Quote:
Originally Posted by Medge
"...What is the one piece of advice you want to share with me?..."
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Well, I wrote a few lines and then it turned into a blog. Hope this helps!
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You want a multi-hull.
I love them too. Sure,
you can go small, to try things out, see what works or not-
I mean some people go REAL small...
-or-
You can simply...
Get something proven that you really like.
However, a bit of kit I picked up recently worth sharing is:
Different TYPES of Multi-Hull Designs and their issues learned over time!
I think if you're going to get a multi, you need to
make sure the design is a modern TYPE-3 DESIGNI mean, why not, with your
budget? And don't forget,
a newer multihull off yachtworld does NOT necessarily = modern design. That's a presumption, so make sure; whatever boat you get serious about,
BEFORE you get serious, research the design/designer and even
email them!
Nowadays most people have internet connections and many will get back to you fairly quickly about their boats and designs.
And FWIW, a 40'-50' Multi
hull is IMMENSE inside- you'll have a huge living area and probably enough space to entertain 10 people, and another 10 on
deck if needed. If that is what you want to do, or lose each other, by all means (just invite me to the party, as someone with lots of positive encouragement)!
I was on an old
30'x20' Hedly Nicole Trimaran (cool looking but Type-2 as I recall) and it literally is 20'x20' -10'x10' roof which about 16" taller than the rest of the
deck,
which was 5' more on each side by 20-30' LONG. It was HUGE-!!! If it had been 5-6' longer inside (to hold an aft sleeping room for the owners, or dining area), it would be PERFECT for 2 couples or a couple and their kid(s) with privacy for all.
I.E. a 34-36'
Trimaran is PLENTY big enough for a couple and their kid.
# GET A BOAT JUST BIG ENOUGH FOR YOUR NEEDS.
3 people? Try a 34'-36'
Trimaran. I think anything bigger will be really big -you can actually lose someone for a few minutes on the bigger ones, easily.
Ok THAT SAID:
Here's what I'd do (and I've done) -
if you like making lists or thinking this way: First my wife and I (we were already
living aboard but not voyaging at the time) spent a few days
tracking EVERYTHING we used and like to use and have around, and paying attention to our creature comforts and what we liked. I mean, from coffee filter types and how we made coffee/tea (and where we got it and how much we used), to how we liked to store socks. We put EVERYTHING we used
into one area of our house and took a look at it after a few days/week. Then we summed up everything after a week or so.With that we were easily able to calculate HOW MUCH SPACE,
STORAGE and THINGS we NEEDED to have with US. to have with us/around us, to make life aboard
an easy and wonderful, pleasant adventure!
...Then of course we had
kids, and everything changed -lol, but at least he's 8, so much easier than babies by then (except for the socks).
We also calculated how much resources we used.
Power,
water, etc...
But on a Tri/Cat you'll only need to do minimal work there -just generally 300w-400w of panels and 400aH of batteries for 2 adults/1 kid unless you guys are all high-electrical use)! Tri's/Cats have lots of flexibility for solar so maybe start with 200w and move up.
(a) So What kind of lifestyle do you want to have every day/week while cruising?
: I see...
(1) fresh produce so decent cool storage space for greens -they don't keep for more than a few days or a week at most
which is fine for basic cruising esp. in a fast multi-hull a day or two from good
ports with fresh produce. You need a decent
cooling solution- NOT necessarily anything else. Anything else is great, but
know the MINIMUM for the task, and start there. Fresh Greens means a cool place that stays not too cold or they wilt. NO PROBLEM ona boat the size you are considering (it would be an issue on a 30' mono hull, and need to be prioritized). Good
cooling solution for
food is a TINY design need in any decent multi-hull,
unless you wind up looking at older ones to save $50k-$70k for your cruising budget.
If you make your way offshore around the world you'll have to figure out how to eat rice cakes and soup from a cardboard carton maybe for a week or three maybe (lots of new good brands out there for serious
health conscious people BTW), OR get a good SMALL freezer (and some extra
solar panels and a few more deep cell high amp-hour batteries) and keep it packed- cook up big batches of fresh soup from veggies where you can get them, and STASH them DEEP in the little freezer.
We've gone months with regular home-made soup thawed and reheated this way. It's a compromise but if you ever need to know, it works!
However,
Multi-hulls are FAST (we had a mono when we did this, so 2x-3x as long on passages), so going a month or so on a multi-hull on a voyage
is unusual.
Again, a good crisper-capable produce cooling solution will work fine.
>>>HOW MUCH CRISPER SPACE DO YOU NEED FOR 3 WEEKS WORTH OF GREENS AND VEGGIES? Get some crates/boxes out and figure it out. That's what size fridge you'll need AT MOST. (note: keep it packed with water bottles -leave some air in them- as you remove greens
to keep the power drain down on your renewable power solution (solar/wind/etc).
BTW: Renewable Power. Since you'll be SAILING probably when the
wind is GOOD, and multi's are FAST and have LOW DRAG, a
WIND GENERATOR will only have LIMITED USE except when anchored -and when the wind is blowing during cruising season (non-winter wherever you go) there won't be MUCH CLOUDS- so your
solar will probably be doing really good. So maybe consider a
wind generator AFTER you have a great solar setup AND a water-towing power
generator (they add some drag, but on a big fast boat? bah!)...
(2) 6 months a year cruising/6 boat in dry dock or something. A normal size Tri or Cat is fine with most yards. Anything over 20-21 (??? someone correct me?) is where you can run into problems, but from what I understand, MORE of an issue if you travel the world. There ARE multi-hull resources and links (I'll post again once I find them, if I do) where you can actually sound off with others who have gone and done it before you, where to go, where to store, how to do it- so you can remove all the stress and worry and just KNOW of 15-30 places on any seaboard where you can
haul out and leave it for 6 months each time you go out. THAT IS DO-ABLE TO KNOW once you tap into the multi-hull groups. Trust me, you are NOT the first and it's a CRUCIAL part of owning one, so people will help you learn where you are and where you want to go so you can know.
(3) Renewable (Solar/Wind/Water) Power.
I'm doing the same-
HOWEVER- I've learned that various "gear knowledge" is important -some things don't work well with others, and MAJOR reputable 5/5 star items and brands
will be horrible on a boat with other critical gear (and usually right when you MOST need it). It's a bit esoteric, esp once you get into inverters and RFI/SSB/VHF/Short-Wave and
weather broadcast
reception, but it's also about priorities. On a
monohull which is SLOWER we need to be
more critical than if we still had a fast trimaran,
as we need good offshore SSB's and communications for LONGER VOYAGES where we can't EVER outrun any kind of
weather (almost don't need to know, either we make it or not, eh?)...The point?
Unless you find a TOTALLY outfitted, ready to go boat,
...
the boat is maybe HALF of the purchase!
It will REALLY seem like two different and completely separate endeavors -and the boat
purchase will be easy compared to outfitting it!
...However, you don't need the most expensive or the best, nor do you need to spend a fortune on something brand new.
Again, for renewable power on a fast multi-hull? Solar and a towing generator first, then
a wind generator! (Advice: TEST OUT The wind generator by checking out one in operations and research). I almost coughed up a few grand for a great high-output modern one,
turns out all my friends who HAVE one HATE IT -it whines, shrieks, won't turn in light airs, whirs and makes TONS of noise! Turns out the old
KISS beater ones we saw on craigslist are not only good enough but work in light airs too, so while they put out a loss less, they do so
far more often, quietly and in peaceful times unnoticed.
We got our entire 300w 450amp hour Solar Power System and
MPPT charge controller off Amazon for something like $1200 USD. I've inspected it against systems I've seen on super yachts maybe just a few years old, and ours is BETTER. Renogy Mono
panels, Victon
MPPT controllers, good
cables, Samlex Inverters. Simple. Non-Expensive. Well made. Done.
We also got
a used older but solid SSB (with HAM!) with auto-tuner and
antenna and
cables and filters for $600 USD (Icom IC-M700pro, AT-130, 23.5'
SSB antenna, etc).
Ground plates? Hah! Another $160 and we're good to go. Youngsters are using
little SW radios with alligator clips to their backstay for an antenna and a little audio cable plugged into their iPads to get weather fax, no problem.
NO need for $4,000-$10,000 systems like in the modern age anymore!
I see good deals around here and there, like that (just be ready to snatch when you find one);
people are ALWAYS upgrading their gear.
I.E. Don't spend more than 1/2 your funds on the boat itself. I see percentages here and there, but really,
buying the boat is about 1/2 way there at most, IMHO.
Just for the
record, we're mostly veggie (Fish of course, and the
kids will eat meat if we make it) and we have run a small 12v DC RV/dorm-style cooler-fridge on low (I.E. one Renogy 100w panel, good sun exposure, a good MPPT controller and a good 150aH battery) packed with fresh greens and had enough for WEEKS -
I'm sure you can find cruisers who have some more details and tricks, but we found
making sure to keep excess water out of the greens and chopping things up and packing them as DRY as possible in zip-lock freezer bags worked wonders (like those
USA bags of salad you can buy in most grocery stores-
they package them like that for a reason- they can last a LONG TIME like that). I think our salad mixes lasted almost a month like that, easily 2x as long as when we had fresh greens on land in a house, where we were more careless!!!
There. That's my input.
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p.s. 45-degrees was probably "
just-saying" ...many mono-hulls ARE "tender" and -ALL-
will be so compared to a MULTI-HULL. Of course, all boats will move around
and at some point, you'll be in some kind of not-so-fun bumpy, unpleasant weather, but a well built, well designed Multi will be SAFE, fast, capable
and FEEL more stable most of the time. To get that kind of "stability", or something even similar feeling in some way, you have to get something
really heavy-duty and
seriously made for slow ocean work -VERY much the opposite of what it sounds like you want.
I'm sure we can derail the thread here and debate on that,
but either you want a Multi-Hull for the reasons you do, or you want us to try and convince you to find a deep-draft, heavy-displacement, huge, solid ocean cruiser
for slow, long, voyages across oceans,
which isn't what I got at all.
Debate aside, you want a multi-hull.
I love them. Get on the multi-hull
forums and figure out if there are ANY real limitations for haul-outs for over 20-22' beams in the areas you want to go. For the rest of the world someday? If you can find a haul-out place 500 miles along coasts where you want to go in the REST of the world. I.E. you'll be wanting to be somewhat near civilization probably, if you're leaving it there (unless of course you intend to rent a hut in Polynesia or ToraTora, etc), so that will mean
some form of an airport, which means you'll probably be NEAR civilizations, which means you won't be the first thing they've had to haul in the last 100-200 years. I'm guessing, long-term big multi-hull you probably won't notice the limitations hardly EVER with the cruising you seem to intend to do.
...Of course, you won't be taking it up some East-Coast
USA or Narrow European
Canal,
but you could always store a smaller day-sailer on your tennis-court decks.
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