Rants & Musings, Sailboat Design & Selection
Index
Another Way To Go Cruising Relatively Inexpensively
Restoring a 30-Year Old Boat: What It Takes
Of Cockpits, Wheelhouses and Engine Rooms
S/V Polaris, Built for the Arctic
Boats We Like: The Saga 43
Morgan's Cloud's Designers Have a New Website
A Rugged Boat for the High Latitudes
The London Boatshow
K.I.S.S.
No Excuse to Pound
Another Way To Go Cruising Relatively Inexpensively (John, 03/2010)
We have been writing lately about ways to go voyaging in older less expensive boats.
The other night we had dinner with a young couple that bought a good quality cruising boat that had gone ashore in a blow and sunk with a large hole in it. A year of long days repairing, refitting and sourcing second hand gear have yielded a strong voyaging boat. They plan to set out from Nova Scotia in the fall of 2010. The goal is New Zealand, where they plan to sell the boat before returning home to “real life”—makes sense to us.
Reader Comments:
Richard writes [edited for brevity]: Does not make sense to me:
- structural integrity on this boat is now significantly compromised despite the diligence of the repairs
- this boat is probably fine for coastal cruising, but with compromised structural integrity, not for blue water passaging
- selling the boat in New Zealand? i hope they are prepared for being there indefinitely and realizing much less than expected if anything
I'm surprised at your cavalier attitude with this scenario...i would not go blue water with a formerly wrecked boat under any circumstances.
David writes [edited for brevity]: My daughter Sarah Nutt and her pal Willy Leathers bought on old Bristol 30 and after 4 months of work (originally scheduled to take 4 weeks) sailed from Maine to the Bahamas and back during the 08/09 season. They are one of many examples of boats headed out on minimum budgets. The biggest obstacle is finding the courage to say "I can do this". You can read of their trials and tribulations. They even sold the boat upon their return.
Many boats are significantly better boats for undergoing refits. Holes can be repaired to equal or greater strength than the original hull. Poorly tabbed structural members can be upgraded.
I have done
2 major refits on Danza, a 60' steel ketch. The first in '99,
prior to a 5 year circumnavigation, resulted in systems far beyond
the original. The boat was safer in every respect. I am now a month
or two away from a second refit and I wish she had been this good when
we set out around the first time. There is no reason to stay ashore
just because you cannot afford a flash new boat. Your older, simpler
boat can deliver you years of lower cost sailing. Know your boat inside
and out and head offshore.
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Restoring a 30-Year Old Boat: What It Takes (Phyllis, 02/2010)
Over the years we have received numerous questions from readers asking whether it is better to buy a newer more expensive sailboat or to restore an older less expensive boat. We usually recommend buying a newer boat as, in the long run, the price will probably come out to about the same, so why not have a newer boat and save a huge amount of time and labour?
However, we have come across someone who is restoring a 30-Year old Cape Dory 36 and who makes a good case as to why. But it isn’t easy and one look at John Stone’s www.farreachvoyages.com will reveal the scope of his project.
So if you want to know what it takes to restore a 30-year old sailboat and some tips on how to get going, visit John’s site. It will either convert you to the older-boat-restoration option or scare you witless (maybe both!).
Reader Comment:
Practical writes [edited for brevity]: This is a fun discussion worthy of a lengthy article, one we're working on at Practical Sailor. We have a photo essay this month on restoring a Cape Dory 25.
It can work both ways—buying newer and working less, or buying older and working more. Two key points:
- In either case, it is best to start with "good bones": the hull, rig, and critical systems (engine) need to be in good shape, passing a thorough inspection by an experienced surveyor. If you're talking about a 30-year-old boat, this means one that has already gone through a major refit.
- If you can focus on the essential safety and navigational gear and resist the urge to create a perfect boat, you can get cruising cheaply in an old boat.
Wife and I cruised for 11 years in a 60-year-old boat that we bought for $6,000 and invested $12,000 before setting out for the Caribbean, another $5,000 prior to the Pacific. It would have cost us $50,000 or more to find an equivalent boat.
Time on your hands and experienced guidance is essential. It is very easy to underestimate the time required for restoring an old boat. Which is why you can find some very good deals on cruise-ready or nearly cruise-ready boats, the route I'd take next time.
Tim Allen writes: FWIW, here's my
story about resurrecting
a 30 year-old boat.
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Of Cockpits, Wheelhouses and Engine Rooms (John, 01/2010)
Some years ago, my friend Frank Luke, of Paul E. Luke Inc. in East Boothbay Maine, told me a story: Frank was at a boat show and the proud owner of a new boat wanted to buy a Luke-made stove, propeller, and anchor. First the buyer insisted that he needed the items in just a few weeks; not a trivial request in that they are all custom made. After the order was all filled in, the guy then asked for a discount because he was buying several items at once. Frank, I suspect, gave him that look that only a Maine craftsman confronted with an unreasonable request can produce, and said, “You got your quality, you got your delivery, and you got your price; pick any two”.
Contrasting Polaris, an aft cockpit boat with a wheelhouse but no engine room, to Morgan’s Cloud, a center cockpit boat with an engine room and work bench but no wheelhouse, reminded me of Frank’s story: At least on boats under 60-feet, I think that you got your cockpit, you got your engine room, and you got your wheelhouse; pick any two. I just can’t think of a way to get a good spacious wheelhouse, a decent cockpit for sail handling and lounging, and a good big walk-in engine room with workbench, in one boat. That is, without designing a tub that sails poorly and looks like a Winnebago (camper van).
The above photo was taken of Polaris from the salon looking aft.
Actually, Polaris is not strictly a wheelhouse boat but rather a boat with a doghouse—or hard dodger, if you prefer—leading into a raised area with chart table and sitting area. The galley is down one step going forward and the salon down another. If Michael and Martina (owners of Polaris) had wanted her that way, she could have had the doghouse and raised area merged together and been a wheelhouse boat; however, her lines would not have been as nice and such a change would have had a negative effect on visibility from the cockpit as the cabin top over the raised area would have to be higher to give visibility over the bow from the wheelhouse. As Michael always says when asked about building Polaris: “Compromises, compromises, all boats are compromises”.
The engine is under the raised area floor, right below the companionway. You can see the head to starboard, a feature we really like in that a watch-stander can use it without trooping through the boat dripping water and waking the off-watch, like they do on our boat. Of course the engine could have been placed under the cockpit and a work bench built where the head is, but that would have required a V-drive transmission (additional complication) and put the engine weight in the stern (not good). Even with those changes Polaris would not have had a real engine room because the stern area has much smaller volume than the midships area where Morgan’s Cloud’s engine room is situated—compromises, compromises.
The point of all this being that there is no perfect layout for a voyaging boat, just different sets of compromises depending on the mission of the boat and the owner’s preferences. On balance, Phyllis and I like the compromises on Morgan’s Cloud best, but I’m sure that Michael and Martina would say the same about Polaris.
Reader Comments:
Steve writes: Design the aft cockpit boat you want sans engine room. Then add the engine room to the aft end. More LWL equals faster and better steering as hull lines are more easily balanced. Less costly to build and own as easier to work on. Only negative is marina fees. Just make sure t o keep the righting moment the same with the longer boat.
Pete writes [edited for brevity]: My view is that as we age,
we want to spend less time exposed to weather (hot or cold) thus a pilothouse
is increasingly essential—if not with a complete steering set
up, at the least with an autopilot contol and throttle/shift control out
of the weather. One arrangement that Kareen and I have used is with a hard
dodger that has stern curtains so that area curtains can be zipped providing
a little more shelter from the cold. We think this design may be superior
to full inside steering as that has real liability for allowing
you to lose connection to what is REALLY happening to wind and sea state
(while warm and comfortable down below!).
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S/V Polaris, Built For The Arctic (John, 12/2009)
The red drums contain a shore survival kit in case the crew is forced to abandon. The blue bag is a small light inflatable that is both a backup to the larger tender and intended to assist in getting ashore during the freeze-up. (See more pictures of Polaris here and here.)
Those of you who have read some accounts of boats wintering over in the polar regions may have visions of dented hull plates, narrow escapes and three inches of frost on the INSIDE of the boat. That is not the Polaris way. That is not to say that there are not hazards lurking in Michael and Martina’s project of wintering over on the west coast of Greenland, but the difference is that they spent years planning and having a boat built that could not only survive a winter frozen into the ice at 68N, but do it with a minimum of drama and adventure. (I think it was Amundsen, the incredible Norwegian explorer who was first through the Northwest Passage and first to the South Pole, both without losing a life, that said something like “adventure is the result of poor planning”.)
To detail all of this boat’s features for an Arctic winter would take a book, but here are a few:
- Hull scantlings: Although Polaris is not ice classed, the hull is still built super-strong from aluminum, with thicker plate over fewer ribs and stringers than a boat like our Morgan’s Cloud, which has comparatively thin plate over many ribs and stringers—a lighter technique but not as resistant to denting from ice pressure. Also, Polaris has a massive “U”-shaped beam welded to the inside of the hull right round the waterline to take ice stress and help stop the plate from denting.
- Insulation: The hull is insulated with a special fire proof material that was, I believe, developed for the Space Station. The ports and hatches are the best available and double glazed.
- Heating: The boat has not one, but THREE separate heating systems. More on that here.
- Staying put: Polaris has the best and most complete system for putting in shorefasts I have ever seen.
- Dry exhaust: The engine has a dry exhaust and is cooled by a heat exchanger inside the hull plating where it is safe from ice. As a result the engine will be in commission and ready to go all winter.
- Huge fuel tanks: A total diesel capacity of 3000 Liters ensures that the crew will be warm and toasty even if they do not break out of the ice until mid-June.
- Little details: The center board trunk has a valve that allows the crew to pump air into it, thereby displacing the water that would freeze and possibly damage the hull. The through-hull fittings are custom machined so that the outer diameter is slightly larger than the inner at the seacock. The result is that a plug of ice will automatically expel as it freezes, thereby relieving stress on the fitting.
Boats We Like: The Saga 43 (John, 11/2009)
We have come across a couple of Saga 43s in the last two years. I can’t say we have made a close evaluation, but they do seem like nice boats with good and moderate lines, that avoid the problems caused by excessive beam, particularly aft. The designer, Bob Perry, has a history of wholesome offshore boats under his belt going back to the classic Valiant 40.
Based on a brief tour of one Saga, the deck layout and fittings appeared seamanlike and the interior well thought out. The boat we were on had two heads, which is just a waste of space in a 43’ boat. Having said that, the forward head could easily be converted to a work shop and storage area, and the boat can also be bought in a single head configuration.
Both of the two owners we met said to stay away from some of the early Saga 43s with the very shallow draft option (no longer offered) and opt for a deeper keel.
This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a cheap boat, but the prices they command on the second hand market do indicate that the boats are good value.
We sailed offshore next to this Saga 43 for several hours last fall and were impressed by her speed. On a close reach, when the wind was light, she actually pulled away from Morgan’s Cloud. As the wind filled in we had the legs of her, but not by a lot . There is a lot to be said for these modern long water line boats, although, on the flip side, they do not have the reserve buoyancy in the ends that longer overhangs confer.
This photo shows the Saga 43’s fine lines (somewhat exaggerated by the wide angle lens) and the workmanlike combined bow platform and anchor roller.
Morgan's Cloud's Designers Have a New Website (John, 10/2009)
McCurdy and Rhodes, designers of Morgan’s Cloud, have a new and very classy web site. The firm is now run by Ian McCurdy, whose father, Jim, was a founding partner and designed our boat.
Have a look at the design area of the site. You can learn a lot about what makes safe, fast and comfortable offshore boats by studying the plans that Ian has provided for several of the firm’s designs.
Don’t let these boats’ classic lines fool you into thinking them old fashioned or slow. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. In the 2008 Bermuda race Sheila, Ian’s sister, skippered Selkie to a second overall—for the second time! Carina is a Bermuda Race overall winner.
I was talking to Sheila on the dock after her second in the 1994 Bermuda race about why McCurdy boats do so consistently well in offshore races. (Almost every one of Selkie’s stable-mates in the race had brought home silver that year.) Her opinion (a very well informed one based on tens of thousands of miles of racing and cruising) is that the easy motion of her father’s boats let their crews keep the hammer down even when the going gets tough.
We find that to be true when cruising too. It’s amazing how often we are told tales of 200-mile days and surfing at 10 knots, things we almost never do, by the crews of boats that have come into port behind us; in racing, and voyaging too, it’s not how fast you go, it’s how much of the time you go fast.
Morgan’s Cloud was
based on Paquet although
our boat is cutter, not ketch, rigged and has a very different interior.
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A Rugged Boat for the High Latitudes (John, 06/2009)
A few weeks ago we met up with our friends Michael and Martina on their beautifully designed and built custom Hutting 54 Polaris. They were kind enough to give me, camera in hand, a tour and to patiently answer my many questions.
While few of us will ever have the resources to custom build a boat like Polaris, we can all learn from the choices these two very experienced sailors made when having their once-in-a-lifetime dream boat designed and built.
For best viewing, click on the slide show and then press the “F” key for full screen mode. To see the captions, mouse over the picture. Use the controls at the bottom to control the show.
You can learn more about Polaris at Michael
and Martina's site or at the
builder's site.
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The London Boatshow (John, 01/2008)
We just got back to our cottage in Nova Scotia from the London Boatshow. While the people we met and the old friends we reconnected with made it a great trip for Phyllis and me, and well worth while, I have to say that the show itself was a disappointment.
The trend toward focusing ever more on gadgets and ever less on seamanship and good boat design and build seems to continue unabated. Does it really matter if your plotter has a million features that you will probably never use and is connected by some whizbang network so it can display everything from your fuel consumption to how many cans of tomatoes you have left in the galley? Come to think of it, it does matter since all this interconnection now means that the whole works can crash at once. I’m as much a technology lover as anyone, having spent most of my business life in the computer industry, but this stuff is starting to bore me witless.
Two gadgets I did like: AIS transponders that will not only tell you about the ships around you but also tell them about you. Now that would be a real comfort when heaved-to in a gale, particularly if you had a bunch of gear like a sea anchor over the side. I also liked a new design passive radar reflector that claims to substantially upgrade radar visibility and will fit exactly where our old Firdel Blipper is mounted.
It was sad to see how few sailboats there were when compared to motorboats. (Maybe $100 a barrel oil will fix that.)
Of the few sailboats that were there, most were, in my never humble opinion, very poor offshore designs with flat U-shaped sections forward and wide sterns with too much buoyancy aft. Boats that will pound hard enough to shake your fillings out when going to windward offshore and bury their bows in every convenient wave. Add a lightly built spade rudder and a deep fin keel that will drive up through the bottom of the boat the first time you hit something, and you have a recipe for broken dreams.
The Hallberg Rassy 43 was an exception to the above although I still think the stern is a bit wide. However, there are some other issues:
- the current deck-accessible storage might be just adequate for three fenders and two dock lines.
- two heads and two showers on a 43’ boat is taking space that could be used more effectively.
- the acres of teak, though beautiful, will require huge amounts of maintenance.
How about a voyaging version? No teak on deck, one head only and use the space saved for an expanded engine room and parts storage area with workbench. Cut down the cabins a bit and install a real lazarette and a decent sized locker forward. Combine these changes with HR’s undeniable quality (the engine and mechanical installation is a work of art) and the HR43 would be a nice voyaging boat, albeit at a hefty price.
A bright spot in all of this was Colin Speedie’s new Ovni that he has been writing about. This is definitely an offshore boat. When I got past the hard chines and flat area at the very bottom of the hull (so she can dry out) I realized that she might be a surprisingly sea-kindly hull too. Add to that the incredible value for money (at least in Euros) and Alubat’s willingness to make substantial customizations at a reasonable cost, and you have an interesting alternative to a custom-built boat in aluminum.
Of course there is the stability question that rears its head whenever we talk about centerboard boats, but I think this concern is overblown. Ovnis have been everywhere and centerboard boats like Seal and the Pelagics have seen a lot of heavy weather without any of their crews wearing them as a hat.
In summary, there are better boat
shows for offshore sailors: Several people told me that both the Düsseldorf
and Paris shows have more serious voyaging sailboats on display. Although
I have not been to one for 10 years, I suspect that for North Americans
the Annapolis Boat show is a much better value than trekking all the
way to London.
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K.I.S.S.* (John, 2007)
I always learn something, or have my existing thinking clarified, when talking with other experienced voyagers. The latest pearl of wisdom came my way when chatting with a fifteen-year live-aboard and voyager with many thousands of miles of experience. We were discussing the challenge of trying to keep our boats technically simple while still functional and comfortable. The subject of what equipment should be electrified and what should not be came up. He said “Well, there are two things that should not be connected to the battery: the crapper and the sails”. I could not sum it up better myself.
* Keep It Simple, Stupid.
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No Excuse to Pound (John, 2007)
Are voyaging sailors considered curmudgeons when many new boat designs start to worry them? If so, I guess I’m there; in fact, I guess I’ve been there for a while.
Some time ago I sailed on an expensive modern boat from the drawing table of a famous designer and the yard of a reputable builder. Now let’s see if I can put this kindly. She really did not sail very well, tended to root (nose dived) and to top it off pounded so badly when going to windward, even in benign conditions, that we feared the electronics would jump off their mountings.
There is truly no excuse to launch a boat that bad for people to cruise in, but I think I know how it happened. It started with the marketing people who said "OK we need a nice wide stern to get a huge cabin into, and then we need a big salon, guest cabins, many heads… No don’t make the bow too pointy, we need to put stuff up there. Oh yes, make sure the sections are nice and U-shaped so we can get a lot of tankage and equipment under the floor boards."
So if you are in the market for an offshore sailboat, put sailing comfort, speed and safety first and interior a long, long way last.
Now I’m no naval architect; in fact, I know very little about the art and science of boat design. Maybe you can design a boat that looks like a Winnebago (camper van) and still have it sail comfortably and safely, but I think that in most cases thinner finer boats with fairly symmetrical ends are better offshore. Remember, boats are priced by the pound (kg) not the foot (meter) so if the seller is boasting about how many amenities a boat has for a given length, run a mile and look at a longer thinner boat that probably won’t cost much more.
Our own Morgan’s Cloud, designed by Jim McCurdy, has a tiny interior for her size and her fine ends make the lazarette and forward cabin cramped. But she can slug it out to windward for days on end, never pounding and rarely bringing green water on deck.
Yes, I know, ladies and gentlemen don’t go to windward and nobody believes that more than I. But if you really go out there voyaging, sooner or later you won’t get a choice; the wind will be forward of the beam, maybe for days on end. When that happens it is vital that you have a boat that doesn’t make the experience any more uncomfortable than it has to be, or worse still, dangerous. There is nothing that will beat you and your boat up like pounding. Regular greenies coming over the bow aren’t fun either.
Morgan’s Cloud drives to windward in Denmark
Strait. We had 5 days of 20 to 30 knot head winds on this passage between
Greenland and Iceland. The Cloud loved it and never pounded—we hung on.
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