420: Lagoon 420 Owners & Fans

[Jeannius]

You, of course, are the winner Geoff. Wind generators and solar panels - unless you cover every square inch of the boat surface - will never be able to provide the motive power for a 420.

by the way... I seem to see Annie's Toy virtually everyday here in the BVI so I must have seen you.

[ess105]

We have a fair bit of Solar but no wind power. Simple math settles this one. To motor we run anywhere between 30W and 75W per motor at 72V. That's one hell of a lot of wind power to go a short distance. In practice the renewables (in my humble oppinion) serve best to top up the house bank. We find we always consume more than we produce so we tend to top up the house from the drive bank each day for an hour or two. In silence. At anchor, we run the genset to power the washing machine once or twice per week and for the hour it runs we top up house and drive banks.

Cruising we don't move often so we live blissfully apart from the generator except for when the washing machine runs and that is much better than going to the laundry. We end up sometimes having to turn the generator on to motor out because we've lowered the drive bank charge but that's not a big deal.

[motion30]

how much differance is there between the running surface between the sail vs the power cat?

[Karend007]

Just a quick post to let people know Medregal Village in the Golfo de Cariaco, Venezuela has recently started offering catamaran haulout, live on board and storage services, lifting the catamarans under the bridgedeck as recommended by Lagoon.
We were only the second catamaran lifted here, so we were a bit nervous to be guinea pigs for the process, but the owner Jean-Marc Plessey and the boatyard crew, Pablo, Jose and Raul were fantastic. Before Jean-Marc agreed to haul the boat, he contacted Lagoon via David Farrington with photos and details of the trailer and to get advice on the centre of gravity of the boat. David was very helpful as usual and once Jean Marc believed he was technically capable of lifting the boat, the team inspected the boat in the water to understand the challenges the gull wing narcelle presents when lifting with a trailer. As a result of this visit, I did take the cockpit drain deflector off to make things easier.
The lift went well once the positioning of the trailer under the balance point was correct and the team is now in the process of sanding and painting the bottom. This might seem extravagant, but the prices here are such that I could haul and get the bottom painted for less than the haul out cost at Curacao Marine. And the prices for Catamarans are not much more than monohulls of the same length.
The boatyard has sheltered workspaces around the yard and both 110 and 220v (60Hz) supply, but being Venezuela, this supply is not as reliable as I would like, but I managed to get all my work done with the power tools and charge my batteries, so it is not a show stopper. There is a painter/fibreglass technician –Bernard and his work looks very high quality, but other technicians are few and far between, so don’t expect to get a lot of work done here yet. There is talk of a diesel and refrigeration mechanic setting up here, but he is currently on his way to the ABCs to renew visas and cruising permits.
The facility is attached to a resort, with all the facilities (including pool – fantastic as it is hot working here, bar and restaurant) available for use by the cruisers. While on the hard, you get a bathroom facility pretty much to yourself while there aren’t too many people on the hard.
It is remote and tranquil, but chandlery is limited to a 2 hour drive to Carupano or a trip to PLC, so you should bring everything you need with you as you probably won’t find what you are looking for here. Provisioning is basic and again a bumpy hour by por puesto (local taxi) to Cariaco. However, we do enjoy the weekly trip to the market and the people are friendly, helpful and tolerant of our poor Spanish.
The scenery on the trip to and from is great, Laguna Grande is superb and Jean Marc can help organise a tour up to the Caripe Caves.
Security at the Marina is good and we feel safe enough to sleep with hatches and doors open. We also walk freely around Cariaco and Carupano with just the normal caution of visiting any foreign country – certainly not the dangerous picture of Venezuela portrayed in Grenada and other islands.
The website for the Marina is http://www.medregalvillage.com/MARINA/pagina%201FIT.htm with nice pictures of our boat on the ramp and on the hard. This has capabilities, layouts and prices.

[ess105]

I envy you that pool. It's stinking hot here in Cartagena.

[planetoftheapes]

LAGOON AND THE ARC
The ARC, which each year allows many sailors to cross the Atlantic without
any problems, has had Lagoon as its sponsor for a long time now. Once again
this year, Lagoons represented half of the 18 multihulls entered for the Atlantic
crossing. And again this year, the company distinguished itself with victory for
the Lagoon 420 ‘Vanora’ and second place for FarFar II, a 440, whilst all the
other cats from this builder reached Saint Lucia safely.
For more information:
catamarans LAGOON : construction, vente et location de catamarans de croisière
Welcome to World Cruising Club

[rob831]

Erm...I'm newnd a fan of the lagoon 420.
I take note that the latest post here was in 2006...4 years ago...this list active?

[ess105]

Thread is a little asleep but not that dead. Previous post was 19th Jan this year.

[sail4evr]

not dead yet

[rob831]

The 420 hybrid has a generator so it will take fuel if needed...has anyone added solr cells and wind power to it to kicj it up a notch??

[rob831]

sorry for the typos...also the keel...can this boat be safely run aground or should the owner buy a tender?

[Intentional Drifter]

Hi, Rob831, and welcome to CF.

I'm not sure what you're asking about the solar/wind to "kick it up a notch". One could add solar and wind generation to keep the house battery bank charged, but that would have no effect on the propulsion bank. The propulsion bank is very large -- the recommended genset puts out 21.5 kw -- The number of solar panels required to make a dent in that would far exceed the surface area available.

As to your question about the keels -- yes, the boats are designed and built so that the weight of the boat can be carried on the keels. However, don't interpret this as something one would do on a regular basis. You would need a well surveyed beach that is "just right" for beaching in order to do some quick bottom maintenance. Remember, you only have the time between tides to get it done!

For routine stops and getting around, you would not want to have the boat touching ground. Always either tie up at a dock or use a tender to get back and forth from shore. Yeah, I know that the magazine ads love to show their pretty boats pulled up to an idyllic beach, but that's all sales stuff. Only in rare events would one actually do that.

While fiberglass is remarkably touch stuff, so is sand. It will grind through your gelcoat and fiberglass remarkably fast if the right precautions aren't taken. (What is sandpaper made of?)

By the way, the above is true of all fiberglass boats and cats. Not Lagoon-specific.

[rob831]

Thanks for the info...was hoping to use solar cells to charge the propulsion pack..but as long as the generator works...still thinking of the house power...could save some fuel there with the solar cells.

Are there dodges or something to fully inclose the cockpit in case of being caught out in bad weather?
Are those tv/internet/ satellite phones/gps antenna worth anything?
Does the boat have a watermaker or can I get 1 for it?

[Intentional Drifter]

Rob, it sounds like you are quite new at a lot of this. I don't say that critically, it was true for all of us and there are still many (many!) things where I still feel quite ignorant.

But, it sounds like you are making (or have already made) some very significant and expensive decisions without having a lot of the fundamental knowledge. If you haven't already made those decisions, I respectfully suggest that you might want to hold off a bit and get that grounding knowledge. Then, you'll have much more confidence in the decisions you are making and knowing they are right, for you.

Along with the above, I'll give you this piece of advice: When it comes to boats and boating, there really is such a thing as good seamanship and bad seamanship. The differences have evolved over many generations of sailors (often in a ruthlessly Darwinian way, I might add. The ocean is a beautiful mistress, but totally unforgiving. You might get away with bad seamanship for quite awhile, but she will, eventually, always balance the books.) Getting training, whether from a formal "school" or via friends and books, is highly recommended. Always better to have the experience of "oh, I remember that and I know what to do about it", than "oh, crap! What's going on? What do I do?"

As far as boats are concerned, there is an amazing variety and that's one of the wonderful things about them. There are lots of "right" ways to go about achieving a good boat that does what you want it to do, and well. Sometimes you will hear a certain boat or method as being the "correct" way with the inference that all others are not. Almost always, that is opinion masked as fact. The trick is knowing enough so that you can figure out what's right, for you! Believe me, they are ALL compromises, your job is to figure out the set of compromises you are willing to make.

To answer your specific questions:

Yes, there are cockpit enclosures available, or can be made, for just about all boats. For Lagoons, specifically, the factory makes enclosures, but others have them made. I have no knowledge as to the quality of the factory enclosures, but I'm sure someone on this thread will.

Is GPS worth anything? Yes, definitely. You're going need to learn navigation and GPS is an important part of this. Do NOT, though, let it be the only part! Charts, chartplotters, GPS, all of that stuff can be both wrong and unreliable. Learning traditional navigation methods can look pretty intimidating at first, but this is where a good class makes it both easy and fun.

Sat Phones? Very handy, especially for open ocean communications. Not necessary, though. Some are better than others, do your research!

TV/Internet? Luxury items. Got the bucks and want to spend them? They are quite expensive, especially when you get more than a few miles offshore.

Watermakers? Most boats do not come "standard" from the factory with a watermaker. Almost all manufacturers will offer them as an option. Again, there's lots of variety in these things. You don't want to get stuck with one that doesn't meet your needs.

Hope this helps.

ID

[rob831]

Yes, I'm totaly brand new. I do intend to spend alot of time learning. These questions may imply that I'm ready to jump onto a boat but this isnt the case. I will be asking questions to help me when I take all the classes I can and then have the fore knowledge to buy a boat. The will possibly take 2 to 3 years. Right now I'm looking at various boats and asking questions. I am a fan of multihull boats and am working right now to gain as mush knowledge as I can get. As I've often found the only dumb question is the one not asked. Thanks for the info you've given me and I will probably bug you more...lol.