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Old 15-04-2010, 19:55   #91
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Not quite to announcement stage but getting closer.

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Old 15-05-2010, 03:47   #92
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hey y'all!!

we've just taken delivery of Meercat, formerly known as Orana Hull No. 62... She is wonderful! We are still in La Rochelle and a bit overwhelmed by where things are and how they work. Which leads me to the question... we've located the boiler but don't know how to turn it on. Could anyone enlighten us...? Thanks
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Old 15-05-2010, 04:25   #93
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well good luck with your new boat, and if you dont know how the "boiler" works you need help from the factory to show you,
happy sailing.
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Old 15-05-2010, 05:33   #94
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The 'boiler' or hot water system located under the port aft bed is heated when ever the port engine is running, or when connected to shore power provide the wiring has been activated as the tank actually is wired up and has to be connected into the power system when fitting shore power.
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Old 16-05-2010, 02:39   #95
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Hi Daniel,
Is that announcement any closer ?????
If not why not visit us at the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show 20th May - 23rd May....

Gordon and Lou.
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Old 10-06-2010, 08:03   #96
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Announcement

Hi Gordon,

We are the proud owners of Orana Hull 29.

We have just spent 7 weeks on her in the Med, cruising France and Italy.

We will have to have a chat when we return in a couple of days.

Daniel and Elaine.
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Old 10-06-2010, 12:23   #97
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Update from Hull #21

* Greetings all:

Here’s an update from ile de Grace, Orana 44 #21. Sorry for the long delay, but I’m just now catching up to this thread.

First, I apologize for the pornsters having overrun the Yahoo group – I shut it down last year

Second, having taken delivery in La Rochelle in April 2008, we are presently in Tahiti, en route to Oz, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Med, and then back home to Annapolis, MD (USA). We’ve put a lot of work and a lot of miles on our boat, and here are some thoughts on our common vessel:

· All things considered, the boat is handling well, but we haven’t really been in a blow to speak of; max winds have been in the 30-40 knot range; max seas in the 10-15 foot range. We have the gennaker rig, and use it a fair amount. I leave a reef in the main at all times, sinece the last bit of sail doesn’t add that much, and as cruisers, I’m not that interested in hyper-performance. I can sail up to about 45-50 degrees apparent, but it's hard work getting closer, and we usually end up motor sailing in anything closer that 50 degrees. We've been weighted down with extra fuel and water for some of our longer passages, but we're still slower than, say, a Francis 44, which was running a full knot faster over a four-day period of varying winds with each of us having similar canvas. No matter; we each got there!

· We re-rigged the reefing gear to allow us to reef the luff points at the steering wheel. We put blocks into the cringles, and ran the luff and leach lines around blocks at the base of the mast back to Spinlock jammers just forward of the winches. That way, we can reef without leaving the cockpit. Chafe is an issue under either our approach or the original factory approach, and I often go up when the weather settles or my wife is on deck and tie off the cringles and release the tension on the jammers.
· We have added a lot of safety equipment, including stainless handrails around the length of the cabin top. I think the factory arrangement of having the scuppers serve as handrails is unsafe in most any kind of weather, and we feel very secure now knowing that the handholds are large and obvious.
· We added a large stern stainless archway, where we have 4 x 135w solar panels and a KISS wind generator, as well as our GPS antenna. We can also raise our dinghy much higher than the original davits allow (we kept them in place for harbor use). We also added a swiveling block-and-pulley system for our 20hp outboard.
· We installed a deck box immediately aft of the cockpit seat, and store our SNUBA compressor and airlines, as well as our drogue/parachute line and chain. We weren’t going to be lounging there often on our circumnavigation, and the space fills in nicely.
· We installed backing plates for all our deck cleats; strangely, these were not backed, and they slip and slide without that essential support.
· We added another support column for our cockpit roof; on the Atlantic passage, the original stanchion (roughly centerline on the starboard side of the settee) pulled free, victim of a poor design/weld job at its base. In addition to backplating this in Bermuda, we added a second stanchion on the starboard side of the aft exit from the cockpit table area, at the aft inboard corner of the roof over the master bedroom’s roof . We feel much more secure, since these in effect hold the main halyard track down.
· We added an insulator (just one) to the top of our starboard shroud, and installed a HF radio above the desk in the master cabin, running the antenna behind the wall, forward to the head, and then attached to the chainplate. We get excellent reception and transmission.
· We have Furuno instruments, and after an initial issue where the factory’s installation contractor apparently used non-Furuno junction boxes and connectors, we’ve had no issues; quite the contrary, I love my Furuno gear, and we use the autopilot 99% of the time, linked into the easy-to-use and to-date failsafe Navnet 3D system. I installed an autopilot repeater at the nav station, so I can drive from inside or out.
· Our D1-30 Volvo engines have worked great, but recently, we fell victim to what I gather is a common issue: failure of the saildrive clutch assembly. At present, with 800 hours on the engine, we are in Tahiti awaiting repairs; it’s an intermittent problem – more often than not, when we engage the gear, we get RPMs but no prop rotation. It’s a relatively easy fix, but annoying, and here in the hinterlands, a bit pricey for parts delivery.
· I replaced the Volvo fuel pre-filters with Racor filters, so I can see what’s going on. In addition, I never put fuel straight from a land hose into my tank; I always pass through a Baja filter. That way, I have three filters before it hits my engine. We’ve seen some skanky fuel in these parts!
· I replaced the plastic thru-hulls with bronze thru-hulls.
· I added an electric toilet for the master head.
· I installed a Spectra Cape Horn watermaker on the inside of the starboard bow compartment; easy to access, service, and monitor. It pushes out 18 liters/hour at about 14 amps on both pumps; 9 liters/7 amps on one pump. Aside from user error, flawless high-quality water production for washing, showering, etc. We run it for 4 hours about every third or fourth day (I have the optional Z-Brane, which prevents scaling & biogrowth with a high voltage, low amperage current running thru the membrane.
· We have the Maestro version (early layout), and have reconfigured the forward part of the starboard hull considerably. First, we took the shallow inboard locker just forward of the escape hatch and pulled it outboard about 8 inches, installed proper shelves, and now have a wonderful deep and commodious pantry. Second, we ripped out the flat bunk top, and re-configured the forward space to accommodate a washing machine (aft against the dook/bulkhead), and just forward, inboard, a portable 12V Engle freezer that draws virtually nothing, and keeps us loaded with frozen fish from our generally successful trolling efforts. If you install a washing machine, make sure you can cap off the water drain tube; ours is located about 3 feet above the water line, but in the proper seas, water is forced up and over. I plug the top before passages.
· We experienced minor but annoying finishing issues with production – a loose vent tube on a port head holding tank and an improperly caulked cockpit sliding door combined to create a two-source leak issue into our port hull. That took a while to diagnose!
· Our Xatrex battery monitor (still) cannot register amperage coming to the batteries from our 9.5kW genset; I haven’t had time or expertise to diagnose this yet, but I’m sure it’s a quick fix. As it stands, I have to intuit my way to managing my batteries, since for some reason, the folks that installed my solar and wind provided only a stand-alone metric for their contribution.
· FP came through on all significant warranty issues, so no quarrels there; I do wish they’d have spent a bit more time on the little finishing details, but all in all, no complaints.

Things We Still Have To Do:

· We need some kind of dodger for the helm station; we purchased the so-called bimini top, but it’s too small for real sun protection, and offers no protection against rain and wind in the open ocean. Still noodling that design in my head.
· I need to consolidate our battery monitors, so I can see at one glance where we are.

That’s it; if anyone wants more info or pics or details, feel free to email me directly, as I have limited access to the internet per se, and easier access to email. I can also speak to vendors who have almost uniformly been outstanding in their support as we undertake our journey.

Lastly, our blog is at: http://sv-grace.blogspot.com



Best to all!

/jon
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Old 10-06-2010, 19:03   #98
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Another Ausi Orana!

Hi Daniel,
Congratulations, another Orana for our Ausi waters eventually?
Lou and I completed the Sanctuary Cove Show and continued north via the wrecks at Tanglooma on to Mooloolaba. We picked up a couple of friends and continued up to Frazer Is via the Great Sandy Strait, on up to the top of the Is and from there up to Lady Musgrave Is, then back to Mooloolaba via 1770, Bundaberg, Frazer , Double Is Point.
We managed to sail most of the time in near perfect conditions with the Orana performing very well in light breezes 6-10 kts and apparent at 70-80 degrees we were getting boat speeds of 5 to 7 kts not bad in light air.
We also had a day of wind at 35 apparent and up to 20 kts and managed 7-8 kts working our way to destination, trying to stay as high as possible to avoid sand bars behind Frazer.
Any way look forward to more news on your purchase and once again congratulations!!!
Gordon.
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Old 12-07-2010, 15:52   #99
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Hello again

This is an update from Meercat, aka Hull No. 62 - we've arrived in Grenada after a longish but peaceful Atlantic Crossing. Thrilled with the boat but are having some after-sales issues with FP... would love to hear about your experiences in that respect! Did FP deal with these to your satisfaction? We are particularly concerned about timing at the moment as they seem to be taking ages to respond to us.

Any comments would be much appreciated!!!

For more news and pics, you can check out our Facebook page Zenith Ocean Voyages... the website is still in the pipeline.

Cheers and fair winds

Susy and Gerard
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Old 12-07-2010, 20:26   #100
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Hi Susy and Gerard, Glad to hear you had a peaceful Atlantic crossing. Our experience with FP was thru our Australian importer, any issues were promptly dealt with. We were asked to photograph any problem areas pass this on to our agent and their service/ shipwright person would talk to France and the problem was quickly dealt with by a local shipwright and account passed onto the local importer. Puchacing thru a dealer comes with this follow up service.
Regards Gordon.
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Old 13-07-2010, 10:24   #101
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Like Gordon, my issues were (eventually) resolved, but not without some delays (more inattention than deliberate to be sure) and not without some intervention by my dealer ... as Churchill said of Americans, in the end, after exhausting all other alternatives, they do the right thing ...

Again, I think they're understaffed in post-sale service, nothing deliberate ...
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Old 13-07-2010, 10:34   #102
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Reinforced Anchor Hawsehole Plate

Hi all:

In my South Pacific anchorings, I began to notice that wqith 90+ meters of chain out, and a heavy Rocna, the front fiberglass hawsehole plate (where the anchor enters through the S/S plate) was flexing uncomfortably.

I bought some carbon fiber cloth, and epoxied it down in 8 layers on the interior of the anchor locker -- 2 layers per segment, radiating outwardm, with each segment about 5 cm larger vertically and horizontally than the one underneath. This doubled the thickness of the front glass/now-fiber plate, and it seems immovable.

I know at least one other Orana owner faced this flexing problem.

The carbon fiber stuff is pricy ($80/meter) and I used about 1.2 meters. It's 7x stronger than steel, weight-for-weight, and I added about 0.5 cm of thickness to the bow plate.

Happy to elaborate; I had contemplated using an expanded S/S backing plate, but realized I'd be securing it to a less-than-rock-solid fiberglass underplating, so decided to strengthen the overall plate.

/jon
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Old 23-07-2010, 03:42   #103
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Another New Orana

Hi all,
We are about to be the proud owners of a new Orana to be named ‘Alunu’ and would like to introduce ourselves as Eveline and Richard. We hope to take possession of hull #66 toward end of September in La Rochelle. We are not yet sure whether we will first head east or west, but we ultimately we will keep going west until we come back to where we started, as long as there are not too many distractions on the way !
We obviously are now busy planning how we have to prepare the boat. We have been following this thread and are particularly interested in the modifications made by Jon on ile de Grace. During our test sail it was clear the bimini over the helm was too small. We would like to know of any improvements people have made in this area. What about the height of the helm seat, are your feet left hanging above the ground or am I just a short ass ! Also, what anchors/size are people using ? Any other tips that can be recommended are welcome.
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Old 24-07-2010, 00:55   #104
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welcome aboard and congratulations, this is an exciting time for you both.
Would love to know more about you both and will do our best to help out with answers wherever we can.

Gordon.
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Old 24-07-2010, 15:12   #105
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Welcome aboard Aluna - you have bought a fine vessel!
For your bimini deliberations I have attached a photo of my set up which works well in a warm climate. ( pardon the old guys without shirts - I'm the one standing) I have a panel that rolls down when the sun is behind. It could used a windshield panel for those wet days.
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