Any Folks I Still Know On Here?

[wrwakefield]

Welcome back, Rebel Heart.

It is great to hear you and your family are doing well and are back in the market...

Have fun shopping!

Cheers!

Bill

[nigel1]

Hi Eric

Good to see you have bounced back, and good luck with the boat search.

Cheers

[NirvanaBob]

Bob & Sherry aboard Nirvana, currently in El Salvador. Glad to hear you're back on the air! Cheers, Bob

[cpa]

Glad you guys are doing well. Welcome back.

[smj]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

I agree, a tri for just me works, but a family of 4, not such a good fit.

Of the production cats I like Catana and Outreamer. For custom builds Shuttleworth, Chris White, Grainger, Schionning, Roger Hill, Crowther to name a few. I know what your probably thinking, they all have the common denominator of being fast, which is true but I like them for cruising for the simple reason that when not going fast, rig loading is a fraction of that of a lower performance boat at the same boat speed. To double your speed you need 8 times the power from your sails with the accompanying stresses. So a heavy condo cat is at max stress at 12 kts whereas a proper performance cat at the same speed is seeing 1/8 of the loads. These performance cats do not carry much fuel because they are capable of sailing at or above wind speed up to 10 kt. So finicky little 5 kts of wind might give your old HC enough speed to maintain steerage, in a performance lightweight cat your ghosting along at 6 kt, not bad, huh?

It of course depends on your mission statement. For pure sailing on passages with minimum to zero fuel burn, a lightweight performance cat fills the bill. If motorsailing with 300 gallon fuel tanks is the choice, there are a lot of really plush production condo cats to choose from. A lot from the charter trades fit in the latter, but sometimes only have 60~90 gallons of fuel. With the lack of performance combined with < 90 gallons of fuel, long passages might produce a bit of range anxiety if the winds don't cooperate.

Welcome back RH, and Deckofficer, great post!

[Exile]

Along with many other of your friends, I appreciate your checking back in, RH. Your story was an inspiring one, from start to finish. Welcome back.

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by smj

Welcome back RH, and Deckofficer, great post!

With the boats you have owned in the past along with your current boat I'd guess you can identify with ghosting along at 6 kt in 5 kt of wind. I should have mentioned for Eric the Seawind as a production light weight performance cat.

[Rustic Charm]

Welcome back RH,

I follow your blogs. But good to see you back on here.

RC

[Rhapsody-NS27]

Hi Eric,

Funny, I was just looking at your blog earlier to see if there was anything new on the boat front and now see you here posting again.

Would not have thought the rescuers would have the wheel. Good that you're looking at getting back out on the water. Good luck to you and your family in finding the next Rebel Heart.

[SimonV]

Welcome back Eric, glad you didn't swallow the anchor.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

Welcome back. I was one of your avid followers. Was sad to read the unfortunate end of your voyage. But stuff happens. Our neighbors spent two years prepping their boat for their retirement cruise. Less than a month out they were dismasted and had to motor back.

In the last year, I've had a good friend pass away and another battle with cancer. We might fail when we try things, but it becomes more and more clear to me that if you don't try in the first place, there's zero chance of pulling anything off. Meanwhile, our respective sands continue to slip through the hour glass until we're either too old, too tired, or too dead to even choose.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

Aloha Eric,
Last I saw you was on my journey with Martin in La Paz. I followed this forum and the news articles and was so happy that you and your family survived and are now ready to start shopping for your next adventure.
Sometimes dealing with Navy and the Coasties is a pain in the b--- but when you need them they are wonderful to have around.

John! Hey!

I totally remember you from La Paz, I bumped into a few cruisersforum folks there, and all were quite nice. Got any plans for anything on the horizon?

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by NirvanaBob

Bob & Sherry aboard Nirvana, currently in El Salvador. Glad to hear you're back on the air! Cheers, Bob

Bob! That's awesome you're in El Salvador. You guys staying, going anywhere else? I spent so much time honing my Spanish skills I'm thinking it would be nice to head south to non-tropical Latin America. Not so much mosquitoes/hurricanes, still speaking Spanish, etc.

[cwyckham]

Welcome back! I'm really glad to see your smiling face here again.

We're also thinking that buying a 38-40' cat in a distant location might be our best option in 5 years when we take off with our family of 4, so I'll be very interested in learning from your journey.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

In the last year, I've had a good friend pass away and another battle with cancer. We might fail when we try things, but it becomes more and more clear to me that if you don't try in the first place, there's zero chance of pulling anything off. Meanwhile, our respective sands continue to slip through the hour glass until we're either too old, too tired, or too dead to even choose.

Yep, everyone makes mistakes in one form or another. Often not knowing. Some have bigger consequences simply by the luck of the mistakee..... rebuilding that old boat for as much as buying a new one, etc etc. most all of us have done it... and it doesn't get much easier to avoid it next time around either!