We recently took delivery of our new Integrity 350 Cruiser and arranged for it to be road transported to Melbourne before delivering her by sea across Bass Strait to Launceston. We were a little apprehensive about the sea voyage as the boat was new and although had done some shake down cruising had not been seriously to sea. There was no information on the ability of this model at sea as the 350 is basically a new model.
Brett Flanagan, the importer, had assured us that the boat was capable of the Bass Strait crossing and we organised for our friend and very experienced offshore sailor Ken Gourley to come with us. We prepared the boat properly at the Sandringham Marina and set sail across Port Phillip Bay on a Thursday morning at 9.00 am.
The trip across the bay was uneventful although the visibility was extremely poor. Port Phillip heads however lived up to their reputation by hitting us with some particular nasty sea conditions which nearly caused us to change our minds about the crossing. The Integrity however handled the conditions with ease and steamed out the heads at 8 knots without putting a foot wrong. In fact all three of us where extremely impressed with how sure footed and comfortable the boat was in such a rough and confused sea.
The crossing of the strait was done at about 8 Knots and with a 17 to 20 Knot SSW wind and a sea of up to 2 Metres, a little forward of the beam. The Integrity handled these most difficult conditions easily and again we were delighted with the ride and comfort. The boat was very stable and the roll was almost very acceptable compared with many other boats of this type.
Fuel consumption for the whole trip worked out to be around 18 to 19 Ltr per Hr at around an 8 to 8.5 knot cruise. Considering the sea conditions this is very good consumption and works out to a little under 2 Ltr per nautical mile
I would like to thank Brett and his team for their excellent service and hassle free dealings. Brett delivered on everything he promised and we now have an excellent new Integrity 350 down here in Tasmania. Hopefully there will be many more to come down this way in the future.
Proud Integrity Owners
John and Rosemary Heys
