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On Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:56:47 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote: Some interesting discussion points were brought out in any case. It might be interesting to start another thread on what people consider to be essential or highly desirable on cruising boats, perhaps broken out by three or more size ranges: Under 30 feet; 30 to 40; 40 and up, for example. I'd suggest that we should consider what it would take for your wife to agree to a 3 month cruise on the boat. :-) For you guys who aren't married, you'll just have to use your imagination. Some possible discussion items: - Type of dinghy, dinghy power, dinghy storage. - Water tankage and/or water maker?. - Pressure water?, hot water?, shower?, number and type of heads. - Number and type of anchors, length/type of rode, windlass?, etc - Galley equipment, stove type, refrigeration type, microwave?, blender?, toaster?, freezer? - Safety equipment, liferaft?, EPIRB?, SSB radio?, Sat Phone? - Aux power, none?, outboard?, inboard gas?, inboard diesel?, tankage/range?, fuel filtration and polishing?, oil change system? - Electrical system, none?, basic 12 volt?, house bank/size?, recharging capability?, inverter/type/size/switching?, generator type/size/switching? - Self steering?, autopilot?, wind vane? - Electronics, GPS plotter/features, radar/features, depth sounder, AIS?, DSC VHF?, handhelds?, entertainment systems?, etc. and so on.... I suggest a criteria for the type of cruising. Maybe, day sailing up the coast where one stops every evening and spares and supplies are available. Travel to foreign or remote areas where you are pretty much on your own for several weeks at a time. When I originally said "long range cruising", travel to foreign or remote areas was what I had in mind. I could be wrong but I think the requirements for coastal cruising are fairly well understood by most people in this group. I find storage as being the most important factor in determining boat size. If "provisions" consists of a loaf of bread and a bottle of jelly for tomorrow's breakfast and peanut butter and saltine crackers for lunch because we will stop at "hole in the wall" where they have that darling little restaurant for supper, it is one thing. If you aren't going to see land for three weeks it is quite another. Boat size, depending on use but for a couple my opinion is 35 ft. minimum and 40 ft. makes a more pleasant living space. I agree but there are some people who want to go in smaller boats, usually for budgetary reasons. Fridge - Damned nice if you are cruising in tropical areas. On the other hand I would be reluctant to depend on it for long trips as a failure could be life threatening. I think most people would agree that they'd consider a fridge to be very desirable, if not essential. There are different types, some more reliable and easier to repair than others: holding plates; evaporator systems; engine driven compressors; 12 volt compressors; 110 volt compressors; portable ice chest types like the Engel, with and without dual power; different levels of component redundancy; etc. Water maker - Allows you to sail a lighter boat but failure could be life threatening. Probably a good idea for long distance but should be combined with a sensible fresh water management system. In any event you want fairly large water tanks to allow a water management system to function. Water system - for long distance cruising a manual pump system. If you can build a automatic pressure system for marina use and a manual pump for off shore you have the best of two worlds. If the boat has both a generator and an inverter system, you can have reliable 110 volt power just about anywhere. You can also have redundant pressure systems - both 110 volt and 12 volt. Our trawler was originally set up like that but some previous owner removed the 12 volt pump. Fortunately our 110 volt pump is industrial strength. Stove - LPG. You can get it anywhere, a couple of 9 Kg. tanks lasts for months. It is easy to light and it cooks good. Microwave, etc. For marina use only. LPG is very popular for a lot of good reasons but our last two boats have had electric stoves which works out very well if you have reliable 110 volt power. It's nice to not have to carry stove fuel. There are also some big advocates for diesel stoves which can also double as heaters in cold climates. Autopilot/wind vane steering - YES! A must have item. the vane steering works only under sail and the Autopilot works both under power and sail. I see more and more people using autopilots but I'd prefer both as many autopilots use too much power for reliable use in long sailing passages. Battery bank - House and start batteries that are separate. Size depends on use. Auxiliary power - Diesel inboard! Shaft drive with no sail drive or Vee or Zee drives. I suggest a Baja Filter. I don't have one but I normally refuel from jerry cans and let them settle before transferring to the tanks. I still have a Baja filter from my sailing says. It works well but is too slow for large quantities of fuel. Fuel Polishing - I consider a system to "polish" the fuel probably unreliable however a system to cycle the fuel through a water catcher is not a bad idea. I have gotten water from both shore tanks and fuel barges. Trawler people are big on fuel poishing because clean fuel is so critical. I built my own system for a fairly reasonable price and it seems to work well. We've had no fuel issues since installing it but re-engineered the overall filtration system at the same time so it's hard to determine exact cause and effect. Fuel tankage - A minimum of several days steaming. If you undertake a circumnavigation it is likely you will, sooner or later, encounter extended periods with either adverse wind or no wind. Yes, I think 48 hours is a good minimum, maybe more depending on cruising venue and how much battery charging time is needed. Communication - VHF for inshore and a Amateur Band SSB with a modem to be able to use SailMail during cruises. More and more Cell Phone is used to communicate with marina's so a multi band phone with a system for the areas you are visiting is nice. EPIRB is probably a must although in much of Asia it is going to be several days before anyone goes looking for you. We have an EPIRB along with a SSB and Pactor modem for Sailmail. It is useful, glad we have it, but as Sat phone prices and availability continue to improve, that is probably the way of the future, eventually replacing SSB on a lot of boats. Dinghy - Probably the most useful dinghy is an inflatable however if cruising in tropical climates it should be Hypalon as other material fails quickly in tropical sun light. A dinghy cover is also a good idea. With the usual inflatable a 5 HP engine is useful. Our last couple of dinghies have been RIBs and I like them, although probably too heavy for smaller boats. I have no experience with Portabotes but they certainly have their advocates. My experience with soft bottom inflatables is that they are easily damaged during beaching. I like 15 hp more or less since it will get you up on plane and moving pretty well, seems like a popular size on many other boats also. We presently have a 20 but that's too heavy for most people. Finally; lets change the subject name if this thread is going to continue. Done ! Cheers, Bruce (bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom) |
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