RONA TRUST, UK
40 Years of Life-Changing Voyages
Thursday, July 4, 2019
DONALD SEARLE
In 1979, the Donald Searle was completed in partnership with Southern Ocean Shipyard in Poole, as an Ocean 75 yacht named after a major benefactor of the Rona Sailing Project. The Rona Sailing Project was founded to train young people, helping them to develop skills such as leadership, resourcefulness, responsibility and teamwork through the medium of sailing. It is estimated that the steering wheel of the Donald Searle has been held by more than 15,000 pairs of hands over decades of training voyages, and with the help of 400 dedicated volunteers, 2,500 young people a year have been given the opportunity to experience a voyage at sea.
To celebrate the vessel’s 40th year, the Donald Searle has been given a complete refit, a project led by Tim Bannister and Gareth Thomas, two AkzoNobel employees who are also members of the Rona Trust, using their spare time to support the charity. The re-paint was performed using a system of long-standing Awlgrip products, along with several new cutting-edge to additions the range: Aerowave 2501, Quick Build Surfacer and Awlgrip HDT.
Aerowave 2501 is the new replacement for Awlgrip Spot Filler. Like Quick Build, it provides productivity benefits, as a non-shrinking repair filler ideal for eliminating minor defects like scratches and pinholes. Quick Build is a multi-colored award-winning primer system, with both sealer and surfacer available. Designed for quicker hide and shorter drying times, Quick Build offers great time-saving advantages to the project, allowing surface preparation and application in a single day.
The time-saving benefits of these products were instrumental in helping complete this large project on-schedule. Awlgrip HDT was chosen as Awlgrip’s most durable and repairable topcoat, combining hardness and micro-scratch resistance, while also outshining other topcoats in terms of high gloss and DOI (Distinction of Image).
This enormous undertaking required a huge amount of teamwork and dedication to complete, with over a dozen volunteers working over 400 hours to prepare and paint the Donald Searle in time for its 40th birthday. Likewise, the Rona Sailing Project was saved the majority of the refit’s expenses thanks to the generous support of many local and international businesses. These included Super Yacht Solutions, Brandon Tool Hire, RS Components, Consumables Express, Carlisle Fluid Technologies and AIRIA Compressed Air Solutions, all of whom were brought together thanks to AkzoNobel’s many ongoing partnerships, and were excited at the opportunity to collaborate on such a worthwhile project.
“Together, the Rona Sailing Project and the Donald Searle have allowed so many young people to experience potentially life-changing opportunities when they otherwise might never have sailed, let alone had the opportunity to be part of a proper ocean voyage,” enthused Gareth Thomas. “The Rona Sailing Project has also helped AkzoNobel in turn by allowing us to monitor the performance of our newly developed products prior to launch, so we are delighted that we can continue to support them – not only with high-quality products, but with the passion and dedication that great charities like this deserve.”
Click here to find out more about the Rona Sailing Project, and for more information about the latest Awlgrip products, click here.