished boat.

YouTube Video

YouTube link to Tom Tom Taxi interior
YouTube link to Tom Tom Taxi exterior

Photos