"KLC Lewis" wrote:


"KLC Lewis" wrote in message
...
Other than the grounding, it seems to me that the only "boat stopper"
they've experienced so far is the steering failure -- and even that was
fixable at sea from Skip's report, with emergency steering solutions
available (unknown whether they had the knowledge to employ any of them,
however).

The Flying Pig is clearly a boat with more equipment than I would choose
to go to sea with. I prefer simple systems that are easily repaired in
the event of failure. Tiller steering. No refer. Low power demands. Very
limited through-hulls. Porta-potti with "bucket and chuck-it" option at
sea. But horses for courses, as they say. Some claim that women demand
high-comfort heads with lots of beauty-parlor options. Guess I'm not that
much of a girly-girl.

I'm not either -- but I hate tiller steering. I can just about manage
a wheel.

I think on a passage (more than 36 hours offshore), I would want a
windvane rather than an autopilot, but we aren't going to do a passage
(at least there's no chance of that anymore), so we have and use the
autopilot which is more useful in near shore.

Our boat when we bought it had a refer, and it's nice to have. We
installed a radar, and Bob decided to have Lectrasans (it certainly
wasn't my idea, but I don't think I'd want a portapot either).

Nevertheless, underway repairs and maintenance are pretty much expected.
The higher-tech the systems, the more repairs to be expected. And they
*are* in "shake-down" mode at this time.

Karin

One additional comment:

Skip reported that TFP had experienced steering problems on a first attempt
to leave the dock. They returned to the dock, couldn't find or duplicate the
problem, so they left anyway. That, IMHO, was a mistake. If I experience a
critical system problem at the dock which I cannot troubleshoot on my own, I
don't leave until someone else with appropriate experience has located and
fixed the problem or shown me how to do it. I've missed out on some planned
sails because of this mindset, but it also means that I don't tend to have
many "adventures at sea." ;-)

I think this is - in general- a man's mindset. At least with us, the
only times we've really been in trouble is when Bob has wanted to
leave and I have not, and he's convinced me when I should have stood
my ground. I am, of course, not really a sailor - more of a
companion.

It is Bob's boat to fix. One of the reasons I was OK with his getting
a boat is that I knew that he loves to fix things.

One of the reasons that we aren't really cruising much anymore is
because we went aground the last time we came up the ICW in the middle
of the channel south of Wrightsville Beach (opposite Masonboro Inlet),
and Bob said it was too stressful to do the trip anymore.

Also of course we are getting older.