Mission specifc design

0º 13.580n 125º 17.277w

Tue Apr 30 2019

Thinking of buying a boat?

What do you want to do with it? Race? Weekend pleasure sailing? Seasonal cruising?

You know what they say, "if it flies, floats or, well (you know), it’s cheaper to rent. Beware the pride of “boat ownership”. Look around any marina in San Diego on a beautiful 4th of July. Marinas packed with boats. Maybe 1 in 10 have people on board. Maybe 1 in 30 are actually out sailing on one of the most perfect days of the year. That’s a lot of money corroding away in the salt water. A lot of good dreams gone bad.

Ahh, you want to be a full time live aboard! Excellent, what’s your budget? You going to sell your house to buy a boat? Your spouse or significant other 100% bought in on this? Are you planning to circumnavigate, or perhaps cruise Pacific Mexico and the Sea of Cortez? Are your serious about living on the hook, or are you going to pretty much hop from marina to marina in Cabo, La Paz, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, La Cruz, San Carlos, Santa Rosalia, or Barre de Navidad?

Ever chartered in Belize, the BVI, Croatia, Loreto or other place? What kind of boat? What did you like about it? What did you hate about it?

An enormous number of boats are stamped out to accommodate charter boat market demands. Fleets of them bob around various places in the world. Belize, British Virgin Islands, Croatia, Greece, Turkey to name just a few. To address catamarans in particular, when the boat has 4 cabins and 4 separate heads with the galley up, it’s almost certainly a charter boat design. The way boat builders compete is by taking cost out, building boats cheaper as well improving assembly line manufacturing efficiencies. Charter catamarans are generally desiged to accommodate 4 adult couples who can split the high cost of a week’s holiday, and who all demand a level of privacy. They’re designed to be a comfortable party platform and to be structurally adequate for coastal cruising, not to sail well. The design may claim to be bluewater capable, but there is such a thing as a minimum standard.

When we met Richard Ward, the general manager of the Seawind line of boats, we spent a lot time learning about the engineering design and his views on boat design and use, and then we flew to Vietnam to visit the manufacturing facility just outside Ho Chi Min City where he had recently moved the entire operation from Australia. We saw boats in various stages of completion, we saw the molds, we talked to the builders. We spent time drinking beer with Andrew Crawford, a catamaran racing sailor who was representing Seawind sales in part of Australia.

Richard had very specific ideas about what a cruising catamaran in the 38’ length range should be. It should be built strong and feel solid, but achieve that goal using better engineering principles and materials to keep weight under control and ensure a decent level of performance. It should be comfortable to live on with excellent ventilation, 360 degree visibility from anywhere in the saloon or cockpit, and a big galley safe to use at sea. It should have adequate creature comforts, but above all, it should sail well and be a safe and fun passage making machine. Richard has spent of time as an ocean racer.

We pondered our navels for about 8 years, then we bought our own Seawind 1160 in 2013. JollyDogs was built in Australia in 2008 and had lived a gentle life in the San Francisco Bay area. We’ve lived on and sailed her since 2014 and we love her, but still have a limited sense of perspective regarding how she compares to other contemporary catamarans.

Our crew mate Thad Nelson has managed to collect a good bit of sailing experience on catamarans from several different boat builders. On that list is Fontaine Pajot, Leopard, and Lagoon. All newer examples from each manufacturer.

Older examples from those folks tend to be fairly solid, but the newer ones are lighter and packed full of creature comforts to appeal to the half of a buying couple who demands something similar to home. We call them “condomarans”. They creak and groan and feel looser in rough seas, and they don’t sail terribly well.

This past 2 weeks is the longest we’ve been at sea on JollyDogs, and we’re delighted at how wonderfully she sails and how solid she feels in rough offshore seas. Thad has removed any doubt that we chose the right girl to take us safely around the South Pacific, and we’re looking forward to continuing our sailing adventures for years to come.

There’s a boat out there for everyone.

Vagabonds and gypsies

1º 42.404s 126º 29.286w

Wed May 01 2019

We bailed out of our full time working lives in 2014. Sold the house, sold the cars, sold the furniture and all the knick knack dust collectors. Craigslist is your friend! What didn’t sell we gave to friends or took to a shop in Scottsdale called White Dove. It’s a it like a Goodwill, except the proceeds support Hospice of the Valley. That’s where our close friend Doug Holton spent his last days dying of cancer. His sons were able to be at his side and cook for him, and we could visit anytime we wanted. It was compasionate and dignified and tragic all at once.

Now when we visit old friends in the Phoenix area, we get these odd deja vu feelings when we spot a familiar garden sculpture or sit on our old couch. If not enjoying the hospitality of old friends we get a hotel or Air B&B.

When we meet new people, they invariably ask “where is home”? It’s a confusing question to answer, but we tell them we live on a boat, and wherever she is moored, that’s home. Then they ask, “yes, but where’s your base”? We sigh, and explain that we have a mail forwarding service in Florida, but since leaving Phoenix almost five years ago, we have no base.

We’re travelers, wandering around mother Earth to experience all that this big watery world has to offer. The great thing about living on a little boat is that if you decide you don’t like the neighborhood you can just weigh anchor and leave. When we were dirt dwellers, if the neighbor was an asshole we simply had to put up with it. Not anymore.

When we need a break from living on this little boat we secure her in a marina or dry land storage and we explore on land. Mexico has some wonderful old colonial cities to visit as well as ancient ruins - pyramids and that sort of thing. We still want to take the train to copper canyon, and visit Morelia while the Monarch butterflies are there by the millions. Maybe someday.

Right now it’s time to explore French Polynesia, then move on to Fiji, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, New Zealand. Who knows? Friends ask us what our schedule is, where we might be on a certain date in case they can break loose for a visit and spring for an airplane ticket. We simply can’t tell them; the best we can do is forecast a region of the world where we might be bobbing around. It seems to confuse folks. Most people plan and execute to the plan. They’ve got a schedule.

Our plan is to go somewhere interesting and explore and experience the culture until it isn’t fun, or until we’d rather be somewhere else new and wonderful, or until we have to leave because of tourist visa limitations. Isabel has a UK passport and I’m her spouse, so we should be able to get long stay visas in French Polynesia and if we’re having fun, perhaps stay for a couple years or more.

But we don’t really know, and we’re OK with that.

Our lifestyle involves a level of insecurity and instability that is way outside the comfort zone of most humans. Sometimes we feel a little destabilized ourselves, but we take a deep breath and carry on.

Life is short, and you only get one shot to get it right. We’re not wasting any time.

Of Pagan Celebrations

1º 34.642s 126º 24.004w

Wed May 01 2019

When we were little kids, we lived in Brevard, North Carolina on the campus of a small junior college. Dad and mom both worked at Brevard College, he the Director of Admissions, she as an English teacher. Somewhere there’s an old black and white photo of me as a little boy, sandy blond hair, dressed in a white suit and bowtie escorting Tammi Keeter at the college May Day celebration. We must have been tiny little mascots or something. As I recall, May Day originated as some sort of Pagan holiday with May Pole rituals and such. I can still remember the college girls and boys doing this funny dance, weaving ribbons around a tall vertical pole to create a criss-cross pattern while the music played.

Kirk and I had a little sister, Lisa. She and I have always been close, and I have dim but tender memories of teaching her to walk. However, Kirk and I were also mean little boys and rather inventive. We used to run a string under a big rug in the living room, attached to a mouse trap we’d set, and we would hide behind the sofa and wait patiently. Lisa would toddle into the room, we’d pull the string, the trap would snap loudly and startle her, and she’d cry her eyes out.

Lisa has been a professional landscaper for the last 30 years or so, looking after billionaire’s estates on Cape Cod. She’s a strong and determined woman, and if we pulled a stunt like that now she would likely twist us both into something that would resemble broken pretzels.

She’s a force of nature. She’s raised two daughters, both pretty and smart, and both taught sailing as teenagers. Ali is pursuing a career in New York City, Chuckie graduates from university in a few days. Hard working girls, and Chuckie has an itchy “gotta travel and seek adventure” streak in her. We’re hoping she’ll visit us in French Polynesia in the next year or two.

Today is May 1st. My sister’s birthday. She’s 29. Again.

Happy May Day, Weezer!