Extolling the virtues of our girl

8º 19.136s 137º 02.843w

Sun May 05 2019

Boats get names and become a family member, just like dogs, cats and children. We all love our boats, and can’t see why everyone else doesn’t too. Actually, Marne loves our boat, but I think Bret is a bit more pragmatic. Even still, he describes them as “Seawind 1160 stalkers”.

There is a lot to like about our Seawind 1160. Well, that’s what they called it when built in 2008 but now it’s called a 1160 Deluxe or some such. At 21’ 4” beam it can be hauled out in most of the Fonatur yards in Mexico, which have a maximum slipway and travel lift width of 22’. I think the one exception is San Blas which is limited to 18’. Bummer, because it’s dirt cheap to be on the hard there.

The ventilation in fair weather is magnificent. Right now we’re tooling along with the screecher up and 1 – 2 meter following seas. The helm windows are removed and the clears are installed, but they’re rolled up. The tri-fold door is tucked away creating a giant back door. The forward saloon hatches are wide open. Even with a low apparent wind it’s absolutely refreshing and we’re getting an air change every few seconds through most of the boat.

We’re more than pleased with how solid she feels in a big seaway and how well she sails in the large variety of conditions we’ve encountered. I think that may be called “seakindly”. We’ve found sleeping in her in most conditions to be quite restful. Isabel loves her galley with all the storage, the enormous energy efficient freezer, the double sink, 3-burner propane hob with oven, and all that counter space for food prep. There’s lots of real estate for solar panels, so of course we’ve got a bunch, 1440 watts in total. With the structural mods we did to strengthen the davits and support the aft solar panels, we can get the dinghy up high and tilted at about 45 degrees if the outboard is removed, so it acts both as poop protection and protection again filling with water in rain or if pooped. Imagine what all that water would weigh. The outboard remains on for most sailing, but on a passage where we don’t have confidence in the weather forecast from beginning to end it comes off and stows in a forward locker.

Dinghy davits make a big difference on a cruising boat, because there’s simply no excuse for not putting the dinghy away at night or on any short hop. We’ve seen smaller monohulls towing their dinghies around the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, and we’ve witnessed them losing their dinghy and outboard when the sea conditions and wind suddenly change for the worse. That lash-up costs a few thousand dollars no matter where you purchase it. One day while out on my SUP, I rescued a dinghy that the owner swore he had tied on with a bowline. Silly man.

JollyDogs is both the smallest and the largest catamaran we were willing to consider as a blue water cruising boat. Every foot added to length or beam, the cost of rigging, sails and other equipment increases exponentially. She was all we could afford at the time, and she’s proving to be maintainable and insurable within our budget, leaving us a little grocery and beer money. Her designers and builders got most things right, and we’re satisfied she’s the right boat for our mission. She’s faster than we thought she would be, especially as heavily laden as we are, and she handles well. Moving around the decks feels safe and protected, even the cabin top where I find myself every time we drop or reef the main sail. She’s pretty darn easy to single had too, as I discovered once when Isabel went to visit her dad and I move JollyDogs from La Cruz up to Mazatlan. Piece of cake.

We do expect to be a bit uncomfortable in warm and rainy conditions, because we really don’t any decent ventilation if the boat is shut up to keep blowing rain out. That can be solved in part by having some custom shades and spray hoods built, and we’ve seen at least one 1160 with a workable solution, so that’s on our hit list. We’ve installed numerous Caframo 757 fans around the boat and they’re great – move lots of air for just a little power, and so far we’ve still got all our digits.

We don’t have as much load bearing capacity or storage volume as we wished, but that is solved by deciding to “want less” and keep jettisoning stuff we don’t use often. Isabel has a rule that if it hasn’t been used in the last 12 months, it has to go. I’m afraid I might be on the short list.

Cruisers have occasional swap meets and often want stupid amounts of money for stuff that’s complete junk. For the most part we ask a fair to low price for the kit we’re unloading, but if there are no takers then the price goes down until the stuff is gone. It’s all about supply and demand, and at the end of the swap meet we generally leave what’s left of our pile by the bin. That’s guaranteed to get things recycled or repurposed, and it’s now off the boat. What the hell are we going to do with a $100 book of Mexico navigation charts in French Polynesia? I think Isabel sold them to a lovely Spanish couple for about $3. Yatzee! Everybody won!

We left La Cruz in what we felt was a horribly heavy and overstuffed condition, with the forward guest cabin crammed with provisions and anything that didn’t have a home anywhere else. The bean bag chair, the new cork flooring we’ve yet to install, yoga mats, etc. After relocating some heavier gear in the external and internal lockers, JollyDogs appeared reasonably well balanced but sat low in the water. We’ve now depleted the extra fuel jugs we purchased specifically for this passage, and we’ve gobbled up a lot of the food, so things are looking a bit better. We’ll dump our emergency water bladders and stow them until the next passage. Over the next few months we’ll continue deplete our food stuffs, to examine what remains on board and hopefully cast off a few more bulky and heavy items. Guess I better watch MY weight.

We’ve done a lot of tent camping. We’ve done a good bit of backpacking. Perhaps we’ve gotten a bit soft with age, but the easier, safer, and more comfortable we make this cruising lifestyle, the longer we can enjoy it. Ralph and Helen Marx are still at it on their Seawind 1160 “MoonDrifter”, and Ralph’s in his “high 80’s”, just not sure how high. How ‘bout them apples?

All boats are compromises, but JollyDogs really does it for us. Sure glad we got it right.