Bareboat: Electric winch vs. two years newer

[Jerry Woodward]

I have a dilemma and was hoping to get some sage advice. I will be chartering a Lagoon 400 out of Martinique in November, 2 week round trip to the Grenadines. I have the option of choosing a 2012 Lagoon 400 without an electric winch or a 2010 model with an electric winch. The only other difference I can see from the pictures is that the 2012 has a chartplotter at the helm and in the saloon but the 2010 only has a chartplotter in the salon.

This will be the biggest cat I have chartered so far: previous cats have been a Mahe 36 and a Lagoon 380. I have not used an electric winch before, but have heard that they really make a difference on the bigger cats. I am in relatively good shape, but I found raising the main on the previous cats one of the most physically demanding aspects of sailing. The rest of my crew will be four ladies and a man with limited use of one arm, so raising the main will be all on me. Thus, I like the idea of having an electric winch to reduce that burden at a critical time when getting underway.

On the other hand, a two year older cat may have more chance of something breaking. I presume that they both are maintained properly, but still, there is a statistical chance that the older cat may have more problems. I'm not worried about not having a chartplotter at the helm because I will have an iPad with Garmin Bluechart.

Which would you choose?

Jerry

[Hoofsmit]

Go for the winch, I think you answered your own question With the crew you have.
it will allow the ladies to stay on the tramp for eye candy !
Don't for get to charge the ipad before going into areas with nav restraints, nothing worse than the darn thing going blank and having to rely on someone relaying from the saloon plotter


Sent from my iPad.......i apologise for the auto corrects !!!

[afriis]

Originally Posted by Jerry Woodward

I have a dilemma and was hoping to get some sage advice. I will be chartering a Lagoon 400 out of Martinique in November, 2 week round trip to the Grenadines. I have the option of choosing a 2012 Lagoon 400 without an electric winch or a 2010 model with an electric winch. The only other difference I can see from the pictures is that the 2012 has a chartplotter at the helm and in the saloon but the 2010 only has a chartplotter in the salon.

This will be the biggest cat I have chartered so far: previous cats have been a Mahe 36 and a Lagoon 380. I have not used an electric winch before, but have heard that they really make a difference on the bigger cats. I am in relatively good shape, but I found raising the main on the previous cats one of the most physically demanding aspects of sailing. The rest of my crew will be four ladies and a man with limited use of one arm, so raising the main will be all on me. Thus, I like the idea of having an electric winch to reduce that burden at a critical time when getting underway.

On the other hand, a two year older cat may have more chance of something breaking. I presume that they both are maintained properly, but still, there is a statistical chance that the older cat may have more problems. I'm not worried about not having a chartplotter at the helm because I will have an iPad with Garmin Bluechart.

Which would you choose?

Jerry

Go for the electric winch. I have a L400 with electric winch and a 12" Zeus chartplotter but I would choose the winch if I had to choose.
Hoisting the main would take forever if you had to do it on your own by hand.

I sailed a day trip on Ericsson 3, one of the Volvo Ocean Race boats from a previous race, and to make us realize how it was to sail, the crew made us guests hoist the main by ourselves with the winch stations. We almost gave up half way, the main mast is 35 meters high

[MBWhite]

Like the others suggest, go with the winch as it sounds like you will be the only one supplying the horsepower for EVERYTHING.

Not only is raising a big sail demanding, but then you are bushed for a while and if you are needing to do things in a hurry it can be hard sometimes to catch your breath while figuring out what you are needing to do next on the list.

[SaltyTanned]

November is a slow month, you might get a more recent better equipped boat boat if you shop around a little.

Have you tried Dream Yacht Charters or Regis Guillmot or Punch Croisières?

[SWTFRDOM]

Originally Posted by Jerry Woodward

I have a dilemma and was hoping to get some sage advice. I will be chartering a Lagoon 400 out of Martinique in November, 2 week round trip to the Grenadines. I have the option of choosing a 2012 Lagoon 400 without an electric winch or a 2010 model with an electric winch. The only other difference I can see from the pictures is that the 2012 has a chartplotter at the helm and in the saloon but the 2010 only has a chartplotter in the salon.

This will be the biggest cat I have chartered so far: previous cats have been a Mahe 36 and a Lagoon 380. I have not used an electric winch before, but have heard that they really make a difference on the bigger cats. I am in relatively good shape, but I found raising the main on the previous cats one of the most physically demanding aspects of sailing. The rest of my crew will be four ladies and a man with limited use of one arm, so raising the main will be all on me. Thus, I like the idea of having an electric winch to reduce that burden at a critical time when getting underway.

On the other hand, a two year older cat may have more chance of something breaking. I presume that they both are maintained properly, but still, there is a statistical chance that the older cat may have more problems. I'm not worried about not having a chartplotter at the helm because I will have an iPad with Garmin Bluechart.

Which would you choose?

Jerry

Jerry,

I would take the 2010 model with the winch and the chart potter at the helm.
A 2 year vessel that has been taken care of is like a new boat but one that is "broken in" and any problems solved.

When you have to "weigh" anchor, that windlass comes in handy. Having the chartplotter at the helm is great for areas that you were never been in before.

Take the 2010 and have a great time.

Howard
Sweet Freedom

[Jerry Woodward]

Salty, thanks for that tip. I currently have quotes from VPM and Regis but hadn't considered Dream or Punch. I now have e-mailed them. Looking at the Punch web site many of their boats even have watermakers. Now that would really be nice not to have to stop the refill the water!

I will definitely go with an electric winch on any boat above 38'.

[SaltyTanned]

Refilling the water tanks in the Grenadines is... iffy at best. They will sell you water collected from the roofs and stored in a cistern under the building. I would certainly not recommend drinking this or even using it for coffee.

If possible buy your bottled water in Le Marin, it is much cheaper and easier there. The Leader Price discount supermarket has a dinghy dock where you load the dinghy directly from the cart. While you are there stock up on wine, also for the same reasons.

There are reasonably well stocked supermarkets in St Lucia, St Vincent (sometimes), Grenada. If you decide to buy lobster or fish the best place is Petite Martinique (part of Grenada). Not Martinique!

November is a great time to sail there. Few boats, usually great weather.

[Mithril Bham]

I am assuming you are chartering from Horizon (could be wrong). Great company.
Go with the winch although most of your anchorages will be shallow. My favorite area.
Have fun.

[TomLewis]

I thought I ripped my shoulders out of place while winching a mainsail on a Tartan 3700. Not in the best of shape but geez. Get the electric winch.