Fitting out for Blue water cruising

[Borden]

Back in September I introduced myself to this forum. Then we'd just bought a Moody 471 with plans to circumnavigate starting in Spring 2007.
I promised updates from time to time, so here's the first.

Fitting out is going well, however I can readily subscribe to the maxim that you must double your estimates of cost and time!

The boat (Solent Venture) has already been around the world twice and she underwent a major refit in 1999. Since then boat electronics have moved ahead and so have regulations. We've had a holding tank for black water fitted to comply with regulations in various parts of the world. The old Raymarine RL70 chart plotter and B&G Hornet 4 has been replaced with new Raymarine kit. Electrics have been overhauled by me and a new fuel filtering arrangement using twin switchable filters has been installed to replace the single filter. This now means that we have one filter each for the diesel Gennerator and main engine or we can run both through one filter in the event of a blockage.

New steering cables have been installed, a major job as they run under the fuel tank in the aft cabin (we have a centre cockpit). It's good to see parts of the boat that were last seen when she was built. Fortunately the boat is ashore in Hamble Point marina near Southampton in the UK, this is less than a mile from where she was build by Moody's at Swanwick. Several of the people we have working on the boat are ex employees of Moody's so have first hand knowledge. Two even had a hand in building her!

Sails have been washed an overhauled. A new wind powered electric generator has been fitted. All new Blakes seacocks have been fitted. New rudder bearings have been fitted etc. etc.

I've managed to pass the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore practical exam which now gives me the ICC which is recognised worldwide. I've also just passed the Long Range radio and Satellite exam so can now legally operate our SSB and Sat C installations. A course on sea surval follows for my wife and I in May.

Launching is set for April 28th so we'll then see if she floats!

In June we move to Falmouth in Cornwall via the Channel Islands then in August we're off to southern Portugal via France and Spain. We're not going to rush and have set aside 6 weeks for the cruise so will have chance to explore Brittany, the coast of western France and the Rias of northern Spain and Portugal. The plan is to lay up in the Algarve until March 2007 when we set off to cruise the Med. for the summer.

Another update will follow probably after the cruise to Portugal.

Fair winds to you all
Colin & Jane

A poor pic of Solent Venture attached

[Charlie]

very exciting about you impending trip. Looks like you are doing everything right.

Charlie

[Talbot]

Do you intend carying a rib on those davits for the cruise?

This will become a major liability in bad weather - read richard Wood's accounts of what happened with his dinghy on davits in a Force 10. He had to stick a knife in it and cut it away - a job that is rather more difficult in a rib!

[Borden]

Talbot

A good point you make there and one which has been troubling me. As I said, the boat including RIB, has been around twice already without incident but that's not to say that there may be an unfortunate event when we go around. I was thinking of building a frame to go inside the RIB to support the canpoy when under way so that water sheds off rather than filling up the RIB but I'm still not convinced that this is a solution to the potential problem.
Any thoughts/suggestions will be welcome.

Colin

[Talbot]

Its not the rain or splashes that would worry me, so much as a survival storm and a breaking wave. I reckon it would rip the rib and davits off and you would then be left with a couple of big holes in the deck at the least, and thats if you are lucky and all ropes securing the rib and tied elsewhere to the hull actually break. A rib would not be my choice despite how useful they are when you arrive.