Life Jackets

As a life long swimmer, once-upon-a-time active SCUBA diver, also-once-upon-a-time certified life guard, I have developed a bit of a disdain for life jackets. Its not that I think they are bad, or never useful, anything like that. But I do tend to think that we rely on them too much. The idea that putting a life jacket on a child is somehow better than teaching that child how to swim is, to me, both inane and irresponsible. If one is not comfortable enough with the water to learn how to swim, perhaps one should not venture out on a small boat in the first place? A life jacket should be a secondary aid for someone who likes being in and around the water and has the skills to be comfortable in that environment, without a life jacket. And, given that I sail on a lake it is likely I could swim across on any given day, or at least swim half-way across, I tend to be a bit cavalier about having a life jacket near by. I mean, really, when the weather is so hot that about all anyone is wearing is a swimsuit anyway, there isn't a whole lot of difference between jumping off the boat to go swimming and falling off the boat to end up swimming. I recently watched 4 grown adults toss life vests into the water before they would jump in to paddle the 20 feet or so between our boat and theirs. Are you kidding me?

Last weekend we were coved out when a nice little (well, not so little) TRW rolled the lake in the dark, wee hours of the morning. Wind blew, lightning flashed, covers flogged, our little boat pitched and tossed...and I was out on deck dressed only in a light pair of pants. As I wrestled with the lines and pulled down the covers, it occurred to me that...

1) the water looked black and uninviting,
2) staying on the boat as it rocked and rolled was not a given,
3) being flung off the deck could easily include some kind of injury, (I'm still not sure that stanchions, vertical sharp metal sticks bolted to the deck, somehow add to the safety of a boat.)
4) swimming in a pair of pants would take some effort, (particularly in the waves that came with the storm),
5) finding a shore, even one as close at hand as we had in the cove, might not be easy in the reduced visibly of driving rain,
6) and that maybe I should have grabbed my life vest instead of my pants.

I still think life vests should be regarded as aids to swimmers. But I think I'll be keeping mine a bit closer to hand from now on.

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.

Lessons from Nomad

We have been doing some serious work on Nomad. As a result of having so many parts off I have learned a thing or two about what I want to see on an ocean going boat.

I was surprised to find that Nomad had no backing plates under the bow pulpit mounts or lifeline stanchions. The washers used at the factory had crushed their way into the fiberglass. We put 1/4 inch mica blocks under the bow pulpit mounts and used fender washers under the lifeline supports. On any ocean going boat those items should be mounted as solidly as possible, with big, glassed in backing supports that can take a hell of a load.

Swim ladders must have steps. Round bars of bar steal are just too slippery to be of any use. Even on a calm lake to climb back aboard after a dip is to risk a broken limb. In a rolling sea fully dressed? No chance. Note: swim ladders are made of some hard stuff...punching holes in it will take effort and the best drills available.

Nomad's companionway steps, which hinge up to get to the engine like many boats, has no latch to hold them in place. On the lake it is an item I am likely to leave as is. On a blue-water boat everything that opens or moves or swings should be latched in place.

The hull / deck joint on Nomad is held together with self tapping screws set on about 9 inch centers. Okay for a lake boat, but during this last bit of work I discovered several of the screw heads pulled through the deck flange with some gaping of the joint. Oversize hardware and some new sealer fixed her up. On my next boat I want to see bolts with big washers on each flange, glassed in. That joint needs to be solid.

Once again it seems to me that boats are not assembled with the kind of robust quality I would have expected in an item intended to face some pretty hostile environments. Little things, but Deb and I are going to spend literally hundreds of hours this spring, fixing a list of "little things."

Nomad is a 1986, factory boat that has spent her whole life in fresh water. Given the amount of work needed just to keep her (or get her) in the shape I find acceptable, just how much work would be involved in an early 1980's salt water boat? If we buy such a boat as our home will we spend a year in the yard, spending money like mad, trying to make it into something we feel secure living on? Should we move "age" up near the top of the list of things to consider? Quality of maintenance, not year of manufacture, is what is important when it comes to airplanes, and I am sure the same is true of boats. But I can look at an airplane and its maintenance logs and get a good feel for what shape the machine is in. (A skill that didn't keep me from taking a job flying a Poppa-Oscar-Sierra Citation V!) I'm not as confident I can do so with a sailboat.

Chicago Boat Show

My thoughts on boats continue to evolve as we get deeper in and closer to the decision to pull the trigger on this thing. (3 years into a 5 year plan.) Catamarans are still my favorite platform but, unless I get a job on the East Coast, I fear they are just too expensive. We could probably afford one if we wait long enough, but therein lies the rub. I'm not sure how much longer I want to wait.

So, with the tide appearing to favor a mono-hull, what are the things what matter, and the things what don't? The first "thing what matters" is size. With an exception or two I think anything much less than 40 feet is just too short to call home, and anything over 46 is unnecessary. Catalina frames the tape measure, with the 375 lying just over the "too short" call and their 445 just short of "unnecessary." With boats in that length draft doesn't seem to be much of a "deal killer."

A modified fin keel with a skeg hung rudder seems the underwater shapes for good passage making when things get rough. Though truth to tell I am having trouble keeping the "modified fins" and "modern full" keels separate. I think one sort of morphs into the next depending on the specific boat / designer. I am not a fan of the racing fins and balanced rudders. I know they mean "performance" but it looks to me like they also mean "easily damaged" and "expensive to repair."

Though Deb and I will spend more time on the hook than we do underway, (just like everyone else)I like the idea of a boat whose design parameters emphasize sea keeping and passage making. I'll give away a little floor space in the V-birth for a boat that doesn't pound or a knot of hull speed for a boat that is stable in the wind and waves. I like a cutter rig but would do away with a bowsprit, though I like the way Nomad looks with hers. Still, one often pays for the length of the bowsprit when at the dock, so why not have that length in the water? And I always wondered as the wisdom of having a rigging load tied to the boat at or near the waterline and right at the bow.

Even though I sill would like a Cat, I often ponder the issues that come with not being able to track well to windward. (Unless you get one with boards.) Deb and I plan on making the East Coast home. Going to windward would seem to be the task at hand at least half the time. Something to consider with various mono-hulls as well.

Cockpit locations no longer matter much, though a completely open transom seems a poor idea on a cruising boat. I have become fond of twin helms.

Separate shower stall (with overhead hatch please) is close to a deal breaker. Water maker, probably. Big fridge, not really but a little ice maker would be nice. And make mine a close to being energy independent as we can get, solar and wind.

And make it sooner rather than later.

Blue Water Class

I'm sitting in Nomad on a lake full of muddy brown water, so I guess that sparked my "blue water" musings. Deb and I are considering taking a blue water course at Emerald Coast, the same place we did the Catamaran class last year. They treated us so well and their prices are so good that it seems the right choice to take advantage of their combined "Advanced Coastal Cruising" package. We could renew our acquaintance with Lady Marian for the 5 day Gulf of Mexico Sail, (our dance partner from last year's catamaran class) but we are thinking of going to the opposite end of the spectrum. Emerald Coast has a Beneteau 381 available for this course. It is a production boat a bit more than 10 feet longer and two feet wider than Nomad, with another foot of draft. We know we could live on a 38 foot Catamaran and barely notice we have left land. (Not really, the ocean is a pretty big place. Still there is no doubt that living on a 38 foot Cat is living the good life!) I'm kind of curious how 38 feet of production monohull looks and feels after a week on board and a couple of hundred miles of water have passed by the gunnels.

Besides, I haven't sailed a Beneteau before. Why not try something new?

Thoughts on the 09 Annapolis show

The cat vs mono-hull debate is pretty much settled in favor of cats - depending (of course) on $$. I wonder at the difference between the sea kindliness of a 38' cat vs. a 50' mono but suspect that the stability of the cat, even though shorter, would win. Upwind is still a concern for me, but again, the stability of the cat and the quality of life living aboard would probably make it the preferred choice. I did see a Benetau I really kind of liked, the 43. Deb saw a Hunter she kind of liked (a bit of a surprise that). We both really like the Pacific Seacraft 40, the Caliber 40 LRC and the Gozzard 41. (Deb likes that one a bit more than I do. Interior is fantastic but somehow the exterior of the boat has lost some of its luster to my eye.) I was disappointed to be disappointed by the Dufours, even the 525 left me a bit unmoved. The Island Packet Estero was a disappointment as well. Though the interior (like the Gozzard) has a great living room space in the forward hull, for some reason it just doesn't work as well as the Gozzard's.

Of the cats the new-for-this-year Leopard 38 was a stunner. The flat front windows make its deck salon feel more spacious than the older model 40. It needs some work on the cabinet hinges. They are not mounted well and, given sea conditions where people end up putting some pressure one them, will soon fail. But that was the only complaint I had. I liked the retracting dingy davits and the cockpit seat back that swings so that one can sit facing aft. Sitting and looking out over the ocean at the end of the day, sipping a cold one with an unobstructed view from the world's best back porch...how cool would that be?

The F/P Lapari 41 was another stunner. My only concern was a boat with a 39' LWL and a 22 foot beam. That wide beam made for an interior space in the hulls that was amazing, though I wonder what the additional wetted surface will do to performance. The tub like helm station hanging down into the cockpit was a bit awkward as well. (If the boat was mine I would get Brian to paint something there to cover the "ugh" factor.) A show-goer who has chartered both the Leopards and the F/Ps several times, (though admittedly neither the brand new 38 from Leopard or the Lapari) shared his opinion that the Leopard was a far better sailing boat; which would break the tie for me. (And, truth to tell, I think the Leopard is a prettier boat. I know that shouldn't matter much, but life is too short to own an ugly boat.)

I'm also getting pretty comfortable with the idea that Deb and I could handle a 50 foot boat, cat or mono, with a little practice. Besides, if we had a boat that big I'm thinking we would have a lot of "temporary crew" around to help out.