2011 Trawlerfest – W.A., U.S.

Time: May 12th ~ 14th, 2011
Location: 2011 Trawlerfest, Anacortes, WA

During the 2011 Trawlerfest located in Anacortes, WA, A DeFever 46 Pilot House will be displayed. The festival will be held between 12 and 14 in May, 2011.

2011 Southern California Lido show – C.A., U.S.

Horizon Yacht & Ship will be displaying the New DeFever 50 Cockpit at the 2011 Southern California Lido show

Time: April 28th ~ May 1st, 2011
Location: 2011 Southern California Lido show, CA

Horizon Yacht and Ship and POCTA Marine, the exclusive manufacture of DeFever Motor Yachts, will have the New 2011 Defever Cockpit, with an all new interior layout at the Lido show in April. We will also have the honor of having Wilson Lin, Arthur DeFeVer and Louis Lin attending the Lido Show.

Wilson and Arthur have worked together for over 30 successful years building the full line of DeFever Yachts. Louis Lin, the VP of Sales and Operations for POCTA will also be attending the show. This is a perfect opportunity for people to come out and visit, ask questions and meet the people that are on the front line with POCTA/DeFever.

2011 Houston International Boat Show – Texas, U.S.

Time: April 14th ~ 17th, 2011
Location: Houston International Boat Show, Texas

DeFever 48 Tricabin and 52 Euro will be displayed on the show. Please come and visit our yachts.

Our Customers’ Story – MAIMITI’s Cruising to Taiwan

LUCHETTI, Luigi M & Silvana

On June 8th 2010, we landed at Kenting Harbour and Marine Park, Taiwan.
We have been cruising along the Thai and Malaysian coasts for several months; it was another cruising experience for us. Cruising there was pleasant and inexpensive, people was friendly, the tourism generally encouraged and the nautical facilities are improving; Local produce is easy to find and we enjoyed a lot of fish and shellfish widely locally caught or breed.
We had no problem exploring these countries with our Defever 45′ Maimiti, ever if it was different from what we where accustomed to: we tried several times trolling, but generally along the coasts, the water was so plenty of every sort of plastic or debris that as we put a line, soon we caught….a garbage. The water is usually muddy because of the abundance of the debris dragged from the rivers to the sea, and often we encountered logs and trees floating on the surface; These obstacles and the abundance of fishing nets and traps, discourage night sailing, so normally we did a day trip.
But after one year it was time for us to leave Asia, and to consider a different cruising ground. Our wish was to come back to French Polynesia, where we left our mind , but we had to think about the route to follow.
From several options, we decided to go east from Cebu (Philippines Islands) to Palau Island (on the N Pacific, 500 miles E of Philippines), than continuing east along the western Caroline, the Marshall, the Kiribati, and the Samoa, arriving in French Polynesia one year later. It was a long term project even if fascinating.
From Langkawi (on the northwest tip of the Malacca Strait), we arrived in Singapore in 15 days, cruising during the day and sheltering during the night on the several anchorages or marinas found on our way.
We have been moored for a week at the Johor Bahru new marina, on the Malaysian peninsula coast just in front of Singapore where we moved, for a couple of days, for installing the Trojan deep cycle batteries on the house battery bank (Singapore was the only place around where them were available).

On the morning of March 11th we left Singapore with a timely outgoing stream that helped us till 1 pm.
Crossing the strait from Singapore to Borneo was not so bad; we had smooth sea with 10/15 knots northerly wind ; on our route we met a lot of ships , but we had no problems: the recently installed AIS was a great help to easily locate them.
After a three days sailing, we approached Kutchin on the Malaysian side of Borneo, and instead of anchoring on the bay previously chosen (it was not sheltered from the NE wind), we opted for the Sarawak river, few miles away; there we changed several times our anchorage because of the strong current carrying a lot of debris, but finally we had a peaceful rest. During two days, literally anchored in the middle of the Borneo’s jungle, only few fishermen and a couple of regular ferries travelled along the river, but no one seemed interested to contact us; An astonishing note: there, with no town,no hotel,no resort around and only a cellphone tower far away, we got an Internet connection on board of Maimiti !!!! Later we knew that the Sarawak State (one of the Malaysian Confederation State) had installed wifi Internet all over the country !
Still the NE monsoon season, we had time to spend in Borneo and in the Philippines Islands, waiting for the transition period supposing to have less wind and smooth sea on our next passage to Palau; so we decided to spend some time visiting the Sultanate of Brunei.
This country get all its resources from the oil; the wells are everywhere and its coasts are dotted with oil platform. The travel guide speaks about this country as a very rich one, with pension granted to everyone retired and with a good public welfare; but we were disappointed generally comparing it with the other more developed Asian countries.
Here in Brunei we met Mr Wilson Lin, the POCTA president and builder of the DeFever yachts; he kindly joined us to see Maimiti after one year and 5000 miles of cruise: It was a pleasant and friendly two days meeting. We spoke to Mr Lin about our cruising projects and we evaluated the feasibility of shipping Maimiti on a cargo as well.
Then we left Brunei and we went along the west Sabah (another Malaysia’s State) coast. We noticed that things change very fast in Asia . We discovered a new marina at Labuan Island open to the public even if not yet completed and a brand new Shell fuel and gasoline pontoon just at the Labuan harbour entrance, few hundreds yards before the new marina.
We anchored at some Gaya Islands bays in front of Kota Kinabalu 5 stars marina, and we enjoyed their rare to find clear water. We transited trought a narrow dragged channel connecting the south bay to the harbour of Kota Kinabalu (the main city of the Malaysian Borneo); there were works in progress, perhaps a new harbour?
We had a two days rest at Usukan bay; it was a sheltered and quiet bay, no shops around, but in the morning we saw local fishermen selling their catch at the little village wharf.
In this bay has been built a huge concrete wharf, whose existence we were wondering about, but later we knew why: three large vessels carrying workmen living on the village nearby, docked there, so we realized that this huge dock was built as support for the offshore oil platforms.
At Kudat, where we arrived a couple of days later, we anchored at the town’s harbour, a wide basin open to the east prevailing wind and uncomfortable because of it long fetch. Soon we moved at the little round ”marina” built on reclaimed land, one mile NW. There we had nice time for a while and we were able to provision on the local market and supermarket.
Time was going on, but the wind direction didn’t change; the sw monsoon season was on delay, so we realized it would not be a good idea easterly cruising, because we would have had the wind and the sea always on our nose; we again considered that a cargo shipping would have been a better solution for crossing this Pacific Ocean’s area; it will be expensive, but much more comfortable.
We sent an email to Mr Lin, and soon he found a convenient cargo transportation for Maimiti from Taiwan to San Diego. We agree on it and our project changed.
The approximate loading date, would have been late June or the first week of July, so we had time to spend among the Philippines Islands.
From Kudat (the northernmost tip of Borneo) we crossed the Balabac Strait heading to Palawan Island,(south Philippines). The wind, early in the morning, was light and variable with a smooth sea, then, leaving the protection of the land, it was 10 knots sw backing W and later 15 knts from nw when approaching the Balabac Isl; we had up two counter current knots at that time, but keeping Maimiti on a route at 90 degree to the current, there was no problem crossing the Balabac Strait.
At Puerto Princesa we cleared into the Philippines. The weather on the subsequent days was fine with light wind so we had a good cruising time; We decided to check new anchorages between the North and South Green Island; the wather was not so clear, but whith the sun high over our heads, we could negotiate the reefs on either sides of the channel.
The lagoon inside was calm, but not clear enough for transiting along the interior Pasco channel, so we anchored few hundred yards from the entrance,on the right side, on 30 feet of water. We had a good night, and the day after we departed to Dumarang island.This time we tried a different anchorage than on our previous trip; this one was at Aracoeli Bay. Here we found less water than chartered on our Navionics electronic charts with no passage to the little inner harbour ever if the nautical guide spoke about this bay as a typhoon refuge; we anchored in a bay close to this harbour, on the left side; at that time the water around was calm.
Cruising the Palawan area, we noticed a lot of double bamboo outrigger canoes (palawas) powered by sail or by outboard motor:; looking to them at long distance, they like as a big spiders!….On our previous passage one year before, we just saw parawas with paddle or sails but with no motors; How fast is changing this people’s life !!
We always went on North daily cruising, and we enjoyed the calm anchorage at Cabulavan Isl,at Dytaytayan Isl and at Tara isl as well, on the Calamians group; there we found clearer water than in Borneo, and we had some great swimming and snorkeling. No one is living on the Dytaytayan Isl, while at Tara Isl there is a small village. Here we have been asked for food and shirt, while young boys were asking for cigarettes. It was also interesting to note the fishing techniques difference used here from that used on the south of Philippines:
In the South (Palawan area) they are using a surface floating nets with very close floating clear bales; we had to pay a lot of attention sailing there because they can be seen only from a close distance.
Because of the shallow water of the coastline, the local fishermen are using extensive fish traps, known as kelangs. These ones are made hanging a net on several stakes in line for more than 350 feet and are placed at right angle to the main current.
On the Central Philippines we noted some bamboo rafts, 15 feet long and about 6 feet wide. They where floating low on the water and marked by two or three palm fronds about 10 feet long. All these techniques we spoke about, are traditional techniques; most Filipino fishermen today are using a modern techniques, they have large vessels and their nets are under the water marked on the surface by big cans. We argued that the poverty and the different lifestyle was one of the reason of this fishing difference. Indeed, when we arrived to Hamilo cove (Luzon Island, on the north Philippines), after the Verde Isl passage where we experienced a 20 knts wind against the current, steep sea and 5 feet swell, it was evident that this part of the country was more wealthy: brick’s houses, villas, new cars, powerboats and several works in progress all around. At the bay where we anchored for a couple of days, a naturally protected one, there was a new built fishing harbour and on the opposite side a new marina under construction.
A couple of days after, we arrived at Subic Bay Marina, on Subic Bay, not too faraway from Manila, where we got provisions at the several supermarkets on the area.
At Port Matalvi, about 70 miles north of Subic Bay, we noted two new oil wells and on the anchorage, in Port Olongapo, S of Matalvi Isl there were many fishing farms. This businnes has been extensively developed in this area.
At Bolinao, 70 miles north of Port Matalvi,we couldn’t almost find a spot where to anchor because of the hundreds of fish farms; before arriving we checked this anchorage on Google Hearth: the picture was only two years old and at that time there where only few fish farms, with plenty of space where to anchor!! Anyway we found a restricted space where to drop our anchor and there we have been waiting for three days because the weather was not so good for the next planned anchorage, north of Bolinao.
On June 4th, we headed to Piget Island, the place from where we decided to sail to Taiwan; After three days at anchor we found the right weather window. Perhaps it was our worst anchorage. Because of the N swell entering the bay, this anchorage was always rolling; furthermore we have been busy all the time keeping away the local people, that came around Maimiti all the day,and eager to ask for a gift or wishing to board her; we were very happy to leave the Pidget Island anchorage!
Our 210 miles channel crossing from Philippines to Taiwan was fair, almost as we supposed to have from the GRIB files; we always had up to two knots favorable current; the wind in the morning was a light land breeze; later, during the day ,we had light NNE wind with a 7 feet NW swell. When we crossed a trough line, as predicted from the GRIB files the wind turned east and then backed to NNW, 12 to 15 knts, but the sea was always not so bad, even during the night; The next morning we had the same 15 Knts wind.
Crossing the Bashi channel (close toTaiwan) we met several ships; one of them didn’t see us ever if her AIS was working and ever if we called her by vhf: they didn’t answered our call and we had to change our route in order to avoid a collision.
At 1:30 pm we arrived at Kenting Harbour and as we approached the Coast Guard dock, they addressed us to the yacht basin, where we applied for the clearance.
Maimiti was assigned a slip on the marina, and we had water and power; the marina was clean and quiet but several floating slips were missing, probably by some past typhoon, and not replaced yet; we had wifi internet at the marina office close by, but on the cons the facilities for a boat were limited.
On the other arm of the arbour there was the fishing basin, where every day we could buy fresh fish from the the fishing fleet, or at the nearby area where there were several stands selling a variety of cooked fish.
Maimiti and her crew had a pleasant rest at Kenting Marina, after a rougly 7000 mile of their one year trip along the Malacca Strait and the China Sea: everything worked well with no particular issues other than the normal (almost daily) maintenance.
One month later,as the loading time was to come, we moved to Kaohsiung.
It was a one day 60 miles trip with a smooth sea; Mr Wilson Lin joined us on this trip on board of Maimiti and after one beautiful sailing day we landed in Kaohsiung Harbour around 4 pm, where Maimiti was docked at the Kaohsiung Marina floating pontoon.
Kaohsiung is the second large city in Taiwan and one of the most important ports in the world; Is a modern city plenty of shopping malls, restaurants and every kind of stores, while the streets around the harbour were plenty of food and fish street vendors for the pleasure of the Maimiti crew…. There are three islands on the harbour area, connected by a fast ferry service, and several channels departing from the main basin; on one of these close to the harbour entrance,there is the ferry dock and the floating pontoons of the Marina where Maimiti was docked . Several fishing boat are moored here, behind of the marina docks.This harbour is very busy, but on the other side is close to the shops and to the subway, and even if it is not a quiet place to moor a boat during the day, however was a good place to stay while waiting for our boat shipping.

In Kaohsiung we enjoyed the friendly assistance of Mr Lin and his family, and we had several parties togheter. Furthermore, because a lot of mechanical and stainless steel parts of the DeFever boats are made here in Kaohsiung, always with the assistance of Mr Lin we spent time buying genuine spare parts and making some minor modification on our boat.
All the shipping job was organized by Mr Lin and his experience was of great help on this situation; on July 10th, the loading day, Mr Lin’s son Louis came on board helping us, while Mr Lin was on board of the Clipper Meadow (this is the ship’s name) overseeing the loading work.

The loading from the water came almost smoothly and on a short time Maimiti was secured on the Clipper Meadow’s deck. While the crew of the ship was working on securing our boat on the deck (there were three bigger boats to be loaded as well). the propeller manufacturer employees replaced the Maimiti’s two propellers (we preferred to replace both propeller because they seems to be a little damaged).
The same night the Clipper Meadow left Kaohsiung Harbour, carrying our beloved Maimiti to the US West Coast.
The next day, after a pleasant dinner with Mr Lin and his family, we flow to Rome, planning to go to San Diego after 2 weeks to unload Maimiti and so to go on our cruise.

Our Customers’ Story –
The First Trip of MAIMITI

LUCHETTI, Luigi M & Silvana
2009 ‧ DeFever 45 ‧ MAIMITI Rome, Italy 

On May 4, 2009 MAIMITI, our brand new DeFever 45 after-cabin had her first salt water contact in the Victoria Harbor basin, Hong Kong. She had been shipped from Shanghai to Hong Kong and we were there waiting for her.
MAIMITI was moored for two weeks at the Hebe Haven YC in Sha Pak, Hong Kong, a quiet and safe place to get her ready before crossing the South China Sea. On May 21 we left the Hebe Haven YC, and three days and seven hours later we landed at Matalvi Island, Philippines. 

We had good weather crossing the South China Sea, but from the second day we experienced a 15-18 knot SE wind with a rough sea and one knot current against us. We were late on our schedule due to the late delivery of MAIMITI so we couldn’t spend too much time cruising the Philippines. Because of the possibility of a typhoon and because we wanted to arrive in Singapore before the setting of the SW monsoon, we had a fast passage through the Philippine Islands, clearing in at Subic Bay and clearing out at Puerto Princesa, Palawan region.
　 

We cruised from Subic Bay to Kudat, Malaysia through the Sulu Sea along the east coast of Palawan in nine days, with daylight legs of 70-100 miles. We rested at anchor at night in the several sheltered anchorages in the area. On the Sulu Sea and generally on the South East Asia Sea, there are so many unlit nets and fish traps that it’s not advisable to cruise this area at night. The Filipino are poor people, and fishing is widely practiced by everybody. They use a balanced pirogue and they seldom paddle on the open sea, while someone has a small sail or an outboard engine. No one asked us for anything except the immigration and customs officials.　 

We crossed the Balabac Strait and the Philippines to the Malaysia border with a smooth sea, and we landed in Kudat, North Borneo without any problem. We stopped at Kudat for a couple of days for provisioning, and on June 9 we made the next leg to Kota Kinabalu where we spent the night at anchor in a bay south of Gaya Island. The next day we headed to Labuan, a duty free area in front of Brunei. We anchored in the commercial harbor and got a clearance for Brunei. The next day we headed to Brunei, hoping to have a fast and inexpensive refueling, but after we cleared in we discovered that we had to make an appointment and pay at the petrol main office in the town a couple of days in advance. We decided not to refuel, and the next day we left Brunei for Bintulu. There is a striking contrast between the Philippines and Borneo, Malaysia. In the latter they are rich from oil, they have brick houses, paved roads, new marinas, and so on.
　 

The sea on the west side of Borneo is generally smooth and cruising this area was not too straining, but we had a 190 mile night trip across a wide area of oil rigs and we had to be careful to stay away from them. When we arrived in Bintulu the next day, we discovered that it is a commercial harbor with no space or facilities for pleasure boats, so we didn’t stop there and we decided to go further south.
The sea was so calm that we spent the next night at anchor at sea, about 10 miles off the Sarawak coast in 12 m (40 ft) of water. The day after, at sunset, we anchored in the mouth of the Rajang river, some 63 miles from Kutching (the southermost city of Malaysian Borneo), where we arrived on June 15, 2009. Kuching isn’t a good place to refuel and there aren’t any yacht facilities. There is a marina under construction, but nothing at the present. 

Three days later, after checking the weather by GRIB files, we left Pirate Bay (!!!!) on the west corner of Borneo and we got under way to the Singapore area. If you don’t need to land in Singapore (as we did) you can head to Sebana Cove on the Malaysian Peninsula few miles away, or to Johor Bahru, without clearing in Singapore.
　 

Crossing from Borneo to the Singapore Strait we had very good weather – light wind, smooth sea, and a favorable current getting stronger, so we arrived at the Singapore Strait’s entrance at 3 a.m, even decreasing our speed to the minimum to keep the boat’s stabilizers working (there was some swell). The night was dark with no moon, and it was cloudy and there were an incredible number of ships at anchor or moving everywhere. It was an unpleasant experience even with the best radar on board, but we did it! On June 22 at 7 a.m., after one night on watch we got a rest anchoring on the Santi River, just in front of the east side of Singapore; two hours later we went up the river to Sebana Cove Marina. 

Sebana Cove Marina is a nice, safe, well kept marina, as many in Malaysia are, but it was too far away from any town and any shop. Two days a week there is a minivan going to the closest village for shopping and provisioning. After one week we moved 60 mg away to Johor Bahru, always on Malaysia, but in front of the west side of Singapore, where it is easier, to go to Singapore – less than one hour by bus! From Johor Bahru’s new marina (free, no charge, including water and power!!) to Langkawi we had always been cruising in daylight. It was not especially interesting and we spent no more than a couple of nights at each anchorage. The water was murky and dirty (as it was in the South China Sea) and we did not swim or fish because of too many plastic bags and logs. Approaching Langkawi (the westernmost Malaysian island, on the Malacca Strait) we saw the sea turning greenish and we hoped to find clear water around the Thailand’s islands.
　 

Actually the islands that stand outside the Phuket area are clear with blue water and some sand beaches as well, but there are so many tourist, diving, and local fishing boats going to and fro from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. that it was impossible to relax at anchor or find a secluded anchorage as we are accustomed to. We were pushed to move away from that island or anchorage.
　 

In the Phuket area, we visited the famous Phang Nga Bay. It is impressive because of the rocky islands rising vertically out of the sea, but here again the water is brownish/greenish and there are a lot of big jellyfishes. 

On her first trip, from Hong Kong to Phuket, MAIMITI covered roughly 3500 miles
　 

Now we plan to spend a few months here and when the SW monsoon season ends, we plan to come back to the South Pacific .

2008 Boat Show – Texas, U.S.

2008 Boat Show – LA, U.S.