cal_d_44

Hi, Cal
No, sorry, most items have sold, and the boat is now halfway between Oz and New Zealand, on her way back to the US.
Good luck with your plans
John

Hello Cal,
My current usage is weekend sailing mostly with the odd week or two as holidays and other commitments permit. Yes she is reasonably well set up for extended cruising but I believe there is still a lot to do before I would set off on a long offshore passage. My dislike of a single water tank is that if anything goes wrong I'm left with nothing at all. This could come from tank failure (highly unlikely as the tank is solidly built under the floor) or contamination which again is unlikely but possible. For the above mentioned reasons I do carry 10 x 2 litre containers of fresh water just in case. Speaking of holidays lucky me is having ten days of as of thursday but we can't go sailing till the following monday due the work comittments of she who must be obeyed although that still gives us 6 or 7 days and weather permitting we will be heading for Pittwater and Cowan Creek. .... Enough for now ...... Mark.

Stupid me, Post message and then look at profile, of couse you have an Investigator, How dou you find it. Mark

G'day cal,
Sorry it has taken me so long to reply. We bought the boat with the interior the way it is, I believe it was done approx ten years ago by a previous owner who had the interior completely stripped and then rebuilt. The v-berth was removed and replaced with a double bed running from the bow down the port side, the sleeping area on the port side was removed and replaced by a walk in engine room with the addition of a 2.5 kva single cyl diesel generator, a vice/work bench and 2,000 watt inverter/charger. along with this was also added a battery storage area with excellent access (650 amp hrs 6v golf cart batteries in series then parallel to give a 12v system, 1 x engine start battery and 1 x generator start battery). The galley as can be seen in the pics was`altered to a u-shape configuration and at the stern the ensuite was removed leaving a very large master cabin, with only two of us and a small dog we find this very comfortable. Calamita carries 750 ltrs of fresh water (unfortunately all in one underfloor tank) and 600 ltrs of fuel in two tanks. She came fitted with an older gps/depthsounder (unfortunately it doesnt show charts and also one has to be at the nav station to read the depth, not so good when in the cockpit). I've since fitted 300 watts of solar panels and an airx 400w wind generator. Hopefully one day I will add some wind instruments and autopilot but for now it's all hand steering which for the stints I do (max about 8 to 10 hours) I can currently put up with. Being a ketch it's not too difficult to get a good balance and I can often go ten to fifteen minutes with no steering adjustments. So how does she sail you asked, well we'll never win any races (slow and heavy) I've even been known to cheat and start the engine to help through tacks in light wind but having said that we get our six knots in approx 15 to 20 knots of wind (remember no wind instruments). Being quite heavy, approx 14 tonne, she's also quite stiff and things actually stay on the table or bench most of the time not unlike a cat and her action is very smooth with no bucking about in confused seas so generally we are very happy. One day we would like to upgrade to a cat and take advantage of a cockpit you can walk around as well as a dining table where one can still enjoy the view but I can honestly say I'm very happy with the Roberts and look forward to many years of comfortable cruising in this strong stable boat. Our previous boat was a 34' Citation center cockpit sloop with which we were happy but now with an extra 10 feet we have more room than we know what to do with (storage everywhere and quite a bit not even utilised), the extra length and beam make the roberts feel like a ship in comparison. Again sorry for taking so long but work commitments have kept me busy and it's getting late now so I'll post this without proof reading (hope it's not too bad) and I hope to hear from you again soon maybe with some information on your boat or are you still looking . Anyway off to bed ....... Regards ...... Mark from Sydney.

Hi cal,
Thank you for your kind words we are extremely happy with the look and layout of Calamita and yes she is a glass boat.