Endurance 37

The story of s/y Sanibonani

By Erik Plankton

November 8^th, 2019

Peter ibold design

Peter Ibold was an American naval architect. His Endurance 35 model won a design competition and became a popular model. Encouraged by an enthusiastic press, he put together his own design office. Over the years, Ibold has designed more than fifty vessels, including powerboats, sailboats, yachts and workboats. Sanibonani is a 37 foot long model with a schooner rig and ferro cement hull, which has proven to be extremely strong and reliable. She was built 1978 in South Africa.

1978 - 1989

Luckily the previous owner prior to me had been in contact with the original builder. Here are some words from Tony:

"I built the boat in South Africa over about Atwood year period. I had the hull built by professional builders. The building of the hull was supervised by Lloyds of London. They inspected at various stages of construction and tested the quality of the cement. They issued a 100A1 quality certificate.

I then finished the building of the rest of the boat myself. A friend of mine built an identical sister ship at the same time.

With virtually no sailing experience in January 1979 I sailed Sanibonani from Durban, where it was built, to Cape Town. From Cape Town I sailed to St. Helena, Ascension and then on to the Caribbean. That was pre GPS and all the navigational aids that we had were a sextant and two compasses. We didn't even have a VHF radio. I lived in the Caribbean for the rest of 1979 at which stage I was running out of money. I went to work in Canada and ended up staying here.

I had left Sanibonani in the care of a boat sitter. The next thing I heard was that she had left, a hurricane had gone through and the boat was tied to a palm tree. A German person offered to buy it, I decided to sell. I had an agreement of the friend with the sister ship, which was also in the Caribbean, that if one of us sold their boat we'd buy a half share in the other. Which is what I did. We had several holidays on the sister ship until he decided to retire to sailing, bought me out and sailed on.

-Tony"

1989 - 2001

One of the previous owners (from Belgium) spotted Sanibonani on Marinetraffic.com and sent me an email. It was wonderful to get some more background information and photos from this era.

"I am sending you some photographs of Sanibonani. When we bought her in 1989, she was quite worn down. We had a real major refit carried out in Mallorca, by "Astilleros Vermell" in Puerto Christo.

This was the white version of Sanibonani. Since I am rather tall, we decided to have the rooftop to be lifted up by 17 cm. Gee, what a job. In those days I worked in Algeria, and when that came to an end in Dec. 91, we went off cruising.

So Sanibonani was built in 1978 in Durban, South Africa, and was brought by a german Sailor to the Caribean and then to the Med, where we bought her. After passing the winter 91/92 in Palma de Mallorca, we went to mainland Spain, then France, Corsica, Sardegna, Sicily to spend the next winter in Malta. Then to Italy, Greece and Turkey, where we spent almost 2 years, hanging around from one bay to another, anchoring, diving etc. and all that to an amazing low cost and with very very friendly people.

During the winter season I painted the boat black in Antalya, just for a change. We then decided to go back to a "normal" life and returned over Greece, Italy to France, where the boat was loaded on a truck and went to Germany, Wismar. Here we started up a business, but that is a quite different story.

-Jacques "

sanibonani in black

2001 - 2010

The boat was located most likely in the Wismar area in Germany. I don't have additional records of this time period. Please let me know if you have any more information: eki@packgofind.com

2010 from germany to finland

Jarmo, the owner previous to me, sailed the boat from Wismar to Helsinki and started an extensive refit of the whole boat. A partial list of upgrades done in the last 5 years:

Brand new Volvo Penta D2-40 engine
Vetus bowthruster with wireless remote control and separate battery
Webasto heating system with hot water boiler
New septic tank and shower
Raymarine chart plotter and radar
Raymarine hydraulic autopilot
DSC VHF radio
New deck hatches and salon windows
Deck painted
Hull sand blasted and painted
Refurbished secondhand genoa and mainsail
New sprayhood
Installed davits to carry a 3,3m rib with 20hp outboard
New sailcovers

2017 - Present: my watch

I bought Sanibonani in December 2016 and moved in to live aboard in the spring of 2017. Everything was in good condition, so there was not much to do maintenance wise. Just some basic cleaning and cosmetic upgrades. Since then we have enjoyed the Baltic Sea from the early spring to late fall doing short weekend trips here and there and then spending the whole summer vacation aboard cruising around. Sanibonani has bunks for up to 5 or 6 people, but I think it is the optimal cruising boat for a couple. Generous headroom everywhere (I am 186 cm) and tons of storage space for gear and stuff for living aboard. Given the 11 ton weight, she is very stable and safe in heavier seas. The schooner rig means more sails, but in smaller sizes, so they are handled with ease even singlehanded. The mast height is only 13 meters giving clearance to powerlines and bridges. The rigging is a overbuilt and rock solid. Wind speed up to 40 knots are a walk in the park with the correct sail plan. The previous owner came over from Tallinn to Helsinki in one the best storms of the decade with gusts up to 60 knots without issues...

Photos: Erika Luoto & Erkki Punttila

2017

The summer of 2017 was cold and rainy. We headed east towards Hamina to say hi to my parents. Spent the better part of the holidays exploring the eastern archipelago. Much less crowded than the western region.

Interior

How it looks nowadays. A little bit of upkeep and tidying up going on.

2018

The summer of 2018 is remembered in Finland for the record braking heat wave that gave us about 40 days of temperatures over 25°c.

Western archipelago

We spent the summer of 2018 cruising the western archipelago of Finland. Utö island was our turnpoint from which we made our way back home to Helsinki. Got 100 hours on the motor due to the stagnant high pressure system with low winds.

2019

This summer we headed straight to the sweet spots of the Tammisaari National Park area. The area is riddled with small coves and good places to anchor. We found a couple places that allowed us to tie side to shore with good clearance. Sanibonani has a draught of 1.8 m, so it is very suitable for shallow waters of the Baltic Sea.