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FIRST INTERCEPTOR TO THE MIDDLE EAST

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In October the first Interceptor arrived in  Beirut , Lebanon , for her new owner Dr Z Khatib. She was shipped on the Gramaldi line ferry from Cork , Ireland where she went on a 3 week journey to Limasol in Grease. Here she was unloaded and transferred as deck cargo onto a freighter to Beirut . I flew to Beruit to supervise the re commissioning of her which entailed replacing the mast, sun canopy and flybridge railings, sea trailing and orientation to her owner.

When I arrived at the port she was sitting on her shipping cradle and although she suffered a bit of damage due to careless unloading by the dock and crane workers, and whilst pretty dirty she was intact and as I shipped her. We spent the first day replacing all the stainless work which was removed to give clearance to enter the below decks area of the Grimaldi line ferry which has only 5.5m clearance.

The next day we craned her into the water which was successful, despite the efforts of the crane operator whom I could happily have shot at the time! There was then quite a long delay whilst custom clearance was obtained, but eventually everything was sorted out and we departed Beirut port, and sailed her along the coast to the marina where she will be moored.

The trip was a great experience and very enjoyable. Dr Khatib was very hospitable. He showed us around Beirut which proved a fascinating city, where evidence of the civil war remained in stark contrast to the incredible rebuilding of the city, which was western and very affluent. Its people were very friendly and courteous. This was my first visit to the middle east, I left Beirut with a positive and changed attitude and would hope to return again one day.

Below, here she is on Beirut docks after being unloaded from the freighter.

Here she is moored at her new hoime in Beruit Marina

Several modifications and additional equipment were fitted to the boat for operation in the Mediterranean . A 5 kva generator was fitted supplying power to the 3600btu air-conditioning unit. She was fitted with a sun canopy over the flybridge, dual instrumentation and repeaters to allow full navigation and operation from the flybridge. One further addition will be a S/S folding crane fitted in the aft cockpit to allow hauling large Tuna aboard.