Sailboat

Angus and Charles, our two Westies, have adapted rather well to life aboard. We had expected that of Angus, since he had made a long voyage with us in 2010 to the Keys. We knew he could be comfortable on a sailboat, although he is getting older and stiffer…. Charles is not so predictable (!) so we were happy to see that he has also taken to this life well.

True, there’s not much space to run around inside the cabin or cockpit, but the boys have access to lots of walking paths and grass ashore where they can exercise, check their “pee-mail”, do their business, and socialize with the rest of the canine and human population.

The cabin holds a cozy bed for each of them at night, and at certain times of the day, the cockpit is a cool breezy place to enjoy snoozing or observing life outside the boat.

Neither of the dogs can go up and down the companionway by themselves, although Charles tried once, and managed to fall rather ungracefully down the stairs. So Bob and I heave them up and down numerous times a day. At 22 pounds a piece, it’s good exercise for us.

Angus, being 13 1/2 (or almost 95 in people years), is more uncomfortable in the heat than Charles is. Fortunately, the boat has A/C, which we can run when necessary to keep him comfortable.

We’ve tried leaving them alone on the boat while we’ve gone ashore to get provisions, and it has worked out just fine. Charles will bark if he hears someone come on the boat, so he functions as a bit of a watchdog, but otherwise the two just wait quietly while we’re away. Angus almost never barks.

Scotty’s Landing, the local hangout, welcomes dogs, so from time to time we all head over there for dinner. Well, they don’t have dinner; we do!

As with any boating community, there are lots of other dogs on boats that we have all gotten to know. One German Shepherd we met had travelled 7,000 miles on the sailboat with his family. Most impressive!

Just curious, do any of you remember your high school chemistry? Well I sure don’t (we had the cutest chemistry teacher — Mr. Sweeney — didn’t we Deb?)

So when the topic of “sacrificial zincs” came up, I had no idea what Bob was talking about.

As it turns out, the metal parts of a boat such as the propeller are eaten away over time by electric currents in the water (yes, there are electric currents in the water, but they won’t kill you). If left unchecked, the propeller will eventually disintegrate.

To prevent this from happening, you attach anodes to the metal parts, which are eaten away instead. In fact, they sacrifice themselves for this purpose, that’s where the term “sacrificial” comes from. They are made from a metal that is more “noble” on the periodic table. And it is noble to sacrifice right?

In southern waters, most boats have their anodes replaced every six months or so. As you can see from the following picture of our propeller, the anode was about half gone. Our feathering propeller is made in Australia and, as luck would have it, one of the importers for North America is in Miami, and they had the zincs we needed in stock.

So at this point we just needed someone to dive under the boat and replace the old anode with the new one. And it wasn’t going to be me!

Fortunately, there are divers on our dock several times a week, cleaning the bottoms of our neighbours’ boats. We asked one of them, Manuel, if we could hire him to change the zincs. He was glad to help. It took all of ten minutes and the job was done. Another zinc sacrificed!

First pic of Bob handling our new boat

Yesterday was our first opportunity to try close-quarters manoeuvring under power with our new boat. Bob had helped sail the boat from Fort Lauderdale, but we decided to wait to try moving it and docking it under power until we had an experienced hand with us.

A wise idea, I think. It is never a bad idea to get a little training when you’re dealing with a 14,000-pound vessel.

And while Bob has many years of experience on other boats, the situation here presents a range of new challenges. For one thing, this new boat is much bigger and heavier. If not properly controlled, it can do a lot more damage. It also has an inboard engine in contrast with our previous two sailboats, which had outboard motors that could be steered.

In addition, most slips in Florida have a very short finger dock with pilings at the end, a big change from the docks we’re used to at home, which are longer. We need to be able to back into this type of dock so that we can get the dogs on and off the boat easily and safely.

Sailboats have a well-deserved reputation for being very difficult to back into a slip. Not only do they have a small engine and propeller in relation to their large size, but they also have something that’s called “propwalk” that causes the back of the boat to veer sideways as soon as the boat is shifted into reverse. Lots to get used to.

So, being responsible boat owners, we contacted the Coconut Grove Sailing Club and asked them to suggest a trained instructor who would be willing to coach us on our boat. They linked us up with Bruce Penrod, a super-experienced instructor and boat captain, who offered to provide several hours of customized lessons. Bruce, a retired school teacher, has made many long single-handed voyages on his Hunter Legend. Originally from Pennsylvania, he and his wife now live in Miami. He also happens to be a yacht broker.

Bruce managed to instill confidence right away with his calm approach and solid tips. He reinforced that it was always best to take it slow. If a docking manoeuvre isn’t working out we should just abort it and start all over again. Better do it more than once than panic and botch it up.

He suggested that we first motor out of Dinner Key Marina into Biscayne Bay, where we could practise low-speed turns and stops and backing up in a straight line, without having to worry about being close to other boats. He wanted us to get a sense of how our boat performed and get familiar with its glide zone, for example. (The glide zone is the distance it takes the boat to stop when the forward thrust is turned off while advancing at the minimum speed to maintain steerage.)

After that, our plan was to spend some time practising backing into a slip at the club. Wouldn’t you know it, though, the skies — which had become pretty gray over Biscayne Bay — decided to open right at that moment. We got drenched! So we reverted to Plan B, which was to have a nice lunch at the Club and wait until the rain passed. It was a good thing that Bruce knows the entrance to the club like the back of his hand, being a member and having his own boat there, because visibility in the downpour was pretty bad. We tied up at the dock and Bruce proceeded to give us a tour of the club. (My camera battery died earlier in the day so I couldn’t take any pictures of it, sadly.) But trust me, the view from the restaurant balcony is just lovely.

When the rain stopped, we spent another half an hour practising docking at Coconut Grove. The main lesson here was learning how to deal with propwalk. In our boat, because of the direction the propeller rotates, the propwalk is always to port. So you have to learn how to plan for propwalk when backing in. This meant going a ways past the slip before starting to back in.

After that, we headed back to our slip at Dinner Key to finish up with further practice backing into our own slip. We also learned how to handle the lines in all different wind conditions.

Bob felt more confident than he expected to handling the boat and was pleased with the way it handled. Although it is three times heavier than Windsong, it was very responsive. Of course, this boat is much less affected by the wind than our smaller boats were, and it turns better. A lot of the boat-handling techniques used with the little Hunter seemed to work as well.

We lucked out in finding Bruce, who was a patient, calm and reassuring teacher, and a great communicator. We may work with him again on other aspects of sailing.

Most boats come with a list of projects that need to be taken care of before setting sail. In the last week, we’ve managed to check a few key items off the “to do” list. It probably took more time to run around Miami and Fort Lauderdale to pick up the parts than to do the actual installations, but then Bob is pretty adept at this stuff!

1. The cowling on the dorade was replaced. The red and white cowling you see in the picture covers the dorade, which is a vent in a boat that allows air to come in and ventilate the boat but doesn’t let water come in. The cowling catches the air and directs it into the boat through the dorade.

2. The ground tackle was replaced. You need good ground tackle (anchors, chains and rode) so that on a windy night you wake up in the same place you go to sleep in. (Bob and I had a few sleepless nights on our last boat with wind gusting to 45 knots worrying that our anchor would not hold. It did, thankfully.) The new boat came with a 22 pound anchor, which we replaced with a 35 pound Manson Supreme anchor for greater holding power.

We also bought 100 feet of new 5/16 chain and we have additional rope rode attached to the chain should we need to anchor in deeper water. Chain allows you to set the anchor closer to the boat than you could with just rope rode, since it is heavier. This becomes critical in a crowded anchorage where a smaller swing angle allows more boats to occupy the same space. Also, when cruising in southern waters, anchor chain cannot be cut by sharp coral the way rope can be. It is the preferred anchor system of most experienced cruisers (thanks Pat and Alex!) Our second anchor is a Fortress and will be used mostly if we have to anchor in a soft bottom because it works better than the Manson in muddy conditions. In a storm we would probably use both anchors just to be safe.

Manson

Fortress

3. A new thermostat was installed in our refrigerator.

4. We’re sorting and organizing the filters and the spare parts for the diesel engine and the generator to see if we need anything else.

This is by no means the end of it, but it feels like a good start.

I signed too!

Today was our day to deal with the paperwork involved in making our boat a Canadian one. This means we have the right to fly the Canadian flag and it will have a unique name that no other boat in Canada can use. Proof of ownership backed up by the Canadian government can be very important when sailing outside of Canada and is usually required to obtain a cruising permit in another country.

We drove to Fort Lauderdale to see the documentation specialist we hired to handle all the red tape involved.

Previously the boat was documented with the U.S. Coast Guard, and we needed to get it registered with Transport Canada and change its name at the same time. Not a simple process, of course.

Before the boat can be registered in Canada, you must deregister it with the U.S. Coast Guard and prove to TC that you really own the boat. (Understandable.)

Boats can have mortgages and liens just like houses. The documentation specialist ensures that all these have been cleared on the vessel and that your title is free and clear. A lawyer does essentially the same thing when you buy a house.

The documentation specialist also deals with the U.S. Coast Guard for you and fills out all the relevant forms for Transport Canada. One interesting TC requirement is “tonnage,” which is calculated from a special formula using measurements of the boat’s length, depth and beam. Bob did this calculation during the survey.

So our paperwork is now on its way to TC. We submitted three possible boats names and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that they will approve our first choice: Watermark II.

(Interesting aside: Registration was really designed for commercial vessels. The Crown can take control of the vessel in times of crisis (war). For that reason, you legally own only two thirds of a registered vessel. One third is owned by the Crown.)

Our new boat is a 2003 Hunter 356. This model was first introduced in 2002, and was designed by Glen Henderson who is considered one of the top performance sailboat designers in the world. That year it won Boat of the Year from Cruising World.

The boat is 35’6″ long (hence the 356) and 30’7″ at the waterline. The beam is 12′ so it’s roomy and it has 6’5″ head room, so even our tallest friends won’t bump their heads.

The boat draws only 5′, which makes it well suited for Florida and the Bahamas.

The boat has enough berths to sleep seven people (two are private and the dining area converts to a double berth). It has air conditioning and heating, hot and cold running water, a large freezer and refrigerator, and a two-burner propane gimballed stove with oven. There’s also an electric head and a shower, with a nice-sized wet locker.

I particularly like the teak interior and all the storage compartments and lockers that we’re quickly filling up. There are compartments behind, under and over the settees. Each berth has several storage compartments for clothes and other necessities.

The cockpit has a huge lazarette, which a person could hide in if so inclined. It is well protected from the sun and rain with a new dodger and bimini.

As far as sails go, the boat has a small 110% genoa for easy tacking. The mainsail furls into the mast so all reefing can be done from the cockpit, which is nice to have when the weather is bad. Together both sails provide nearly 700 square feet of canvas, resulting in good performance. If the wind is light we can also raise an asymmetrical spinnaker which provides nearly 1,000 square feet of sail area.

You can skip this part if you’re not interested in technical specs:

auxiliary engine, Yanmar diesel, 27 hp
3.5 kw diesel 110v generator
maximum hull speed 7.4 knots
fuel capacity 38 gallons (burns about .5 gallons per hour motoring at 5 knots, for a theoretical cruising range of 380 nautical miles without using the sails
displacement (unladen) of 13,900 lbs
lead keel weight of 5,064 lbs
mast height off water 55’3″ + antennas and wind anenometer, another 10″
fresh water capacity of 75 gallons, plus 6 gallons in the hot water tank
holding tank capacity of 30 gallons.

More to come…

We’ve been driving around with a truck jammed full of boat gear for the last two weeks. So we were glad to finally get it unloaded and stowed on the boat. Bob says the proper nautical term is “trim the cargo.” It’s important to use the right terminology!

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Sherrygaley.com

Being taken by pictures

Boys on the boat

Sacrifice on Windsong II

Docking lessons

Meanwhile, back at the boat…

Red tape

Getting to know our new sailboat — just the beginning

Time to trim the cargo…

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