Quote:
Originally Posted by beiland
All of a sudden this guy having the boat of his dreams built....went SILENT.....wonder why ???? |
Hey Brian, I haven't been on the
forums in probably over a year now! I got an
email letting me know someone had responded to this thread, and it brought back a lot of amazing memories of being in the yard every day during the build of my
boat, and keeping people abreast with the design decisions and progress of the boat. I had planned on
posting regularly while cruising, but I've found that I spend very little time with my
laptop anymore. I guess you could say that after building the boat of my dreams, I've been living my dream!
I'm currently in
New Zealand aboard the boat. The last two years have been the best years of my life, and I couldn't be happier with my boat. I'm always tinkering and improving things, and I have ideas about what I'd do if I built a boat today, and one thing's for sure: I would keep 95% of what I did with my St. Francis 50.
You spend a lot of time on other people's
boats while sailing around the world, and you end up having a LOT of people on your boat. I haven't seen a
single boat I'd
trade for, and I've had endless compliments and dropped jaws on my boat. I had a friend recently tell me that it's the first boat he's been on that made him envious. He's on a 50' cat as well, and after cruising together, he keeps listing all the things he and his wife love about this boat.
I can't promise I'll get engaged with the
forums like I was when I had more time ashore, but if anyone has questions, I'll do my best to answer them. To that end, a list of the things I love about the boat, and what I would do if I were building one from scratch today:
Things I love:
The
electrical system on this boat amazes me every day. I go to the Mastervolt panel all the time and stare at the 99% charge reading. With nearly 2kw of
solar, we use whatever we want whenever we want, and even with cloudy days, the genset stays off. I have to remember to run it occasionally to keep it lubed. We can even run the AC in the master suite for a few hours a day while in the tropics without needing the genset. And when the genset is needed, it runs automatically and shuts itself off. I never need to think about
power except to marvel that we always have it.
The
galley up design has been amazing. I've spent time on
boats with both styles, and I could never do anything different. With the wraparound island, you've got so much counter space and
security. With the window open, you're in the
cockpit conversations. I put in some very nice
appliances, and I'm glad I did. We have tons of fridge and
freezer space, and a stove/oven that can do anything.
Probably the best thing about the boat is one that sounds innocuous, but it changes life aboard, and that's the settee layout. I did a square settee design that converts from a booth with table to a double sized
bed, and we leave it in the
bed configuration 99.99% of the time. I'm laying there now, writing this. I've been on some cats in the 60-80 range, and none of them have a
saloon as comfortable as mine. Not even close. My fiancee and I lounge rather than sitting upright with our hands in our laps. When we have guests over, we end up 4-6 of us lounging on the
saloon bed. It's hard to describe how life-changing this layout has been, but everyone sees it when they visit the boat, and we certainly feel the difference everytime we visit another boat and come back home.
Probably the biggest thing I've learned from this boat is something that I had completely wrone while
shopping for boats for many years. Owner hulls are generally a terrible idea. In order to get most of what I wanted in a cruising
catamaran, I went with a
builder that situates the engines farther forward, which helps with the performance under sail. This makes a four-cabin stateroom the best layout, as the engines are under the aft cabins. I felt like this was a sacrifice I was making, as I never planned on putting my boat into
charter. I always looked at 3-cabin owner designs. HUGE mistake. Having the fourth
cabin is so much better than having a sofa down below that no one sits on. With a 50'
catamaran, you've got plenty of space in the owner's
cabin without having to get rid of a bed. There have been several times when the room has come in handy. It's even great to have a second
head on that side of the boat, so me and my fiancee can have our own at times. The extra cabinets make it possible to better organize our clothes and things, and it's simple to empty a closet when we have that extra guest. But even without the room being used, it's useful for storing
cushions on occasion, and it's where we keep our folding bikes (on the extra side child's bed). I wouldn't give up this fourth cabin for anything. It has changed how I look at boat design now. I don't give owner's cabin designs a second glance anymore.
The
dinghy platform and davit crane are miracles. I can quickly launch and retrieve an 800 lb 13'
RIB by myself, even in choppy seas. Having the big
tender opens up entire worlds for us. We can cover miles by
dinghy without moving the big boat, and it's meant seeing more of the places we visit. For me, the main advantage of a large cat is the size of the
tender you can carry. Having said that, I would probably go with something other than an AB. Mine has held up okay, but I've seen friends' have trouble with the quality of the metal used, and the joint between the
hull and skirt goes soft and fails. Mine is starting to go soft after 2 years of use. I'll have to do some
work on it soon to prevent it failing. A
RIB expert here in NZ tells me that this started when AB moved their production facilities.
The DC genset, when I do need it, is so much better than the AC gensets I've used over the years. Compact, efficient, quiet, and puts out a ton of amps. AC gensets do not belong on boats. I've become convinced of that.
The speed of this boat continues to surprise me. We've hit 18 knots under sail, and over 20 knots surfing (quite a few times). We averaged 200 miles per day during the
Atlantic crossing. This was the last time I took rigorous 12 and 24 hour readings, as I was curious what the boat would do. The 6,000 miles from
Cape Town to St. Lucia took exactly 30 days of sailing (we stopped in St. Helena and
Brazil, and didn't count our days sitting at anchor). Our best days were in the 240 range. We had a few days in the doldrums with light winds where we "only" made 180 nm. The boat makes 8 knots effortlessly in most conditions. I still get giddy on passages after two years and over half the world sailed. She just moves.
Things I would do differently:
I've always thought it made sense to have one
diesel engine and one
electric engine on a catamaran, and I wasn't brave enough to try it with this boat, but I should have. I'll probably pull one of these engines out when I get to
South Africa or
Florida and swap it for an
electric motor. That way I have the
reliability and range of a
diesel engine, but I also have the always-ready and silent
propulsion of an
electric motor while the
batteries are full. When I'm sailing along, and the
batteries are at 100%, all the energy hitting the
solar panels is
lost. You could put the
electric motor in
gear and gain a
knot for free. On long passages, this can really make a difference. Or you can move on and off
anchor without cranking a noisy engine. The times you need two screws for maneuvering, you've got both. I think two diesels makes very little sense; I only run one or the other while cruising, and crack the two when
docking. Two electric engines also doesn't make sense; sometimes you need the oomph that only diesel can provide. Having one of each is the best of both worlds, and I should've trusted my gut and done it.
Along with the electric engine, I would add four more 450 watt
solar panels. I would add these to the sides of the
bimini top, and support them with high stanchions that would replace the
current stanchions. The
solar panels would then extend from the
bimini top out to the full width of the catamaran. This would not only be to add another 1.8kw of
power, but to add more sun shade and rain protection in the
cockpit. This is easier to demonstrate in person or with video, but it's something that would add a lot of comfort and even more energy for better range under electric power. It would also mean a dry cockpit even when the
wind blows the rain a bit, and more shade for longer periods of the day.
Some things I've modified that I love:
I added sun
cushions on the bimini top, between the solar
panels, and it has become a great place to lay in the sun with a commanding view of the anchorage. It should be a standard feature on these boats. You have all the advantages of a flybridge without the exposure at the
helm or the increased boom height.
I added a
remote control for the
anchor windlass, and it's been a
game changer. These are inexpensive additions, and they should be standard. It makes deploying and retrieving the anchor so much nicer, whether solo or with my partner.
I added a reading light behind my favorite spot on the settee, changed some outlets out for USB-equipped outlets, and added an outlet near the
head of the bed for
charging things at night. Little tweaks like this pay huge dividends in daily living comfort and convenience.
I reupholstered my cockpit cushions to
navy blue from yellow. I loved the look of the yellow, but I was having to clean them all the time. The blue hides the dirt, and I scrub them a third as often. I'm glad for the yellow sail covers, though. It helps people find the boat, and looks bright and festive.
We added sun shade tarps to the boat, and this should be a standard feature. They are just too useful to do without. We made our first set ourselves using an old
spinnaker that'd worn out. We finally found the design we love, and we had them made up from scratch using our
work as a pattern. We put these up almost every time we anchor, and they keep the boat cool and allow us to keep hatches open in the rain. Again, this should be standard on any boat that's going to be at anchor a lot.
There is a ton that I'm leaving out, but that's what comes to mind right now. I love this boat and this lifestyle. Yesterday, we had a pod of dolphin come into the marina and swim with us for over two hours. It was one of the highlights not just of this trip, but of my life. We've swam with whales half a dozen times, and met some amazing people, and seen some of the prettiest places on the planet. And we've only just started. My fiancee has made a handful of videos along the way, and you can find them on YouTube if you search Wayfinder Voyages. Here's a pic from our swim yesterday:
https://ibb.co/dqBKFG
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