this seems to reproduce the no referenced error
testcase for vme-devel
test report for 
http://figisapps.fao.org/jira/browse/VME-50
reverting the orphan change. The orphan construction reveals other
problems, described in 
http://figisapps.fao.org/jira/browse/VME-50
and require refactoring of VmeDao.update.