This year's Chicago Strictly Sail show was the first one Deb and I attended were we weren't looking for "The Boat". We found Kintala last year while at the show (hard to believe it has been a year) so, this year, we were looking at stuff we think we need (want) to put on "The Boat" before casting off our shore lines. Reading cruising blogs and books and gazing at pictures of cruising boats, our Tartan would appear to be far from ready for big water. Things she lacks include: dink & motor, autopilot, dodger, chart plotter, AIS, RADAR, solar panels, wind generator, stone-reliable furler, (the one we have appears too small for the task) proper anchor chain, (what we have is mis-matched to the windlass) water-maker, AC inverter, sea anchor / drogue, storm trisail & jib, and some kind of stern anchor. That seems like an impossibly long, and expensive, list.
But here is my current list of things I think we must have before going: dink & motor, autopilot, storm trisail & jib, drogue / sea anchor, AIS, and a stone-reliable furler. (Okay, I know there is no such a thing but ours appears undersized and is stone-cold unreliable.)
High on the list of things I would really like to have is a chart plotter, RADAR and dodger. As a long time airplane driver I loves me some GPS moving map. I am also an expert at RADAR and can imagine 100 different scenarios where having one would be a damned good idea. As for a dodger, the companionway on our 1982 Tartan 42 is simply a hatch in the cabin roof. Without a dodger the only two choices are close the the boat up tight or let the rain and spray fall inside.
But I'm pretty sure I can find the Bahamas with a hand held GPS and a paper chart. If hanging out on a limb I am absoluty sure I can find North America from just about anywhere in the Atlantic by looking at the sun, the North Star, and anything even close to being a compass. (One could probably follow the contrails and even hit a major city.) Just sitting at our little lake we have an old Garman chart plotter, two smart phones (complete with GPS and compass aps) an iPad, and two laptops. How much navigation stuff does one boat really need?
As for the other stuff, we can leave home without it...and probably will.
A Sad Goodbye
4 weeks ago
Hi TJ and Deb.
ReplyDeleteI see your list is long an expensive.
Defender has a spring sale going on right now so you might have a look.
I am looking at the Mercury AirDeck hypalon dink with a 9.9 HP Merc Outboard. Since I would never put a davit on this boat, I need one that is small enough for the foredeck and light enough that my wife and me can manhandle.
We installed our Spectra Watermaker under our aft berth (it eats most of the space in there) and set our filter racks in the aft closet for easy maintenance.
We also installed a 3.5 kw generator in the lazzerette (this required replacing the old water heater and plumbing with a smaller (9 gallon) and more efficient unit).
All the filters are mounted to the front inside of the lazzerette for easy inspection.
We are looking at the new B&G (Zeus) plotter. The is the only one setup for sailors. It just came out after last years boat show so nobody had one to show. I got to play with one last December and it is a brilliant piece of kit. Except it requires me to replace the old B&G data network on the boat with the new marine datacom standard. I am not looking forward to that project.
Ed
S/V Tardis