http://www.distantshores.ca/index.htmlPauls New Boat BlogenPaul ShardCopyright 2007 Paul Shard2012-02-03T06:48:18-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:37:47 -0500Paul ShardNone2012-02-03T06:48:18-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/07ecc971e74bb56547eb3c651e4fd968-81.html#unique-entry-id-81http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/07ecc971e74bb56547eb3c651e4fd968-81.html#unique-entry-id-81

We had two 55-watt panels on Two-Step and it was excellent to see power coming in from the sun as we hung at anchor. The two panels were mounted on the spray dodger and in full sun could put out 6-7 amps. Of course I had to swing the boom out to one side since any shade cut out put dramatically. I think on a nice sunny day we might have got 30-35 amps total. This is much less than you might hope but we couldn’t aim the panels and shade did come on them often as the boat swung on the hook.

To obtain higher efficiency a number of boats have solar panels mounted on some construction at the stern such as our friends on Narena sailing here off the south coast of Turkey. I have started playing with some sketches to see if we could build some sort of stern arch for Distant Shores II but so far haven’t got anything to work yet.

Solar Power - How Much do you need?

The modern boat has got more electrical appliances on than the cruising sailboat of 20 years ago. We all have our i-devices, computers, watermaker, navigation system etc. Some have air-con, washer/dryer vacuum cleaner etc. So although we have big electrical savings in things like LED lighting, the boat overall uses much more than before. So how much can solar power do? Could you ever really run the whole boat from solar power?

With Two-Step’s 2 X 55 Watt panels we just extended the time between running the engine to charge up the battery. We would have needed perhaps 3 times as many panels to keep up with all demands - and that assumed a sunny tropical day.

So the first thing to do is re-examine that electrical budget and make sure it is accurate. Is there anything to be gained (such as changing over any lighting that isn’t LED or fluorescent)?

On Distant Shores our electrical consumption worked out at over 200 amp-hours per day. Distant Shores II is similar but with 2 main differences. We have the same fridge/freezer unit with keel-cooler but also have an additional freezer unit. We also have the excellent Imtra LED lighting throughout. So while we have saved quite a bit in power through the lighting, we have used a fair bit extra with the additional freezer. And our experience with DSII has been sailing in cool northern summers. So when we get to warm tropical waters the freezer will use more than it does now. Just how much we don’t know... but we might be looking at over 250 amp hours per day. That’s a lot to get from solar panels!

I will do more on this in the next little while and post more.

How about you? Are you looking at Solar power? Do you have a working solar installation that is providing what your boat needs? Please give me your comments either by email or over on our Facebook page.

Is Sheryl pondering a new solar panel arch?
]]>Paul ShardNone2011-11-05T08:53:25-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/cb3208ad53dd8c0211c4171d7ec645c7-80.html#unique-entry-id-80http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/cb3208ad53dd8c0211c4171d7ec645c7-80.html#unique-entry-id-80

Feathering Prop - Autoprop - Last year I lamented the lack of a feathering or folding prop since I felt we lost too much speed with the big fixed 3-blade prop. So this year we changed to an Autoprop. What a difference! Getting rid of a fixed prop has to be the first thing to do to improve performance. It’s like towing around a bucket. Dollar for dollar it must be the best way to get more speed. The Autoprop automatically adjusts its pitch depending on speed through the water and seems to work quite well.

Downwind Pole - Selden Carbon Pole - We have always had a downwind pole and use it to pole out one of the headsails when sailing right downwind. We hadn’t got around to installing it when the boat was new so we added it this spring. It’s a carbon pole and even though it is quite large it is easy to lift with one hand! We used it 6-7 times this summer. Mostly it was in quite light air when we might otherwise have had to motor. Nice to have it back!

Anchor tackle - Rocna 33KG + 80 meters chain - Norway this summer meant some very deep anchorages. We anchored in 12-18 meters of water a few times. Yikes! It was great having long chain and knowing we would be fine. And as usual the Rocna set beautifully. It is a great all around anchor.

Autopilot Remote - Raymarine Smart Remote - This is a little wireless remote to control the autopilot. It also includes a repeater for all the basic data (speed, depth, wind, heading, VMG etc). On cold or rainy days it is nice to stand up under the dodger (sprayhood) and steer with the remote. Sheryl can take it up to the bow when we are anchoring and check the depth before she drops the hook.

Electronic Charts - Navionics Charts + Apps - Electronic charting has come a long way in a few years. The newest charts are amazingly accurate, and now include lots of other data. Aerial photos of harbours we are approaching are a very nice addition. All tide data is also included so when we sailed in the Brittany coast and the tide exceeded 8 meters we could quickly find a tide station to check where we stood. Much quicker and easier than using printed tide table. Plus I have to recommend the Navionics App!! We have this on our iPhone and it’s amazing. All chart data, plus tides for the British Isles is included in an app for around $20!! How could you NOT buy this. It works for iPhone and there is a HiRes version for iPad. It also comes for Android devices. It’s great for planning (and even serves as a back-up for our chartplotter.)]]>Paul ShardNone2011-10-04T02:35:49-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/77f2672b346006cc53a99677314bb1fe-79.html#unique-entry-id-79http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/77f2672b346006cc53a99677314bb1fe-79.html#unique-entry-id-79
The passage began with a beautiful afternoon departure. Passing the castle guarding the entrance to Falmouth harbour we pointed the bows towards France. There was a light southerly breeze and a forecast for a quiet night.

The channel crossing is around 100 miles from Falmouth to the Rade de Brest and we needed to reach the strong tides of the Chenal du Four (at the corner of France near Brest) near dawn when they would be in our favour. This means crossing one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world in the dark. Then the fog rolled in!

I don’t think we have ever seen a thicker fog! We could just see the bow of the boat 40 feet away, but nothing more. Our navigation lights created pools of light in the fog and mist settled on everything. For the next 8 hours we could see nothing past our own decks.

AIS
I have written before about AIS and how much we like having it. WELL!! If ever a device paid its keep it was that night. We could see every ship out there and they could see us as well. We did not have to worry about the shipping lanes.
We were crossing before the start of the TSS (Traffic Separation Scheme) which directs shipping around the corner of France so were not obligated to cross at a direct right angle. However our course was at right angles anyway. And when shipping is so nice and organized it is best to cross it quickly and be away from the area as soon as possible.

RADAR
Of course not all boats have an AIS transponder. So our biggest worry in the thick fog is smaller boats such as fishing boats and other yachts. As we were leaving the coast there was another sailboat in sight and he DID have an AIS. But naturally there might be others. We have used the radar often in broad daylight to check how it works at picking up smaller boats. It is good to practice with the equipment. I find that we usually see a reasonable echo for small sailboats around 3 miles away. Over here in Europe most boats have a radar reflector mounted up on the mast - the most popular by far is the ones that look like a white 6 inch diameter fender. But even when I can’t see a reflector in their rigging, we usually pick up sailboats 3 miles away. Certainly 1-2 miles even small day-boats show up as a nice target. Sheryl is particularly good at reading the radar, noticing a faint target that only appears occasionally will then reappear in the same spot after a couple more rotations of the scanner.

The fog lay like a heavy wool blanket over the sea. There was no moon but during Sheryl’s watch from 2200 to 0100 the fog would occasionally clear above the mast head to reveal a few stars. But still at deck level we were rolling along in a thick air, cut into precise sector slices by our nav lights. We were not yet in the shipping lanes so there were no ships during this watch. Sheryl saw two targets on radar, one crossing our bow at two miles distance. With worrying radar targets, we set a few waypoints on it’s position to mark their track. One of the targets must have been a fishing boat nearly stationary as the waypoints showed it almost still.

There were also a number of larger fishing boats, thankfully all running AIS. In one case, I was just altering course to avoid it when it turned directly towards us just 2 miles away.

"Distant Shores Distant Shores, This is fishing vessel Eruva. We are fishing and are just about to alter course and I will be travelling at 045 degrees. Could you give me four cables searoom astern."

"Eruva, Distant Shores, roger we will alter course to pass your stern by half a mile"

What a great recommendation for the AIS technology. In fog we both could see each other clearly, and he knew our boat name to give us a call.

The fog cleared by dawn and we arrived in France at Camaret!

AIS Transponders by Raymarine]]>Paul ShardNone2011-07-20T04:24:50-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/29a85f258b98e200411d791a2300171c-78.html#unique-entry-id-78http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/29a85f258b98e200411d791a2300171c-78.html#unique-entry-id-78
Cruising Style

• Beans and Rice cruising used to be more popular - minimal food, no marina stays, no car rentals, maintaining the boat yourself without all the options - it was possible to cruise for $500-800 - perhaps thats risen a little recently so figure $800-1000. But not many people are doing that anymore in our experience.
• Budget Cruising - Anchor most of the time, occasional marina visits, a few frills and the occasional meal ashore - $1000-1500 depending on boat size. This is easier in the Caribbean or someplace where you want to anchor all the time anyway. Groceries and boat repairs take much of the budget but you eat better than Beans and Rice ;-)
• Comfortable Cruising - $1500-2500 - Rent a car occasionally, stay in marinas more often and eat ashore to get the flavour of the area you are cruising.
• Sky’s the limit - There is no limit to what you COULD spend - fly home occasionally - eat out "like a power-boater" ;-) it is possible to spend well over $5000 a month
• On the Move - If you are planning a fast round trip cruise it will cost more than a relaxed winter in the Bahamas. Doing an Atlantic Circle trip in 1-2 years will mean more things break and you are in unfamiliar territory more often. Similarly a quick trip down the intracoastal means you spend more than a relaxed trip when you find the more affordable options up the side creeks. Add $500/month if you are in a hurry.

Type of Boat

• Pocket/Small Cruiser - 25-32 foot - We don’t see many cruisers less than 32 feet on extended cruising these days. But if they are they can be doing it for less money. But it is not a good idea to try to cram all the available upgrades on a small boat. We have seen 30 footers with davits, air-con, large dinghy and outboards and stern arches. A small boat can be seriously overloaded and might be dangerous at sea. But a small sailboat is the least expensive option and can be a very seaworthy and fun way to get out cruising. Less time/money spent on maintenance if you keep it simple!
• Mid-size Cruiser - 35-42 - most popular size cruiser. By the time you get to 42 feet the budget for fuel and maintenance is getting higher but the boat is well able to handle a couple in relative comfort. There is room to store what you need and most 42 footers can handle a dinghy on a stern arch, upgraded battery capacity etc. Add $300-400/month for DIY maintenance - more to have someone do the work for you.
• Larger Cruiser - 44-54 foot - this is the limit for most cruisers we see out there. Budget for dockage, fuel and maintenance is naturally higher than the smaller boats. In the Caribbean the 50 footer is more common than here in Europe but you don’t need to go to the dock that often - and dockage can be a very expensive budget item. Add $400-600 to the monthly budget above for the larger boat.
• Catamaran - Cats in the 38-45 foot range are similar to the Large Cruiser - dockage and repairs will be in the same range as well as the interior space being similar. A 45 foot cat is a BIG boat. It has 2 engines to maintain and is usually charged 50% more for dockage than a 45 foot monohull.

Yearly repair and major expenses
Rigging, sails, engine repairs, a new outboard, a new dinghy... these are all in the occasional category and can be hard to budget. When you have a new boat, most of these items will not appear in the budget for a few years, but if you have an older boat you might well be facing a major repair in the short term. Most dramatic might be new standing rigging or a new engine, either could be around $10K depending on the boat. These are the most difficult to predict but a good survey before heading out on a major cruise could be a good investment. But for boats over 10-15 years old it would be good to budget in perhaps $5000-8000 per year for bigger repairs/upgrades. Boats larger than 40 feet will naturally have larger budgets for these things.]]>Paul ShardNone2011-05-21T04:29:08-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/e9db6ceb9ea7bff45454bcb6c17d2ace-77.html#unique-entry-id-77http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/e9db6ceb9ea7bff45454bcb6c17d2ace-77.html#unique-entry-id-77

Keeping in Touch - Internet Access
Internet is obviously the most important factor in staying in touch. Over the last year we have been in range of high speed internet for almost all our cruising. So anyone sending us emails need have waited no more than a day of two for a response (if it was urgent!). We do not use any form of satellite or HF radio as I think these are too slow. We use data access through the phone networks, getting a local data plan in each country. Here in Ireland I got a pay-as-you-go data plan for my iPhone 4 as soon as we arrived. We pay 10Euro for 2GB of data over one week. The SIM was just 10Euro as well. Not all countries are as accommodating however so it pays to check where you plan to cruise. Denmark would not let us have a data sim for some reason. The iPhone has been brilliant. Using "data tethering" I have set it up to provide data access to our two laptops. This means both our computers are on the internet all the time for just 10Euro per week here.

In the event that you can’t get data through the mobile phone then you will be using wifi. This is ok as well but less convenient since you generally need to get a new access at each port. This can be a reasonable deal if you stay put in one marina for a while as they often charge a sensible price per week/month. Daily access can be quite costly. Gone are the days of picking up someone’s unlocked wifi. We haven’t seen a free unlocked wifi for some months. And if you do find one you might wonder about wonder about the security risk. Stick with legitimate wifi or a 3G data plan through a mobile phone network.

Keeping in Touch - Phone
4 words... pay-as-you-go. Assuming you travel on a boat sailing (or powering) from country to country at leisurely pace you will be in a country long enough to set up a local phone access by getting a local SIM card. To do this you need an "unlocked phone" otherwise it will not accept different SIM cards. With your new local number you will have free incoming calls and reasonable calls both locally and to countries around the world. Your definition of reasonable may vary - but as we come from Canada with notoriously high phone rates everything looks reasonable to me! If you need to make very long calls there are usually deals to be had for particular countries.
The one problem of getting a new local SIM at each country is the fact that people might not know which number to call you on. There a number of solutions for this depending on our needs. Skype offers an incoming number which I know numerous people have made use of. This year we just kept our UK mobile number active - roaming as we visit other countries. Then when we receive a long call we just ask if we can call back using our local number.

Getting mail/courier
Sending parcels and post out is obviously no problem. But receiving is a bit trickier as we keep on the move. We generally wait until we are certain we are going to be visiting a specific marina - then call them and ask if we can have them receive mail or a package. People at home are generally thrilled to receive a package or mail with foreign stamps. So unless you are trying to pretend you are still sitting in an office tower, the occasional difficulty of forwarding a package will not likely be an issue.

Flying back to do business
If your business requires trips home or to clients that has also got easier in our experience. We book flights online and often return for a few weeks up to few months - leaving the boat in a marina or hauled out. Many marinas around the world are set up to handle people hauling out or leaving the boat temporarily. Check with other cruisers in your intended area. Seven Seas news letters have also been a good source of info for places to lay-up the boat.

Business Office Afloat
Nowadays there are so many improvements to electronics and computers it is easy to keep an office afloat. We have made a few improvements in the boat - and in our business procedures. A bigger battery bank means we can sit at anchor and run computers on a rainy day. We have a small built-in diesel generator (Mastervolt whisper 3.5). A small printer can connect by wifi to both our computers. And because we are on a boat we are extra careful to backup our computers and data! Backup disks are small and cheap these days.

So there you are - sailing with your business. Nowadays there are many business people who might be able to move their office on board. And get out cruising before retirement.]]>Paul ShardNone2011-05-08T03:55:13-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/37b54d4a9130fdb605f26b56b3725c2a-76.html#unique-entry-id-76http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/37b54d4a9130fdb605f26b56b3725c2a-76.html#unique-entry-id-76
We did three hops - a short 25 mile jump on Wednesday afternoon through the Solent to Lymington. Since it was the first sail of the season we wanted to take it easy and check things over. I had forgotten to rig the tack end of the reef points but otherwise we were fine. It was also the first time we set our new carbon downwind pole. That was a great success as we had a tail wind most of the way. We flew past the other yachts out there who were trying to jibe downwind.

The waterline length of a boat defines the wavelength she creates when moving through the water, and a for most sailboats that defines her maximum speed. We have been impressed by how easily this boat moves through the water as she has a sleek profile and seems to be easily driven. But still she will be held to a theoretical maximum by the length of her waterline. As all yacht designers know this, they will usually try to have the longest waterline for the hull they are drawing. (The only exception is for some racing boats where the racing rule penalizes long waterlines. In this case the people who made the rule agree longer is better - but the designers are trying tricks to get around the rule.)

Leaving the Solent at the Needles

Thursday we had a broad reach from Lymington on to Dartmouth. Again we passed other boats out there averaging 7 knots with apparent of only 10-11 aft of the beam. Here we had another example of the advantage of a long waterline as there was a a mix of seas and 2-meter swell almost on the bow. In any given circumstance, a longer waterline will usually result in a smoother ride. In this case we could hold our speed and course more easily as our sails stayed full and drawing in the rougher patches. Passing other smaller boats (32-40 feet LOA) we had a smoother ride and seemed to keep our speed when they might roll too much and have their sails collapse.

Connecting the dots
The passage to Dartmouth from Lymington was 92 miles. We got under way at 6 and got in before 7. This allowed us to get going after dawn and get in before dark. In our days sailing Two-Step we would never dream of a 90 mile run like that. Planning 5.5-6 knots connects your destinations much differently than at 7-7.5 knots.

Here are a few pix of Dartmouth - a very pretty port town.

The entrance to the harbour at Dartmouth

Mooring field in the river Dart
]]>Paul ShardNone2011-04-30T04:30:50-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/5b6c4346c8f1f2578dbdaac42d35c7e6-75.html#unique-entry-id-75http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/5b6c4346c8f1f2578dbdaac42d35c7e6-75.html#unique-entry-id-75
Its been gorgeous weather since we arrived here last week. Its now neap tides so the total tide is just 2.2 meters. Our boat draws 0.9 meters with the keel up. This means we have to get on the beach near high tide so we will have a few hours after the water has fallen by the 1 meter we need to dry out.


We dropped our Fortress anchor as we came in so we would be able to pull back off after, and nosed up on the sand.

You can see the sand is quite hard - our skeg has just sunk in to the sand by about 4 inches.

New prop in place! Its an Autoprop and we’ll see how she performs over the season’s cruise.

The Autoprop is made by Bruntons in the UK. It is unique amongst propellors in that its blades find their own proper pitch depending on the situation. I am still a little fizzy on the actual science of this, but I understand the blade is offset from the hub (as you see above) and this allows it to rotate to accommodate the speed of water flowing past. If you are going slower (punching into a head sea or strong wind) then the pitch will be finer. If you are moving faster such as motor sailing - then the blades will take a much coarser pitch to match that.]]>Paul ShardNone2011-04-24T03:12:49-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/a327d4972bd59694e326623a809a6b88-74.html#unique-entry-id-74http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/a327d4972bd59694e326623a809a6b88-74.html#unique-entry-id-74
Not much maintenance to do - just checking over systems ...

but I do have some NEW PROJECTS that didn’t get sorted last year

Carbon Downwind Pole - Lovely! - beautifully tapered at each end. Carbon might seem like a big expense on a downwind pole but the value is not so much performance as just being able to handle it. This pole is quite a bit lighter than our aluminum pole from our 37 footer Two-Step. So its much longer and stronger but lighter to lift and handle when setting it. I like to store the pole vertically on the mast so we have added a mast track and car to store it. To store on the mast the pole has a socket arrangement to connect it to the mast car. This allows for articulation without jamming when you set the pole (as opposed to a hook/piston going over a ring on the mast)

New Propellor - we sailed last year with a standard 3 bladed fixed propellor and really felt the drag. It is like towing a 20 inch diameter bucket around. We have a shiny new Autoprop this year and are anxious to test it out. Here David of Bruntons (who make the Autoprop) shows me how the bladed rotate to automatically find the correct pitch.
]]>Paul ShardNone2011-04-02T10:44:17-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/3b908524f0869cf5c0e13d96c455da26-73.html#unique-entry-id-73http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/3b908524f0869cf5c0e13d96c455da26-73.html#unique-entry-id-73http://wealthtv.com/listingstoday.php" rel="external">WealthTV and I see they are playing Distant Shore 8 (EIGHT?!) times today! Very cool. It is 8 different episodes - played in 2 blocks of 4 each.

Eastern Time 2pm - 4 episodes from Season Six
Eastern Time 8pm - 4 of our new episodes from Season Seven - UK South Coast, Channel Islands and Narrowboating

So if you are in the USA/Caribbean and can receive WealthTV there you go!

Paul

]]>Paul ShardNone2011-03-25T08:57:31-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/11f1875940fb5794c25f7e43876b049e-72.html#unique-entry-id-72http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/11f1875940fb5794c25f7e43876b049e-72.html#unique-entry-id-72
This happened in an anchorage in the Balearic Islands a few years ago - thankfully not to us. We had been keeping a close eye on the weather and had left the anchorage before the storms approach. When we came back to the anchorage there was a boat up on the beach where the storm had thrown her. She drew more than 5 feet and you could walk all around her without getting your knees wet! She was well up the beach and after trying a number of ideas it was impossible to pull her back to sea.

Winching, pulling, a line to the masthead to lean her? No Way! She was well and truly planted as the sand had reformed around her keels (she had twin bilge keels) and she was sitting in perhaps 6 inches of water with her keels down three feet in the sand.

It turned out the solution was to use a couple of small outboard engines?!? Starting by digging a small hole in the ankle deep water - the small dinghy outboard could be run as a fan blowing sand out to make a wading pool than a larger and larger pool. After a couple of hours there is room to move in a more powerful outboard.

More and more water flowed back into the pools until finally the yacht was nearly floating in her own swimming pool. Incredible that a small engine could move what must have been 100 tons of sand. It did require a bit of TLC afterwards!!

We filmed this exercise and it is included in the first season of Distant Shores on DVD. I have also put the segment up as a podcast which you can see here.]]>Paul ShardNone2011-02-11T07:44:07-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/790b692428138ff467add2e206413937-71.html#unique-entry-id-71http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/790b692428138ff467add2e206413937-71.html#unique-entry-id-71
We have been using mobile data plans for a few years now and it is definitely our preferred way to be on the net. Here is a quick summary of how we got on line the last couple of years.

USA - we used T-Mobile and had good data access all along our trip in 2007-2008-2009. It was $40 per month for 5GB I think. Excellent!!! Since the typical cruise in the USA is for at least a few months it makes sense to sign up for something like this.

Caribbean - difficult. Since we were in different islands for just a few days or a few weeks it wasn’t practical to do mobile data.

Bahamas - no data plan available when we were last there. Pity. I think Blackberry users are in luck though.

UK - 3-Three - very good data plan - 5GB data for a good price. We used this with a stick, and also tested it with a "mifi" unit to share the data between our 3 units (2 laptops plus iPod/iPad)

Netherlands - OK - We got a stick here too. (but see MiFi below - it would have meant just buying a data sim instead of a new stick) It was not very good value MB per Euro. But I think this is always improving and changing. We were in touch everywhere in Holland during both cruises there in 2010. So that was good - just pricier than we had become used too.

Denmark - NO - they wouldn’t let us have a data access without having a bank account in Denmark. Hopefully this will change.

Sweden - YES - Comviq - excellent data plan - 5GB data for reasonable rates. We were online in even remotest locations during our whole cruise.

Summary. We will continue to use data plans to get online whenever we can. No more worries about wifi access. Also no worries about wifi security (see discussions on firesheep at Panbo). More and more countries have this available and this is good news for sailors!

Mifi - We were introduced to this excellent gadget by a Dutch sailor. It allows you to share a data connection so you only need one data sim when you come to a new country and all your data devices can connect. Its about the size of a deck of cards. We sat it in the middle of the boat and got online from both laptops wherever they were in the saloon.

Cruising with the Internet has never been better and easier!!!! We were even online out here! It was good to be able to check the weather!
]]>Paul ShardNone2011-02-10T07:29:37-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/9cb3029a044c59da84ea52e0ec876bd8-70.html#unique-entry-id-70http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/9cb3029a044c59da84ea52e0ec876bd8-70.html#unique-entry-id-70
Last year’s cruise with the new boat we had two new instruments to make navigation easier. The Raymarine E90Wide plotters were great! We have one right at the helm in a pod, and the other up under the dodger (sprayhood) as we use that position at sea. These plotters are a hybrid using touch screen but also have buttons. I loved the buttons and used them most of the time but on rainiest days sometimes switched to the buttons. Often we found ourselves using both. Buttons are convenient for zooming, and then dragging the screen to a new position. Nice!


The plotter at the helm is often right in the sun and this highlights one of the biggest advantages in my mind about a proper marine MFD (multifunction display). The E90W is completely readable in even bright sun. Try that with your laptop! It is also dimmable right down to almost nothing for use at night. It won’t ruin your night vision but you can still see the screen. It it completely waterproof and ready for tough marine conditions like a rough day on the Kattegat as seen here...

As a fun test I got the Navionics App for my iPod last spring. So we have had a full season cruising and have got to recommend them! We got the Apps for UK/Holland and found it a great tool. It has the tides as well as the full charts for the area and I often found myself using the App to plan our departure times and course - especially in the trickier tides of the Channel Islands. The screen is too small for use with serious navigating but it still had one interesting use. Because it is so small and I always carry my iPod around, I often found myself using the charts when comparing notes with other cruisers. We might be meeting up on someones boat and discussing upcoming destinations. I could pull out my iPod and put on a recommended waypoint or anchorage. Very cool!!


Now we have an iPad I have added the Apps for it too (available in HD for the bigger screen). It will be fun to try this out on the next cruise! I am certain it will it will be a useful addition to our navigation equipment.
]]>Paul ShardNone2010-12-01T07:43:16-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/1fab88cdc59ef14ace3e181be9ac7b1e-69.html#unique-entry-id-69http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/1fab88cdc59ef14ace3e181be9ac7b1e-69.html#unique-entry-id-69Rocna 33Kg Anchor - Excellent - In my opinion this is the best all-round anchor, working well in sand, mud and soft mud. It sets quickly and holds very well. It also sets well in most grass and weed although the Delta might outperform it there since it doesn’t have the ring on top. Basically most modern anchors will work well if they are big enough. This is one thing I really admire about Rocna - they recommend a realistic size anchor for a cruising boat. For our 49 footer we could have used either a 33kg or 40kg version of the Rocna according to their website. Other anchor manufacturers recommend much lighter versions but in the very small print they are talking about using it up to just 30 knots wind. I think similar anchor shapes like the Manson and the Spade might also perform well in similar sizes. But would need to be much bigger than they recommend. For instance, Spade anchors suggest that the 77 pound model (similar to our 73lb Rocna) would be sufficient for a 75 foot boat?! Rocna suggest their 73lb for 40-50 footers (66 feet only if the boat was an ultralight racer weighing less than 10t). Rocna tables - For real life cruising when you occasionally wake up at 3am in gusts of 40 knots you want to know you have been conservative in sizing your anchor! Here I inspect our Rocna at low tide after winds of 30-35 blew all night. Not budging!

Yanmar 4JH4 Engine - 56hp - Excellent!! - Very nice performing engine - well engineered. Affordable parts (versus certain other makes... not to name names). The instrument panel is abit cheesy but all my experience with the engine is positive.

3 bladed fixed prop - oops... not good - it certainly pushes the boat along nicely under power but a real drag under sail. We hadn’t ordered a feathering/folding prop for the 49 for this past summer cruise and really missed it!! The Variprop we had on the 42 was excellent. Will probably go for another on the 49 for this season. Definitely we need to change from the fixed prop. It is certainly the best way to improve performance on any sailboat. We’ll go at least 1/2 knot faster under sail and I think closer to 1 knot in some situations.

]]>Paul ShardNone2010-11-30T08:03:23-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/b23f7f317a3b1f917767516b8dc9c230-68.html#unique-entry-id-68http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/b23f7f317a3b1f917767516b8dc9c230-68.html#unique-entry-id-68
Electric heads - Tecma - they have been brilliant! No breakages and no servicing required yet. I had thoroughly disliked our Jabsco heads previously. They needed constant maintenance, required way too much pumping to operate and frequently seemed to malfunction. There had to be a better way and the Tecma electric head is perfect for us. I have ordered a spares kit for them (not cheap!) but it is well worth it. I know purists will suggest an electric toilet is somehow “not proper” but if all fails we always have a bucket...

Forced Air Heating System - Espar - Wonderful! Nothing beats coming down below to a toasty warm boat after a cold/wet sailing day. The Espar has just worked flawlessly. It does have a small and slightly bizarre control panel that does theoretically allow it to be turned on and off at preprogrammed intervals but we haven’t used that option. We just turn it on and set it for 1-3 hours as needed. Great!

Plotters - Raymarine’s new E90Wide X 2 units. These are the new touchscreen hybrids that have full control either with touch or buttons. The plotter is the heart of the boats navigation system and the E-wides are excellent. I really like the touch screen ability including a popup onscreen keyboard to name waypoints etc. These units also come with a huge number of built-in charts - another big savings over the old style. But adding the Navionics charts is great also since it gives you harbour info, tides and currents plus aerial shots of harbours if you don’t have a cruising guide. The picture above was shot leaving Amsterdam at night. The plotter up on deck working perfectly as usual. Bright enough to be easily read on the brightest day, it also goes right down for night use. With the radar and AIS overlaid we can see ships that might otherwise be hard to spot against the lights of the city.

Electric winch - Lewmar conversion - This was a lifesaver! We sailed a couple of months then added the electric winch so we can compare before/after. The 49 means everything is 20-30% bigger and raising the mainsail was a tough slog. On the 42 I pulled the main up to just 1 meter from the masthead then put it on the winch. With the bigger 49-footer the same effort means I can pull it with 4-5 meters left to go. So I have to winch the sail 4-5 times as far. The electric winch handles it easily. It also meant we had no trouble going up the mast. Sheryl can easily pull me up and that meant we could get more shots from the masthead!! Depending on your boat, an electric winch could make sense. Even just adding one as I did could change your sailing a lot.

LED Lighting - Imtra - A revelation! Finally LED lighting that works and lasts! We can now afford to turn on any lights we light. On the darker winter days we can run all the lights we want. Using perhaps 1/4 the power of the old lights. The lights are designed from the ground up as LED lights rather than adding replacement bulbs to conventional fixtures. This means they can build in a nice heat sink for the power circuits. I am sure they will last for many years giving us a cozy well lit boat!

...
This is just the start... now I am rolling I want to go through more tomorrow - anchor, engine etc...]]>Paul ShardNone2010-11-22T07:36:59-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/3c97cde19e60b5f6c88081df2788b8bd-67.html#unique-entry-id-67http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/3c97cde19e60b5f6c88081df2788b8bd-67.html#unique-entry-id-67
Many of the notes we get are from people planning a 1-2 year (or more) trip down to warmer climes. We are happy to think we have helped a number of these people to start off on their big adventure! And often it is just a bit of extra confidence to know that regular people are making the trips on a regular basis. Often one partner has some doubts and a bit of reassurance is all that’s needed. Can we stay in touch with family and friends? Are there Pirates? How do you deal with storms?

Certainly it is easier than ever now to get information to plan your voyage. Weather info is getting better and better! Storms can be avoided in many instances thanks to vastly improved access to forecasts at sea. Although pirates seem to be getting more airtime than ever, the truth is they are mainly confined to specific areas which are mostly avoidable. As to being in touch with family and friends... cruising has never been better than right now. There are a bewildering array of options for being in touch that didn’t exist even 15 years ago. Wifi, email cell phone and video Skype, sat phone, blogging sms, you can Tweet your family with up to the minute news!! (ok maybe thats being TOO in touch)

One of the nicest comments we have heard about our television show “Distant Shores” is from other cruisers who have used it to reassure family and friends about the cruising lifestyle. It isn’t all storms, high seas adventure and pirates. There are great people in foreign ports, interesting cultures to be discovered and new friends waiting to be made!

We hope to see you out their!

Cheers,

Paul

SUPER DUPER Christmas Special

Buy the Special Super Pack including ALL DISTANT SHORES episodes - Season 1 though 6 for just US$120 / C$124 (PAL $135) - 14 DVDs in all

]]>Paul ShardNone2010-11-17T08:40:55-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/9297615aab50b82513656c207ee66c2a-66.html#unique-entry-id-66http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/9297615aab50b82513656c207ee66c2a-66.html#unique-entry-id-66WealthTV in the USA and Travel Channel in Europe).

The past 2 weeks I have been working in the studio on our latest DVD series - Distant Shores Season Six - Chesapeake Bay, ICW and Leeward Islands. Re-watching the shows on going through the Erie Canal to New York, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Caribbean... makes me want to go.

November weather always makes me think of heading south! I know that the years we did this trip south were busy with preparations and planning, and dreaming of the voyage ahead. Getting ready for the adventure is part of the journey itself!

We have done the complete trip south from Canada to Florida/Bahamas 3 times since 1989, most recently in 2008/9 filming for Distant Shores. For anyone living in the US NorthEast or Eastern Canada, this trip is a fun way to live the tropical dream - heading south for a warm winter!!



If you are planning to do this trip then this season of 13 half-hour shows will help you see what the trip is like, and whet your appetite for the adventure ahead. And if you are going to do the trip... drop us a note, we like to think our programs can help inform and/or inspire viewers to do the trip themselves!

Click here to order the new Season Six DVD set, or as part of the new Super Pack - Season 1-6]]>Paul ShardNone2010-11-13T08:18:55-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/f9f866b4b1d6f5b2145caebedb221665-65.html#unique-entry-id-65http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/f9f866b4b1d6f5b2145caebedb221665-65.html#unique-entry-id-65
Stand Mast Route as it is called in the Netherlands allows bigish boats to cross Holland from the German border to the North Sea coast with the mast up. This compares to most European canals that have lower clearances, the Stand Mast Route allows 30meter heights, so our 20.5m (67 feet) is fine.

See Wikipedia page or search “staande mastroute” or “standing mast route” for more info.

We started on the Ems river on the right but wanted to visit one last Frisian Island so hopped up north to do that first. Then we joined the Staande Mastroute at its most northerly where it is close to the Waddensee. This meant a tricky patch of navigating through the shallow tidal sands en route to Schiermonnikoog.

This channel only allows passage for shallow boats and we saw only the lovely Dutch sailing barges plus a few of the special shallow ferries that take people out to the islands. This chart is “not to be used for navigation” :-)

Here is the dock at Schiermonnikoog and the entry channel 2 hours after we came through it (on a falling tide!!) The sticks are the “official” channel marks, called withies.




From here we entered locked into the Dutch Canals didn’t have to worry about tides for a couple of weeks.

Here are a few pix from the gorgeous Dutch canals. We tied up each night in another VERY CUTE and tidy Dutch town.

If you choose to do this very nice route...

• mast height must be less than 30 meters (a power wire crosses)
• depths seem fine up to perhaps 6 feet
• take your time and enjoy!

Here are some shots
]]>Paul ShardNone2010-10-13T02:12:00-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/774dc06dd3a310cd4cdce6741f6087d4-64.html#unique-entry-id-64http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/774dc06dd3a310cd4cdce6741f6087d4-64.html#unique-entry-id-64

Traditionally we have “Pilot Charts” that summarize the winds, waves currents and typical sailing routes for various areas of the world over the last number of years. In the old days they were all you had to gauge what conditions to expect. But they are really just averages of past years. So they will only give you a probability of average winds. So for us planning a return to Britain from Sweden we could see we would have many days of southwest winds. In advance I used this to plan our schedule. Knowing we would often have headwinds I built in a number of delay days for our passage plan. We also planned to return across Sweden via the Gota canal since we could always do that regardless of headwinds.

But as the time gets closer it is possible to use some of the amazing resources of the Web to get better information. Watching up to 10 days in advance we can see if we should hurry off now with a minimum weather window or hold on for improving conditions.

Here in Europe I have a few nice sites that give long range predictions...

http://www.windfinder.com/forecasts/wind_benelux_animation.htm <-- 7 day winds animation

http://www.ecmwf.int/products/forecasts/d/charts/medium/deterministic/msl_uv850_z500/ <-- 10 day pressure predictions

But looking at the pilot charts and the current forecasts isn’t going to make you into a weather expert (not immediately anyway!). My biggest problem is that we are always new to an area and don’t have “local knowledge”. Here in the North Sea area winds often prevail from the southwest - but does that mean 2 out of 3 days the wind is from that direction or for 10 days followed by 5 days from somewhere else? I have found studying the weather patterns from previous years can help with this. Pilot charts are a statistical summary, but now with the internet you can go back and study in detail what happened in past years.

I take a few hours and look around to see what the weather looked like in past years. From our crossing of the Bay of Biscay I found some amazing sites going back years with detailed information - here is a specific site with sea buoys in a variety of places.

http://www.tutiempo.net/en/Climate/ENVIRONM_BUOY_62132/11-2004/996790.htm

Got to run - off across the IJsselmeer toward Amsterdam! ]]>Paul ShardNone2010-09-18T03:21:05-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/682e6cb41817473b0684068ffa699525-63.html#unique-entry-id-63http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/682e6cb41817473b0684068ffa699525-63.html#unique-entry-id-63


Recommendations for transiting the Gota Canal in Sweden always state you need at least 3 people on a boat to lock through. One will stay at the helm, one will deal with lines and one will get off to thread lines through the rings used to secure the boat in this old system.

The Gota Canal was built in 1810-20 and most of the locks are original. Maximum dimensions of boats are... Width: 7 m; length: 30 m; depth 2.82 m; height: 22 m. I think if your boat really is 7 meters wide you wouldn’t have room for fenders - possibly not even a thick coat of paint!! Distant Shores II is 4.3 meters wide and we were fine (with our big fenders) but it sure feels snug especially going between the many bridges. I was prepared for the 58 locks to feel snug, but not thinking of bridges. Coming up to a 7 meter wide bridge in a crosswind needs careful lining-up.

On our first day in the locks there were a number of smaller boats, plus the lovely Deodar - 23 meters long and 6 meters beam. They definitely were more than snug edging through the bridges. Here they are maneuvering into a lock and trying to keep the fenders from rolling out. By the end of 3 days they had a few scratches on the hull.


We have 4 very large fenders plus 2 slightly smaller (but still large) fenders and hoped this would be fine. In reality I think we should have bought 2-3 more medium fenders. We also set up a nice long 2by4 board to protect the fenders as they slide up the rough lock walls. 8-10 feet long and drill a hole through the board so the supporting ropes won’t chafe. We find the board saves the fenders which can otherwise get quite torn up.



Note the rig we use to deal with the lines. The bow line is led from the forward cleat all the way aft to the cockpit and put on a winch. I have done the same with the stern line. This way I can control bow and stern tightening both lines as we go up.



Yesterday evening we finished the Gota Canal - 5 days and 58 locks. Lots of fun and lovely scenery! I would recommend a few more fenders - even just temporary ones if you can’t keep them after doing the locks. Good insurance!!

Here is a shot of sailing off across Lake Vattern. One of the big advantages of the Gota Canal is that it allows 22 meters of mast clearance. No low bridges like on the Trent Severn, Erie Canal and most other canal systems. So we don’t have to worry about taking the mast down - plus we can enjoy a nice sail on Sweden’s lakes!

]]>Paul ShardNone2010-09-15T02:11:07-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/9464d087299a337972c54a60bda6456e-62.html#unique-entry-id-62http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/9464d087299a337972c54a60bda6456e-62.html#unique-entry-id-62Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Robin has been a big hero of mine for decades! He is best known for being the first person to sail alone and non-stop around the world in the Golden Globe race in 1968-69. More recently he did it again at the age of 68 and in between he has done lots more for the sailing world (See Robins Homepage).

It has been some years now since we’d read his excellent book “A World of My Own” and since we knew we were going to meet Sir Robin at the Southerly Dinner we decided to reread it. What a treat! If you haven’t read the book I highly recommend you get a copy. The story is exciting and a great read, but I also found it a great insight into the attitude that will succeed in offshore voyaging “I can do this! There is a way!”

Robin took a wooden 32-footer around the world in 312 days and during that time practically everything broke! “His water tanks were polluted, a storm put his radio out of action, his self-steering gear disintegrated, his main boom collapsed, his tiller sheered but he refused to give up” (from the back cover of “A World of My Own”). In fact this severely understates the number of problems he had!!

From fashioning a new gooseneck, rebuilding the generator, radio and practically everything else on board, to diving over and adding strips to seal major hull leaks he shows the value of being resourceful. But more than that he shows the value of a positive attitude and refusal to give up.

The next time I am faced with a problem I can’t see how to solve I will remember that attitude and ask myself how Sir Robin would have looked at it. It is alright to curse at it but then get down to work. And afterwards it’s OK to “go below and check the level of the whisky bottle”...

Paul
p.s. This picture is down below on the HMS Warrior in Portsmouth. What a fantastic venue to hear sea stories told by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston!
]]>Paul ShardNone2010-08-01T02:22:56-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/195b34305088684e1790b76bcaa09543-61.html#unique-entry-id-61http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/195b34305088684e1790b76bcaa09543-61.html#unique-entry-id-61
Opportunity in a Gale
We were tied up in a secure harbour on the Sunday morning. The wind was already blowing in gusts over 30 knots and it looked like nobody was going to go out sailing. The weather service on the VHF was forecasting a gale warning. But I saw an opportunity to give the new boat a decent test in strong winds! Looking at the chart I saw a harbour just 25 miles down the coast which would mean we could sail with an offshore wind on the beam. So we wouldn’t be in big seas and would have a chance to try out the boat in strong winds for just a few hours. Perfect...



We battened everything down, untied, and headed out from the tiny harbor of Gislövs Läge. I had planned to sail with a double reefed main and reefed job, but there seemed to be more wind than forecast so we just partially unfurled the jib (no mainsail). The wind gusted over 30 and we scooted along at more than 8 knots - hitting 9. As soon as we got further out the wind stabilized a bit at 25-30 with gusts 35-40. But I had been right that we would have a nice comfortable ride since the wind was offshore - we never saw waves bigger than 1 meter.

The image doesn’t show it so well but you can see the bow wave being blown off in spray in the gusts. But also you can see the waves weren’t high.

We averaged over 8.2 for the 3 hours it took to reach Ystad. The boat was perfectly balanced and easy to steer. Dry decks and a comfy ride! The longer boat at 49 feet really does make for more comfort. During the whole sail we saw one other boat - a 40 footer close-hauled and motor-sailing west (the other way). Incredibly he was towing his dinghy - which naturally had flipped upside down. He must have been having a bad time since he just ignored it and kept on going with it upside down.

The only other boat we saw was just as we approached Ystad - the local Search and Rescue cutter came out and zoomed past in a cloud of spray. Winds gusted here at 40 knots - occasionally higher. We sailed right up to the harbour at Ystad and came in to find a dock. Thankfully the winds were lower close in shore since the harbour was quite full. But friendly cruisers grabbed lines as we came in to raft up. Praise to our big fenders and bow thruster so maneuvering in these tight conditions was no problem.

As a postscript to this story I found a news item the next day that 4 sailors had been rescued by Polish SAR in that same gale just over a hundred miles to the southeast.

We had a great sail however. It felt good to have tried the boat out in these conditions when it would have been easy to just stay put. Now we have more experience with how our new boat handles in strong winds so if we’re ever caught out in bad weather on a passage we now know that she handles winds up to 35-40 knots quite nicely with just a reefed jib.

]]>Paul ShardNone2010-06-29T02:24:42-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/4506d2ce9c505ab705f61355491c500b-60.html#unique-entry-id-60http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/4506d2ce9c505ab705f61355491c500b-60.html#unique-entry-id-60


We are in the upper left corner with the yellow arrow indicating the wind, blue is line showing a small current/leeway.

The greyed lines are showing the shipping traffic separation scheme near France. With the AIS you can see the exact position of the shipping and instantly understand what they are doing. For instance, the ship in the top center of the screen appears to be heading for us. But he is obviously in the lanes so we know he will turn shortly and will not be a concern. And If he was we could just look at him for more information. AIS shows all kind of info including length, speed, name callsign etc. Here is a sample screen.

Note we even see the ship’s length, beam and draft. The CPA is “Closest point of Approach” and the TCPA is the time until we will reach that close point. In this case the ship is heading away from us so there are no number for CPA and TCPA.

Keeping an eye on approaching ships as we cross the english channel to Guernsey in the Channel Islands.

Should we alter course? Is there a risk here? No, this ship is anchored and we knew this miles in advance since the AIS showed their speed as 0.1 knot and the status as anchored!

AIS Class B for smaller boats
So what could be better than having an AIS receiver??

How about an AIS transmitter like the big ships have! That way ships can see us as well. They will get automatic alarms if we are going to come close to them. Although they should see us on their radar, this is a much more secure system and works without needing an operator. In conditions of reduced visibility they will know exactly where we are as well as our speed, name and callsign. This is called AIS Class B.

With Distant Shores II we have added one of the new Raymarine AIS transmitters. The newly designed AIS Class B Raymarine AIS500.

This is a very cleverly designed system and integrates amazingly into the Raymarine network. It uses the ships existing VHF antenna so it doesn’t need almost any additional wiring. And since it displays the shipping on the plotter it doesn’t need a separate monitor either. The AIS500 is just a small box that is hidden away, using very little power.

Now that we have had a couple of passages with the system I can report back that it is fantastic!! Crossing the English Channel to the Channel Islands I took this screenshot as we were crossing the shipping lanes near Guernsey. Busy! Similar as we were crossing the North Sea up to the Netherlands.

Now the ships see us as a target on their systems and are instantly alerted if we will come close. In practice we have found them to be happily swerving a bit to avoid us without us needing to call them in advance. Of course we also change course to avoid the ships, but now we are broadcasting AIS they will immediately see we have altered course and realize they don’t need to.


I cannot stress enough how the AIS system has reduced our worries on sea passages. Especially at night it can be difficult to deal with shipping. In the event there are many ships it used to be almost impossible to call the ship you were worried about since you didn’t know their name. Now with AIS you call the exact ship you are concerned about. And now our with AIS Class B transmitter they will know who it is so they could call us as well. Since AIS uses very little power and is not very expensive it seems like a very intelligent purchase for sailors who venture out to sea as we do. It is the best kind of insurance - the kind that reduces the risk of a problem in the first place!
]]>Paul ShardNone2010-06-17T01:27:03-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/9eb84103943d82a59b4bd918aa3a1220-59.html#unique-entry-id-59http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/9eb84103943d82a59b4bd918aa3a1220-59.html#unique-entry-id-59Why go electric?

I have often wondered about adding an electric winch. As boats get bigger, as we get a bit older, or just lazier, it might seem like a good idea. I also wonder if there are times I might not bother raising the main for just a shorter sail and just putting the jib out because its easy! I guess that means I am lazier ;-) Anyway with the new 49 footer it was time to think about the question again.

Raising the main on the 49 is just that much more work than the 42. With the 42 I could raise the sail to within 3 feet of the masthead and just winch it the last bit. The job is a tough one first thing in the morning (and honestly a bit much for Sheryl I think). When we were spec’ing out the 49 I wondered if we would need an electric halyard winch but decided to wait and see. The sail is 33% larger than the one on our 42 and I would guess roughly that much heavier.

Now that we have had the boat for a few months and sailed her in a variety of conditions we have found out just how much difference there is between the two. Without the winch I can pull the sail up just above the upper spreaders. That is a tough pull then there is still almost 20 feet left to winch. So it was definitely time to go for an electric halyard winch.

Adding the winch turned out to be a medium sized job in two main parts...

1. running the heavy wire from the main battery bank to the winch
2. installing the winch itself on deck

In this case the installation was much simpler since we were converting the existing Lewmar winch to power. All Lewmar winches sold in the last number of years are easily convertible using a standard conversion kit. So we would be using the same winch and just adding a new base plate, and motor assembly belowdecks.

Running the wire

• Electric winches use a lot of power so we used very heavy wire - 70mm2 or double-0 AWG.
• A 150Amp circuit breaker was used to connect it to the main distribution
• If you have any doubts about this kind of work it may be best to have a contractor help with the wiring (or do the whole install)

Heavy wiring installed ready to connect to winch

Installing the winch
In our case I was converting the halyard winch which is on the cabin top so we had to carefully consider where the motor would intrude the least into the cabin. The winch itself will have a new base plate and a gear shaft that allows the motor below to drive the winch. This requires a new large hole drilled in the deck. Always fun drilling a big hole in your new boat!!

After final fitting the new base plate is set down with silicone.

I mounted the switch under the winch checking so we could see the main while pushing the button.


Using the winch
Our first outing with the new winch was for our 30 mile sail down the English Channel to Brighton. A mid afternoon departure was dictated by the tides so 1500 hours saw us heading into the wind in the Solent. Raising the main was a dream! What a pleasure to just push the button and watch the sail go up. On to Brighton, then Ramsgate, then across to Holland!

One useful technique we have seen on other boats is to use the halyard winch for other jobs as well. In our case we can also lead other lines to the electric winch. Our two forward furled sails also require a good healthy pull. They can be winched by the aft cockpit winches but it is a long chore in heavy wind. Now I can lead the furling line with just one turn around the cockpit winch then up to the electric winch. What a great advantage!! One electric winch doing quite a few of the heaviest winching jobs. It was certainly a conversion well worth doing. ]]>Paul ShardNone2010-05-28T02:26:34-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/e6124d8d6e554f04ee6149524a5763c5-58.html#unique-entry-id-58http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/e6124d8d6e554f04ee6149524a5763c5-58.html#unique-entry-id-58
AIS to the rescue! This crossing was another good example of why an AIS unit is an excellent investment for anyone venturing out into busy waters. We left the dock in Chichester at 0100 and by 0130 had cleared the mouth of the harbour into the English Channel. Our plotter on deck showed our position as well as the fact that we had more-or-less got the expected current. It also showed all the ships in a good 20 mile radius since the AIS receiver passes that info on to the Raymarine plotters.
We shot this image a bit later as we were closer to France. The blue arrow on our boat indicates the current, the red line our heading and the green line where we are actually going with the effect of the current. You can see there are quite a few ships just ahead as we approach the east-bound shipping. When we zoom in we see most of the ships will pass easily ahead or behind us since the AIS also calculates the “closest point of approach” and the time until that point for each ship. Best of all we know the names of the ships so we can call them if we think there is a problem! In this case none were close enough to warrant a call. The stress reduction from having a plotter on deck with AIS info on it is truly amazing!

Now for the first time we have an AIS transponder meaning we are also transmitting so the ships can also see us on their display. Even better!

We arrived in Guernsey in the early afternoon after a calm and stress free crossing. Then on to Jersey where we saw the highest tides we have ever seen!! We arrived just after low water and waited outside the marina.

We are looking at the only entrance to the marina. This wall is the “sill” and is almost 3 meters high blocking our way in. When the tide rises it will cover the sill and allow us in. It will actually cover the sill by more than 5 meters! The tide this day was 10 meters - over 30 feet!!

I took this from the quayside - basically what will be water level when the tide is up. It is quite amazing sailing in these waters since the whole landscape changes so much with the dramatic rise and fall of the tides.

]]>Paul ShardNone2010-04-30T02:28:18-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/8f9e403935ca3d4b2c998d9005fac22b-57.html#unique-entry-id-57http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/8f9e403935ca3d4b2c998d9005fac22b-57.html#unique-entry-id-57We have had a few weeks of test sailing now. The spring here in south England has been lovely and we have been able to get out on a number of excursions. Although we are still getting the feel of the new boat - we have a number of observations on how she handles. It has been great to have this time with her without making any big passages!


The Bigger Boat
She is bigger inside and has more storage but doesn’t feel that much bigger to handle. I was wondering if the extra size would make it more difficult to maneuver especially in port and in close quarters. But in fact she feels quite similar to the Southerly 42. Although she is 7 feet longer she is just 6 inches wider and the same height. So she feels quite like the 42. Spinning her around in a marina requires me to take the extra length into account but we have had no problems. She handles very well in reverse, and add the excellent bow thruster and we have been fine. We have now wiggled our way into a number of tight slips. (We do have some nice big fenders and thats a good thing with any boat I think)

• practice makes perfect (or at least better)
• try out a new boat away from the dock
• get the feel of her in cross winds, how fast she turns, stops starts, which way the prop kicks etc

Sheryl having way too much fun!! (Photo by Yvette Jordan, SY M’LADY)

Bigger Stronger Faster
Of course one of the big advantages of a longer boat is a longer waterline which (on similar boats) should equal higher speeds. We have found this to be the case. The 49 can make 8 knots under power and so far hit 9 under sail. I know she can do more!


Distant Shores II sailing in the Solent (Photo by Yvette Jordan, SY M’LADY)

Comfortable Motion
The longer waterline also means less pitching and a smoother motion. We have not yet been in big seas with her but at least in moderate seas she shows the waterline length plus extremely deep keel makes for a very steady ride. (she draws 10 feet!!) Motoring out the Chichester Harbour entrance with swell against the out-flowing tide she cruised right through. Next to us were a contessa 26 and another 30 footer. The two smaller waterline boats were pitching quite a lot - showing their keel and burying their bows. A 42 footer was coming along as well and they were more similar to us - cutting through with minimal pitching. Waterline pays big dividends in comfort!

Sailing like a Dinghy!
The day that really put my mind at ease about the bigger boat... we took out two local friends who are top-class dinghy sailors. Elizabeth and Mimie have sailed in Chichester Harbour all their lives and know every inch of the place. (They have plenty of experience cruising around the world in keel boats as well). It was a breezy day and we had the self-tacker and one reef in the main. I let them take the boat as I filmed. You can see the grins as they steered Distant Shores II around the harbour!

You can also see how close we are to the other boats. Their verdict was she handles great!! And to top off a perfect day we took her up to the head of the creek at high tide and then at low tide she was beached right in front of the pub!! The Crown and Anchor for dinner!




We sailed most of the way up to here at high tide.
With the tide gone there is just a shallow creek left.

Heres the view from our table in the Crown and Anchor]]>Paul ShardNone2010-04-10T06:38:01-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/eea68c2bd66655cc058a74741c668e75-56.html#unique-entry-id-56http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/eea68c2bd66655cc058a74741c668e75-56.html#unique-entry-id-56Leaving Portsmouth Harbour onboard Raymarine’s test boat.

Yesterday we got a chance to go out on Raymarine’s amazing test and product development boat in Portsmouth Harbour on the Solent. The “Raymariner” is a 42 foot Hardy made here in the UK and it must have more electronics aboard than any other boat less than a hundred feet. I counted six radar arrays, 8 wind indicators and 14 GPS receivers on deck.

The boat has 7 (seven!!) complete autopilot systems! Yesterday was one of the first sunny spring days here. We were out for about 3 hours and got a chance to see the new HD radar technology in action. The area that would normally be the saloon on this boat has been purpose-built as a testing lab with desks that can patch into any of the sensors or systems. Using one of the new E-Wide series of Raymarine plotters (hybrid touch screens) we were able to compare various radar scanners operating in a real envirionment at sea. First we saw a large “open array” scanner, of course with excellent definition. I don’t have enough experience with the larger radars to compare but the images of the surrounding marks and coastline were very good. Stunning really!

But now they have HD Digital Radar. What does this really mean?

Lets take Digital Radar first. Traditional radar scanners have had very little of the working circuitry up in the radar itself. A huge thick cable runs from the display set up to the radome. But with digital radar, most of the functionality is moved up to the scanner. This has a number of advantages. The cable is much smaller saving quite a lot of weight aloft. It can talk to any display you have. We have 2 screens in the cockpit and previously that would mean the radar would have been run from one of them. So you would always need that on swithced on to have radar. Now either display can run the radar. And I understand that digital radar makes a better image since the signal is interpreted right up in the scanner as it is received rather than travelling down the long wires to the display. Less signal loss.

HD - High Definition Radar - This sounds like just a buzz-word - can radar be “hi-def”? Well radar is really about definition. Defining a target but bouncing a signal pulse off it. Varying the pulse length and power allow you to get better definition, and measuring how strongly the signal comes back as well as how long it took to return (which means how far away it is)
With HD Radar the power of the modern computer is put to use tweaking the outgoing signal, and analyzing the returned pulse. Interpreting and analyzing means the radar can display an image that allows us to recognize the features we are interested in. The unit will tune itself and reduce sea clutter - even adapting to the different conditions. Below the menu shows easy setup to match conditions - “Buoy Mode, Harbour Mode, Offshore Mode and even “Bird Mode” to detect flocks of birds that might indicate good fishing!

We have had 2 previous Raymarine radars, both 18 inch radomes. I was interested to see how the smaller radome would benefit from the HD Digital technology. I asked to see an image with the smaller radome as that is what most sailboats use - fitting either an 18 or 24 inch scanner in a dome to avoid tangling rigging in a spinning open array scanner. The image looked very detailed and clear to me! One of the big improvements seemed to be the reduced amount of clutter and less tuning needed. The automatic modes combined with overlaying the image on the chart makes an image that is easily recognizable to someone who isn’t a radar expert. As most of us sail short-handed (without a dedicated navigator on board) then having an easy to use radar is a great asset.


Radar is still one of the best upgrades you can do to increase safety and reduce stress especially at night and in reduced visibility. Here are my radar hints...

• Display should be mounted so it is visible from the helm so the skipper can make quick decisions
• Practice with it on nice days when you can see what you are doing and compare real world to the radar display
• Make sure the unit can be dimmed down enough to be used at night without ruining your night vision. Raymarine does this nicely and also has a night palette changing to darker colours.Try out the overlay mode where the radar image is synchorized and drawn on top of the chart (as above left) This is my favourite mode.
• Get the first mate involved as well. Anyone nervous of sailing at night can find reassurance in “seeing” whats around with radar
• Add the AIS display on the radar overlay as well. Then ships show up nicely on the image too.

]]>Paul ShardNone2010-04-02T13:06:58-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/0a2381662510ff40929fa431ed424c5b-55.html#unique-entry-id-55http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/0a2381662510ff40929fa431ed424c5b-55.html#unique-entry-id-55


Here is the scene by 4-5 in the afternoon. All the water is gone and we have sunk down onto the mud. We were careful to tie so we could fall without straining our mooring lines. Long lines are good here. In this case we didn’t fall very far since the we landed on the mud - although the tide fell 4 meters we only fell a bit less than 2 so it was easier to tie!



If you want to do work on the bottom you can use the drying grid they have installed here. The boat behind us is a 42 footer with over 6 foot draft. They had just a 1 hour window where the tide was high enough to allow them to come in. Then they tied up to the quay and the tide ran out. This meant a 3-4 hour period when they could get down and work on the bottom before the tide came back in. Bargain haulout!



Note their boat is leaning slightly toward the quay. This is important so she just rests against the quay and her fenders. They hung a bucket off the end of the boom swung out over the quay and moved a few other heavy items that side. If you don’t do this you might end up falling away from the quay and placing tremendous strain on the docklines (or worse - falling right over!!)



How-to Hints for drying out

• Check in advance that the area is going to be ok. If you have a keel boat you probably need a purpose-built drying grid since it needs a solid base to stand on and walk around underneath to work.The harbourmaster will have more info and recommendations. In our case we just need to find out if there is anything we don’t want to settle down onto.
• Tie up to account for the tides.
• Check that future tides will allow you to get off again! Read over the tables carefully
• Close the thruhulls before settling down on the mud. Especially intakes such as the engine, and head water intakes if these will be in the mud. We don’t want mud forced up into them. Remember to open them before motoring off :-)
• If you plan to stay more than 1 tide you might check it out the second time you settle down to the ground incase something has changed. This is especially important if you are a keelboat drying on the grid since you need to make certain you will rest against the quay properly.

]]>Paul ShardNone2010-04-02T12:34:01-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/e0437d7aea769ac5853b6f376be51615-54.html#unique-entry-id-54http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/e0437d7aea769ac5853b6f376be51615-54.html#unique-entry-id-54
Engineer Ian installed the whole system (in fact all the mechanical systems in the boat) and he came on board yesterday. I got him to show me around the system a little. Ian does excellent work - he did all the mechanical and electrical work on the 42 as well.


The work he does is very well thought out and very neat and tidy. As I start installing a few things I will try to keep to his high standards.



One thing you see in this picture is just how “uncrowded” it is behind the main electrical panel. This is because the distributed electrical system means only items installed near this area will be wired to here. Other items will be connected to “nodes” near that part of the boat. There are nodes in the forward cabin, saloon, galley, nav station (shown here) and aft. There really is much less wiring this way. On the lower left of this picture there are 3 square black boxes. They are the circuit breakers feeding three nearby “nodes”. So each node is protected and can be isolated.

My next project is to get my head around the software that programs the nodes. I am planning a few small projects I can add to the system that will be simple examples I can practice with. ]]>Paul ShardNone2010-03-18T02:49:35-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/6a83bee6eb8e72f37764a9db22cad591-53.html#unique-entry-id-53http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/6a83bee6eb8e72f37764a9db22cad591-53.html#unique-entry-id-53
Also a chance to do some real world testing with the Imtra LED lighting. WOW. We already new the lights looked great from seeing them on at the boat show in January. But now I have been able to see just how little power they use. I did tests on most of the lights at anchor. I have a few interesting pix below. Of course it is difficult to get a representative feel with the camera but I did my best. The camera must be set to all manual operation so it doesn’t adjust for dimmer lighting.


This is the forward cabin lit by 4 big downlights in the ceiling plus the two reading lights at the head of the bed. Together the 6 lights draw just about 2.5 amps. To put that in perspective that would have been just over ONE 25watt halogen. These lights are so efficient we can just turn them on at anchor whenever we want. No worries about power. The saloon was the same story. The 6 big downlights light the saloon and galley with a nice warm bright light for just 2.5 amps. This compares to the 42 (similar space but lit with halogen lights) which used over 10 amps. So we have cut the power needed to run lighting by 75% or so!

Now here’s a real surprise. While I was checking I turned on the cute mood lights Northshore have installed in all sleeping cabins. These are not LEDs, but the rope lighting often used for decorating. This used more than the main lights! In fact the shot below is actually using almost double the shot above in power but producing almost no usable light. But it does look nice...


LED lighting really is here now. You can get very good looking light that will save a lot of power. And remember that saving power means you don’t need to generate and store it as well. So saving the power as we sat at anchor meant we didn’t have to replace that power the next morning. If you are planning an electrical budget you can stay with slightly smaller batteries.

]]>Paul ShardNone2010-03-12T02:54:24-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/a63cbecc4b73cf543e23ca5e4498a5d4-52.html#unique-entry-id-52http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/a63cbecc4b73cf543e23ca5e4498a5d4-52.html#unique-entry-id-52
Our new Southerly 49 is in the water! We have just come down to Itchenor in the south of England and are starting the process of moving aboard and getting her ready for the sailing season ahead.

Yesterday we took her out for her first sea trial and had an exciting sail. Wind was gusting over 25 knots and it is VERY cold! Spring is about 3-4 weeks behind schedule here in England.

Initial observations are that she is very quick. The extra waterline length over the 42 obviously gives us some extra speed but she is also a fair bit finer entry. She has just 6 inches more beam but 7 feet more length. She even has slightly lower freeboard which gives her a racy look. I’ll try to get some pictures of her from the dock today.

As soon as we left the dock we put up the mainsail and she was immediately running downwind at 8 knots!

Today its raining a bit so we’ll stay below and sort things out getting familiar with the new systems. This boat has an espar heater and its wonderful and warm! I made an anchor snubber by splicing an eye into a bit of 14mm line. Then just shackle the chainhook to the splice and I can give it a test today. So many little things to get her as ready as the 42 was!

]]>Paul ShardNone2010-02-07T17:05:16-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/e574bf44074e202ce2595d005ca97b1f-51.html#unique-entry-id-51http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/e574bf44074e202ce2595d005ca97b1f-51.html#unique-entry-id-51
With the new boat going in the water in just a few weeks I am looking for options to upgrade to the latest and greatest - mainly in the wifi and “cell phone” areas.

WIFI
We have tried a number of wifi options over the past 6 years and it has been great to be able to connect to the internet from so many places. We don’t always succeed and the challenge now is to make up the ULTIMATE wifi system. The main thing seems to be to raise the antenna up from the inside of the boat. Especially in crowded marinas it seems we were often being blocked by the hulls of nearby boats. When we put an external antenna up on deck we always got a better signal. We have tried a few external usb antennas, the latest being the waveRV marine unit we got last winter in St Martin. We never found a good place to mount the unit on Distant Shores though. I used to bring it our and prop it up under the dodger when we wanted it.

For the new Southerly 49 I would like to mount an antenna permanently on the stern-rail. I recently saw this unit made by Bitstorm that is interesting in that it is designed to connect via ethernet instead of USB. This means you can run a longer cable, and even have the antenna at the top of the mast for the ultimate range! They have a companion product that is a router so you don’t have to connect the antenna directly to the computer if you don’t want. It would also give you the option to connect multiple computers around the boat!! Oh boy has cruising changed!! ;-)

Cell Phone
The other obvious way to stay in touch is to get a decent cell phone plan. Over the past 14 years of travelling we have been experimenting and our favourite method has been to get a local GSM Sim card for the country we are cruising in. We have always been able to get a SIM card for our phone, and because we are now local we have by far the cheapest rates. It is a bit of a nuisance to be getting new numbers though. This method works best if you stay in one country for more than a few weeks. The SIM cards are not much and easily available. The important thing here is that you must have a GSM phone and it must be “unlocked” - not for use only with a specific provider.

The main thing to watch out for is roaming fees! These can mount up to crazy numbers. Friends of ours were using their phone while they travelled and got a bill after 3 months of $6,000.

I am also investigating the idea of a special roaming SIM card like this one. It might be able to give us halfway reasonable rates and would still keep the same number. We would likely still get a local SIM card when we would be in a country for a long time.

SSB
Still the best way to contact other ships on the high seas. We have the excellent Icom M802 on Distant Shores and it has been great for talking to other sailboats on the transatlantic crossing, for talking to Herb “Southbound II” for weather. And it can be used for data as well with a modem although we haven’t tried this.

Wow there is a lot of technology to keep connected. Some times though it is great just to be out in nature though. So if you can’t get a good wifi connection in paradise you can always just make up a margarita and enjoy being out in it!

]]>Paul ShardNone2010-01-20T08:14:36-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/d0aaa552d6a10434e45ad7491e7a5d7b-50.html#unique-entry-id-50http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/d0aaa552d6a10434e45ad7491e7a5d7b-50.html#unique-entry-id-50
One of my favourite things about the boat shows is meeting new sailors enthusiastic about taking off on a big cruise! Sheryl and I did seminars at the Toronto show for people planning to sail south to the Bahamas and had a full house every time. Its great to see the cruising community is healthy.

Many of these people are planning to leave this year and make their way south down the Intracoastal Waterway to the Bahamas. We showed clips from our TV series with the Erie canal, discussed the Waterway and looked at shallow water cruising in the Bahamas. Afterwards we fielded questions. Here are three of the questions we got after each seminar.

Are there Pirates?
With the news today everyone is more concerned about piracy. But does it really affect us as sailors? Well, the answer is “it doesn’t have to”. There are certainly areas where there are pirates. But if you avoid these areas the risks are minimal. Modern pirates don’t roam the high seas like Johnny Depp. They are based from countries like Somalia where law has broken down, and restrict their operations to adjacent sea areas using small boats. So check out the cruising grapevine and find the hotspots to avoid. One excellent resource is the noonsite website piracy pages. www.noonsite.com

What does it cost?
Budgets certainly vary from under $1000 per month for a very basic cruising style right up to whatever you want to pay. Most people find $2,000-$3,000 per month works out comfortably. Of course major repairs, expensive marina stays, flights home and the like can throw any budget off course, but in general it does not have to be an expensive lifestyle. Google search on “sail cruising budget”.

Can I take my boat?
Many people in our recent seminars already have the boat they plan to take cruising. But some are still looking for their perfect cruising boat. For a trip like the intracoastal waterway there will be a bunch of motoring - so a reliable motor is important. A Bahamas winter means a fair amount of wind, but mainly short daysails, so merely renewing/upgrading/beefing up your existing rig will likely be fine. But for heading further afield, looking at ocean passages you need to ask if your boat can handle it. You will also need to be more self-sufficient and repair things along the way. This question really needs serious consideration and possibly an expert opinion or survey if you are not confident in your craft. One of the advantages of the Intracoastal Waterway Bahamas trip is that you have a few months of constant sailing and living aboard to shake out problems and find solutions when you aren’t far from help or the nearest chandlery.

It has been a GREAT 10 days of boat shows! Now we’re looking forward to seeing you out on the water!



]]>Paul ShardNone2010-01-14T07:44:02-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/b0560baf6f2275ddd55cef68965c8729-49.html#unique-entry-id-49http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/b0560baf6f2275ddd55cef68965c8729-49.html#unique-entry-id-49
This is the galley looking aft. Microwave and fridge are on the right.


Sheryl likes the new galley! Note wineglasses... day 2 of the show one was already broken so they were put away. Sometimes it is tough at the show with so many people aboard my new pride and joy! But 99.9% of visitors are respectful and we are very proud having people on board.



One thing cruisers always need more of is storage space... this is a separate bow locker. It is huge! Certainly room for all fenders, or spare sails. There is a ladder to climb down into it.


Behind me is the anchor chain locker with the door taken out.


Real teak decks. Beautiful and great to walk on at sea, I had always been leery of teak decks since the screws used to hold them down were a potential leak. Not here!! No screws are used in this system. The deck is assembled together and bonded THEN the whole piece is attached to the hull by vacuum bagging!


Sheryl sitting on the “Gin and Tonic” seats aft!


Raymarine’s new Hybridtouch plotter at the helm. Very cool! Touch screens are so convenient, but can be trouble in the rain since they think you are touching them. I had always thought they would be a problem on an outside unit. But the Raymarine units can be operated by buttons as well so you get the best of both worlds! Combined with the new Digital HD radar it will be a great package. I can’t wait to try it out on the water!!!
]]>Paul ShardNone2010-01-13T07:50:54-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/d309f1ea545acbbb1fbcc0ad8d0d8f88-48.html#unique-entry-id-48http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/d309f1ea545acbbb1fbcc0ad8d0d8f88-48.html#unique-entry-id-48
Its been 3 years since we have been to any of the winter boat shows (since we have been sailing in the Caribbean;-) and I had almost forgotten how much fun they are and how good it feels to see boats when its cold and snowy out!

In fact 3 years ago at the London Boat show we signed up to buy our first Southerly. Now three years later we return to the show and enter the main haul to see the new 49 on the stand! Gosh were we excited when we first walked into the haul and there she was!!


We were lucky and got to have a chat with Rob Humphreys - who designed the 49 hull - Rob and his wife are on the left. Northshore Managing Director John Warne, and Marketing Manager Claire Horsman are on the right. Thats me and Sheryl with the huge grins in the middle. We are toasting the new boat!

Will post more tomorrow but for now heres a couple more picture showing some of the bigger stands at the show. We were again astounded at the size and effort to display the big power boats.

Note there are people standing on the upper decks of the 86 footer in the very back! The boats are huge to be in a building!


Remember this stand is all built for the show. The lower level lounge, upper viewing deck and all is constructed just for London Boat show. All built up from an empty concrete floor. Note also there is a car in the back of the powerboat!

]]>Paul ShardNone2009-12-24T08:06:29-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/f9dd6a64cb68c3d009c9fe17172f3630-47.html#unique-entry-id-47http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/f9dd6a64cb68c3d009c9fe17172f3630-47.html#unique-entry-id-47Boy are we excited to see these pictures!! Our new Southerly 49 is finished and heading off to the London Boat Show. Northshore are bringing five boats to the show this year and they all travel in a convoy from the South of England the 3 hours or so up to London. Note the running lights strapped to the side of the stern! Because of the lifting keel the boat isn’t really very tall on a truck. On the stern you can see she has a large opening garage door. This is a first for us and we are interested in seeing how we get on with it. The door opens hydraulically by remote and offers lots of stowage aft for dive gear, dinghy stuff etc. When folded down it is a boarding platform.
There are also a few shots showing the inside finished. We chose Cherry wood for the interior again (same as on the 42). This is the forward master stateroom (looking forward). The black circle under the bunk is a heating vent! For the first time in 20 years of voyaging we are planning a trip north! Details to follow!

If you are around England early January why not come to the London Boat Show! And if you do please drop by Northshore’s booth (stand) and say hello!!
]]>Paul ShardNone2009-12-12T08:22:20-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/dd16a09640d54694b53860146d22f444-46.html#unique-entry-id-46http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/dd16a09640d54694b53860146d22f444-46.html#unique-entry-id-46London Boat Show. Northshore is taking our new boat to the show so it must be ready on time!

Here she is in the factory as final touches are applied on deck. Note how low the boat sits in the factory since here keel is fully retracted.


The London Boat Show starts on January 8, but it turns out the boats must arrive well before that for the set up in the buildings. So she will be moving from Northshore around December 20! I was quite surprised it is such a long set up time. The London Boat Show is the only boat show I have been to outside North America, and its AMAZING! We were there three years ago and I have to recommend it if you can get there. Certainly if you are serious about getting a new cruising boat, it pays to check out the European offerings, and many more of them come to London than the American shows. Plus its just plain fun to go to a different boat show!

We found London was amazing in how much work was put into the displays, or “Stands” as the British call them. We are used to some carpet being put down around the boats, with ramps and stairs to help you get on board. But in London the Stand can be much more ornate.
Northshore had a nice little Cappuccino/Cafe and owners lounge, and they were one of the more restrained. The larger powerboat manufacturers build entire restaurants, oyster bars with linen and waiters standing by! (I shot this in 2007)

This year Sheryl and I are very excited to be presenting on the main show stage at the London Boat Show! We will be talking about our latest transatlantic crossing in 2007, and give some hints for enjoying the amazing shallow Bahamas.
Times:

• Saturday 9 January, 10:30-11:00
• Sunday 10 January, 12:00-12:30

If you are around please drop by!

Of course we will also be hanging around our new boat at Northshore’s stand. We will be at the show Friday Jan 8 through Monday Jan 11 then flying back for Toronto.]]>Paul ShardNone2009-12-02T06:43:00-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/0a1d48aba9650ebc101ae5e675d8aeaa-45.html#unique-entry-id-45http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/0a1d48aba9650ebc101ae5e675d8aeaa-45.html#unique-entry-id-45
Here is a close up of one of the EmpirBus nodes. This one is in the Aft cabin so any wiring in the aft of the boat will come here instead of running all the way up to a main circuit panel. Note the sound insulation. This is a compartment just aft of the engine box and although it wouldn’t strictly need to be insulated, they have done it just to make extra sure the boat is quiet!


Now here is a close up of the wiring to the node. Main power to the node comes in the lower left with the big red wire. (negative is hidden in this photo). The individual circuits and control wires are all neatly labelled.

Here you can see the wires are all coded. Both ends of the wire are named and the codes are recorded in the wiring diagram for the boat. Note Upper left wire is “11A1” meaning Node 11, Block A, terminal “1”.


With a distributed power system the functions of each node are programmed by software. So you do need to know exactly which you have plugged into. Then you tell the system what you would like that terminal to do!

Example: Deck Flood light. On a traditional boat this would have a switch at the main wiring panel. But now we can do more than that. First the deck light is connected into a node to give it power. Then assign a switch that can control it, perhaps at the main panel. But we could also program one of the switches at the helm to turn it on. And say we wanted a kind of “Alert” switch in the forward cabin in case we had an emergency. Simply program one of the switches in the forward cabin to do a few things. It could turn on the saloon lights plus the deck flood and cockpit lights all at once. This could just as easily be done at any time. There would be NO additional wiring to do this at all.

There will be some more learning to get familiar with the new power system but the benefits will be well worth it.

Battery Bank

Ian also sent some pictures of the main battery bank installed. We have four large 185AH Mastervolt AGM batteries totalling 740AH capacity. Another neat installation and with the boat’s raised saloon they are able to install them centrally and keep the weight over the keel.

]]>Paul ShardNone2009-11-09T14:57:57-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/dc4bf4e4a3438223e90152a26a5c6593-44.html#unique-entry-id-44http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/dc4bf4e4a3438223e90152a26a5c6593-44.html#unique-entry-id-44


One of the most interesting engineering features of this model of Southerly is that she uses the leading edge “distributed power systems”. This means instead of a big main breaker panel there will be nodes throughout the boat that control the electrical system closer to the item being controlled.

Distributed power has two main advantages. 1) It allows much more control and monitoring of the use of electrical power. And 2) It reduces wiring by and the massive bundles that used to make their way aft to the panel.

1) Any circuit can be controlled from any switch in the boat. For example, the deck light can be turned on from a lighting panel but also from a second switch that also turns on the cockpit lighting. Or anywhere else you wanted. Each switch is programmed with what it will do. And you can change that later - no rewiring, just connect your laptop and tell the switch to do something else. Or add a switch anywhere and tell it what it will do! Power can also be monitored and logged. Example would be tracking and logging how much power refrigeration uses. Or how many times the bilge pump came on. The monitoring of the system is the aspect I am most interested in!

2) Reducing wiring and the complexity of the main electrical panel. This has been building for years as boats have got more and more equipment. Proper wiring protocol means all these must come back to the main electrical panel. So on a modern 40-something sail/cruiser you could have a bundle of wires as big around as your arm. With a distributed power system you just wire the devices up to the nearest “node”. Below are two nodes (each with 10 circuits available on them) in behind the saloon seating. (they aren’t all wired up yet so there will be more wires). If I ever wanted to add something I could just look for a spare connection on the nearest node. I could also add another node if they were all crowded.

Saloon Seating “Nodes”

]]>Paul ShardNone2009-10-28T09:13:55-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/c339c2e69343ba3d899d8f30f536112d-43.html#unique-entry-id-43http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/c339c2e69343ba3d899d8f30f536112d-43.html#unique-entry-id-43
Here are a few strategies we have picked up or developed over 20 years of cruising to keep maintenance-related delays to a minimum.

1. Plan to be handy - All boats will need maintenance. Old or new power or sail. Upgrade your skills in areas you are weak in. If you don’t understand electrical systems, take a course or study one of the many excellent books. Buy some good tools. If you normally depend on a friendly local mechanic to service your boat you might find it is not so easy to find reliable help as you travel.
2. Keep ahead of scheduled maintenance. At least when you’re getting to know a new boat it makes sense to do maintenance on a recommended schedule. For example, buy a rebuild kit for the head (toilet) and install it. You will feel more comfortable knowing you have done it and you may learn if there are any additional spares to keep in stock. With our Jabsco head I also keep sets of the joker valves in addition to a complete rebuild kit.
3. Build up a spares kit. This is the heart of the deal for reducing maintenance delays. If you have the parts you need before you need them, and know how to put them in, you could be looking at a 10 minute delay instead of a 4 day delay while you wait for parts. We have a whole locker full of parts on Distant Shores and a separate bin just with engine parts.
4. Keep adding to the spares kit. Experienced owners can be a good source of info. Those who have had the same equipment as you have on your boat will know what spares they have needed.
5. Keep adding to your tool kit. A good basic tool kit can do most things, but there is often no substitute for the right tool. The job can be oh so quick and satisfying if you have the right tool in your toolkit when you need it. An example is the propellor puller I built some years ago. I also built a cutlass bearing puller so if we were in the boatyard I could easily pull the prop, shaft and cutlass bearing out in less than an hour. Now we have the new boat I am again adding to the toolkit for her new systems. An example is the nice little impeller puller I recently bought. The raw water impeller on the Yanmar now comes off so nice and easily. (the old Volvo impeller came off easily anyway so I didn’t need a puller).
6. Get familiar with your boat’s systems. Over the years I have serviced the Barient winches on Two-Step many times. I knew just how they worked and just where the pawls tended to stick after time. Now with Distant Shores we have Lewmar winches. So before they were really meant to be serviced I got out the manual and opened one up to see how it worked and how it differed from the Barients. When it was time to service them I knew what I would find.
7. All boats benefit from preventative maintenance. This could mean fixing things before they break, and even servicing things before the manufacturer’s recommended service interval. Not to make too fine a point but marine toilets can be a good place to do early preventative maintenance. Better to service it when you choose than when there is a problem :-(
8. Older boats can need much more maintenance as systems age. But new boats will need regular preventative maintenance as well. Read over the owners manuals of the various systems and see what is recommended. Even if a winch is working fine - why not take it apart and see how it looks inside. Order a set of spares for it before you need it. We often carry spare pumps as well as rebuild kits for the pump. It is often quicker to replace the pump and then rebuild the one you have taken out.
9. Do not buy an old “Fixer-upper” if you aren’t a proficient handy-person. We have met a number of new cruisers who buy a 20-30 year old boat and are then surprised the maintenance is so much effort. Although a 30 year old fiberglass hull can be in great shape, its systems could all need replacing. A 30 year old engine may be hard to get parts for, the electrical system could need complete replacement and so could the rig and sails. If the owner has just fixed things as they actually break, you could be inheriting a much bigger project than you planned. Even in this economy there is nothing for free...
10. Make maintenance fun! Sounds silly but if you can learn to enjoy boatwork then you are more likely to get to it early. It is a very rewarding feeling to see YOU have maintained / improved / serviced the systems on your boat. The boat will work better, there will be less delays in your cruise and you will have that sense of pride that you did it yourself!

Well there you are... 10 basic hints to enjoy a trouble-free cruise.

See you out on the water!

Paul

(Here’s the perfect time to change the zinc on the bowthruster ;-)
]]>Paul ShardNone2009-10-16T08:07:03-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/e83605b5e37feecf4d1c40dd2fb11b9f-42.html#unique-entry-id-42http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/e83605b5e37feecf4d1c40dd2fb11b9f-42.html#unique-entry-id-42
We are anchored in a little creek and getting a chance to test out our anchors in the soft Chesapeake Bay mud. When we were here last year we had trouble in the mud - the only time we had trouble with our Delta 44 (20kg) in the 3 years we have had one. The Delta slipped 4 times in a number of Chesapeake anchorages. I think it is a good anchor but perhaps would have to be bigger for the Southerly 42. At any rate we took the opportunity to re-evaluate anchors and decided to try out the Rocna. We got it in Moorhead City and have now sailed with it for one year, anchoring throughout the Caribbean and Bahamas. It has performed consistently well from sand to grass and some mud. Now we are back in the Chesapeake Mud that was a problem last year.

Rocna 25kg on the right - note scoop shape and large surface area.

So how did it do? The short answer is ... Excellent!

First of all, the Rocna is a 25kg anchor so it’s heavier than the Delta we replaced. I very much admire Rocna for standing up and saying they recommend a heavier anchor. The Rocna people have actually sailed and anchored and know you need a serious dependable anchor on the bow of a cruising boat. Most other anchors seem to recommend smaller lighter anchors but in small print they say it is for winds up to 25-30 knots - basically a day anchor/lunch hook. I think our anchor is probably our most important insurance!

I can’t say why exactly but the Rocna seems to have conquered the gooey Bay Mud. It has never slipped here as we have tested it in a few anchorages. The toughest test we have tried is anchoring stern to a dock. In this case the Delta had slipped repeatedly. Now in exactly the same place the Rocna has been great. Once set in, it has held many times the force we achieved last year. Overall this is the best anchor we have tried and are happy to be putting one on the new Southerly 49. We are moving up to a 33kg (73 pound) version.

Here’s a shot of the Rocna 25 on our Southerly 42 in the Bahamas this past spring.

]]>Paul ShardNone2009-10-06T09:49:19-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/eb62cd7e10e50b17a2410a998923b4da-41.html#unique-entry-id-41http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/eb62cd7e10e50b17a2410a998923b4da-41.html#unique-entry-id-41
Our Southerly 42 is up for sale of course and we already have a number of appointments booked for people to see her at the show. If you are interested in a FULLY equipped dream boat for sailing your own cruise to “Distant Shores” please come by. Better yet, why not email or phone in advance so we can make an appointment for you to see her (Our contact info number is 646-897-6466). Due to the overwhelming traffic we had on board last year Southerly has decided to make appointments for boarding this year. We will be sitting beside the boat so please drop by to say hi!! (no appointment needed ;-)




]]>Paul ShardNone2009-09-20T05:22:49-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/c327053e506134c39b500e578b7c4075-40.html#unique-entry-id-40http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/c327053e506134c39b500e578b7c4075-40.html#unique-entry-id-40

Here is the forward cabin with the head door on the far left. In the upper right is the forward bulkhead. The 49 has a large forward storage locker ahead of this watertight bulkhead, then another bulkhead and finally the anchor locker at the bow. I think this is a great idea since it means double security in case of collisions.



This is the galley looking aft. Closest on the left is the space for the freezer to drop in. Then the sink, drawers and the stove aft of that. The 49 has a much bigger galley than we had on the 42 and the freezer will be great! Batteries go under the floor in the galley. We have gone for a bigger battery bank - 4 X 185 = 740AH (compared to 450)



One of the great things about a raised saloon seating area from a weight and design point of view is that it means a lot of heavy things can be located in the large space underneath that raised section. So Northshore has put the water, holding and fuel tanks, generator and batteries very near the center of the boat. Keeping weight central and low means the boat will perform better.]]>Paul ShardNone2009-09-18T06:14:28-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/5bde71157a7b00e51572902783282891-39.html#unique-entry-id-39http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/5bde71157a7b00e51572902783282891-39.html#unique-entry-id-39
This year at Southampton I got a tour of the new Raymarine “Hybrid-Touch” chartplotters. I have always liked the idea of a touch screen for the obvious convenience, but been leery of using one on a boat with saltwater and spray around. The conductivity of saltwater drips or spray on the screen would make the touch screen think you were touching it. A great idea for an enclosed bridge of a large yacht but not practical for outdoor helm stations.

Raymarine has solved the problem with a very clever mix of the two technologies, hence the hybrid. It looks like the former “C” series plotters with buttons for all functions, BUT it also has a touch interface that can do the same functions. You can switch back and forth between the two seamlessly, press a button then touch the screen. Very neat! But for safety and usability in spray or rough conditions you can deactivate the touch screen.

Check out the demo on their website!

http://www.hybridtouch.com/

Radar is the other big breakthrough. In the last couple of years radar technology has advanced dramatically. “Digital” and “Hi-Definition” are not just marketing slogans. Advances in technology has allowed the brains of the radar to be moved up into the scanner itself, and for it to be much smarter about sending out and receiving the pulses radar uses to see the world. The new Digital radar means the whole radar function is done up in the scanner, then the final image is sent down by a thin ethernet cable instead of the thick bundle of signal cables of last year’s radars (those cables were as thick as a thumb!).

- much improved definition of targets
- smart scanner automatically adapts to surrounding targets
- better detection of weak targets such as rain so should be able to detect a ship within rain
- saves weight and difficulty with cabling

We are very keen to get out on the water and try these new technologies! I will report back!!]]>Paul ShardNone2009-09-17T06:42:23-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/855b9794ac1d8f7b2acdbd613334bc36-38.html#unique-entry-id-38http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/855b9794ac1d8f7b2acdbd613334bc36-38.html#unique-entry-id-38


We had a chance to chat and Rob had a number of comments about the 49, and Southerly’s in general. Rob’s first comment was one I had realized when we sailed our 42 offshore. “Southerly’s are not constrained by the normal design restriction of needing to have a shallow keel. Most keels are a compromise since cruising boats can’t draw too much, or else they would be limited in their harbours and anchorages”. Our 42 draws 9 feet!!

This makes a very good upwind boat and a boat that is very stable at sea in big waves. Basically since the keel will be raised in shallow waters, Rob is free to make a deeper keel than any normal cruising boat or cruiser/racer. We find that swinging the keel down all the way makes the boat roll far less than other boats we have sailed on.

Southerly’s also have a very good motion at sea thanks to the high total ballast. Since the keel will be swung up and down, the boat needs to have sufficient ballast even when the keel is up for safe passaging. This is accomplished by the heavy “grounding plate”, in combination with the keel weight. The combination makes for a smoother ride in rough seas, but the long waterline length makes her fast as well. Here’s the keel and grounding plate for the new 49. HUGE!!

We also talked about the rudders. Having twin rudders means one will always be deeply buried, and since they are angled outward, the working rudder has a good angle as well. A second benefit is that when sailing downwind you have both rudders buried and extra stability.

Finally we discussed swinging the keel up. Its another advantage to the Southerly in that you can raise the keel to any desired position. So sailing downwind in calm seas you can raise it entirely to reduce drag. Or sailing in bigger seas where you still want keel stability to reduce roll you can raise the keel partially. Not only is drag reduced, but you also move the centre of lateral resistance aft making the boat easy to balance downwind. We did this much of the time crossing the Atlantic with the 42.

It was a privilege to meet Rob and now I am really looking forward to sailing the 49 in some more boisterous conditions to see what she can really do!!]]>Paul ShardNone2009-09-16T05:12:59-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/13588e630afc9d3f2eecfacb7f53096e-37.html#unique-entry-id-37http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/13588e630afc9d3f2eecfacb7f53096e-37.html#unique-entry-id-37
LED Lighting Update


Finally it looks like interior lighting can reasonably be done by LEDs! For a couple of years now there have been workable LED Navigation lights, but we had not found a true interior “down light”. Every time I had tested a replacement bulb for the interior it came with glowing and completely unrealistic claims. “50,000 hours”, “no heat”, “saves power” and “replaces a 20 watt halogen bulb”. We have a large bag full of all the rubbish bulbs I have bought and found to be lacking.

50,000 hours - this claim is merely stating the LED manufacturer’s claim that LEDs themselves can last that long before losing too much brightness. It is rarely based on testing by a reputable light manufacturer. The LED light itself consists of more than the LED - there is a circuit called a driver that supplies the LED with the correct voltage and current. Then there is the connection of however many LEDs are used in the light. These have often been quite amateurish looking like someone soldered it all together in the garage. hardly fit for the marine environment and certainly not tested for 50,000 hours. We have had bulbs fail in less than 200 hours.

No Heat! - Another silly claim. In our experience LEDs that produce no heat also produce almost no light. The old LEDs that had 30 small LEDs clustered together didn’t create heat but were so dim we found them unusable. The fact is that LEDs radiate very little other than visible light so don’t feel hot like a halogen bulb. But the driver circuits produce heat.

“replaces a 20 watt halogen” - This seemed to mean they would fit the same fixture. Bulbs we tested before this year didn’t match a 10 watt halogen for output, let alone a 20 watt.

Specialised LED lights. I think part of the problem is that LEDs lights need to be made from the ground up to work with LED technology. Create a housing to marine standards that includes the LEDs, driver and reflector. Test them for light output and compare truthfully to a baseline halogen light.

IMTRA has made that commitment to LED lighting. Their stand at Southampton is outside in a bright environment - all the lights are installed and running and are designed from scratch to accommodate LED technology. They have advanced drivers and the lights really are bright.



Derek from Imtra in the US was at the show and demonstrated the latest from their extensive LED range. I am FINALLY happy that these lights can really replace the halogens and save power. The lights he showed me are proper replacements for the 20 watt halogens really creating that much light. They use more power than the LEDs I have previously tested since they REALLY DO produce the light. Yet still they use just 5.5 watts each (saving almost 75%). And they look well built with solid heat sinks on the back to absorb the heat from the driver circuit.






More from the show to follow...

- Raymarine Exciting new Radar and Plotters!
- Mastervolt system update
- Chat with Designer Rob Humphreys]]>Paul ShardNone2009-09-09T07:32:41-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/efb66a040ce4ef1b61ab3bcafe08884b-36.html#unique-entry-id-36http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/efb66a040ce4ef1b61ab3bcafe08884b-36.html#unique-entry-id-36
This year Northshore will be introducing the new Southerly 49.

Of course we will also be dropping by the factory to see how our 49 is coming along!! I expect big changes since we saw it in early July. The 49 takes almost 6 months to build so we are just approaching the half-way point.

We also like the Boat Show in that it lets us look at all the latest equipment. We are just finalising the design on the electronics with Raymarine and very keen to see what is new since we set up our Southerly 42. New versions of the chartplotter, AIS, and radar are available I think - will report back!

We are also looking at LED lighting. This has been an area where I have been severely disappointed in the past :-( I have bought a number of LED bulbs in attempts to save power but almost all have been either very dim, sickly blue or have died prematurely. The picture above was my best of many bulbs tested - it is almost as bright as the 10watt halogen it replaced and is just slightly greener. Unfortunately it doesn’t work with the dimmer we have on the saloon lights.

I am forced to say LED replacement bulbs are not the way to go. I think LED lighting finally does work but at least for marine lighting it doesn’t make sense to buy a bulb to put in an old fitting. The best is to get an LED light bulb and fixture designed from the ground up for LED technology. Anyway, we shall see what’s at the show.

If any readers are going to be at the Southampton Boat Show, please come and say hi. Sheryl and I will be at the Northshore booth various times over the first weekend (September 10-12).]]>Paul ShardNone2009-08-04T07:15:44-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/48568333729af025e4f57fec2cb52c2d-35.html#unique-entry-id-35http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/48568333729af025e4f57fec2cb52c2d-35.html#unique-entry-id-35
Here are a couple of pix of the trip...

Entering a lock as we go up the Oswego Canal


Investigating a lock from the old system - circa 1835


An interesting statue we saw ;-)


I do really enjoy editing the shows we shot since we get to relive the trip and hopefully provide useful information for viewers - who may be planning the trip themselves!!

While in the studio - the folks at Northshore are kindly sending along updates of the new 49 - here are a couple of shots of her in the shop. As you can see she is out of the mould now. Northshore like to leave the boats in the mould at least a few weeks until the glass has cured completely and the bulkheads are in to make her absolutely solid. Not all builders take such care.



The rudders are installed - not connected inside yet hence the unusual angle!


Most bulkheads are in already. Note the white coating over most of the inside of the hull. This is called a White Flo coat and is a special gelcoat that is meant to protect the inside of the hull and make it easier to clean. When we built Two-Step we had a lot of rough bits of fiberglass in the bilges that occasionally would catch a finger when you reached in or tried to clean up. It is a common problem with fiberglass boats - this should fix it.
]]>Paul ShardNone2009-07-21T07:53:36-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/6d4b16bea7df40365ddfcd20fd7ce930-34.html#unique-entry-id-34http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/6d4b16bea7df40365ddfcd20fd7ce930-34.html#unique-entry-id-34
But before we got down to work we made a quick visit to the Northshore factory in England to see the first Southerly 49 - just launched and looking very racy down at the dock in Itchenor.



Luckily the boat was free for us to take her out for a spin! First impressions are great! We only had light winds but wow does she go. We managed 6 knots in just 7-8 knots of breeze!!! We scooted right past ALL the other boats out that day.

We also got a look at our new 49 in build in the factory. Just early stages yet but a thrill nonetheless to walk around in the hull



As usual the factory is humming - full to capacity with a waiting list for new boats. The “economic slowdown” doesn’t seem to have affected Southerly sales. I think the Southerly secret is the keel. They really are the only game in town for “variable draft cruising” with their lifting keel. They have perfected it after over 25 years of building these boats. And look at the keel. It isn’t a centerboard or any other kind of compromise keel. Here is the keel for our new 49. Beautiful. A true airfoil shape with over 10 foot draft!!



That means we can still sneak into the shallows since the boat draws just 2’10” with the keel swung up as it is in the picture above. So we can go places like the picture below...


]]>Paul ShardNone2009-06-20T17:33:51-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/e90e0d8055443fc753898824e63afbe6-33.html#unique-entry-id-33http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/e90e0d8055443fc753898824e63afbe6-33.html#unique-entry-id-33

In the middle you can see the keel box. The keel will be set in this and bolted in. When the keel is retracted it will swing up into this box. This is why no water comes into the boat from the lifting keel ;-)


Here is a shot from a few days ago crossing from Exuma Islands to Eleuthera - 40 miles of water only 15 feet deep. I went overboard to get film of the boat passing near a coral head (which was about 30 meters diameter) you can see the outline of the keel plate set into the bottom of the boat. The keel is mostly retracted. We like to keep it this way if we are exploring in shallow water. This way it acts as a safety in case we come into shallower water than we meant to. The keel will touch first and we slow down (since the keel weighs 3500 pounds it acts as a brake).



With the keel up and retracted the bottom of the boat is flat in the centre so you can beach and sit flat. Here is a shot from a week ago in the Exumas where we beached Distant Shores on a sandbank. The boat is sitting safely on the keel plate and the prop skeg. Its low tide. There is roughly 3 feet of tide in the Bahamas.

]]>Paul ShardNone2009-06-17T08:06:59-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/56085f3bfcd0f3f1d36491c041d10ce0-32.html#unique-entry-id-32http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/56085f3bfcd0f3f1d36491c041d10ce0-32.html#unique-entry-id-32
Here are a couple of shots of the new boat being moulded in the factory. Note the first part of the lay-up is done with the hull in two separate pieces which allows easier access and allows the hull pieces to be turned on their sides as you see here. So the port side of the boat is on the right and the starboard half of the hull is on the left

Note also that the upper part in the photo is greenish. This is actually the mould itself we are seeing with just a thin gelcoat applied. Northshore use a clear gelcoat as an osmosis shield as part of their Nordseal barrier system. So the area in green is below the waterline.

More laminate applied as the process continues. You can also see the core above the waterline being applied with vacuum bags (which is on the bottom of the picture as the hull pieces are on their sides.




Now here are a couple of picture from the lovely Bahamas where we are currently filming on location for the Distant Shores TV series. Once again on this trip we are amazed that these islands aren't more visited. They are surely the best cruising area available to boaters on America's East Coast. The shallow water does scare some people off, but you can learn to handle it even with deeper draft boats (up to 6 feet draft is possible). But throughout the islands people are jealous of our less than 3 foot draft. Even the new 49 will draw less than 3 feet with the keel pulled up.


A number of the routes and anchorages we have been in the past month have only been accessible since we were shallow and also could dry out. More on the keel and drying out/bahamas strategies in further blogs. Now off filming...

]]>Paul ShardNone2009-05-29T08:26:43-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/31c805e46ae768aacc388cc22501b28d-31.html#unique-entry-id-31http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/31c805e46ae768aacc388cc22501b28d-31.html#unique-entry-id-31
Note the orange stripe lines. These are to show the layup crew where to put the waterline. Coloured gelcoat is applied to the mould using the orange as a guide to become the waterline on the finished hull. Some manufacturers use tape for the bootstripe lines but Northshore use gelcoat since it will be much longer wearing. It is the area that needs a frequent scrubbing since it is right near the water.

Observant viewers will note the caprail is moulded into the hull on this boat. (see the overhanging lip at the top of the mould. The deck sits on this and is joined there rather than being joined on the caprail. This means we have a solid glass caprail instead of a decorative teak one as on the 42. The join is covered by the teak decking. So the new boat has no decorative teak outside. We do have the lovely teak decks and teak cockpit floors/seats but no other teak. I do very much like the great footing of teak decks but don't like maintaining decorative teak (either with varnish Cetol or whatever). The teak cockpit floors/seats on our 42 have been great and only require a scrub every month or two.

Now here's a picture to inspire .... as we are cruising the Bahamas and working on the 6th season of the Distant Shores TV series. This is a wonderful place if you have a shallow draft like the Southerly. (note the new boat still draws less then 3 feet despite being 6 feet longer!). We will be here for a few more weeks then jumping of to the Chesapeake Bay.


So we can still beach her like this. We do get to meet lots of people who come to see if we are all right ;-)
]]>Paul ShardNone2009-05-16T07:01:02-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/fce524cc0c579153daae7174f410d7d7-30.html#unique-entry-id-30http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/fce524cc0c579153daae7174f410d7d7-30.html#unique-entry-id-30
We will be getting hull number 2 of this boat so of course we are looking closely at all the images to see exactly how things will be set up. Although we have poured over the plans to get a good picture of the boat, photos will help even more.

From the side you can see she is quite similar to the 42. Raised Saloon which we love! Aft cockpit. Long waterline.

Looking at the dimensions shows a different emphasis in the design.
LOA increases from 42.2 feet to 48.5 - an increase of 15%
and waterline length has a similar increase... but...
Beam increases from 13.2 to 13.7 - just 6 more inches or just 4%
Keel/Ballast weight is up from 8,091 to 11,530 lbs - a 42% increase

This should mean a much more powerful and faster hull...

Looking at the keel, draft increases from 8.9 feet to 10.2 (thats over 3 meters!!!)
but raising the keel still has the draft less than 3 feet - just 2 foot 10 versus 2 foot nine.

So basically the new boat is a sleeker version of the 42. More than 6 feet longer and with a much deeper keel but only 6 inches wider.


Although bigger than the 42 and much of that length is in the bow section. She is a very sleek boat and should be very fast (not that the 42 wasn't quite fast - the 48 will be FASTER)


Note the teak side decks with the genoa track mounted on them. The 48 is designed with our favourite double headsail rig as a standard feature (it was an option on the 42). The decks are wider and the teak will be nice to give good footing when you go forward at sea.

Well that's it for now, more updates soon!]]>Paul ShardNone2009-04-22T06:14:59-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/94807bd9ae73d4a40d5d8134d8e29930-29.html#unique-entry-id-29http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/94807bd9ae73d4a40d5d8134d8e29930-29.html#unique-entry-id-29Hello from the French island of Guadaloupe. After the tiny islands we have been exploring this is a change with a big port and lots of people. The marina here is good place to get things done with chandleries and service people for almost anything. In fact the marina is quite full and we got put on the big boat dock where you drop your anchor and back up to the quay.

We got the chance to put our Lewmar Auto-Anchor to the test and try our first stern to the quay mooring using the system. From our years spent in the Med we are quite comfortable mooring stern-to and I thought I would describe the procedure for those who haven't tried it before.

Many marinas provide a straight dock without finger piers or pilings to tie the boat to. There are just cleats or bollards along the dock. Boats drop their main anchor away from the dock and back in, throwing stern lines ashore to secure the boat to the quay. The anchor will hold the boat away from the quay. Besides being cheaper to build marinas, the dock can accommodate any or width of boats this way. This system is quite common in the eastern Med.

Step 1 - choose the spot to drop your anchor. The marina pointed us to our place between two large catamarans. Looking at the boats you can guess where their anchors are as you will be looking down their anchor chains. Try to divide that distance so the boat will be centred in the slip. You will need good scope for your anchor so calculate a distance from the dock that will result in minimum 5-6 to 1 scope. More is better if there is room but remember you must have enough chain to allow you to reach the dock :-)

Step 2 – line the boat stern up so you point stern to the quay and drop the anchor. It depends on how your boat handles but if there is a crosswind I position the boat slightly upwind before dropping the anchor in the chosen spot. Now drop the anchor.

Step 3 – Back up towards the quay dropping chain out as you go. Initially you will need to keep it slack but once some chain is out you can tug it gently to set the anchor. When you have enough scope out, you can set the anchor by giving it a stronger pull. This is why its better to have a bit more scope out so you can set the anchor and know its holding before you get all the way stern to the quay.

HINT: Our old boat Two-Step was a long-keeled boat and was terrible to control in reverse. But Med-mooring was easy because we had the anchor out as an extra control. As we backed up the wind would blow the bow around but we could then put a little tension on the anchor chain and use this to straighten the bow out again. Sheryl stayed up at the bow and worked the old manual anchor windlass letting the chain out slowly until we got near enough to the dock to throw a line ashore. When we got turned she would stop the chain and the bow would pull around back into line.

Step 4 – Come in between the boats on either side and tie up. We have all our fenders out with one reserved as a “roving” fender in case we jostle our new neighbours. Once you get in between the other boats you have done the hard part. Now toss a line ashore if there is someone waiting. If not then you can come in close and lassoo a piling. This is one time where having control of the windlass from the helm really pays off. As we backed up to the quay here in Guadaloupe I was able to see the amount of chain we had out, and let it out myself as we backed in. This left Sheryl free to manage the roving fender when we got close to the other boats.

Step 5 – Tie up. With lines ashore now is the time to tighten up on the anchor chain to make sure your anchor is well set and will hold you off the dock. There can be quite a strain on this in a stiff crosswind so you need to be certain it isn't dragging. I use the engine in reverse to pull the boat in, tie the lines as tightly as we need to keep the boat in to the quay. Tighten up on the anchor chain as needed and make sure you are not dragging. If it is slipping you might be able to set it by pulling or you may need to go out and try again!!

Step 6 – Tidy up. I put an anchor snubber on to take the strain off the windlass. This is a chain hook on a length of line. I put it on the chain just off the bow, pull it tight on a cleat and then let tension off the windlass. Voila – anchored stern to the quay.

Additional Hints:

• know the length of your chain. Nothing is more embarrassing than backing in perfectly and finding you are still 6 meters away from the dock and you have reached the end of the chain!! Many boats that moor this way often have 80 or 100 meters of chain or more.

• try not to cross the next boat's anchor chain. If all the chains are lined up parallel then there will be no problems. But if you cross over their chain and they leave first, they will pull out your anchor.

• the chain counter and control at the helm is a great asset when Med Mooring. I have watched our Greek friend Thanos in Rhodes, bring a 50-footer in to the dock all alone and do a perfect stern-to mooring.

• a passarelle is useful since it is not always easy to get off the stern. Many boats have fancy custom affairs that get quite elaborate. The best are motorized and extend out of a hatch at the stern, sensors maintaining their height above the dock as the tide changes! On Two-Step we carried a simple 2X10 plank about 7 feet long (a gift from Thanos!)

]]>Paul ShardNone2009-04-10T17:43:23-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/a57f9e8f708310df2b3b41bc75cc063c-28.html#unique-entry-id-28http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/a57f9e8f708310df2b3b41bc75cc063c-28.html#unique-entry-id-28Auto-Anchor" for our Lewmar H3 windlass. This is a device that counts the chain you have down and displays this at the helm. But it also lets you control the windlass from the helm, so if you want to let more chain out you can do it from the helm. We have seen this used in the Med where you are mooring up against the quay. Drop the anchor say 100 feet away from the dock, then back up while letting the chain out. Tie to the dock and snug up the chain so it keeps you from bumping back on the dock. This is especially easy if you have a chain counter and remote at the helm. Then one person can dock the boat this way!

For the installation I had to mount the control at the helm. 3 screw holes plus a hole for the wires. Easy!


Next the more difficult bit. Wiring it in. There are sensor wires that run from a magnetic sensor in the windlass to tell the box each time the windlass rotates. This allows it to count the chain. Then there are the control wires to let the device control the solenoid for the windlass. Since we already have a control up at the bow, we will splice into this to have the "AutoAnchor" work in parallel.



I put the splice in a waterproof junction box since the locker gets spray in when beating to windward.

Now hook up the power and voila!

Switch it on and find the machine gives me an error saying I have hooked up the power incorrectly! How about that?? This is one clever device. Email technical support at AutoAnchor... They send a nice wiring diagram that shows what I have done wrong...



The secret is the fact that the existing windlass switch was taking power from the windlass itself to operate the switch. The AutoAnchor wants to be connected to a circuit breaker from the panel. So now there are two parallel paths for power to get into the AutoAnchor unit. I guess this must happen often since they have even written an error message for it...

So I clip the wire from the windlass power, rerun power to the forward switch from the AutoAnchor and FINALLY it works.

Cool device. Next is to test it...

Up button makes it go up. Down makes chain go down. Control at bow still works. Chain counter counts chain...

Now I just have to get the anchor up from this sticky mud in the St Martin Lagoon and set sail. This really is the best place to take a break and work on the boat. Chandleries abound, I can get wifi from a completely protected anchorage in the lagoon, and there are French restaurants and pastry shops just a short dinghy ride away.
]]>Paul ShardNone2009-03-20T07:52:01-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/65fc54080aec93176b74fd6c8cabe97d-27.html#unique-entry-id-27http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/65fc54080aec93176b74fd6c8cabe97d-27.html#unique-entry-id-27I just got back from a visit to the shipyard in the south of England where Distant Shores was built. Northshore, who build the Southerly line of swing keel sailboats is located in the very picturesque hamlet of Itchenor, near Chichester and the Solent. I had two reasons to visit. I wanted to catch up with the shipyard and see how they are doing, and secondly we had a couple of charter guests this year who are considering buying a Southerly. They wanted to see the shipyard and check out the other models. The Southerly line now extends from a 32 footer right up to a 57 currently in build.

I was also interested in how the company was doing in the midst of the world news of economic slowdown. On that front I shouldn't have worried. Even the new plant building that wasn't online when we set sail from the dock in November 2007 was mostly full. Business seems to be going quite well. The UK£ is down against the Euro and the US$, so maybe that's partly responsible, making the Southerly more affordable. At any rate it was nice to see such a busy shop.

The new 57-footer is well under way - the plug is completed and will be moulded shortly. Like all Southerlies, the 57 has a swing-keel and will draw just over 3 feet with the keel up.

Here is the new Southerly 48 in the shop.

The new 48 is much closer to completion. Hull and deck are complete. The interior is coming together and plans are to launch her in late spring. She looks like a very fast and spacious boat. In many ways like a bigger faster version of our 42. This is definitely a boat to watch and I will keep up with this model as she gets further along.

]]>Paul ShardNone2009-03-14T08:25:48-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/50484116f04b18a88dc0e86645a55e0a-26.html#unique-entry-id-26http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/50484116f04b18a88dc0e86645a55e0a-26.html#unique-entry-id-26
How did my original electrical budget work out? How do the Mastervolt AGMs work? Did we use more or less than planned?

The budget was fairly close. Of course it is always hard to judge in advance what total use would be and there are going to be changes based on where and how you cruise. Luckily our Mastervolt power system includes a battery capacity monitor so we have been able to see total power used and judge how we are doing.

Basically our budgets were fairly close... most of the time. I said we would need 130AH while at anchor. This is true if we anchor and swim/read/explore etc. The difference is if we get out the computers and do a few hours of work! On Two-Step we didn't do that often since there wasn't really space. But with Distant Shores we have the space and occasionally have a day at anchor where we catch up on work, emails, and even some rough editing on the television show. The computers are power users and put us over our budget. Running a typical laptop will use 3-4amps so running both of ours for 5-6 hours is a big 40 addition to the budget.

At sea was where I had thought we would be closer to the line with a budget of 200AH per day. This has turned out to be close. I think it is around 220 in practice. Luckily the boat is very easily steered and the autopilot uses less than Two-Steps pilot to keep her on course. But the instruments are fairly heavy users. We have two plotters, the big E120 down in the nav station and the Raymarine E80 out in the cockpit. Those both use a fair bit. They are wonderful devices and well worth it but I didn't budget correctly for them. The E80 draws roughly 2 amps and the E120 about 2.5. Then I discovered that it wasn't really the plotters themselves, but the backlighting. So at night when we dim them the draw is almost 1/2. At any rate, the budget for the ship at sea is really around 220 AH. This is really a bit close to the line with the batteries we have.

Our ships battery bank includes 2 big house batteries. David at Mastervolt wanted us to use 3 - totaling 675 AH of house capacity. I decided the 42 couldn't accommodate all three since the third would have had to go in a separate custom battery box. So we have two totaling 450AH power and on long passages we have to run the engine more than once a day. In practice we run the engine for an hour each morning and evening.

If we were to do it again I would find some way to follow David's recommendation and fit 3 of the big Mastervolt AGM.

How have the AGM worked out? Well these Mastervolt AGMs are my first experience with the batteries and they are brilliant. AGMs charge quickly, do not require maintenance, do not vent fumes and do not discharge themselves when left for a while. All in all they are great. On Two-Step we used to be checking our batteries, filling them with water regularly and cleaning up the spills. The AGMs just sit there and look just the day they were installed.

Note the black thing that is stuck to the left hand battery... this is a temperature sensor. To look after any battery is important to having them give good performance over a long life. The temperature sensor ensures that the big 100Amp battery charger we have is not over heating the batteries, and that they are being charged at the correct rate.

Got to run! Next time I will report on my recent visit to the Northshore Yard (builders of our Southerly 42). ]]>Paul ShardNone2009-03-01T07:22:00-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/90aa0c9496819f01cefde0c8e9e5efc9-25.html#unique-entry-id-25http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/90aa0c9496819f01cefde0c8e9e5efc9-25.html#unique-entry-id-25
There are two main strategies for a North American boat wanting to get to the Caribbean...

1) The Thorny Path - jumping from island to island through the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. (yellow arrows)
2) Offshore - directly offshore from Beaufort or North of there to the BVI. (red arrow directly fro Beaufort North Carolina)

Our plan was to modify the second option and jump off from the Bahamas heading directly east to join the offshore route, then head SE to the Caribbean. This would be a passage of over 1000 miles and the prevaiing winds are from the east so this initial easterly push would be dead into 15-20 knots. My plan was to wait for a cold front, and use the wind shift to hitch a ride and hopefully gain some easting that way.

With option 1) The Thorny Path, one might spend 2 months getting south. Our option 2) would take 2 weeks (one waiting for a front then 7-8 days sailing direct tp the Caribbean.

Of course any boat planning this must be completely prepared for some tough going. The front means you might be out in 30-40 knots of wind as the front passes, and the rest will be close hauled in 15-20 or higher.

Distant Shores is a very good boat for this passage since she is quite good close hauled. We swung the keel all the way down to our full draft of 9-feet, and with our long waterline we go upwind very well.

It was also important to be able to go fast enough that we would be able to stay with the front. The idea that as the front approaches the winds will clock around from the proveailing Easterly, to South East, then south. Then they will build in strength and clock further to the South West. As the front arrives the wind will switch to the North West then north before settling back to North East. We planned to use the period where there was no East in the wind to make our way east. The wind would be aft of the beam for all that time. The two problems are ...

1) fronts can be quite strong and pack winds of 30-40 or higher was they pass
prepare your boat for winds up to 50 knots, we used or triple-reefed main and reefed our small tough jib
2) a fast moving front might run past so quickly that we wouldn't get far enough east.
we averaged 170 miles per day and kept up with the front using it to make almost 500 miles easting

Summary:
Offshore route is a possible option if your boat and crew are prepared for a tough week at sea.
Be prepared for strong winds and tough uphill condiions.
Watch the weather in advance to see how the fronts are passing.]]>Paul ShardNone2008-09-29T07:34:46-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/3af32e63280995a4fb04e9064635a9a9-24.html#unique-entry-id-24http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/3af32e63280995a4fb04e9064635a9a9-24.html#unique-entry-id-24
This Fall we are heading south with the seasons. We have just left Toronto a week ago and have spent the last few days in the Erie Canal. For Canadians in Ontario and Quebec the Erie and Champlain Canals offer a quick passage through to the hudson River and New York City. This means you don't need to go down the St Lawrence River - a tougher and much longer route if your destination is the US East cost and South.

Here are a few pix from the Erie. It is a very nice trip and well worth planning a week to do the Canal. Although it can be done in three very full days that would mean you miss the opportunity to see the small towns along the way. We especially liked Fort Plains, Amsterdam, Sylan Beach, Fulton and Waterford. There are probably many more we have yet to discover. Many of these towns offer free dockage to encourage boaters to stop. Some even offer free electric hookup and even wifi?!? Such hospitality!

Park with an original Erie Canal Lock Circa 1880.


Alongside at a free dock near Amsterdam

We meet up with cruisers who have an original copy of the first edition of our cruising book! Great to meet up underway!

Canal Tip - Mast on deck - going through the canal means taking the mast down since the clearance is only about 20 feet. Most people carry their mast on deck although you can have a company truck the mast down for you. We haven't found problems with carrying it on deck if you take a few simple precautions. First of all it has to be very well supported. I recommend you building horses to support the mast fairly low over the deck. Our first time we had tall horses both fore and aft and it was difficult to reinforce them to handle the weight of the mast so high up in the air. Remember their will be movement in the boat from the occasional big wake to deal with. We often see boats with sturdy horses capable of supporting the mast but not dealing with pitching of the boat. The mast can start to move fore and aft in this case. My solution this time was to build simple tripods. A tall one at the stern gives us walking room in the cockpit and a lower one at the bow keeps weight lower to the deck.



The other problem in doing the canal with the mast on deck is that the mast will hang out over the ends. Distant Shores mast is roughly 57 feet long versus our LOA of 42. So we have about 15 feet extra to deal with. The main concern is banging it against the lock walls. I set it roughly halfway on deck so it sticks out 7-8 feet at bow and stern. The stern isn't a problem since the boat is quite beamy astern. We haven't found we have ever been near to hitting the lower mast end. But the bow is a problem. My solution is to tie fenders to either side of the masthead. This will cushion the mast if it were to bump into a lock wall.

So there are my two canal tips - Number 1) Secure the mast very well with special consideration to pitching movement, and Number 2) protect the masthead.]]>Paul ShardNone2008-07-31T06:58:28-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/8ffdecdd73f29a0d2753d06017ccb144-23.html#unique-entry-id-23http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/8ffdecdd73f29a0d2753d06017ccb144-23.html#unique-entry-id-23Here is a brief overview of our experience in the Bahamas. For years I had dreamed of getting WAY off the beaten path and really exploring in the Bahamas. Now we have done it and it was better than I imagined. Why?

Returning can be difficult. You have a perfect image of a place and when you go back years later it has changed. Before you know it you are heard to say "You think its nice here now - you should have seen it 15 years ago!! Now its been ruined". We have heard this more times than I can count. Either your favourite restaurant has closed, prices have risen or maybe your rose coloured glasses have slipped a bit. I was really worried before we returned to the Bahamas since our last visit was in 1996 - and I was concerned that I would be caught saying "this place has been ruined".

Well, I am happy to report we were able to return and I have not said that!!!!

Of course things have changed in 12 years... but many of those changes are for the good, at least from my perspective.

Communications - Here's a big improvement. We remember waiting in line at the Telephone Office (BATELCO) to make a call. It was inconvenient and expensive. This time we walked into the BATELCO Office in tiny remote Mayaguana, and walked out 10 minutes later with a GSM chgip for our Euro phone. Voila - instant reasonable communications throughout the islands. Good coverage and fair prices. Plan on taking an open GSM phone with you. Their service is quite good, especially considering the wide area they have to cover. We had service in most areas. On top of that we had wifi internet access! So we had real communications with back home and it was affordable.

Crowding - I had been worried the Bahamas would be more crowded than before - but it didn't seem so. Certainly more boats seemed to be in some of the popular areas, but not much. And getting further off the beaten path meant we easily had whole islands just to ourselves.

Charting - Getting off the beaten path has gotten easier as well. While many people just go to the popular spots, we tried to find quiet remote places. There are a number of better guides (see Stephen Pavlidis excellent guides "On and Off the Beaten Path" and "The Exumas") but thats not the biggest factor we found that helped us explore further. Since our last visit the GPS system accuracy has increased to just a few meters accuracy. Electronic charting has really come into its own! Our Navionics charts for the Bahamas have incredible detail for some very remote areas. Places not even in cruise guides or on charts are detailed on our Navionics chart chip for the Bahamas. This means that the huge expanse of Bahamas is now MUCH more accesible. Instead of being more crowded, there are way more remote places you can visit these days thanks to accurate charts. Add in Google Earth and people who dream of a tropical paradise for themselves can find it!

Money - Here's one area I was expecting an improvement but didn't find one. Banks and bank machines have expanded only slightly, and in the remote islands there are still many islands where you can't get money from a bank since there isn't one on the island. Just plan ahead and bring cash to the islands. You will regret if you don't and have the opportunity for super great local cooking but are hoarding your cash until the next Cash Machine.

Pick the Season - We still feel the nicest season to cruise the Bahamas is the spring. We arrived in May just after many cruisers had left to head north. The weather in April May and June is often the best of the year. We enjoyed a fabulous cruise with lovely breezes and just one front. Perfect for exploring the out islands! If you get down as many do, for the winter, don't head out to soon in the spring. Its often the best time!

Its not to late - the Bahamas haven't been ruined. Maybe we'll see you down there on our next visit! If you see us please come and say hi to us on "Distant Shores"!
]]>Paul ShardNone2008-06-01T15:52:00-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/376088efcd11eeb4506707cab9de090c-22.html#unique-entry-id-22http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/376088efcd11eeb4506707cab9de090c-22.html#unique-entry-id-22Sorry not to have written earlier but we have been having so much fun with "Distant Shores" in the Bahamas I haven't had a chance to update the Blog. Here is just a brief one with some tempting pix from the fabulous Bahamas! We have had just 6 weeks here but will be sure to return as soon as we can! These islands are incredible and so much fun with the shallow draft.

We have been able to beach the boat for the first time and dry out on the sand. This is a feature of the Southerly and we found we could explore areas where other boats can't go. There are so many shallow islands without good all-weather anchorages (for deeper boats) but were great for us. We have been lifting the keel up to about 4 and a half foot draft and then venturing of the beaten track.If it is really shallow we can set the draft as low as 3 foot.

To beach the boat we have been looking around for a nice spot, then running up on the beach on a falling tide. Just be sure not to do it at the very highest in case you can't get off on the next high. This is apparently called being "neaped" by Robert - our Northshore expert. So, we pick a nice beach - protected from swells and with no rocks on the bottom - and run up to the beach at near high tide. We prepare our Fortress stern anchor and line on the aft swim platform and drop it 75 feet away as we head in. We head for the beach at about 2-3 knots and gently fetch up on the sand. Then I walk the anchor out forward to stop us drifting away if we want to stay for the night. In this case we will stay for 2 low tides and float off again in the next high.


So the verdict after a 6 week dream cruise in the Bahamas is that this is our perfect Bahamas boat! ]]>Paul ShardNone2008-05-01T22:34:56-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/2a8205dad41bf3ff3a8207759bae8688-21.html#unique-entry-id-21http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/2a8205dad41bf3ff3a8207759bae8688-21.html#unique-entry-id-21Although we have only had the new boat for just over 5 months we have already passed 5000 miles. Somehow that seems like a lot but the boat has been quite good. I had wondered that we would have more problems – starting off with big passages and a brad new boat had many people questioning our plans. But it has been a great adventure and we have already come to love the new boat,

I thought I would put down a few thoughts about the boat so far.

Passagemaking with a swing keel – most of our 5000 miles have been open ocean. Many people have asked about the swing keel on passage. Firstly I must say it has been great! The swinging part of the keel weighs over 3000 pounds and it does not rattle. People who have had other swing-keel boats ask this – but ours does not and I truly doubt that a keel this heavy could possibly rattle. It must be a problem with centerboarders where the keel is much lighter. The other thing with the keel is that having a 9-foot draft (keel all the way down) makes the boat VERY stable. At sea she rolls quite a bit less that Two-Step did. Similarly when we are at anchor we seem to roll less than other boats in the anchorages we have been in. Originally I thought we might use the keel more like a dinghy – raising it when going downwind and lowering it all the way for beating. But so far we have been happier having it down at sea – less rolling and a more comfortable motion. Downwind I do raise it a little bit but not much. Since it swings back and up ino the hull, raising it a little essentially just moves it aft but not much shallower. This has been useful making the boat sail downwind.

Docking with the bow thruster and rudders - in close quarters has taken a bit of getting used to. Mainly because our previous boat was so different - long keel, low and heavy. First of all you absolutely need the bow thruster I think. Otherwise she handles well over 1.5-2 knots with just the rudders but lacking the propwash she needs the thruster to handle in slow speeds. One big advantage I have found is that with the thruster she handles quite well in reverse as well as forward. Many boats (including our old "Two-Step") did not go in reverse. So in summary, I think she handles quite well in close quarters. We have now gone into 40-50 different docks/marinas and had no problems. One other idea is to use the keel. With the keel up she slides sideways in turns. Keel down she tracks nicely and turns well. Keel half way up her bow blows off the wind. I am getting better at using the keel like this to help manoeuvrability in close quarters. One funny situation we had last week involved getting into a slip with pilings. We pulled into the slip and were trying to grab the pilings when we ran aground on the mud. Now we had time to get the lines on the pilings sorted out. When everything was sorted we raised the keel and moved into the slip. Kind of like having a parking brake!

Tropical Southerly – I absolutely love the pilothouse/raised saloon on the Southerly 42. Being able to see out at anchor is great, and at sea I think it is a big part of the reason I don't get seasick at all on the new boat. But the problem with the big windows is the sun heats up the boat. We did not get curtains done by the factory, perhaps we should have. Now we are installing “Fifertex” curtains and that seems to do the trick. I have also added 5 fans throughout the boat. The Hella 2-speed “Turbo” fans are great. Antifouling has been not the greatest. The factory put on International's Uno which is not available over here. In the Caribbean grass fouling seems to be a problem. The local antifoulings all tout some sort of wonder cure for it. I guess you can't hope for a perfect coating that will work well everywhere. And the antifouling has all fallen off around the bow thruster fairing. We will replace it when we dry out for the first time in the Bahamas...

Heading to the Bahamas – We are SO EXCITED to be heading back to our favourite cruising grounds – the Bahamas! We will be there for most of May and early June – a very good time to cruise these lovely islands. The last time we were there I vowed I would come back with a shallower boat and really explore. We are doing it. When we talk to veteran Bahamas experts they always ask how much we draw. When we say 2 foot – 10 they are jealous! Looking over the charts I have planned out whole new island groups e can now visit that were not available to us with our previous 6-foot draft. I will post some pictures as soon as we can!!

]]>Paul ShardNone2008-04-01T22:34:20-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/41c60455def308f0c3e3c686a6e473ae-20.html#unique-entry-id-20http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/41c60455def308f0c3e3c686a6e473ae-20.html#unique-entry-id-20Liming in the BVI
What a winter its been! From a very late season crossing of the Bay of Biscay, a lovely Transatlantic with Wayne & Angie making up a crew of four, and then island hopping from Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla and St Martin. Now we are relaxing in the BVI and having fun with our "share the sail" guests. In a few weeks we will set sail north from the Virgins and head for the Turks and Caicos and Bahamas. There is still time to book one of these legs and they promise to be exciting - a few days at sea and a few days in remote tropical paradise. Check out our new revised schedule


Transatlantic Notes
Here are a few musings from the passage.

- fast ! we were on track to cross in 16 days until the final 500 miles when we had very light winds and calms even. Just when we expected the trade winds to be at their most predictable an unusual low pressure north of us took all the wind away. So we got to practice our very light wind sailing. The problem was 2-3 meter waves from the sides kept us rolling too much so sail effectively. So our final passage time was 18 days. Still very respectable.

- daily runs - we had a few daily runs over 170 miles.

- downwind rig - we ran our twin headsails for many days and it worked really well. We set up the pole for the self-tacker sail with a topping lift and downhaul and used this on the windward side. With the topping lift and downhaul we could furl the sail and just leave the pole out in case we didn't want to go forward to take it down. The Genoa was set out on the end of the main boom. We used a snatch block and led the sheet aft to another block at the stern. Then we used a preventer to pull the main boom forward. This meant we had a second pole for the second sail.

- dealing with chafe - always a problem on long passages since the sails can be set in the same position for days at a time. We had problems with the batten pockets on the main sail chafing on the shrouds on our passage to the Canary Islands so we applied some chafe patches before the transatlantic. Still more work is needed on this since the patches we applied chafed through quite quickly on the passage! The problem is the battens make a hard point and the swept back spreaders mean they touch the sail even on a beam reach. Since we were sailing on a broad reach we had to live with the sail touching the spreaders and shrouds. My next plan is to try leather patches on the batten pockets.

- New Years at sea! We saw in the new year after almost a week at sea and tried to make it a bit of a special night. We all stayed up to midnight even though we would have to continue our watch system on through till dawn. Here our mascot moose watches the celebrations from his perch on the bookshelf in the saloon. Later on he hid out when he heard we were in the Horse latitudes. In the old days sailors becalmed here ran low on water and couldn't afford to water the horses - so they had to throw them overboard. Our moose became concerned that he might fall into the equine category and be jetissoned in the calms. He needn't have worried since the Schenker desalinator worked wonderfully. We even had enough water for showers whenever we wanted.]]>Paul ShardNone2007-11-30T03:15:50-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/4ff73d827a828573ec1da752c0a02909-19.html#unique-entry-id-19http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/4ff73d827a828573ec1da752c0a02909-19.html#unique-entry-id-19She's in the water. Sea trialled and we are off!!

From Itchenor (South coast of England not far from Portsmouth) we set off and did a marathon to Falmouth, crossing the bay of Biscay, and down the Spanish/Portuguese coasts to get away from the Northern winter. Here are a few quick pix of the launch and sea trials. I am going to keep the blog going (more frequently now e have a bit of breathing room) with updates on new equipment and our experiences with the new boat and her systems.

Out of the Factory - wooo hoo!
Mast goes up right in front of the factory
On to the travel trailer already rigged

Travel trailer loads to the marine railway.

With 5 meter tides we had to be ready by 1400 or wait till next day

]]>Paul ShardNone2007-10-12T08:45:25-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/fd91a996dee5d1cbec93ae69553943e5-18.html#unique-entry-id-18http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/fd91a996dee5d1cbec93ae69553943e5-18.html#unique-entry-id-18blog entry on that.

The Northshore team are doing a really great job on the boat! Having built our first boat I have an appreciation of the thought and work that goes into building a boat. Ian, the engineer doing the installs of electrical and electronic gear is just excellent. I am afraid to say I would have been wasting time trying to figure out how to do something that Ian can do much more effectively. They have done almost of this stuff before and even if we have some new combination of gear to be fit in, Northshore's background of having built over 700 boats means some people there have experience with the right way to do things. No corners are being cut.

As an example - we are having Mastervolt AGM batteries fitted for both the main ships bank and also the generator and engine starting battery. CE and ABYC standards state that batteries should be in vented lockers. But this regulation was obviously intended for standard flooded batteries - not AGM or Gel cells which are sealed and do not vent gas while charging. I myself might have been tempted to install the AGM batteries and not bother with the vents - but not Northshore. They have done the best job I have ever seen on a vented battery box - running high quality breather tube to a beautiful stainless vent in the transom.

The whole boat is being built to that standard. Take a look at the back of the main electrical panel. Beautifully installed and so tidy it will be a joy to maintain this. Mark - who designs the electrical systems at Northshore has worked there for 27 years. The work he is doing is excellent and the systems shows the knowledge they have amassed over the years. In fact many people have been working there for more than 2 decades.

Next big milestone will be to put the deck on. So far the deck has been separate, and equipment is being installed on it as well. It will stay off until the last minute. It makes it much easier to do installations of large or heavy equipment since the overhead crane can be used. We shot this last visit when Ian was fitting the generator.

But now the launch is getting closer and much of the work in the hull is complete. So the deck install is imminent! Stay tuned!

]]>Paul ShardNone2007-09-30T07:38:43-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/cc53eb02f498cfd50e1c9db9675b2792-17.html#unique-entry-id-17http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/cc53eb02f498cfd50e1c9db9675b2792-17.html#unique-entry-id-17Its been a busy month! In the studio we finished up 6 episodes for the TV show, then flew to England in time for the Southampton Boat Show. Our first visit to the show and it is a great show!!! Its an in-water show - roughly half the boats are at specially made docks in the downtown of the city. Others are ashore along with acres of exhibitors, both in and out of tents selling everything boaty!

Then back to Chichester to see how the boat is coming along!! Wow she is looking great! Of course I wanted to poke in everywhere and see what was happening. The generator has just been installed and I am testing out the access for servicing it. The area underneath the saloon is quite large and perfectly positioned right at the center of gravity - so its where the heaviest things are going. The fuel tank, water tanks and the genset - which weights just 100 kilos by the way! The team working on the boat is excellent. I am very pleased with the quality - not just of the workmanship but the engineering. Northshore builds boats to order - which means they only build one when you order it. Because of that you can specify which options you want and get it exactly right. Not the same as custom, but they have certainly been willing to discuss the changes we have requested. One thing with having a boat built to order like this is that the level of engineering that goes into it is much higher than a standard production boat.

For example - we chose to have the Mastervolt generator which had not been done on the 42 before. The engineers doing the electrical installations have been working to organize positioning of all equipment so it can be serviced, and fit in with the other options. Consequently the level of skill for Northshore craftsmen is a fair bit higher than normal production boatbuilders who do each boat the same as the last one. In the photo, Engineer Ian and I inspect the engine installation - neatly fitted in with access to all servicing points and very nice soundproofing, even including a sound-trap to allow air into the engine through a maze that lets air in but not sound out.

Most of the ships equipment has been installed - the engine, aquadrive and prop shaft, generator, heads, holding tanks, water and fuel tanks and all associated plumbing. It is great to watch how efficiently this is all done. One of the most interesting installations has been the ....... WASHING MACHINE ...... what a change from Two-Step. Here Sheryl admires the access to the washing machine from the third cabin. We had looked at quite a few machines but everyone said the same thing. The standard cruising machine is the Splendide (which is a washer and dryer combined). But everyone we spoke to said they almost never use the dryer since it uses a lot of power and isn't very effective. So when Northshore recommended the Euronova machine we went for that. Its just a washer, and is a fair bit smaller. This allowed it to go where it is and boy is Sheryl happy ;-)

Launching is scheduled for just 4 weeks from now!! To say we are excited is a massive understatement!! Right now we are filming in the southwest of England - last weekend sailing on an 82 year old pilot cutter in gorgeous Falmouth Harbour - more to follow as we try to get out a newsletter....

We will be setting sail from England in early November and getting ready for our 4th Atlantic crossing. Check the schedule for opportunities to join us on the new boat for the inaugural season!
]]>Paul ShardNone2007-08-23T08:17:26-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/2fba2be512da5ead30a844f0ce74b220-16.html#unique-entry-id-16http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/2fba2be512da5ead30a844f0ce74b220-16.html#unique-entry-id-16Electrical Budget I have been working on how to fit in all the batteries we need. From the budget calculations we would be using 130amp-hours (130ah) when hanging at anchor and 200 when passagemaking. Two basic assumptions to calculate battery capacity needed are as follows...

1. Plan on recharging batteries once a day
2. Do not discharge your batteries more than 50 percent on a regular basis

This means you calculate the capacity of battery you need to be double the budget numbers we did. To provide 200ah of capacity we should plan a 400ah house battery bank. Then we would be able to discharge it to 50% with one day power use while passage-making.

I have an additional criteria for batteries - at anchor it would be nice to be able to stay at anchor for 2 days without starting the engine. If we have found a sweet little anchorage we often decide to stay a day at anchor and then leave the next day. I hate having to fire up the engine in that rest day in a peaceful cove just to be able to run the fridge!

To have the power to run the ship for two days at anchor we would need 130 per day X 2 days = 260ah X 2 = 520ah capacity.

Now the tough part. Where to put all these wonderful batteries?

• Many boat manufacturers do not plan sufficient batteries for a boat that will be used for long-term cruising
• Batteries are quite heavy and should not put the boat out of balance
• Lead-acid "flooded" batteries must be vented - this restricts where they can be put

Here's the original battery compartment with 4 standard flooded batteries - 3 X 110ah = 330ah for the house bank plus one 110ah to start the engine.

Luckily with the Southerly 42 there is sufficient room in the original battery box to place 3 of the Mastervolt AGM batteries to act as the house bank. We can fit in 2 of the 220ah large batteries (equivalent to the American 8D size) and one 160ah. Total capacity will be 2 x 220 + 160 = 600 ah. Only small changes to the compartment will be needed. The only problem is that this compartment was also meant to house the engine starting battery, so we needed to find another home for this. Mark at Northshore suggested a place under the floor where a battery box could be built for the 90ah starting battery.

The best part of this plan is that the additional 94kg of batteries will go in the exact center of the boat where they will not affect trim.

The decision to go with AGM batteries makes sense from a couple of reasons. First, the AGMs can be recharged faster than conventional flooded batteries. This means shorter running times for the engine or generator. They do not need water adding on a regular basis so we will not have to be going into the compartment and checking them every few weeks. And their sealed design means the extra battery box does not have to have such care for the venting and ease of access.]]>Paul ShardNone2007-08-04T08:54:58-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/d82ce29edf56fb4eff0d6f6c55565e09-15.html#unique-entry-id-15http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/d82ce29edf56fb4eff0d6f6c55565e09-15.html#unique-entry-id-15
In all the far off anchorages in the world we see cruising boats that have way too much stuff on, and waterlines painted higher to deal with the extra weight. But most designers would not be happy to see this - for reduced performance and possibly impaired safety. I want to minimize this so have been trying to get the best of both worlds - add the gear I want but trim the weight so she will still perform well.

I just love all this stuff!! But if the calculations and all are not your thing, you can skip to the punchline - or jump to the pictures of the hull with the keel being put on!

Calculating the effect of more weight
First step in this calculation is to find out how much the weight will effect the boat. Here is a very simplified method that can be applied to any boat. The first number we need is to find out the surface area of the boat in the water. By this I mean the area of the hull at the waterline. Assuming you can't just ask the designer - here is a simple method to calculate it yourself (also assuming you have a plan view drawing of the boat, Photoshop and a computer...)

1. bring the plan drawing of your boat into photoshop
2. you need the scale so you can measure things on the plan. My method is to resize the drawing so the "info" pallette shows the correct dimensions. Since the Southerly is 12.8 meters long I set the scale so the hull on the plan measures 12.8 cm by 4.03cm. Now anything I measure on the drawing will be at a scale of 1cm to 1 meter.
3. for the weight calculation we need to determine the area at the waterline. If you have the waterline on the drawing this will be easy. If not (as I didn't) then you have to guess.
4. use photoshop to draw a few rectangles on the drawing so that they approximate the area at the waterline. As you draw each rectangle, note the length and width on the "info" pallette in photoshop. My first rectangle is 3.4 by 5 meters - the main shape of the hull. 5 x 3.4=17 square meters. Now write this down.
5. Continue making rectangles until you have a rough shape that approximates the waterline of the boat.
6. Add together the rectangles. 17+1.6+2.8+3+2.2+1.75+1 = 29.35

So we have a rough idea of the waterline area of the boat. 29.35 square meters rounded out to 30.

Now for the fun bit. We know the surface area of the boat so we can easily calculate how much weight will push the boat down by 1 centimeter. Its just 1cm multiplied by 30 square meters = 0.3 cubic meter. A 1 cubic meter of water weighs 1000 kilos (saltwater is slightly more but we will ignore this for simplicity). So 300 kilos of extra load would lower the boat down in the water one centimeter. Obviously this calculation is very rough but it does give us what we need to approximate the effects of weight on the design. For every 300 kilos we add to the boat, we will push her 1 cm lower in the water. (For US measurements this means 1680 pounds will push her down by one inch).

300kg of additional weight will push her down by 1cm

Additional Equipment - What does it all weigh?
Here is my list of equipment with weights. These are in addition to the prototype of the Southerly 42 that I have photographed. If you are looking at your own boat to which you plan to add a bunch of equipment - you can use the existing waterline to start your calculations - then add the weights of the gear you plan to buy.

• Additional batteries for main house bank - 84kg
• Yamaha outboard 8hp - 27kg
• Mastervolt 3kw genset - 100kg
• Watermaker - 34kg
• Scuba compressor - 56kg
• 2 scuba tanks - 28kg
• Avon dinghy - 43kg
• Washing machine - 65kg
• Additional Chain - 94kg
• Radar Arch - 40kg

Total weight = 571kg / 300 = 1.9cm

So all this equipment will push the boat down by less than 2cm. Not so bad as I had thought really!

Distribution
The next calculation is to see if the weight will be unbalancing the boat. This is much easier since the main problem normally comes if you add all the weight to the bow or stern. Then you can push the boat down in the stern or bow. You also will likely get worse motion if a lot of weight is added to the bow especially.

Here is a quick calculation where I have drawn blocks scaled to the weight of the various added equipment. I have added them on the side view showing where the equipment is. Note the heavy 100kg genset, plus the main battery bank are both right in the centre of the boat. This helps a lot. At the bow is the additional anchor chain, and the stern has much of the rest. Again a rough calculation but it shows that we might expect to be a bit more down in the stern, but not much.


I must point out that these are very rough calculations but its something anyone can do to at least approximate the effect of extra equipment on the waterline. And just doing the list of equipment weights can be quite informative.
]]>Paul ShardNone2007-08-03T07:45:09-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/64f73354f79f022997e88f855ee74d45-14.html#unique-entry-id-14http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/64f73354f79f022997e88f855ee74d45-14.html#unique-entry-id-14

The bottom of the hull is moulded with an inset shape to take the keel plate. You can also see the moulded slot into the hull for the keel when it is raised up. This picture also shows the width of the keel plate. Bolts are widely spaced giving tremendous strength. (click on the picture to enlarge)

Here's a detail showing the plate and the hull moulding insert. The design of the boat allows her to dry out sitting on her keel. You can see she will sit on this grounding plate when she is aground - much safer than if she just sat on the fiberglass of the hull.

Final checking of the fit.

Keel installed and all done.

That's it for today... now back to editing Distant Shores! Sheryl and I are in the studio for the next few weeks until flying to the UK in September.

Paul
]]>Paul ShardNone2007-07-28T13:25:06-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/f07ac94988c8f3a02fc25e12f112f56b-13.html#unique-entry-id-13http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/f07ac94988c8f3a02fc25e12f112f56b-13.html#unique-entry-id-13The New Boat and her keel!!
Here are some images from the Northshore yard in Itchenor. The new boat has just arrived from the moulding shop and is ready to be fitted out. There are also some pictures here of her lifting keel as that will be one of the first projects - to fit the keel in place. I though this would be a good time to look at the keel system in general since the keel and the Southerly's shallow draft abilities are a big part of the reason we chose her for our next boat!

Keel System
Here the keel is prepped and ready to go into the boat. The keel system consists of a massive grounding plate that bolts into the bottom of the boat. This plate weighs 2100Kg (4600 pounds) which is quite a bit more than our car. In the picture you can see the swinging keel itself in the raised position. It weighs another 1570Kg (3500 pounds) which is about the weight of a BMW 525. So when you swing the keel down you are basically hanging the weight of a respectable car down for added performance. With 9 foot draft this boat sails well to windward! Its one of the advantages of a swinging keel that the designer could go as low as he wanted for good performance.

Here is a shot of the keel close up. This is a massively strong system that Northshore have refined since they started building swing-keel boats more than 20 years ago. You can see the widely spaced bolt pattern that connects the keel to the reinforced inset in the hull. One thing I specially like about the builder is their British engineering! Good and solid!

Raising and lowering the keel is done by a hydraulic system. There is an electric pump that runs the hydraulic system and it is remotely controlled from the helm. Just above the buttons is a series of LEDs that show how high the keel is. There is also an emergency handle to be used in case the electric system fails.

Boat Design for a Swing Keel
One of the toughest aspect of designing a good swinging or lifting keel boat is what to do with the keel when it comes up! It has to go somewhere and many designers have had trouble with this. We have been on lifting keel boats where the keel case divides the whole saloon. Very inconvenient. But Northshore have come up with an ingenious design for the 42 that hides the keel just under the starboard side of the raised saloon. The raised saloon has great views while sitting there, and I doubt anyone coming on board at the boat show would even guess there was a keel the weight of a BMW retracted under their seat. Here is a picture of the saloon - the keel retracts under the seat on the centreline of the boat. Very clever design.

Why go to all this bother?
Well this image of a Bahamas Bank says it all. There are so many unspoiled anchorages we will be able to get to with a shallow keel - and the Bahamas is arguably the finest cruising ground within easy reach of North American East Coast sailors. We have sailed there 4 different cruises and have fallen in love with the place. There are whole island groups that are hard to visit with a deep draft yacht. We are going back with the Southerly!! (see below)

Shallow Draft
Many places in the world are easy to navigate if you have a shallower boat. The Trent-Severn Waterway in Canada is limited to 5 feet. Ditto the Midi Canal in France. Many places in the US Intra-Coastal Waterway are shoaling up around the inlets. Boats that draw more than 5 feet are deeper than the average so dredging often doesn't occur until that number is reached and the problem starts to affect the majority of boats.

But there is more to shallow draft cruising. Some powerboats draw just 3-4 feet but can't afford to run aground! By this I mean they have props hanging down being the lowest point. So if they hit it is likely expensive. With Two-Step we could often poke slowly into places that were just 6 feet deep since when we touched the bottom it didn't matter. Just our keel would touch and we would then reverse off again. The new boat is the best of both worlds - it draws just 3 feet but can also afford to run aground since it has the heavy keel and a grounding plate, and it protects its prop with a skeg. We will be able to poke slowly into really shallow spots.

Of course we wouldn't want to have the ability to get to shallow places and still not feel safe crossing oceans. The Southerly can do that too. Many have crossed oceans, and we are looking forward to a nice quick transatlantic passage this fall - en route to the Caribbean.

Shoal Draft Anchorages
The final advantage for the Southerly keel is the ability to dry out. It is actually one of the main reasons for the design. In the South of England and the north West of France there are many tidal anchorages. This would be a place that would be a good anchorage at high tide but would have no water at low tide. So the only kind of boat that can anchor there would need to be able to rest down on the bottom at low tide. In Two-Step we would have not been able to anchor there since the keel would cause the boat to heel further and further as the tide went down. We would finally be lying on our side. Most uncomfortable and possibly even at risk of flooding as the water came back in. With the new boat this is the perfect anchorage. And again, the Bahamas has many places like this. Comparing to Two-Step, I would imagine there are as many as double the Bahamian anchorages available for the Southerly as for Two-Step. Similar in the Chesapeake and Atlantic France.

Share the Sail to Shallow Shores
This winter we will be returning to the Bahamas! We sail from the Virgin Islands to the Turks and Caicos (another Shallow Draft Paradise) on Leg 14, and then on to the Bahamas on Leg 15. This leg means visiting the most remote islands in the Bahamas - known as the Far Out Islands - a rare opportunity and our personal favourite!! See the Share the Sail page for more info or drop us an email.
]]>Paul ShardNone2007-07-25T10:22:49-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/149f781ef67a3f5c62904c5028db30a0-12.html#unique-entry-id-12http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/149f781ef67a3f5c62904c5028db30a0-12.html#unique-entry-id-12Electrical power use on a boat is one of the biggest issues for cruising sailors these days. Talk to any long-term cruising sailor and they will probably bend your ear for hours about the issues and problems in providing the power for their boat. Basically your boat is an independent system when you are away from the dock. Any power you use, and todays gadgets can use a lot, will have to be supplied from the ships systems. Most cruisers find that the gadgets they have draw too much for the boat's original electrical system - and require a substantial redesign.

First steps - to get started it is important to do a basic budget for the 12 Volt electrical system. I covered this in an earlier blog, and came up with 131 amp-hours at anchor, and 198 when we are on passage. Bear in mind this is from our own experience over 20 years of cruising on board Two-Step. Like most cruisers we conserve power when we can, we don't use much water, and we have installed efficient reading lights etc. If you plan a more hedonistic life you might want to budget more ;-)

Next we need to look at how to supply this power. There are two obvious scenarios - at anchor and on passage. On passage boats use more power, depending on autopilot draw it can be a lot more! Luckily the Raymarine pilot is quite good on power. But also on passage you might well find a time during the day when you need to run the engine anyway with light winds. So on those days you will likely get all the power you need from running the engine. The problem is on those wonderful tradewind passages when you are sailing well and don't need to run the engine. Then you must generate the power somehow. On Two-Step we just ran the engine anyway - in neutral. So on an ocean passage we found we had to run the engine twice a day for one hour each. Solar panels helped out somewhat but it is difficult to design a system that will provide the entire power requirements from solar - especially on passage since you use so much.

Power Options

• Solar - For our example of needing 198ah per day - we would need quite a solar farm to provide even half of that. Perhaps 3 large panels would give 100ah. I estimated a solar array would be 5 feet by 7 feet and cost $4000, and generate 100ah per day. And not if its cloudy.
• Wind - Typically these might give 60-12ah per day if there is reasonable wind. Unfortunately many anchorages are protected from the wind and therefore don't produce what the marketing people might claim - even in the windy Caribbean. And a typical Mediterranean summer would not provide enough predictable wind either. They are popular in the Caribbean though - and if you don't mind a constant whirring noise you might consider one. For us the whirring is too annoying.
• Alternator - the mainstay of 12V power generation for most cruisers. We typically used our main engine as a generator by running it one or two hours per day just to make electricity. At anchor if we are careful and its sunny (for the solar panels) then we might just run one hour per day. At sea on passage we needed to run it twice for one hour. On the Southerly we will have a bigger alternator - 80Amps vs 50 on Two-Step. At sea we would need to run it at least 3 hours per day to come up with 198ah. Probably more since an 80Amp alternator is not really going to produce 80 full time for 2.5 hours. Count on maybe 60% of the rated output on a regular basis. So our new 80Amp unit might give us 50 amps - that means 4 hours running at sea and three at anchor.
• Generator - At the risk of oversimplifying - if you have any large power consumers on board you probably should consider a Generator. And I don't mean someone who always leaves the lights on!! A big power consumer would be an air conditioning system, a clothes washer/dryer, a microwave oven, a scuba compressor etc. Most boats have some form of inverter to allow you to run 120V devices from the 12V batteries. This works great for small items, but running anything with real power requirements will need too many batteries to be practical. For example, running a typical small vacuum cleaner for 10 minutes would require 25ah from your batteries. Running a 120V watermaker for 2 hours would take 300-350ah. And if you did have such a big bank of batteries you would still need to put the power back in. Neither the alternator, the solar panels nor the wind generator can produce this much easily. So as you decide on more 120V devices, you are increasingly pointed to a GenSet. We have been considering a generator for a few reasons. First, the genset can easily produce enough 12 volt power to replace 198 amps in roughly 2 hours. It is quieter than the engine since they are usually very well insulated and typically installed with a dry exhaust. Best of all a generator will allow for Sheryl's and my two dream options for the new boat. A washing machine and a scuba compressor!! There are a number of small units meant for sailboats in the 40-foot range.

AC Power Needs
The other part of a complete electrical budget is planning the AC usage. This means anything you will need to run on house current - not 12 volts. For the modern more complicated cruiser (think Steve Dashew not Lin & Larry) this includes a washer or washer/dryer, vacuum cleaner, desalinator, air conditioning etc. And if you have anything in this category that will need to be run away from the dock, then you will need to figure out how to produce the power yourself - basically a generator is the most common solution here.

So for our new boat we had no option but a generator since we will have 2 big power users (washing machine and Scuba compressor) that need house current. Then it was a matter of trying to figure out which one.

Fitting in a Generator
When Northshore did the original drawings for the Southerly 42 they took a genset into consideration. With the raised pilot house/saloon the boat has quite a large area under the saloon floor, that is also positioned nicely in the center of the boat. Many similar modern boats have raised saloon windows but did not raise the saloon seating - so there is no extra space (plus you can't see out either - go figure?!?). But the Southerly is a cunning design that provides space for tanks, generator etc right in the center where it is best to place heavy items like this. You can click on the plans for a larger view. The generator Northshore chose was a Mastervolt. I wasn't familiar with this make but when I looked into them they looked like the perfect solution.

Mastervolt
Mastervolt has a very good reputation worldwide, and best of all they make almost all the components for a boats electrical system. So you can get the whole electrical system from them and the components are designed to work together. This means that the generator is designed to integrate with the charger/inverter. The two can cooperate and add their power output together. For example, if the generator is running but there is a surge of current drawn as the scuba compressor starts up, the inverter adds in the extra needed power. This should allow us to run the compressor - potentially the largest user we will have, on the smaller generator. We will certainly report back as the system progresses.
]]>Paul ShardNone2007-07-23T08:11:23-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/17517c3cdabd7409422c2f5bd2da4d44-11.html#unique-entry-id-11http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/17517c3cdabd7409422c2f5bd2da4d44-11.html#unique-entry-id-11

First, regular viewers of our TV show will know I installed a Raymarine C80 and associated system a few years ago. To say I have been happy with the C80 is a huge understatement! I mean, all the Raymarine stuff works great, the autopilot was strong and quick and handled Two-Step very well, and the instruments were excellent too. But the C80 Plotter was a revelation!! It has an 8.4" screen which was a huge inprovement over our last plotter (with a small 5" screen). But the best feature is the integration with the other components of the system. I had not realized what it could mean to have information from the wind, speed, autopilot and especially the radar communicated to the plotter.

• Wind: the C80 can display the wind as a yellow arrow blowing toward your boat - on the chart. This means you can instantly see the actual wind direction on the chart. For sailors this means all the calculations on which is the favoured tack is much easier.
• Speed: naturally the plotter knows the boat's speed from the GPS, but it also gets the speed through the water from the knot-log sender. So the plotter can calculate what currents are affecting the boat as well. If you have entered a waypoint then it can also calculate the progress you are making toward that. The C80 can display a small arrow showing the direction of the current/leeway.
• Radar: Here is my favourite integration feature of the Raymarine plotters. The radar image can be overlaid on top of the chart! It is actually quite difficult to do this from a technical point of view. On a big ship the heading doesn't change much, so the radar image can be simply set up to line up with the heading of the ship. But on a sailboat in perky conditions, the heading is changing quite a lot. So in the time it takes for one rotation of the radar scanner, the heading has changed. Without getting into too much detail, it is DARNED DIFFICULT to plot the radar image on top of the chart. But the Raymarine system does a good job. So good in fact that it can make accurate calculations on a single radar target... which leads to my next favourite feature!
• MARPA: this is really a result of the radar integration but deserves a heading all to itself since it is SO COOL! MARPA means mini automatic radar plotting aid. This is an amazing tool and really made us feel safer at sea whenever there were big ships around, and especially at night. Basically it allows you to identify a ship on the radar and have the MARPA track that target - giving you the direction and speed of the target. Marpa will draw an arrow on the chart showing the course of the ship! It also calculates the ship's speed, and whether it will pose a threat to you! It really is hard to explain just how great this feature is. I have featured it a couple of times in our TV show since I am really convinced it is a huge safety and confidence plus for anyone who gets out in open water where there are ships. Very cool! Here is the link to a good description of this on Raymarine's website For this to work well you should have a gyro compass - luckily one is built into the G series of Raymarine Pilots. We had the S2G on Two-Step and will get it again on the new boat. Bringing us to the next point...
• Autopilot: the plotter gets exact course and heading info from the autopilot. Put a waypoint on the plotter, press goto, and the autopilot can be engaged to steer along the track to that exact point. This means it will use the plotter and GPS to insure it doesn't deviate from the line due to currents and leeway. This is not possible if the autopilot doesn't have some level of integration with the GPS. Of course the best is to have a plotter since you can then plot the position visually on the chart - and just go there.

So here's the list of electronics we are getting for the new boat.

Chart-plotters - One E120 for the nav station. I never wanted a plotter in the nav station on Two-Step since you can't see out. But the new boat has a pilot house and it will be just perfect there. But I also want one outside for when we're sailing. So we are also getting a E80 - looks exactly like our trusted C80 but is able to network with the E120 below. This means we just have one Radar antenna, and one chart chip with the navigation charts on, but can display the info on both displays. This is a picture of the nav station on a Southerly 42 like ours with the Raymarine E120 in the nav station. I am still trying to figure out where to put the E80 display. It will be in the cockpit somewhere but I'm not sure where. My plan is to wait until we have sailed a bit to see where it would be best. Two obvious spots are up under the dodger (sprayhood) where its visible from the main cockpit, or back on the table where it would be easier for someone at the helm to see.

Autopilot - Raymarine S2G Smartpilot with two control stations. One in the nav station as pictured above and one at the helm. We are also getting a remote for the pilot in case we are sitting forward from the helm.

Radar - 2KW radome will be installed up the mast. (Raymarine also). This can do the Marpa functions since we have the Gyro series autopilot controller - S2G above.

Instruments - Raymarine ST60+ series wind, speed and depth separate instruments. Also a graphic display which can repeat any of the info on the "bus". This will be at the nav station - although strictly speaking the E120 plotter can provide the same info and more - its convenient to have it already up on a dedicated repeater.

Lifetag - Raymarines new safety MOB system. More on this in a future blog.

AIS - WAY COOL!! I have been so looking forward to having AIS. More in a special AIS blog!

Thats it for now. I'm off to plan the battery/genset etc.

Cheers

Paul]]>Paul ShardNone2007-07-17T13:58:58-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/7b315ba1f511531d42d861ba09a9a1ce-10.html#unique-entry-id-10http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/7b315ba1f511531d42d861ba09a9a1ce-10.html#unique-entry-id-10Sheryl and I have just got back to the studio from the spring filming in Italy and this morning received some picture from the yard at Northshore where the new boat is being built! How exciting!!! I just had to share some of the images with you.

Here is the Hull mould. The boat is moulded then a bunch of structure is put in before the mould is removed. This is so the hull is strong before the mould is taken off. So the plant is putting in bulkheads and stringers (lengthwise stiffeners). These will all be glassed in place.

The hull mould you see is carefully cleaned and then waxed on the inside. Then the gelcoat is sprayed in. So, the first part of the boat to be built is, somewhat bizarrely, the gelcoat (like paint). Then fibreglass is applied to the gelcoat in layers according to the designers specification until the desired thickness has been reached. Then coring is applied where specified - in this case above the waterline. Then the grid of stiffeners and finally the bulkheads.

Northshore has two facilities. The one pictured here is in Havant, and here they do all the fibreglass moulding. Then the boat will be trucked a few miles around to the main workshop in Itchenor (South England Near Chichester). This is the main Northshore headquarters where they complete and also launch the boat.

In the moulding shop in Havant they are also making the small mouldings that will be the two heads. These are normally made as a single moulding since it means they are waterproof - just like a built-in shower stall in a house. So here they are fitting the forward head moulding in place!

In the middle of the hull you can see a tall fibreglass structure. This is the keel casing. Since it is a lifting-keel boat the keel needs a place to retract into. But the keel will not be added until the boat has been trucked to Northshore in Itchenor.

Anyway, as you can imagine, Sheryl and I are VERY EXCITED about this. The new boat is a real thing!!

I will post more pictures as soon as they are available!

Cheers!!

Paul


This is the deck mould with the finished deck still on the mould.]]>Paul ShardNone2007-06-15T13:57:22-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/dfc2a66abaeadeee88518b97b17696f1-9.html#unique-entry-id-9http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/dfc2a66abaeadeee88518b97b17696f1-9.html#unique-entry-id-9As we are sailing right now in the Tyrrhenian Sea off Italy, we have had many days I thought it would be great to have a feathering prop. For the past two weeks there have been quite light winds and flat seas. Yesterday on the way to Tropea (a gorgeous gem if you get a chance to visit!!) there was just 5-9 knots of wind most of the way. We sailed as best we could and just enjoyed the flat seas and spectacular coastline. But I kept thinking we would be able to make more of the light winds if we had a prop with less resistance. If we are sailing at 4 knots and our 3-bladed prop is spinning – we will slow down to almost 3.5 if I put it in gear. General consensus is that a feathering or folding prop would give you in the area of one extra knot under sail. And its often those very calm days when that would make the difference between sailing and having to switch the engine on. The difference between sailing with a feathered prop and towing a fixed-blade one through the water has been described as similar to dragging a bucket around. And who wants to do that?!?

So the new boat is definitely going to have a feathering prop.

One problem with a new propellor, especially on a new boat, is knowing what the pitch and diameter should be. With Two-Step we got it fairly close so we didn't need to change anything. Nevertheless, after a few years I decided we might reduce the diameter and try to reduce noise transmitted through the hull. Tip-clearance is the measurement from the tip of the prop to the hull at its closest point, and it is generally recommended that the clearance should be 15% of the diameter (or more). We were close and wanted to exceed that. With the Southerly it is an issue as well since there is a skeg that protects the prop when the boat is in very shallow water (less than 1 meter!). So planning a new propeller has meant we are in the same situation - trying to fit in that restricted space.

Two-Step has an aperture for the prop

One thing I always wanted for Two-Step was to try a feathering prop – but I wasn't able to find one to fit (they mostly have a longer cone out front that is too long for the aperture between rudder and keel where the prop is). For the new boat I am very excited to find the Variprop that looks like it will solve all problems! It has a short cone so the smaller space isn't an issue and best of all it is available in a four-blade version that offers greater efficiency when you have had to choose a smaller diameter than normal. The actual business of ordering a propellor can seem daunting since there are a lot of questions to be answered. Maximum diameter and clearances around the prop are just the start! Engine horsepower, and transmission ratios are used to calculate diameter and pitch. Shaft diameter, taper and nut dimensions are obviously important to insure the prop just slides on. In the case of the Variprop we will be able to keep the basic prop as a spare since the Variprop will be made with the same dimensions as the original.

One of the best things about a feathering prop is that they are generally adjustable so if you do guess wrong and the pitch is not correct, you can reset it. With a fixed prop you would have to have it expensively re-pitched if it wasn't right. Most of the feathering props let you realign gears or adjust something and set the pitch. In most cases you have to haul the boat out, disassemble the prop and fix it. But the Variprop even allows you to re-pitch it in the water – saving a haul-out.

I only wish we had tried one on Two-Step so we could compare it to the performance of our fixed blade prop. But I will definitely report back on how it goes on the Southerly. ]]>Paul ShardNone2007-05-28T13:53:33-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/7dc35060981e415e936bdff117959ea2-8.html#unique-entry-id-8http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/7dc35060981e415e936bdff117959ea2-8.html#unique-entry-id-8
SO this weeks blog is on STUFF ON A BOAT THAT HAS ACCUMULATED OVER 18 YEARS!!!!

I started this project by trying to work out how much weight we might be adding to the new boat as we put gear on her. I was trying to figure how much impact all our stuff would have on the waterline and trim of the new boat. Although I am keen on many of the new gadgets and comforts available to sailors, I do believe there is a limit to how much equipment you can safely add before the boats handling is impaired. So my project started off by noting the weights for everything we were proposing to add to the new boat. This project is ongoing as we add and subtract gear from the plan. I will post a list with weights in a few weeks.

Meanwhile I realized that the general accumulated gear that were planning to move from Two-Step to the new boat would weight substantially more than all the toys I had been worrying about. So I have created a spreadsheet and am in the middle of systematically weighing the contents of every locker, itemising the contents and putting them in a spreadsheet. Rather than list each item I sometimes group a few and list the bunch and where they are such as “Port Bookshelf : cookbooks – 4.4Kilograms” (10 pounds). At this point the list has almost 300 entries, total weight is 571Kg and I am just 2/3 of the way done!!

The fun part of putting it on the computer is that I can find such interesting trivia as...

• All gear stored in or forward sleeping cabin weighs 135Kg and in the Saloon (not including Galley and Quarterberth) weighs 213Kg.
• Together all three cockpit lockers contain 200Kg of gear.
• Books weigh a startling 69Kg and that doesn't yet include the paperbacks we keep in the Quarterberth
• The category of “food” has a number of entries totalling 59Kg and we are quite low on provisions at the moment. Wine alone weighs 21Kg and we usually have at least 2-3 times as much. (Hey – we're in the Med!)
• All the ropes stored in lockers total 28Kg and doesn't include any running rigging – mainly dock lines and a spare 60 meter anchor rode - 10Kg.
• I have everything in a category such as food, electronics, books, clothes, and NGATI (Never Got Around To It) Items I bought but haven't installed. This is actually at it's lowest in years but we still carry 5Kg of stuff I never installed!
• Clothing totals 69Kg and in the interests of political correctness I an not going to reveal whether “pink or blue” clothes are heavier ;-)

I guess the key here is that our boat is just 37 feet long and we do try to keep an eye on total weight on board – but still we will likely have more than 800Kg (almost 1800 pounds) which is heavier than a Smart Car (Smart Fortwo weighs 730Kg). So the next time you are thinking of stocking up on cheap beer just to save a few dollars – consider that 4 cases of 24 cans would add almost 40Kg. And you can forget taking up rock collecting!!

I am also working on a weight distribution plan for the new boat. Over the years we have repainted the waterline on Two-Step to cover her overweightness. I am hoping the new boat will not suffer the same fate! See you next time...]]>Paul ShardNone2007-04-15T13:45:26-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/d094338eecc36692ec77108afa72c7f2-7.html#unique-entry-id-7http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/d094338eecc36692ec77108afa72c7f2-7.html#unique-entry-id-7
Now we are working on Two-Step – getting her ready for sale – or sail! Two-Step is up for sale of course (see web link where I have added more pictures showing the cabins in more detail). The plan is to sail her up to England leaving in 2 weeks (first of May) since that is where our new boat is being built. So anyone interested in a Med Cruise and looking for a super cruising boat handily prelocated in the Med and ready to go – should let us know immediately. Otherwise we will be sailing her further west.

SOOOO – if you want to turn your dreams of a Mediterranean Summer cruise into reality!! Come on over to Malta and hop aboard Two-Step – fully equipped and ready to go – we will spend a week or two with you as you like to get familiar with her and even help reposition her to Greece or Turkey – our personal recommendations for the some of the best cruising in the world!! Contact us for more information!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled blog...

Water Budget and Systems – Continued

Actually I have never seen anyone attempt to do an actual budget for water use. I do remember years ago ready cruising books recommending average use for a boat in a long passage and saying to allow 4 litres per person per day. But I think modern boats tend to use more (or much more!!) so designing a system to allow us to safely cross oceans is going to take into account more than that simple rule of thumb.

Assumptions:

1. We will have a watermaker
2. The watermaker might stop working partway through a passage
3. Pressure water system might also either stop working, or use too much water
4. We will have a system that safely crosses oceans even assuming 1,2 & 3.


Watermaker – In order to be able to run the watermaker in the most different situations I believe the 12 volt ones are the best. Then even if the inverter/generators pack up, you can still run it from the battery or solar panel. We are looking at Spectra watermakers at this point.

Pressure Water – In my experience a pressure water system encourages sailors to use too much water. If there was ever a problem with the watermaker, it would be extremely difficult to conserve water, so I am planning to install the ubiquitous Whale foot pumps in the heads and galley. This way if the pressure system goes down we can still get at our water, and on passage we can conserve water easily. And for anyone who hasn't used a Whale footpump – they really are excellent. Did I mention that I have known cruisers who retired ashore and were planning to install these footpumps in their houses?!

Water tanks – The Southerly 42 has two water tanks. Total capacity is actually slightly less than Two-Steps water tanks – although you can order an optional tank to increase it. It think we will stick with the original tankage plan, add the watermaker and try to keep the tanks filled up on passages.

Water safety on Passage – My plan is to regularly refill the tanks from the watermaker whenever we are in a remote cruising ground or are on passage. For instance, plan to run the watermaker when we have used one third of our water. That way if the watermaker stops working one day, we will still have a 2/3 full tanks. It will not be a disaster! We will immediately switch into conservation mode – no more showers, use footpumps etc and the 2/3 capacity will be plenty to allow us to reach port safely or fix whatever the problem is.

Watermaker usage – One of the changes I have noticed in the years we have been cruising is that more and more cruisers use their watermakers all the time. Originally when we met a cruiser with a watermaker they used it primarily on passages or in remote areas like the Bahamas where water is expensive. But in port where water was easily available on the dock, they would use that to fill their tanks. Now more people seem to run them all the time. And in many cases I understand the rationale. For instance, here in Malta, the municipal water is quite safe to drink, but a little brackish (salty). So tea tastes a bit crumby, and we choose to drink bottled water. So cruisers who have a watermaker, will often choose to run that when they need to fill their tanks. The issue is that you have to be very careful about the filters you have in the system. It is often an option to have a water/oil separator as a preliminary filter before it is safe to take in harbour water. The other option is to run the municipal tap water as the input to the watermaker – in this case you would need more plumbing to connect the hose, and a very good chlorine filter to make sure the chlorine in the city water didn't damage the membrane in the watermaker. I would like more information on this option and will ask around here to find someone who has it all sorted out.

Well, thats it for today, for the past couple of weeks I have been working on designs for a stern arch to act as dinghy davits/solar panel mount and a bimini. I will see if I can post these drawings for the next blog entry this week!

Ciao!]]>Paul ShardNone2007-04-02T13:43:59-04:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/351a1092fb227e5d4cf13611727f1f1b-6.html#unique-entry-id-6http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/351a1092fb227e5d4cf13611727f1f1b-6.html#unique-entry-id-6
Water Budget

The first thing I learned was just how much water a modern cruising boat could use. On Two-Step we have only foot-pumps for the water – no pressurised system. And no real shower. So our four 80 litre water tanks will last us 2 weeks or more with the two of us on board. But a modern boat with pressure water tends to use more. It is just not possible to wash your hands of brush your teeth with as little water as we use with our foot pump. Similarly washing dishes tends to use more when you have a regular tap. One of the biggest factors is water supply. On Two-Step, we do not have a watermaker. So an ocean crossing passage of 21 days (our longest to date) means we have to make our 320 litres last that long. For anyone planning ocean passages, note that you must budget your water for as long as you might be out there. We usually add a 50 percent safety factor to our voyage planning when we are provisioning. So our Atlantic Crossing to Brazil of 2200 miles was planned to be at sea for an entire month. We had enough food for that, and planned the water for that as well. Since we have four tanks, we know we shouldn't finish more than one per week.

Anyway, the net result of this is that long ago we learnt we could make do with just 80 litres of water a week for the two of us. Sun shower and sponge baths, washing dishes in salt water, and using foot pumps to help conserve.

Enter the modern cruising boat!! I read in a cruising magazine not so long ago that you could budget 25 gallons per person per day!!!! Are they talking about life on a cruising boat of on the QE2 I thought? Well, it turns out that if you have all the gadgets you just might (although 25 gallons might still be too much even for those who leave the water running while they brush their teeth).

Water Budget Factors

* Toilets – some modern marine toilets hook up to the fresh water to flush. If you have these on your boat then factor in 3 litres per flush. Possibly 20 litres per person per day.
* Showers – a modern shower can use quite a lot of water. Its a great luxury to have a shower on board, and many cruisers have them. If used frugally they may use just 10 litres per shower or even less if you instruct crew to turn it off while soaping up. I haven't done clinical tests but I imagine a wasteful shower head just left on all the time would use more than 20 litres in a long shower.
* Pressure water syndrome – probably the most insidious – PWS (pressure water syndrome) affects people by encouraging them to just leave the water running. Where campers and old-time sailors know its easy to brush your teeth in just 1 cup of water, modern city dwellers afflicted with PWS can use 10-20 times as much. Choosing a faucet that is easy to turn on and off can help somewhat. And instructing the crew can help too.
* Watermakers – For the new boat I am looking at a watermaker that will produce 24 litres per hour. To supply our modest needs on Two-Step, this would only need to run one hour every two days. Even when we are more careless and use water more casually we would still only need to use it for 1 hour a day. The factor seems to be you will use more since you know you have it! Cruisers I have spoken with who have watermakers, all said they wanted one so they wouldn't have to worry about water use. So add a factor of 2-times if you are in this category. Just remember that nothing is free. Running a watermaker for twice as long as you need, will use twice the power. It also might be noisy. Check out the sound of a potential watermaker before you buy. Many people recommend you plan a watermaker to supply your water needs by running in the time you will be running your engine or generator to charge the batteries. The rational here is that watermakers use a fair bit of power, so you will want to run the generator or engine at the same time. So a watermaker that is too small will need to run for hours. The alternative is a smaller watermaker that you might be able to run during times your solar or wind generator is producing surplus power. But more on power generation later...


See you next time – in the Med when we are back aboard Two-Step in Malta for Easter.]]>Paul ShardNone2007-03-05T09:21:00-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/bd2bc82e043e0799171f68ebf149a606-5.html#unique-entry-id-5http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/bd2bc82e043e0799171f68ebf149a606-5.html#unique-entry-id-5
The past few days I have been working on the electrical system design for the new boat. Basically all the gadgets and how many batteries we will need to run them all. As any long-term cruising sailor knows, the pile of modern goodies we have all been adding to our boats can drain the batteries pretty quickly. The question is how quickly! What you need to do is calculate how much power each device will use, and how long you will use it each day. I actually do two calculations, one for when we are at anchor and one when we are at sea on passage (assuming sailing 24 hours).

In order to do this calculation you need to assemble all the information on what power is required for each gadget, and this can be the most demanding part. Traditionally we calculate this in “amp-hours” which is how many amps it draws over so many hours. For example, the Autopilot uses 1.5 amps and I plan to run it for 24 hours when we are on passage. So it uses 36 amp-hours in my table. Note you must stick with the same voltage when you do this – so I am using 12V – but the same calculation can be done at 24Volt as well.

If you only have a wattage rating on the device – such as a 60 watt bulb – divide by the voltage to find the amps uses – 60/12=5 amps.

To do my table I used the internet and was able to find specs on a number of the gadgets I intend to put on the new boat. For instance, the cappuccino maker (;-) uses 1400 watts so I calculated 1400/12 is 118 amps at 12 volts. Not really accurate since the inverter will use some as well but this is meant as a rough calculation – after all, the number of hours we will use is a bit of a guess anyway.

Calculating the number of hours a gadget will be used is a fun activity on a winter day! You can visualize the situation and put yourself on the boat. How long would you play (I mean work) on the computer every day? If you are doing this calculation for a boat you already own you can make notes from past excursions. And hopefully you have an ammeter so you know how much the gadgets use as well. (If not its definitely worth getting one! An ammeter is a great tool to help manage your electrical system).

So Here's the first pass through this calculation for sizing the ship's battery bank. And it hasn't even got the washer/dryer in ;-)



Notes:
Assume windlass is used only when the engine is running so it is not included - budget is only for calculations of battery capacity.
- Radar is in transmit mode for 3 hours. This is a assuming a bad night because we normally leave it in standby mode. Of course in fog it would be on 24 hours.
- Refrigeration is always a big user. I hope this will be efficient but it may be on more than I budget, and may be on more when its really hot.
- Cabin lights don't use much. I am assuming a few reading lights and thats it. If you like it brighter be prepared to have lighting as one of the largest users of power.
- Autopilot use is for moderate sea conditions. In my experience they can use very little if the sea is light or the boat balances well. The Southerly has a very light helm so I predict it will be a low power user in "auto" mode.
- cabin lights are entered twice since we use them differently at sea and at anchor. At sea we just have 2 small lights on for watch the whole night. At anchor we have more but plan it for a typical sailors early night!

If you are planning a budget like this, you might want to splash out on lights, a big deep freeze and other things, but whatever you plan, your batteries should be able to supply the needs without needing a charge more than once a day. I am assuming I will want to recharge once a day, and that I shouldn't use more than 50% of the capacity of my batteries. So I am planning a bank somewhat larger than 400AH. Basically double the "Daily AH on Passage" total of 198 amp-hours).

That's it for now. Got to run and pack!!]]>Paul ShardNone2007-02-09T09:11:00-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/62676a0d33b178cf3bb975664fe184b6-4.html#unique-entry-id-4http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/62676a0d33b178cf3bb975664fe184b6-4.html#unique-entry-id-4

Site-seeing on a cold London Evening

But the month hasn't been all snow. First Sheryl and I went to the London Boat Show (http://www.londonboatshow.com/). What a great time! We had not been to that show before and found it very different from the north American shows we have attended. First there were lots of sailboats! Almost half the show was devoted to sail – one half the huge ExCel center in London's Docklands. And many of the stands (thats British-speak for booths) were very elaborate. On second thought maybe thats why they were called stands. Some of the swankier powerboat booths incorporated multi-storey restaurants serving champagne to potential clients!!


Meeting a Distant Shores Fan at the Raymarine Stand

Of course we were also filming for “Distant Shores” - sort of “what sailors do in the winter” kind of thing. And we were at the Raymarine Stand chatting to people who have seen our show in the UK. It was fun. We have had Raymarine gear on Two-Step for the past 3 years and love it. Especially the C80 plotter which has become the center of our navigation. With Radar image overlaid on the chart, as well as the info from the autopilot, wind, speed and depth as well – the C80 is a revelation! Certainly we will be putting one on the new boat – or maybe the networked version, the E80. So the boat show was a good time to meet fans of the TV show and chat about Raymarine kit at the stand (kit is stuff, stand is booth. There, I'm getting better at the proper English).


Southerly Stand

But one of the main reasons we went to London was to see the Southerly sailboats. I have been leaning toward the Southerly for a few reasons.

1. It is a solidly built fiberglass boat. I had been looking at aluminum as a building material since it is very strong but difficulties with paint systems and potential corrosion issues has diminished my enthusiasm. So although there are a few attractive aluminum monohulls built with retracting keel I guess they are not for me.
2. Shallow draft! Still a main concern as mentioned above. And although there are a number of shallow draft keels, they are mostly not meant to be dried out. In some cases what is shallow draft is merely relative to the standard keel. So the shallow draft Oyster 655 is 6 foot 8! (which isn't exactly shallow but certainly beats the standard draft of 9 foot 4!)
3. Multihulls look quite appealing, but are generally too beamy to be welcome in many of the more crowded marinas. In the Caribbean they are perfect, but I really want a boat that can go anywhere. The French Canals are another potential cruising ground that we would like to poke our nose into. And with limiting widths of 5 meters most modern cats longer than 35 feet would be too wide.
4. Quality. Northshore have been building Southerly swing keel boats for almost 30 years and have acquired a reputation for solid quality.


So we looked at the Southerly display at the London Boat Show. They had both their smallest boat – the 110, and their new 42RST. The 110 (at roughly 11 meters or 35 feet long) is a very nice looking boat that packs a lot into a relatively compact footprint. It is a lot larger inside than Two-Step. Actually. if we were just to replace Two-Step it would be a top contender. But we are looking for something larger.
Part of our plan with the new boat is to be able to have guests come and stay on board. Besides being able to accommodate additional film crew for our TV series, we are hoping to have space to have other guests to share the sail. Over the past few years we have had a number of requests from viewers of the show who would like to come on-board and share the sail with us. So the new boat we are looking at would have room to accommodate this. Watch this space for more news on this.
The Southerly 42RST (Raised Saloon Twin Wheel steering) was our current odds on favourite even before we saw her at the boat show. We had sailed on a couple of Southerlies earlier, and were impressed with them – but this model – with twin wheel looks just perfect.


Southerly 42RST Twin Wheel cockpit - his and hers wheel!!

There aren't any pix of the model we are going to get but the main specs are the same.

So, there's our big news!! We will be getting the new boat this summer – and getting her in shape to do the Atlantic crossing this coming fall. From England (where they are built) we will sail south across the Bay of Biscay, then Portugal as a shakedown. Then off to Madeira and the Canaries before crossing in November.

But we have a long way to go before then! For now I am working away on electrical budgets, figuring out how the sailplan will work best for the passages we are planning, and what seem like a million other details. The boat will be built starting in late April, and launched in August. Boy are we excited!! The last time we had a new boat was when when launched Two-Step – 19 years ago year – and we had to do all the work ourselves.

So, coming up over the next few weeks I will be doing more work on planning ships systems to make the new boat into our ultimate passagemaker – with shoal draft ability. Electrical systems, water system planning, anchor tackle, weight calculations for all this new equipment and more.

AND, if anyone thinks they might be interested in a chance to come along for a leg of the journey, I am working out a schedule for the next 8 months. The new boat has 2 guest cabins. One is a vee-berth and the other is a cabin with 2 bunks. I am just working out costs for a few of the different legs, we will be doing – starting in a few interisland passages around Madeira and the Canaries, possibly a chance to crew on the transatlantic passage in November/December and a few hops around the Caribbean. If you think one of these chances to gain some cruising experience would work for you, please drop me a email and I will send you out our schedule when its ready and add you to our special “share the sail” mailing list.

Tower Bridge - near St Katharine Docks where we stayed]]>Paul ShardNone2006-12-30T08:59:00-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/360e4fea61274c6004c89fd201789b3c-3.html#unique-entry-id-3http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/360e4fea61274c6004c89fd201789b3c-3.html#unique-entry-id-3
Anyway, for anyone interested, I am putting together a page with shots and equipment lists etc. She is a very full featured boat - certainly ready to cross oceans. She may be right for you!

What to buy next?
So now I am zeroing in on the next Two-Step and I keep coming back to wanting a shallow draft cruiser to explore further...

Shallow draft and the Cruising Sailor
Why am I so keen to get a boat that draws less than 4 feet?
Anchorages, canals, rivers, Bahamas!! A big part of the reason we cruise is to explore the places we sail to. And there are many waterways and whole cruising grounds we are excluded from with our 6-foot draft. Although we are almost average compared to sailboats, we are quite deep compared to boats in general. All small craft and almost all power boats less than 70 feet long draw less than 5 feet. Many only 3 or 4. So there are many waterways designed for these boats. In more than one occasion we have sat aground in the middle of the US intracoastal waterway. Silting up from the planned 8 ro9 foot depths is only a problem when it affects enough boats I guess. Once we sat directly between the red and green markers of the channel so everyone could see we were squarely in the right place. The Florida Marine Police even came up and complained that we were sitting in the middle of a navigable waterway (not SO navigable I would say). But my point is that as we sat there a large number of craft right up to a 60 foot motor yacht sailed happily around us. We were the deepest boat for those 2 hours. Having a shoal draft would also have let us sail on down through the Florida Keys. The Bahamas is another whole cruising area. Anyone who has visited this cruising paradise will not only tell you how lovely it is but also how it would help to have a shallow draft to see more of it. There are whole island groups out of bounds to our 6 feet. Here 3-feet would be perfect!! Then there are the European canals – much easier to handle with shallow draft. So many places we could visit. Even the canal running up to our home base in Canada just north of Toronto requires less than 5-foot draft.

Isn't it less seaworthy to have shoal draft?
Certainly there have been very seaworthy boats that managed to have a shallow draft by putting the weight of the keel all along the bottom instead of concentrating it in a big bulb. Joshua Slocum's Spray only drew roughly 4 feet. But these boats tend to be slow er than modern sailors are willing to accept. They were made withing the limits of the materials. Wood just didn't allow the more interesting shapes of modern boats to be made strongly. So if you accept our modern quicker hulls with lower wetted surface area and beamy hulls for more accommodation, you are going to need to put some ballast fairly low to keep them safe. But remember that modern boats are also much lighter than previous craft of the same length. So it is possible to get a good stable boat by concentrating a lot of weight deep in the hull. Obviously you could get away with less weight if you could hang it lower but it can be done.

How do you measure whether the stability is sufficient?
A stability curve can be generated for a particular model of boat. The line basically shows if the boat wants to stay upright (and we all like boats that like to stay upright!!). Point A is the boat floating level. She has almost no resistance to tipping over a little at this point. So just walking to the shrouds will mean the boat will heel very slightly. But from this point on the stability increases dramatically. To get the boat heeled further you will need to get all your friends to the rail as well. And still she will only heel a few degrees. So having full sail up in a strong wind might only heel her 20 degrees or so. The main question when looking at these curves is what happens when she is REALLY heeled over. At point B – the boat is heeled 90 degrees so here mast is in the water. According to this curve she still wants to resist going over further – this is good! In fact she has the same righting force as when she is over by 45 degrees. And since the wind is no longer blowing against the sails (which are lying in the water) she is very likely to stand back up again. In fact even if the boat goes way over to 30 degrees past horizontal (at point C) she still wants to roll back up again. Only if she gets 60 degrees over does she have a point (point D) where there is no longer any force from the shape of the hull and ballast that is trying to right her. If she were in this position in completely flat seas she would theoretically balance in that position. And if she were a bit further over she would continue on to balance again perfectly upside down. Thats what the curve shows at point E. If this vessel were in totally calm conditions and somehow found herself inverted to 165 degrees she would settle into a floating condition perfectly balanced upside down!! Luckily this is very unlikely. The only way a boat is ever going to get to 120 degrees over is in VERY large seas, and in this case would only need a fairly small wave to upset the balance from being inverted, and she would stand up again.
The simplest way to look at the stability curve of a sailboat is to see the how much of the curve is above the line and how much is below. The point where the curve crosses the line is also important and is known as the angle of vanishing stability. At risk of oversimplifying, the higher this number, the safer the boat.

What are the main factors affecting stability?
Basically the stability as measured by the curve is determined by the distribution of weight in the boat and the form of the hull and deckhouse. So a boat with a mediocre stability such as a canoe, could be improved by adding some weight in a keel hung 1 meter down, and by building a lightweight deck to stop water coming in when heeled past 30 degrees. Any boat will be improved for (stability purposes) by removing unnecessary weight above the centre of gravity. In fact this is a good reason not to take your collected 30 years of National Geographic Magazines and store them up on the bulkhead. Similarly jugs of water and fuel lashed on deck and the outboard motor up on a bracket, all add to the top heaviness and reduce the stability of a boat.

What about a very deep keel?
The easiest way to improve a sailboats stability and also its sailing characteristics is to concentrate more of the boat's weight lower in the keel. The racing community have embraced this concept! Todays racers have bulbs suspended on a winglike blade and may draw 3 or 4 meters. The newest use hydraulics to swing the keel from side to side to improve the righting moment even more dramatically. For the rest of us cruising in the real world where there are shoals, lobster pots and slips with limited depth these keels are impractical but they are certainly a trend in the racing world and show some interesting potential for cruising boats if the ideas weren't quite so radical.

How about a keel that swings down for offshore work and lifts up for shallow draft?
This isn't a new idea but there have been difficulties in the past. A boat made of wood needs a large area to provide the strength to attach a keel and distribute the tremendous loads of a heavy keel where it would slide or swing into the hull. Similarly fiberglass would need great reinforcement but would be easier to accomplish. And steel or aluminum have easily got the strength to support a well designed movable keel. Now modern racing boats are making canting keels by taking advantage of modern hi strength materials. So although most cruisers will shake their heads at the radical canting bulb keels that swing many tons out to the side of the new crop of maxi-yachts, there is no denying that racers are paving the way for cruisers to follow by showing that keels don't just have to be fixed to the bottom of a sailboat.

What is out there for cruisers?
There are a few cruising boats right now that have shallow draft and have solved the keel problem in interesting ways.

Traditional boat with a centreboard – Classic yachts like the Bermuda 40 have reduced the keel depth somewhat, and added a centreboard to reduce leeway when beating. Simplest to build and proven over years they do reduce the draft but not by much. And since the centreboard usually doesn't contribute much to the ballast, these designs do not offer an increase in stability.

Centreboard in a modern hull shape. French builders Garcia and Alubat (builders of the Ovni series – which incidentally means U.F.O. in french since they do look a bit wild!) have built a number of models in aluminum that have a modern beam and waterline but no built in keel at all. The ballast is concentrated in the bottom of the hull itself, and the centreboard keel that swings down is almost neutral – designed to reduce leeway and allow the boats to go to windward but not add to the righting moment. These boats tend to be heavier than conventional designs since more ballast is required to make up for none of it being lower than their typically 1 meter draft. But these boats are popular with sailors interested in shallow water, and have also done many offshore passages. Jimmy Cornell is currently sailing an Ovni 43.

Lifting keel daggerboard in a modern hull – European design firm Van De Stadt have done a number of models that have a bulb on a daggerboard where a substantial amount of ballast is hung down to a depth that makes their modern hull shape virtually equivalent to a modern deep keel boat. At sea the boat would perform like a modern racer/cruiser, but by hydraulically raising the keel the draft is reduced by up to 1 meter as you sail into your marina! Disadvantages include the possibility of jamming the daggerboard if you run aground when it is down, and the fact that stability is very affected by the keel. So if you have the keel up you would be careful not to overpower the boat with full sails. In practice you could just remember to reduce sail before raising the keel.

Modern hull with ballast in a centreboard – British-built Southerlies have an interesting system where a deep centreboard comprises 35 percent of the ballast package, and the remaining is in a large plate in the deepest part of the hull. The boats are fibreglass but instead of worrying about how to attach the centreboard securely to the glass hull, Southerlies use the massive ballast plate to fashion a sturdy attachment point in cast iron. That way the loads of the ballast attachment to the glass hull are distributed over the size of the ballast plate. With a heritage of the south of England, the design is meant to be able to dry out by resting on the ballast plate, and she can also deal with running aground since the centreboard is designed to kick up without causing harm. Since the heavy centreboard affects the stability quite a bit, the boat actually has two stability curves. Stability is good even with the board up, but there is greater righting moment with the board down, and of course she will make much less leeway. Southerly seems to me to have the most promising mix of shallow draft, seaworthiness and not too much technology to get in the way. But how do they deal with the rudder when they go aground and how do they lift that heavy centreboard. I am going to investigate further!!

London Boat Show 2007
Sheryl and I are flying to the London Boat show next week and plan to look there!!!
]]>Paul ShardNone2006-12-16T08:57:00-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/52e4a50b8de8ee40cedf922ec1c52fea-2.html#unique-entry-id-2http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/52e4a50b8de8ee40cedf922ec1c52fea-2.html#unique-entry-id-2
But back to the chain. By making the anchor rode all chain you have no fear of sharp coral or rocks cutting you adrift. Chain allows you to anchor with less rode so you can swing in a smaller radius and not worry about taking too much space in a crowded harbour. And in the Eastern Mediterranean where we often use an anchor to moor up stern to the key having an all chain rode means we will not risk having our rode cut by the propellor of another boat maneuvering near our bows. It is a common sight in a Greek harbour to see 20 yachts all stern to the key and their anchors set on 20-80 meters of chain and a newcomer caught broadside while trying to wiggle in to a space. Definitely a good time to have an all chain rode, a boathook at the ready and a friendly helpful attitude “there but for the grace of god go I”. Two-Step is quite agile in these conditions and we have only been caught once I can remember but still...

Where we have been caught is trying to guage the distance off the key to set the hook. When we had just 40 meters there were a few occasions when we set the anchor, backed up to the key and found we had run out of rode still 7 meters off. We lengthened it with a warp but this still meant we had an exposed bit of cuttable rope off our bows until the chain began 5 meters on. Now with 60 meters this is not likely to be a problem again. And quite a few of our experienced Mediterranean cruising friends have 100 meters of chain!!

North American sailors often have gone for the performance theory that you only need a few meters of chain and can save the weight of an anchor windlass as well. Even to have 20 meters of chain would be overkill. And while you're at it why not make the chain lighter by using the hi-tensile variety. Schedule 40 or even Schedule 70 chains can allow you to cut the weight of your chain in half for the same strength.

I would like to take the best from both camps. 60 or 70 meters of chain allow us the peace of mind to and ease of use we have been used to with 17 years of anchoring on all chain, but the new boat will make use of a hi-tensile chain to save weight. Where we would have needed 10mm (approx 3/8 inch) chain before we can now use just 8mm and have a chain that is actually a fair bit stronger.

Weight of Chain

60 meters of 10mm chain weighs approximately 140 Kg or 300 pounds
60 meters of 8mm Schedule 70 chain weighs approx 90Kg or 200 pounds

The best part is that the lighter chain is almost 30% stronger!

So assuming the new boat is 40-45 feet long it will be well secured with 8mm schedule 70 chain (with a substantial safety margin). Ideally it will have 60-70 meters so it will need to have an anchor locker to hold roughly 100Kg of chain. More tomorrow! I'm off to measure the height of the chain in a big pile at the bows. Two-Step has 60 meters of 8mm chain so I'm going to dump it all on the bottom and then pull it in and see how high it piles up...]]>Paul ShardNone2006-12-03T08:46:00-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/131911d949006015c05a44281ba6ea8f-1.html#unique-entry-id-1http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/131911d949006015c05a44281ba6ea8f-1.html#unique-entry-id-1
Anchoring Systems
So today I have been trying to assemble all the info we have accumulated over the years to plan out the perfect anchoring system. There are only a few topics more likely to invite heated discussions from cruising sailors than what is the perfect anchor, but I am more concerned with how to set up the best overall system, not just the anchor itself.

Anchors
For the past 17 years we have used a 45lb CQR as our main anchor. This anchor has held very well in a variety of conditions HOWEVER it has not ever set very well. By this I mean it works great to hold the boat after it has been set well in the bottom but it doesn't tend to set itself. Consequently I have taken to diving down and checking the anchor, and on many occasions helping it set, or even moving it to a better spot then setting it (see underwater footage of this in the Distant Shores Volume 3: South Italy & Adriatic Sea DVD in episode #21 Rogoznica Croatia).

Thanks in part to this questionable setting of my CQR I have now become somewhat of an expert on anchor setting performance since I regularly swim around to nearby boats and check on their anchors as well. Over the last few years I have swum down to inspect a variety of anchors in the Mediterranean, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic, Aegean and Red Seas. Many of the bottoms in these areas include a covering of grass and are therefore more challenging for anchors than the typical mud of the US east coast or the sand of the Bahamas or Caribbean.

The Bruce and CQR anchors do not tend to set well in these conditions and I often found them lying scarcely dug in, or with weeds balled up around them. Certainly our CQR sets poorly in grass, tending to lie on its side and slide along, not enough weight in the tip to get it to set. As it is sliding back I can just lift it up a bit and push the tip in. Then it suddenly sets and digs in well. Since I only sleep well knowing it is set, and I have lost faith in its ability to set itself, I have been looking around for the better solution!

One of the most popular anchors is the Delta. Although it was originally conceived as a budget version of the CQR it has proven to be a big improvement! Much more of the weight is in the tip of the anchor and because of this it sets far better than the CQR. I have watched the Delta slide along a grassy bottom for just a few feet before the weight in the tip pushes through the grass and the anchor starts to set itself. Very impressive.

Another anchor commonly seen in the Mediterranean these days is the Bugel and although I have seen it also setting quite well in the grasses and hard sands in anchorages here I have wondered if it has large enough flukes to match the overall performance of the Delta in softer mud and sands. As a general all around anchor we have now switched to a Delta for Two-step and the new boat will have the same.

2nd Anchor – My favourite second anchor is the light Danforth style (like the Fortress). They are fabulous in mud and sand and hold stronger than almost anything in those bottoms. They will not reset themselves if you start to pull from the opposite direction so I plan to set them for situations where they won't be asked to reset. Going stern to the shore or a key, setting as a second anchor in a Bahamian mooring or when bow and stern anchoring.

Windlass and Anchor Chain
Since we added an electric windlass to Two-Step there has been no looking back. And the Lewmar V3 we have now on Two-Step is surely the most beautiful piece of stainless steel engineering ever to pull an anchor! Although we never shirked our responsibility to re-anchor until we got it right, it sure is less daunting to consider pulling the anchor and chain up from 16 meters and resetting it 3 times just to get it correct. So the new boat must have a powerful electric windlass and 70 meters of chain. More info on this in the future!!

Stern Anchoring
Cruising in Croatia and Turkey the past few years we have many times had to anchor in a deep bay and back up to the shore or a jetty to take a line ashore. This is a common method of anchoring and allows 10-15 boats to be securely tied up in a small bay where only 1-2 could have swung freely on their anchors. To do this many cruising sailors have added a reel on the stern railing to allow 50 meters of line to be easily deployed. Just jump in the dinghy or swim ashore pulling the line and tie it on a tree or rock at the shoreline. The reel allows a swimmer to do the job almost single handedly and beats our method of having someone on deck manage our 50 meter bag of line – always in danger of tangling. A line on a reel also is available for emergencies such as offering a tow or whatever – ready to go!]]>Paul ShardNone2006-11-28T08:44:00-05:00http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/09cb9672f4bf9dea60a0c00ae7a65745-0.html#unique-entry-id-0http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/files/09cb9672f4bf9dea60a0c00ae7a65745-0.html#unique-entry-id-0
This weblog will follow our design process of finding and outfitting the ultimate cruising sailboat for crossing oceans, exploring coasts and living aboard.

Basic parameters

1. LOA in range of 40-45 feet since we will need space for visitors and crew on occasion.
2. LWL in range of 35-38 feet. For ocean passages this size means substantially more LWL than Two-Step, a Classic 37, which is just 27 feet on the waterline. Of course longer waterline length means higher speed potential and we would love to cut a few days off the typical 20 day ocean crossing. Modern designs usually have a fairly straight bow to help achieve this longer waterline than Two-Step with her long overhangs.
3. Shallow draft. Ideally we would like to draw less than 4 feet to be able to visit those creeks in the Chesapeake Bay we missed last time and of course the back corners of our favourite destination – The Bahamas. Also canals often require shallower than 5 feet draft. This must not compromise safety and performance at sea. I know deep sea performance and shoal draft is going to be a tough one but exploring the coasts and countries when we arrive is the main reason Sheryl and I sail.
4. Air draft of less than 62 feet to allow us to go under bridges through the Intra-Coastal Waterway in the US.
5. Guest cabin as well as main owner's double cabin. Most people would like to be able to have guests visit and have the possibility of extra crew on passages. We have seen many cruising boats with a guest cabin but not sufficient storage so the guest cabin has become a junk room. Many charter boats are laid out like this – maximizing the crew accommodation but not leaving nearly enough storage for people who live aboard.
6. Plenty of storage for cruising gear in the boat. We have more books, clothes, spare parts and general gear than many boats are made to handle and I am sure we are not unique amongst live-aboard cruisers. Some want to collect carpets in the east, shells down south and general souvenirs along the way. On Two-Step we carry tools to make ourselves self-sufficient, and have 3 lockers just devoted to camera gear and audio equipment to film our TV series.
7. More storage accessible from on deck. Some boat designs haven't even got sufficient storage for the the number of fenders needed to protect your boat in some rougher docks or marinas.
8. Facility to store a 10 foot RIB with 10-15 HP motor for planing. In the Bahamas and Caribbean this is a must. Ideally it would be kept on Davits for easy launching (and security) and only lashed on deck for passages.

One thing we are going to keep an eye on is just what we might be losing by giving up Two-Step. It is easy to see what you might like as a new feature, but harder sometimes to be aware of what you already have and might lose by moving to a new boat. Two-Step is a very tough boat with very high quality fittings, a cozy interior, easy-to-service engine, excellent storage space, she is easy to handle with just two people and we know her inside and out. She will not be easy to replace! But without getting all emotional here, we are looking to update and add features and open up new destinations after 17 years of cruising on her. (sniff)]]>