Cats

I was in Ft. Lauderdale for a day and Brent from the Catamaran Co. showed me a couple of boats they have at the pier. Being Lagoon kind of folks the two bigger boats he showed me were 41 and 38 feet. Both are truly nice boats but I have never sailed on a Lagoon and would certainly want to spend a few days living on one before writing a check.

Then he showed me a Gemini 105Mc. Deb and I had looked at the 105 as a very interesting boat, until we boarded one in Annapolis the first time we were there. It appeared flimsy, lightweight, small and trailer-park like. We got off that thing as quickly as we could and never looked back...until yesterday. I'm not sure why the boat didn't strike me as quite so bad this time, maybe a couple of years of actually learning how to be a sailor? It is still small, but this time small strikes me as not so bad a thing. A 14 foot beam looks pretty proportional on its 33.5 foot water line. (I have to admit that, to my eye, some of the bigger Cats are looking decidedly "square" with beam / length ratios looking a little out of control.) And though 33.5 feet of LWL is shorter than we think would work for a live-a-board monohull, there is plenty of interior room in the Gemini with a nice master cabin that has a good view. (As opposed to the V-birth on a monohull, or the aft cabin on a Center Cockpit boat.)

Also, according to Brent, the Gemini is a fun sail. Its light weight and keel boards make it a fun ride on the water. "Are you a sailor or do you drive a condo," were one of his comments. It has the stability of a cat when on the hook, and (boards and rudders up) it draws 18 inches. All good things for a couple looking to sail where Deb and I want to sail. But...

The bridge deck is low. I mean really low, like 6 inches. Maybe the pounding will be no worse than on a mono with hard turn to the bilge, I just don't have enough experience to know. The sail drive is butt ugly when up out of the water, and it doesn't clear the water by much. Any wave action and that thing is going to be splashing in and out of the water constantly. The inside still has the fit and feel of a trailer, nothing like Nomad. I can't imagine that it can carry much of a load gracefully, though maybe the low bridge deck keeps you from piling on the weight. Seeing the bottom flat on the water would surely discourage you from putting that next box of spare parts on board.

I don't know, a Gemini or a pretty, 40' monohull? Having not yet sailed on a Gemini, I think I would lean to the monohull.

More lessons from Nomad

Not in the watter yet but getting close, Nomad's off season refit goes on. The aluminum holding tank failed. A new plastic model is in the works. This makes sense. Since buying the boat we have struggled to get the "head smell" under control. I replaced the head to tank hose, we have tried endless different chemicals, but stink can escape from holes too small for liquid to flow through. There is hope a new tank will give our noses a break.

The water heater failed as well. This also makes sense. Nomad's little engine slowly lost coolant but I could never figure out where it was going. While trying to get the water heater working I discovered that insulation blanket inside the metal cover was completely soaked. A new 10 gallon unit has been installed in the place of the old 7 gallon model.

We gave up on the idea of replacing the head sink faucet and shower head with marine units. The cost was out of sight for what appeared to be the cheapest of plastic parts. Home Depot supplied better quality units at 1/10th the cost. All that was needed was a few adapters to splice the dissimilar plumbing together. (Boat plumbing still strikes me as the lowest of low rent solutions. Soft plastic fittings and hose clamps? Really?)

We have gotten pretty bold about tearing things apart. Boats, after all, are pretty low tech. Routine A/C wiring and fiberglass work appear to be as complex as it gets. The rest is bolt, unbolt, or refinish.