I love these
boats. There are a few
for sale and I think they look great below
deck and look to be a great performer under sail or
power. I wonder why I can find so many
for sale yet there were not that many produced?
http://au.yachtworld.com/core/listin..._id=75970&url=
I would have to add some sort of
dodger and canopy and obviously things like auto
helm and
wind gen. Would this design be a sea worthy vessel in a storm? What about the
cockpit. It doesn't seem to be all that great to be sitting in when there are 60K winds and 30 foot waves. I would be sailing with one other crew.
My friend and I will be sailing it (whatever we end up getting) back and we will be partners in the a yacht. I may intend to
live aboard her in
Australia for a while and it will not be a harbor queen. You may have seen the threads on the Roberts Spray. Thats is my mates and we are fixing it up a bit to sell so we can buy a yacht with a good sailing ability. The trip is not only to save
money on a
purchase, but to do an exiting voyage. Any mods we need to do would be something we would want our yacht to have anyway. We would also intend to
race her in some cruising
classes in races like
Sydney to Hobart and
Brisbane to Gladstone.
We both have minimal ocean experience but both grew up doing coastal cruising on the
east coast of
Australia in small
boats. Last
Christmas we sailed an aging
Piver trimaran from Lake Macquarie to Yamba which is the longest
passage we have done, around 300 miles of ocean. This included being caught in one gale through the night.
Our
navigation skills are basic including reading
charts and plotting from
GPS. But we have a
sextant which we plan on
learning to use. I also want to do a course/read the right
books on
navigation and meteorology relating to yachting. I probably spend over 2 hours a day reading up on what I can on the net regarding these matters. But I would love some suggestions of good
books.
I would certainly want storm
sails aboard and the correct life-raft. We would also be using harness and personal
EPIRB jackets etc.
Safety would be a high priority and I would not leave unless the
boat is well equipped.
As for engineering qualifications. I am a qualified electrician and competent
mechanic (not qualified), and my mate works repairing
power boats for a living. I am excellent at repairing things and coming up with innovative solutions to problems. I designed and built my own street drag car on the
cheap with no experience which was recently on the cover of a magazine so together we would have the skills to fix most probs. I would also want a good range of tools and materials aboard to perform makeshift
repairs if need be.
I would not go anywhere without
radar,
depth,
autohelm, radios, and enough power production to support it. This
boat has
radar which is the most expensive of all these things. I also intend to make a thread regarding power generation for an ocean going yacht. My mate and I can install most of this
gear ourselves given our skills. But given the cost of a lot of these items it would appear that getting a yacht with them already installed would be wise.
Any comments are welcome, good or bad. I realize we should probably have a lot more ocean experience, but I won't go until I am happy that we understand as much as possible about the safe completion of such a trip.
Thoughts?