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KIMBER L Boat for Sale

48' defever | 1988 | $159,000.

• Yachts for sale

Last updated Feb 13, 2024

Kimber L Yacht | 48' Defever 1988

MORE PHOTOS / WALKTHROUGH VIDEO / LIVE SHOWING AVAILABLE

Description

Long-range trawler yacht with Europa styling, near bullet-proof construction ranks among the bestselling DeFever designs ever produced. The comfortable, three-stateroom interior features an expansive salon with a U-shaped galley aft, two full heads, and a spacious master suite.

ACCOMMODATIONS

Layout: 3 stateroom, 2 head (all electric, freshwater)

3 deck doors in salon makes for easy movement aboard.

Massive walk-in engine room

Description - U-shaped galley with window between counter and salon

Refrigerator and Freezer - 2023 stainless steel

Oven - Deluxe oven with 3 x burners, compatible with inverter

Water heater 20 gal both 110 and engine heated

Icemaker U-Line

ELECTRONICS - Garmin and Raymarine

Autopilot - Raymarine

Radar - Raymarine

GPS / Plotter - Garmin GPSMap 441s

Depth - Apleco 265

VHF - Apleco 4500

Lightbar controls

Depth independent transducer

Autopilot controller - Raymarine, wired

VHF Uniden UM380

Arch lights

Alarm System via sim card / text

High Bilge Water text alarm

Shore Power Off text alarm

GPS boat position text alarm

Shore power and battery charger

3 bank Promariner

Xantrex 3000 inverter/charger

2 AGM 4D House bank - July 2023

2 27 Sealed Wet Cells - 2021

1 Genset start - 27 Sealed Wet Cell - 2023

DECK & HULL

Last Bottom job 2+ years ago

Zinc - February 2022

Windlass -, 12 volt Maxwell Nilsson with deck controls; gravity release

60lb Mantus Anchor with 200' of ⅜ chain

Fortress Anchor with 100’ of ⅞ line

Navy blue Sunbrella canvas bimini - 5 to 10 years old

Navy blue Sunbrella ,canvas teak handrail covers

Dinghy lift

Engine - Caterpillar 3208 TA

4005 / 4019 hours

Twindisc transmission

Oil changed - August 2023

Transmission fluid changed - 2021

Impeller changed - 2023

65" headroom in engine room

Generator - Isuzu 9kw

Generator - Mase

Propeller: 4 blade fixed propeller

Air conditioning - 4 units: 

Cruiseair 12

Washer/Dryer - Splendide Comb-o-matic2000

Fresh Water Tanks: 2 Stainless steel (500 Gallons)

Fuel Tanks: 4 (900 Gallons)

Holding Tanks: 1 (30 Gallons)

BRIDGE CLEARANCE

Overall height is less than 25' with arch, radar and KVH in place.

Radar Arch is hinged and can be lowered for additional clearance.

HISTORY OF VESSEL

Kimber L was built by the CTF yard in Taiwan. She is professionally maintained and kept in brackish water.  The owner has been intimately involved in her care and upkeep since purchase in 1997.  Detailed maintenance and upgrade log available.  Original fiberglass decks from factory (never teak).  All faux-wood horizontal surfaces throughout vessel have been replaced with teak veneer or gray slate formica.

Denison Yachting is pleased to assist you in the purchase of this vessel. This boat is centrally listed by Murray Yacht Sales - Gulf Coast.

Denison Yacht Sales offers the details of this yacht in good faith but can’t guarantee the accuracy of this information nor warrant the condition of this boat for sale. This yacht for sale is offered subject to prior sale, price change, or withdrawal from that yacht market without notice. She is offered as a convenience by this yacht broker to its clients and is not intended to convey direct representation of a specific yacht for sale.

INQUIRE ABOUT KIMBER L

Have questions about this yacht? Fill out the form below and our team of experts will contact you soon.

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First-Time Buyer?

Read our guide to learn the process for buying KIMBER L

Kimber L HIGHLIGHTS

• Yacht Details: 48' Defever 1988
• Location: New Orleans, LA
• Last Updated: Feb 13, 2024
• Asking Price: $159,000

Kimber L additional information

• Beam: 15' 4''
• Hull Material: Fiberglass

Schedule a Tour of KIMBER L

Contact our team to schedule a private showing.

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USC to Present detailed design of Project 22350M Frigate to Russian MoD

The severnoye design bureau (part of the united shipbuilding corporation (usc)) will present a detailed design of the upgraded project 22350m lead frigate to the russian defense ministry for approval, usc deputy ceo for military shipbuilding vladimir korolyov told tass at the army 2022 international forum..

Naval News Staff 22 Aug 2022

TASS Russian news agency

“The ship is planned to be laid down when the detailed design and design documentation are no less than 60 percent ready. All the documents are being prepared by the Severnoye Design Bureau. The detailed design will be soon presented to Russia’s Defense Ministry for approval,” USC Deputy CEO for Military Shipbuilding Vladimir Korolyov

Earlier, a defense industry source told TASS that there were plans to build 12 upgraded Project 22350M frigates with up to 48 Kalibr (NATO reporting name: SS-N-27 Sizzler), Onyx (SS-N-26 Strobile) and Tsirkon cruise missiles on each of them. The new frigates are planned to carry the Poliment-Redut air defense missile system with up to 100 missiles, antisubmarine warfare and torpedo systems.

The Army 2022 international military-technical forum is running on August 15-21 at the Patriot exhibition center outside Moscow. The Defense Ministry is the organizer of the forum.

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‘Fancy cars and flashy yachts’: criminals living the high life targeted by Victoria’s unexplained wealth laws

Police minister says those who ‘swan around with ill-gotten gains’ will be pursued in reforms that flip onus of proof

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Organised crime figures who splash out on yachts, penthouse suites and sex workers will be targeted by the Victorian government, under new laws that will force them to repay any wealth they cannot prove was lawfully acquired.

The state’s attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, and police minister, Anthony Carbines, on Tuesday announced they will introduce the Confiscation Amendment (Unexplained Wealth) Bill to parliament, in an effort to deprive criminals of the “use and enjoyment of their unexplained wealth”.

Symes said the new laws would flip the onus from police and prosecutors – who currently have to prove a direct link between a criminal and their wealth – to the offender.

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“The barrier has been is that we’ve had to demonstrate that [wealth] is connected to criminal activity. The onus now will be flipped under this legislation, you will have to demonstrate that you obtained it by legal means,” she said.

“It’s very likely unless they won Tattslotto and they can show their winning ticket. They probably were doing illegal activities to obtain their wealth.”

Carbines said the changes will also capture assets bought in a partner or relative’s name as well as gifts, “consumable wealth and wealth that has been gifted, disposed of or expended”.

“If you want to swan around with ill-gotten gains and wealth that doesn’t belong to you, that you’ve accrued illegally, police will be able to pursue you. They’ll be able to pursue your family and your partners,” he said.

“If organised crime bosses think that they can have the fancy cars, flashy yachts, spend their money on hotels and strippers, if you draw your attention to yourself, Victoria police will be after you.

“They will be able to use these laws to crack out and reclaim the stolen wealth that ill gotten gains, and it’s about continuing to make sure we put the pressure on organised crime.”

The new laws will allow the Director of Public Prosecutions to apply to a court for an order if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a person’s total wealth exceeds their lawfully acquired wealth by at least $200,000.

If a person can’t satisfy a court that they have lawfully obtained their wealth, a court may order them to pay the state the value of anything they cannot prove was lawfully acquired.

The laws have been modelled on those currently in place in Western Australian, but are also similar to New South Wales’ laws, which were also bolstered in 2023 to allow police to seize and freeze wealth and assets without a specific offence.

The opposition leader, John Pesutto, questioned why it had taken so long for the government to introduce the legislation, though he said he supported the concept in principal.

“Frankly, after 10 years, you have to ask, what is it actually doing to crack down on organised crime?” he said.

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• Open Space, Eco-Friendly Tech: What a Rising Class of Millennial Superyacht Owners Looks For

Surveys predict that, 10 years from now, the average age of a superyacht buyer will be 35 to 40.

Kevin koenig, kevin koenig's most recent stories, ‘people don’t want to be inside’: how the outdoors became yachtmakers’ most coveted design element, azimut’s new 72-foot yacht has one of the largest flybridges in its class. we hopped onboard..

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Ten years from now, Millennials will have taken over the superyacht world. At least that’s the forecast by several experts who are seeing ages of yacht buyers trending younger.

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That trend is expected to continue, according to research from Italian yacht builder Rossinavi and the University of Monaco, with the average age of superyacht buyers decreasing 10 to 15 years over the next decade. That could make Millennials the primary buyers of superyachts.

The topic of younger buyers is a constant discussion in shipyard boardrooms and among designers looking to modify their designs to this changing market. It was also one of the topics at the recent Yachtmaster event in Key West, hosted by Benetti Yachts . Benetti sponsors Yachtmaster events twice a year (the European edition was in Budapest last month) to brief captains and other professionals on new trends in the superyacht industry.

“We have been doing this event for 24 years now,” Benetti Americas manager Nick Bischoff told Robb Report . “The intent is to continue to build relationships with influencers of our current and prospective owners. In the beginning that meant mostly captains, but it’s expanded to include surveyors and owners’ reps, too.” The ultimate goal, says Bischoff, is for participants not only to network, but “put their heads together to create an ever-improving onboard experience both for owners and crew.”

Many seminars focused on the concept of onboard lifestyle, which most brokers and shipyards see as a primary driver for purchasing a yacht. Benetti’s head of product, Sebastiano Vida, also spoke about how lifestyle influences new designs in the yachts.

But Jason Dunbar, a broker and appraisal surveyor with Vessel Value Survey, recommended tough love to the brokers. His discussion about managing expectations for newbie owners included advice about being “realistic” with owners who are flush with cash, but might be new to the superyacht world. If an owner wants a brand-new 120-footer with a crew of six, but has a budget of $8 million, the broker is the one who needs to break the bad news. “A good broker has to tell people ‘Listen, that’s just not going to happen,’” says Dunbar. “That will save a lot of headaches down the road and will hopefully keep a client in boating for the long term.”

A new buyer is often coming off a one-week charter that was magical: perfect weather, a well-oiled boat, and a crew looking forward to a little R&R after hustling all week for the charter guests. “It’s relatively easy to make things work like that one week at a time,” says Dunbar. “But a new owner who wants to use their boat for 10, 15, or 30 weeks, that’s a totally different thing. You may have to tell them they need to hire two crews and rotate them—which will be news to them.” He said that overworking the crew will “burn through humans.” The crew will be miserable, he says, which will make the boat not live up to the owners’ expectations. “The next thing you know these new owners will be long gone from yachting.”

Fraser Yachts CEO Anders Kurtén sees the new buyers as a boon for design creativity in an old-school industry. “It starts with a piece of paper,” he says. “We sit down and start designing these boats for younger clients and we see similar trends. Basically they all want to live their shore-based lives on a yacht.”

The segmented and often claustrophobic interiors of many current superyacht designs, says Dirand, just doesn’t float with the new generation. “Young owners’ preferences are honed by hospitality and a knowledge of architectural trends,” he says.

Because of that, wellness centers have become focal points of design. As moguls like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have made clear as of late, having six-pack abs in middle age is the new Lamborghini. These new owners expect their boats to be designed with beach clubs with gyms, saunas, massage areas that allow owners and guests to work out or relax, amidst warm sun rays and luscious sea breezes.

Kurtén also pointed to green tech as key for the new generation of clients. “We’ve hit a point where a 150-foot sailboat can go across the Atlantic without burning a drop of fuel. And motoryachts can function on battery-only mode, at least when they are close to port,” he says. “That’s important to these new clients—they want to be green. A few years ago that was something you said at a cocktail party, but today it’s a reality for a lot of buyers.”

Peter Selivanoff, senior yacht service manager for Fraser, also spoke about how owners are seeking highly specialized crews who can perform multiple functions across the yacht.

Navigating these new realities is an important part for the industry to future-proof itself in the competitive realm of ultra-luxury products. This is a place where youth may not spring eternal but, at least for now, it reigns supreme.

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‘Below Deck’ Sails Into a New Era

With a different captain at the helm and new production elements, the reality show about charter yachts is switching up its style.

By Shivani Gonzalez

Starting a new season of “ Below Deck ” can be similar to returning to summer camp as a kid — you know it’s going to be fun and that you’ll be in the same environment, but some of the people will be different and you’re not quite sure what the vibes will be.

This time around, in particular, feels that way because for the first time in the show’s 11-season run, Captain Lee Rosbach is no longer at the helm. It’s a pivotal moment for a franchise that has become one of the most popular entities in the sprawling universe of reality TV since premiering on Bravo in 2013 . The show’s appeal was built on endless romances between various crew members (“boatmances,” as they came to be known), horrible charter guests and some sort of passive-aggressive fight about how many shackles of the anchor chain should be in the water. And there was always Rosbach presiding over the drama as he trudged around the boat, reeling off one liners like “I’m madder than a pissed-on chicken” and “we screwed the pooch so many times we should have a litter of puppies running around.”

At the center of the show now is Kerry Titheradge (the stern yet goofy captain of “Below Deck Adventure” fame), who is managing the Motor Yacht Saint David with the cheeky chief stew Fraser Olender by his side.

With that change in captain, the energy on the boat — both onscreen and off — is different, according to Olender.

“I feel like Kerry this season, as opposed to Lee, has a no B.S. attitude, which I love with him,” Olender said in an interview. “With Kerry, he taught me a lot and sort of forced to me confront issues directly with my team, work them out, as opposed to making executive decisions too soon.”

This shift in management style changes the central conflict — whereas the drama once focused on the captain swiftly kicking out any unpleasant crew member (as we might have seen with Rosbach), the drama now focuses on the whole crew trying to get along (since Titheradge gives people those second chances).

Additionally, Olender noted that the captain’s relationship with the crew can also affect the drama on board.

“Captains absolutely do get involved, whether they know it or not,” Olender said, adding that for the crew, everything is about “trying to impress your captain.”

This phenomenon plays out early in the new season when the lead deckhand, Ben Willoughby, called out a fellow crew member over the radios about not wearing a life vest — something he easily could have done in private. The drama that followed became an interpersonal conflict between the two of them, both with the ultimate goal of impressing Titheradge. (Of course, the two deckhands had kissed on the previous crew night out, which is more in line with the “Below Deck” drama viewers are used to.)

For “Below Deck” showrunners, the changeovers in the cast allowed them to rethink what the show would look like.

From the season premiere, it was immediately apparent that Rosbach’s absence wasn’t the only change this season: The filming is sleeker, the daily, multicourse meals prepared by the chef are given their own glamour shots and the cameras sometimes cut to the perspectives of yachties running around on deck and through the galley.

“Our showrunner, Lauren Simms, is an avid consumer of all different kinds of media,” Noah Samton, a senior vice president of unscripted current production for NBCUniversal, said in an interview. “She pitches us different ideas on how to stylistically evoke different feelings and change the mood a little bit of ‘Below Deck’ without removing what really works.”

Moving through the rest of the season, and potentially through seasons to come, Olender is aiming to bring a cutthroat management style while also bringing affection for his stews, all with his signature British humor.

On Bravo’s side, there are changes in the works for the other “Below Deck” spinoffs — including “Sailing Yacht,” “Mediterranean” and “Down Under” — which collectively, have 26 seasons. Specifically, Samton said that “Down Under” is currently filming and that even though fans should be ready to see new things, the show will stay true to its original concept.

“These are real yachties doing a real job so you have to stay within those confines because the audience isn’t going to want anything that is too produced or fake,” Samton said. “So we have to find ways to reinvent while staying true to the original concept of the show.”

And as Olender said: “I’m sure that every year if I were to work with this franchise again, that I’ll be thrown a collection of total chaotic and disastrous stews — that’s what makes it watchable.”

Shivani Gonzalez is a news assistant at The Times who writes a weekly TV column and contributes to a variety of sections. More about Shivani Gonzalez

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California yacht owner threatens to kill dock worker in vicious showdown, cali yacht owner threatens to kill dock worker drops pants for rude salute, 95 3/13/2024 8:09 am pt.

A California yacht owner's vicious beef with a dock worker has reached death-threat levels -- and their exchange was caught on camera and included a nude, and very rude, gesture!

Check out the clip ... it all unfolds when San Diego entrepreneur Ajay Thakore swings by the swanky Marriott Marquis Marina in his rare $4.5M Tecnomar for Lamborghini 63 yacht to pick up one of his employees -- but things boil over when dock worker Joseph Holt tells him he can't be there.

Thakore, the CEO of medical advertising firm Doctor Multimedia, flips out on Holt big time ... and starts spewing threats like, "I will kill you, you know I will kill you, I will kill."

And it doesn't stop there -- as Thakore's pulling out of the harbor, he drops trou to make a full frontal salute in Holt's direction. Stay classy, San Diego!

Holt's only retaliation was flipping the bird, and he later told CBS8 that was all he could do to keep his cool and avoid escalating the situation.

Holt says parts of the altercation were not captured on camera, and he adds ... Thakore not only threatened to kill him, but also claimed to have connections who could totally mess up his life.

Holt also says Thakore pulled out $100 bills and tossed them at him, even chucking some in the water.

BTW, Thakore's done some backpedaling since the ugly exchange -- he now says, "The interaction that occurred yesterday was regrettable. What started as a minor misunderstanding escalated into an argument, and I apologize for my actions and to those who witnessed the unfortunate exchange."

Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.

FWIW ... One of Thakore’s employees claims the whole thing began because other dock workers blocked him from boarding the yacht.

Oh, and if that fancy Lambo yacht looks familiar -- it's the same one Chuck Liddell recently tumbled off just last month. Now it's famous AND infamous!

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Delaware Surplus Services is auctioning off kitchen equipment, minivans, boats and more

In need of new landscaping equipment, a boat or a pickup truck? There are a few state auctions happening in March that can help you out with that. 

Delaware Surplus Services sells heavy equipment, vehicles and miscellaneous items online all year long, with auctions typically taking place at Delaware Surplus Services in Smyrna, the Department of Transportation Complex in Dover or Delaware State Police Headquarters in Dover.

Auctions are routinely held for anyone who is interested in checking out and bidding on the latest fleet of goods up for grabs, and this month, three auctions are being held for Delawareans to take their pick of forgotten and unwanted items.  

The first auction , which opened on March 12 at 9 a.m., runs through March 21 at 7 p.m. Fleet and school district vehicles, including minivans, pickups and sedans are available.

Inspection will be on March 20 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Delaware Surplus Services at 5408 Dupont Parkway in Smyrna.  

The second auction is for miscellaneous equipment like utility vehicles , canoes, tools, kitchen equipment and landscaping equipment. The auction opens on March 19 at 9 a.m. and runs through March 28 at 7 p.m.

Previous auctions: Need a bus, kayak or file cabinet? Delaware surplus property has plenty at its new site

Inspection will be on March 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Delaware Surplus Services at 5408 Dupont Parkway in Smyrna. 

The third action this month runs from March 19 at 9 a.m. to March 28 at 8 p.m. and features boats, trailers, school buses, shipping containers and paratransit buses. 

Online auctions are offered through the state’s contracted vendor, Auction Liquidation Services, at the following websites: 

• Auction List Services  
• US Gov Bid  
• America's Best Bus Deals  

For more information or to bid on any of the auctions, visit gss.omb.delaware.gov/surplus/auction.shtml or contact Matthew Gabriellini or Steven Scaffedi at (302) 836-7640. 

Got a tip or a story idea? Contact Krys'tal Griffin at  [email protected] .     

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The Man Who Launched Sputnik

My contact drove us to Oleg Ivanovskiy’s home in a large block of relatively new six-story Moscow apartment buildings. We entered the building through a heavily built door into a tiled foyer with dim light. On the fourth floor, where we got out of the elevator, several doors lined the landing; they looked as if they could have withstood a siege, and at second glance, some looked as if they already had.

Ivanovskiy’s daughter opened his door and graciously waved us in, smiling. Inside the apartment, the transition from grim city mass construction to handcrafted comfort was complete. I felt I might have been transported to a well-appointed dacha deep in some northern pine forest. There was no noise from outside, and the room we sat down in was bright and spacious, dominated by a massive round dining table.

We sat around that table for two hours, talking. He dove into his memory with an intensity undiminished by half a century. Nothing he said was by rote or offhand, and although I knew he had said many of these things before, he delivered his narrative so vibrantly I might have thought I was hearing him recount his feats for the first time.

To this day, Oleg Ivanovskiy says he has no idea why he was chosen to oversee the final preparations of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. Sputnik’s launch on October 4, 1957, began the era of spaceflight — and famously sparked the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States that was to last until the final days of the Communist empire.

"Better to ask Korolyov," he gruffly responds in Russian when asked, via a translator, why the head of the Soviet space program, chief designer Sergey Korolyov, had personally directed him to take charge of Sputnik. Of course, as we both know, Korolyov died more than 40 years earlier.

Given the circumstances that Korolyov found himself in 50 years ago, it is possible to imagine why he turned to Ivanovskiy. Korolyov’s primary problem was the sheer size of the task. In launching Sputnik, the chief designer had to build the launch rocket, develop guidance and communications equipment, construct ground processing facilities, establish a tracking network, and build the satellite itself. The rocket had already had two successful test launches, so that last challenge remained the biggest.

The reason for the push to get a satellite, any satellite, into orbit was because of information coming from overseas about the Americans, says Ivanovskiy. They, too, were in a rush — and "the respected Wernher von Braun, now working for the Americans, wanted to be first to create a satellite."

Korolyov needed a "Sputnik czar," one man to tie together all the various team efforts, to integrate all the fabrication and test schedules, and to decide — without bothering Korolyov — what to do about the inevitable glitches. "Korolyov entrusted me with the entire responsibility for preparation of Sputnik in its manufacture, tests, and preparation for sending off to [the launch base]," he says. Ivanovskiy, then 35, had worked at Korolyov’s rocket plant for 10 years, first as a technician and later, after finishing his university degree, as a radio engineer. He had been a cavalry rider from 1941 to 1945 and was wounded in action. His selection as Sputnik czar was settled in a brief meeting. "In the evening, two of us — [my boss] Khomyakov and me — entered Korolyov’s office," Ivanovskiy remembers. "Korolyov glanced at us over his gilded eyeglass rims and asked, ‘Have you come into agreement?’ Khomyakov said, yes, we had agreed, but I had had some doubts [about my experience]. Korolyov shrugged his shoulders and asked if we thought  he  had any experience of flying to the stars. ... Thus, that issue was decided on."

Today, at age 85, Ivanovskiy is proud of his role in the Sputnik story. "I am among those few people still alive who personally took part in that event, the 50th anniversary of which we’ll celebrate this year," he says. "What I can tell you is based upon what I saw, what I lived through, what I felt 50 years ago, and in what I directly took part with my brains, with my hands."

At first, Ivanovskiy recalls, Sputnik was just another engineering job. "At that time, we did not attach any colossal, global significance to the works. On the one hand, it was just another design production order. On the other hand, all our production activity was so secret, and we became aware that that activity was associated with the classified intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 [used as Sputnik’s launch rocket]. But we did not focus on something created ‘for the first time in the world.’ ... It was ordinary, everyday work."

He pauses and admits upon reflection that the work wasn’t, perhaps, all that ordinary. Even the manufacturing workshop got the red-carpet treatment. "The two hemispheres of the Sputnik had to be laid onto supports upholstered with velvet — and that had never been done in rocket engineering before, with rocket elements laid onto such supports. Once Korolyov came into the workshop where fabrication of the first Sputnik was going on and saw some disorder. Shortly afterwards an individual separate room appeared [for Sputnik fabrication], with white silk valances hung onto windows and plush curtains, emphasizing the unusual things going on in that room.

"After everything had been done at the factory, checked out and tested, we flew off to — at that time the word ‘cosmodrome’ did not exist yet — the base or ‘polygon.’ " Everything there was focused on the impending launch. "The process of preparing for flight was divided into two big parts. The first and the biggest and most responsible part lay with the rocket engineers. We knew that not all launches of the R-7 had been successful. That means nobody could guarantee that everything would go out all right. We, the ‘Sputnikovists’ [Sputnik engineers], had less responsibility because the scope of design and development was smaller.

"All preliminary tests had been carried out at the factory prior to shipment to the polygon, such as airtightness, electrical equipment, functioning of the automated controls. Two radio transmitters inside operated at different short-wave radio frequencies. There was no other scientific equipment there. Temperature sensors and pressure sensors would determine if airtightness was maintained inside and monitor temperature change. We could decipher those changes on the basis of the radio signals."

He pauses, recalling an incident that he isn’t sure ought to be mentioned, then launches into an anecdote that sheds light on the difficulties of his position. "All tests of Sputnik were performed with a chemical battery, but we did not use the one that was supposed to fly. Upon the completion of tests [the test battery] was to be replaced with the real one, the ‘flight battery.’ So after we had mounted the flight battery into Sputnik, but before connecting it, we checked out the voltage with a meter ... and saw zero voltage.

"What happened? That was the flight battery of The First in the World Artificial Satellite of the Earth!" I could hear the capital letters in the way he spoke the words. "That had to supply power to Sputnik! For those ‘beep, beep, beeps’ above the Earth!"

But Ivanovskiy wouldn’t kick the problem upstairs. Instead, he himself ordered what needed to be done. "The battery was removed immediately and sent to a local laboratory. Due to wrong wire soldering methods, the wire from that contact had gotten loose. That became the subject of review by the chairman of the State Commission [the Kremlin representative in charge of the space industry] and certainly by Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov, whose cheek muscles were twitching." At this point, any failure would be laid at Korolyov’s door. Even though the battery came from another plant, it was now in his satellite.

"So those wires were soldered strongly by our technician, Rimma Kolmenskaya. Everything was checked out, the battery was mounted on its nominal position inside Sputnik, everything was checked out again, Sputnik was sealed, the two halves were connected together, and it was put onto its supports on a small wagon." They finished assembling it just two days before launch. Now came the hard part.

"The technicians who worked with me looked at me and asked, ‘Off we go?’ I answered, ‘Off we go!’ And we pushed the wagon from the small room in which we had been working into the common hall where the rocket was lying, ready to receive our small cargo."

With a hoisting crane, Sputnik, without its "mustaches" — the four long whip antennas that would stream out behind the spherical satellite — was lifted and connected to the nose of the rocket, Ivanovskiy recalls. The mustaches were then screwed on and fastened down, and Sputnik was covered with a small cone.

One step remained. "With a small switch from the control panel, it was possible to switch on the onboard transmitters and through the speaker on the control panel hear ‘beep, beep, beep.’ Not from space yet but from the rocket lying nearby and via the control panel." Ivanovskiy gave the "Go!" and then the rocket people gave their "Go!" and a diesel locomotive began pulling the horizontally mounted rocket tailfirst through the hangar door toward the launchpad.

The moment of rolling a rocket out of its assembly building had already become a special ceremony, and it remains so to this day. Ivanovskiy recalls the scene: "Usually the chief designers came together for such efforts as a forthcoming launch, and by that time it had become a tradition for them to come to the launchpad. When the rocket was coming out, there were 15 to 20 top-level leaders of the rocket industry and representatives of authorized governing bodies. They all took their hats off and were standing silently, solemnly seeing off that rocket crawling over the rails. Since it was moving to launchpad at very low speeds, many people walked along on a sidewalk accompanying the rocket." Adding to the solemnity was the fact that it took place in darkness, perhaps to avoid observation by American U-2 spy planes.

Ivanovskiy didn’t hang around for the ceremony. "After the moment the launch vehicle had left the hall, I went to sleep because I was very tired. Work had been going on practically around the clock. There was nothing [more] to be done with Sputnik." So they all walked back to the barracks.

"The next day, along with my military colleague, a rocket officer named Vladimir Nikolayevich Kobelev — who later became a deputy director of engineering for a major military missile school — I climbed up to the very top where our favorite ball [Sputnik] was residing. We were walking around it and praying. What else did we have to do? Any further activity would start only after the rocket had injected it into orbit, after the internal command had been generated for jettisoning the nose cone and separating Sputnik from the rocket."

At that point, Ivanovskiy says, he remembered a critical step that was his sole responsibility — and wondered if he had forgotten to do it. When Sputnik separated from its R-7 launch rocket, a mechanical switch would close and allow power to flow from the battery, activating Sputnik. To prevent the battery being drained on the ground, a metal plate called a safing clip held the switch open. The plate had to be removed after Sputnik was attached to the rocket. "I removed that plate, and since it was a piece of metal no one needed, I poked it into my pocket," says Ivanovskiy. In doing so, Ivanovskiy was the last human to touch Sputnik.

Standing atop the gantry tower next to the nose cone, he suddenly worried whether he had, in fact, remembered to remove that safing clip. Ivanovskiy gloomily contemplated what he would have had to do next — call a halt to the countdown so that the rocket could be returned to the assembly building and the satellite disconnected to inspect the activation switch.

He shoved his hand into his pocket — and his fingers touched the plate. "The very plate that could have prevented it from switching on happened to be in my pocket. That meant it would work. And it did work."

He continues. "Before the last countdown, when last minutes were counted — I think that was 30 minutes — usually everybody leaves the launchpad, everyone is forced out. As a rule, three to four people are left by the rocket. I remember: There was Korolyov by the rocket, there was Voskresenskiy—his deputy or ‘chief launcher’ as Korolyov called him — by the rocket, there were military people, management, deputies.

"I remember Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov frowned at us, meaning, ‘What are you doing here?’ We realized it would be better to leave. And then we departed for the measurement station." Soon after Ivanovskiy left the pad, a legendary event occurred that he did not witness: A military bugler appeared and blew a call. "Probably a military signal like ‘Listen, everyone!’ The soldier’s name remained unknown. And his signal was the beginning of the space era!"

There was no descending numerical countdown, as with American launches. Instead, at intervals of about 30 seconds, a voice through a speaker declared the time to go in terms of readiness. The warm-up, preignition, and main combustion initiation sequence of the R-7 took 10 to 15 seconds to gather force before the rocket lifted off.

"So for the first time in my life, I experienced launch of an R-7 while being three kilometers from the launchpad. And of course I was impressed when those colossal forces confined in the fuel tank with rocket propellant got released. ... We were jumping like children and crying and hugging and kissing." The launch was near midnight — the flames would have lit up the surrounding steppe like a sunrise. "When the rocket is flying, five bright spots are seen first, four side ones and one in the center, and they were all working! Then the four side ones drop off, and only one star remains. And that small star is fading quickly in between the stars, and eventually that small star is not seen at all.

"When we realized the launch was good — nothing got torn off, nothing got burned or exploded — of course we were interested in rocket’s telemetry, how it would handle its task of putting Sputnik on its specific trajectory," Ivanovskiy says. "After we had got information that everything was well there, and the command had been given for separation of Sputnik, we rushed off to the station that would begin receiving the ‘beep’ signals."

Sputnik had sprung off its launch frame, and the activation trigger had turned on the radio. Ivanovskiy was there for the newborn cries of the very first creature of the space age. "And we really heard those signals there for the first time," he told me. "Yes, and then they disappeared." But that was good news. "It was flying to the east, and the signals were fading gradually because Sputnik was heading to the Western Hemisphere and behind the radio horizon."

Now came the dramatic wait. "We had to see whether it would show up again, if we could hear the signal again, or if it would fall back down to the earth as everything had fallen down before now.

"In that truck, there were radio receivers in the back. I was given one earpiece. And first with some noise and then louder and louder and more distinctly, we could distinguish those ‘beeeep, beeeeps.’ Finally we heard those signals. Close by us was the chief designer of radio hardware, Mikhail Sergeyevich Ryazanskiy. Those radio transmitters were produced at his institution. He called Korolyov by phone and said: ‘Seryozha! Congratulations! There is a satellite.’ And he had tears in his eyes. We were all crying as well."

The next day brought Ivanovskiy an epiphany of how his corner of the world was forever different. "We were flying to Moscow the next day, and we landed at an intermediate airfield. There I saw a newspaper for the first time with the TASS message about the first artificial satellite. I felt ashamed. But why? Because I felt myself completely naked, exposed to public observation. And why? Because we had been brought up [to believe] that what we were doing was top secret and that in no case could we tell anybody anywhere about it — we could neither write nor tell anybody. And here suddenly! Openly! Written on newspaper pages! That was awful."

Afterward, there were awards — even a few bonuses — along with national and professional pride. But mostly the success brought more work, says Ivanovskiy. "There was no miner’s gold, no wealth flooding toward us after that. Whoever we had been before that — ordinary engineers — we remained, with the same salaries, the same concerns, the same job titles. We did not receive any yachts, neither cottages nor palaces."

A month later, while preparing a second Sputnik (this one with a dog aboard), Ivanovskiy was again in charge of final preparations. For a second time he was at the polygon.

"At that time, someone ran in and said: ‘Let’s go outside! The first Sputnik will be flying over us!’ We ran out to the yard of our assembly building and were waiting until something appeared over the horizon. Before that we had not seen anything, but some people had been monitoring, and information was published about when it was flying over. And we noticed a small ‘glowworm,’ how it appeared and how it was slowly, solemnly flying over in the rays of the sunset. We applauded. It was very solemn." But it was not the shining sphere he had patted good-bye to, inches from his face, that night at the launch site only a month before.

"It was not Sputnik at all," he tells me. Rather, "that was the central part of the rocket. The Sputnik itself could not be seen with a naked eye.

"That is how it went," he concludes, leaning back in his chair. "For me, that was the beginning of my space activity. I am still ‘in space.’ In January this year I was ‘only’ 85 years old. And thanks to God, I keep ‘flying in space.’"

He looks back on a career that was launched by this first of all satellites. "I was lucky to take part in all ‘firsts’ of space. The first Sputnik, the first live creature in orbit, there were the first Lunas, the first [probes to Mars], there was [Yuri] Gagarin." Ivanovskiy had accompanied Yuri Gagarin up the gantry elevator on April 12, 1961, and had assisted him into his Vostok capsule, shaken his hand, and sealed the hatch behind him. Ivanovskiy’s was the last face Gagarin saw before leaving the planet. For some of the dogs aboard test flights, his had been the last face they ever saw.

"Korolyov asking me ... well, that certainly was great luck."

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