Long Distance Cruising in Swan 41
We are long distance cruising in our Swan 41. We left San Francisco in September, 2009 for Mexico, the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Society Is, Niue, Tonga, Fiji, and are now in New Zealand. In April, we will continue west. In Niue we met an Amel owner who commented: "Swan 41 - great boat, but I can't imagine cruising in one."

This made me think that a discussion might be of value. While we have seen many big Swans out cruising, my thought is that there are far fewer smaller Swans cruising. They certainly have their space issues, such as little or no storage, no big dodger to hide under when the weather is cold or rough, very limited tankage. These issues are real, but the joy and magic of crossing oceans in our beloved boat is beyond real.

Is anyone is considering long distance in a small Swan? Has anyone done it? Circumnavigation? We can share ideas for preparation, experiences and adventures, etc. Cruising this boat is a great experience, and the boat's quality and sea manners impress us everyday in good weather and bad. We think these boats are wonderful cruising boats, but perhaps not for everyone. Sometimes we work hard, but we are always justly rewarded. Let's talk about it.

Amel owners are probably looking for comfort rather than speed. That may partly explain the comment...

I can notice on your pictures that you have inserted the life-raft in the cockpit, close to the helm. Sounds like an interesting idea.

I bought my 41 in the US and shipped her back to France but unfortunately I had not the time to sail her. She is now lying in La Trinité, not very far from another 41 that crossed the Atlantic with the ARC race 2 years ago with 4 on board if I recall correctly.

Congratulations for your trip and fair wind!

Christophe 41 / 11

Thank you for the fair winds Christophe. The liferaft placement was one of those "small Swan" compromises. We wanted it to go into the cockpit locker as designed, and we did for a while, but the valise weathered so badly there, that we got a box for it. There was also the question of where to store oil, varnish and thinner. We now store them in the cockpit locker. The liferaft would not fit forward of the spray hood as we have a rigid vang. With our tall ladder, down in the cabin, on top of the engine box was out of the question. So, with a heavy sigh, we put it in its not very beautiful spot. It is not pretty, but functional. We can get to it, and my wife does not have to lift it. Since there are only two of us on board, the cockpit space is workable. And my Amel friend meant no harm. But yes, he enjoys his comfort. Lastly, if anyone has an idea for a more elegant liferaft solution, we would appreciate hearing it.
Thank you in advance, Rod and Elisabeth

Hello Proximity from the Swan 38 Finarrow. We left Sitka, Alaska this last July and are now berthed in La Paz, Mexico. This is our second long distance cruise, the first being a round trip from Alaska to Hawaii in 04-06 to see if we really wanted to go cruising. Like you we are bothered by the lack of interior space but enjoy the sailing. Though the seas were generally rougher than we expected going down the coast, the highlight of the trip was a 5 hour spinnaker sail out of Bahia Tortuga which we still talk about. Our main problem is trying to arrange a double berth around all of the gear--it's a work in progress.
Our thoughts for next year is either to stay in the Sea of Cortez or to continue west with a haul out at Raiatea, Society Islands. Do you have any information or opinions on the boatyard there?
Also, we have a water maker but haven't really needed to use it yet. Do you have one and if so do you use it enough to justify the time and cost?
Later
Jim

Hello Jim,
Good to hear that you are out too. We do have a watermaker, and we have found it to be one of our most prized pieces of gear. Without it,our lives would be drastically different. We have the small Spectra Newport with only manual controls, and we love it. We get a fresh water shower every day, and never have to schlepp water in jugs. Another thing that helped this decision is that it is not always easy to find water that you actually want to drink, schlepping or not. The watermaker took a little getting used to, but it really is no trouble once you learn it. Very good investment. The Spectra is modular, but is does require space. We replaced our big Grunert fridge with a small Isotherm unit. This gave us a locker. Also, it wants electricity. We installed two 85 watt solar panels, wind generator, increased the size of our battery bank, and voila! We can exist nicely and rarely have to run the engine to charge.

Although we don't personally know the yard in Raiatea, we do have a friend who did some work there on his Beneteau 50. He was very happy, and we have not heard of any complaints. Good luck choosing your next move. If you choose to head west, some great sailing awaits you, and maybe we will see you in Fiji. Best, Rod and Elisabeth

Dear Proximity folks

Have you considered mounting the life raft box on the aft side of the pushpit?

Kind regards

Lars

Hello Lars,
It is an honour to "speak" with you. I am afraid our pushpit rail is perhaps too occupied. We have a Wind Pilot vane steering on the transom, radar pole, wind generator pole, and outboard dinghy engine on or near the rail. We also have not found a suitable place to store our stern anchor, and thought the pushpit might work. So far, we still keep it dismantled stored below. I am attaching a photo of the boat so you can see our condition. The outboard is not mounted in the photo. (on the dinghy). Another consideration we have is that with all the gear we already have back there, we worry about getting the boat in too much aft down trim. She still sails beautifully, but we don't want to push our luck. We both thank you for having a look and offering ideas. Rod and Elisabeth

Rod and Elisabeth

Thank you for the answer.

Another possibility would be in a cassette inserted through the seat front opposite the present locker.

Needs to be checked that the raft can go in through the opening, considering that the cockpit well is rather narrow, and that this does not intrude too much into the interior. The bottom of the cassette should preferably slope some 5 degrees towards the centerline, so the recess drains when the yacht is upright

Lars

Hello Lars,
We believe that you have a great idea there, and we may consider it for the next time we are prepared to do major work on the boat. It is evident that the measurements would need to be taken carefully as it is narrow, and we do have our autopilot under there. It would be a fairly major job, so it would need to be done right – both from an aesthetic as well as a structural point of view. We both agree that for someone who is currently outfitting, this could be a good solution to a sticky problem. Well worth considering. Then one can keep one's cockpit table! Unfortunately, we had to finally say good bye to ours in Mexico.

Hi Proximity,

I have Swan 411-40 Wotan, in which I have sailed the Atlantic Circuit, not as far as you are sailing, but I hope to follow on, if not close on, your heels. In my view the Swan 41/411, for they are very similar in concept, make admirable cruising yachts, though neccessarily of a different generation to the Amel, though none the worse for that. The Amel with its deep freeze, washing machine, washing up machine and generator makes a good cruising yacht, but in terms of shere value for money and sea kindliness, the Swan 41/411s are very hard to beat. I installed a watermaker, which incidently I managed to break before a 4 handed crossing from the Cape Verdes to Barbados, and a towed generator. On the return leg the watermaker had been repaired and worked beautifully as did the towed generator, until I lost the rotor in 4000m! Don't let anyone tell you that a Swan 41/411 is not a good crusing boat despite its modest fuel and water capacities. It is the most sea kindly yacht I have ever sailed on. It derives its sea kindliness from the S&S design, which is mirrored the larger S&S Swans by virtue of their hull shapes. Storage space is not really a problem on the Atlantic crossing even 4 handed, though I cannot vouch for it for the longer Pacific voyages 4 handed. Fuel can always be carried on deck in cans, a practice adopted by many crusing yachts. A watermaker helps with the water tank capacity, but the forepeak bins provide an ideal space to stow bottles of water.

Good luck and keep on cruising!

Anthony Fawcett

Hello Anthony,
Bravo! Good to hear that you are also crossing oceans on one of these fine boats. We agree these boats are very seakindly with impeccable manners. We cannot imagine anything better, and would not trade her, even for that deep freeze! Yes, we must make do with the space available to us. This is one of the things I thought could be a valuable discussion on this thread. We find it satisfying to find creative solutions to these unique challenges. One thing that comes to mind is the fuel on deck. Initially, I didn’t want to carry fuel on deck, but realistically, it made sense. So we chose to make some nice varnished boards for it, found some great cans from a motor racing supply house that have an on/off valve, and Elisabeth designed and sewed some beautiful sun covers for them. The result is that we had fuel for crossing the doldrums and we get compliments on our installation.

You are not alone in loosing your generator. One evening, about four days out from Mexico to the Marquesas, we had a booby bird fly into our AirX wind generator. This spelled the end for the poor bird as well as the generator. We have recently replaced it with a Super Wind, and are very impressed in the quality and output of it.

You know, another challenge we have found is weight control. All of the cruising gear gets heavy, so saving weight becomes important. We saved some weight by going with composite spectra/ carbon tape/ mylar sails made for cruising. They have near perfect shape, and are light enough such that Elisabeth can lift the bags. A place where we could have saved weight is on the radar and wind generator poles. We installed stainless steel poles that are beautiful, but are very heavy and are located right on the aft end of the boat. In hind sight, we would recommend aluminium. Not as pretty, but lighter.

Our forward bins? Yes, in them we always carry enough water in jugs to complete a passage should the watermaker fail. (It is in the anchorages that the watermaker becomes the hero.) Best to you, and tell us of your future cruising plans/preparations. Rod and Elisabeth

Hi Rod and Elisabeth, Good idea this thread!!
Anyway, we have an S&S Swan 40 so more or less the same size constraints. I have sailed her from the US to Europe and we are planning an Atlantic circuit with her in the near future. If the kids agree we may try to do a circumnavigation. Anyway some questions and thoughts.
1. How do you like your wind pilot. I have been debating getting one. We have a NAVMAN G-Pilot at the moment with a hydraulic ram. Works well but will use a lot of power. Do you have an autopilot as well??
2) Wind generator: As you have been out for a while you have probably heard most of the Units. How loud is the unit you have and have you come across a KISS wind generator. They seem to have an excellent name and got high marks from Practical Sailor.I have 2 60W solar panels at the moment and run a low power boat. I expect I will need to install a wind generator though
3) Extra Fuel. Have you considered installing an extra tank in the bilge over the keel? A friend has one on his 40 and I am considering this. This keeps the weight low, below the water line which is one of the problems with putting tanks on rail. The bilge solution also adds ballast which should stiffen the boat reducing heel.
4) More on Fuel: As you have a watermaker you might try converting a water tank to Fuel?

Enjoy, we are jealous but will be there soon!!

The crew of Storm Svale

Hello Mike,
This thread is fun isn't it? But, credit must go to Matteo, as he was the one who suggested I start it. So, thank you Matteo! It was a good idea. About the Windpilot. We are very happy with it. We have the Pacific Plus which has it’s own rudder, so we have an emergency rudder as well as no lines in the cockpit. It is the way we make a long crossing. We also have a B&G H1000 under the cockpit with hydraulic arm. It does use a lot of electricity, but we like it for its accuracy, so we use it for coastal and short passages. Best of both worlds, and recommend having both.

2.) Wind generators. We have heard and seen the variety of wind generators, and the general rule has been, a quiet generator = not much power, and a lot of power = big noise. That was, until the aftermarket blade appeared for the AirX. We tried the new Silent Blades and our AirX was transformed. It was no less than stunning. The only sound we would really hear is the bearings. The problem is that we have met many people who report AirX failures. They seem to be regarded as a nearly disposable wear item, so we didn’t replace ours after the booby incident. The original Super Wind was quite noisy, but they recently redesigned the blades. Ours has the new blades and it is seriously quiet. So much that sometimes people in the marina come over to investigate. Its downside is that it is expensive. So far we are happier with it than with the AirX. Good quality and good electricity. We don’t really know much about KISS. We can hear them, so there is a bit of noise, and they look homebuilt, but I think the price is nice and low. Word is that they put out good power, but we really don’t know. But what we do know, is that when we lost ours, we really missed it. We had to run the engine for recharging much more often, so the constant trickle charge really does add up. We think you will like a wind generator, but have met people who don’t like them, so we can only speak for ourselves. We do try and minimize our power usage. We don’t run pressure water, we have replaced all of our light bulbs inside and out with LEDs that simply fit into the socket – no modification necessary. For the interior, “warm white” is available and really does look nice while we retain our original fixtures. We have no television. We have a beautiful antique ceramic hand coffee grinder mounted in the galley. No microwave. But we do have a very efficient 12 volt refrigerator. 3.) Now, about that fuel. If you have the room, I have to think that fuel stored down below will always be better than on deck. All of the points you raised are valid. As for converting the water tank, it is something we think about from time to time, and we may eventually make that conversion. It seems like a good idea. When we were preparing, we had many ideas and did get many of them done, but eventually, we were running out of time, and it became clear that if we did every modification and installation that we ever thought was a good idea, we would have never leave. Eventually one must untie and go. But you know this, already having done the Atlantic. Did you enjoy the long passage? We really did. It was a revelation. We had this great boat that we sailed locally for many years, then all at once, we were going places, and the boat just got better. She really is in her element out on the blue, isn’t she? Good luck with your plans, and we hope to hear from you soon. Let us know how your wind generator search turns out.

Rod and Elisabeth

Hi Rod,
your mentioning the possible improving of the Air-X interests me: I have one which is quite noisy and, I would say, sometimes rather disquieting!
Is it indeed possible to replace the blades with quieter ones keeping everything else as it is?
What I mean is: probably the hub must be changed too but is there any problem with the internal processor?
I would appreciate any kind of reference or suggestion you may have.
Thank you in advance.

Daniel, 411-004

Hi Guys, Matteo is wonderful and with his enthusiasm and having the Professor involved makes this website the best I have seen!!! Matteo also pushed me into the propeller thread which was very helpful!!

1) Wind Pilot. We are very happy with it. We have the Pacific Plus which has it’s own rudder, so we have an emergency rudder as well as no lines in the cockpit.

I liked this idea as well but have been warned off it. Seems they have structural problems due to too much torque. Wind Pilot used to show up at the boat show here in Hamburg but the story is they quit coming due to unhappy Pacific Plus customers. The Pacific is a well loved piece of kit from what I hear. Many of the folks I met while crossing had these and just loved them. We will probably go with one of these.

2.) Wind generators.
Thanks for the feedback and the low noise low power comment makes sense! Super Wind it is. I have also gone the LED route. All lights inside are changed and my masthead lights including anchor light are LEDS. What a power saving!! We run a low power boat as much as possible, foot pumps LEDs no Microwave or waterheater. On the Atlantic crossing I put 5 one gallon water jugs of ICE in the fridge and these lasted 12 days. I then turned on the fridge. Our big power draw is the autopilot and kids..(see computers)(:-). I run a 150 amp generator on the engine to keep up. The wind generator should solve some of this

3.) Eventually one must untie and go.
Absolutely right!! I bought my boat in Baltimore. She had been sitting (18 yrs)in the marina grave yard (where old unloved boats go to die. She had been stripped of most of her gear and was a mess!!!!. It took me two years to put her in shape (note I was living in Copenhagen and she was in Baltimore). I did all the work myself to get her sailing. There were a lot of people who said I would never pull it off. This was from 1997 to 99. I was back in that yard last year. Many of the same boats were still there, their owners (those who said I would never do it), who had been planning the offshore adventure were still installing that last piece of critical gear or updating the critical piece of gear they were installing in the late 90s. At some point you have to say lets go!!!! We can survive with what we have, after all it has been done with a Sextant and a lead line.

Atlantic. Did you enjoy the long passage?

I spent 21 days alone in the Atlantic, weathered a Force 10 in which a fully crewed Beneteau 50 went down in the same area. Is she good out in the blue, even in the middle of that storm!!! Anyway I loved it out there, this is right there with the birth of my children as the most important times of my life. This love has infected my family which is why we are on our way out again.

You started this thread with size issues. I at one point owned a 49 footer with lots of space, heavy loads and big costs. I gave that up for, to borrow someone else's comment "the prettiest girl at the dance". She has the look back factor.i.e. I can never walk down the dock at the end of the day without looking back and smiling.

All boats are a compromise, we give up space but that is a small price to pay for the pride of ownership of these pieces of art. Art to me which has all of the best qualities of a great sailboat. I could fall for an S&S Swan 48 but to be honest there is to much of me in this boat, blood sweat and tears as well as the fond memories she has given us.

Hope to meet you out there!!! As with all of us I have a couple of good boat stories about my adventures with Storm Svale we could as well discuss the efficient use of our limited space.

The crew

Hello Daniel and Mike,
Yes, the AirX noise can be tamed. There is no need to change the hub – only the blades. It is a super easy job, and you can keep the original blades for a spare. They are made in Portugal. We were in the US at the time and bought them from this link. http://www.sprecoenergy.com/products.html
I am sure there is a European distributor as well. The blades are blue in colour and are very pretty too. We liked them very much.


Mike, your report on the Pacific Plus is interesting, and it is the first of its kind that we have heard. Peter Fortmann advised that the Pacific Plus had higher stresses than the Pacific, and it makes sense. But we S&S Swan people have very strong boats, and we believe they handle the Pacific Plus loads just fine. I have looked under the helm seat while sailing in big conditions, inspected the transom, and all looks fine. We will be in the yard right after the first of the year, so we will have a close and intensive look then as well, but we really do think we are fine. You know, I suspect two things. 1.) Many modern boats, Beneteau, Bavaria, etc are much lighter built, and I can see that they could develop stress cracks. 2.) By now, we have seen a tendency for an issue to get amplified, exaggerated and blown out of proportion out here in the cruising community. We have seen this regarding pirate and crime reports, weather, bad food, and this sort of thing with the Wind Pilot. I think it may be that out cruising, the stakes are high, and people are naturally careful. Our truth is that we have seen a number of boats with the Pacific Plus (including Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger) and not one of them has expressed any complaint or concern. So, with us, we listen, but remain unconvinced of almost anything until we have verification. We will research this.


Mike, our hats are off to you for rescuing your boat and bringing her back to life. We spend five years prepping our boat, which was in very good condition to begin with, so we remain very impressed. Bravo! Great story. We too, have thought of a 48. In fact, there is one for sale here very close at a very nice price, but we have so much of ourselves in “our girl” that it would break our hearts to part with her. She is like a family member.


You are in Hamburg? Elisabeth is from Bremerhaven, and we plan that area as one of our destinations. We have dreams of attending Sail Bremerhaven 2015 and look forward to dealing with the tidal current on the Elbe. You must have some good adventures there, yes? Please do keep in touch, and we hope to meet you sometime. Lastly on an unrelated thought.How does one "paragraph" here on the forum? I do not seem to be able to do any. My sentences are written in paragraphs, but get posted run together.

Best, Rod and Elisabeth

Thank you Rod,
I will check with SprecoEnergy right away. The AirX noise is a rather important issue.

Regarding paragraphs in these posts, you should just type the html control tag "<br>" (without quotes) whenever you want a "line-feed/carriage-return" inserted.

Daniel, 411/004

Hi Guys,

I did a bit of research and it seems the AirX is still available but an updated version is also now on the market. Take a look at

http://www.naviclub.com/Test_comparatif_eoliennes_marine.pdf

This is a review by Practical sailor which compares many of the units. Super Wind comes out on top. Note: Practical sailor does not have advertisers so they are a bit more critical in their reviews as they do not have to worry about pressure from them.

Mike, your report on the Pacific Plus is interesting, and it is the first of its kind that we have heard.

I agree with your assessment. A few people who have a bad experience complain. Those who have no problems don't make noise. Anyway, the complaint was not about the boats cracking but about the fittings. It to me anyway looks like a great unit. I have seen many of them on ocean wanderers. Is that you on the Wind Pilot web site? Anyway, personally I would just have spares and be prepared to fix the unit. After all, everything things breaks sooner or later. I have heard it said the long distance sailing is just learning to fix things in out of the way places without proper tools or spares. That is my experience anyway. I love Duct tape!!!

You are in Hamburg?

Actually I work in Hamburg and the family and boat are in Denmark close to Svendborg. Anyway, we will be back from our adventure by 2015. Hopefully we can hook up. Have you thought about the Nautor 50 yr anniversary in 2016. I anticipate there might be a bit of a party and a few of us are planning on sailing to it.

Do you have a web page, which I could bookmark? This way for the time being I can keep track of you and we can see how to link up. The kids (who own the boat, I get to fix it) might like to see it as well

Cheers

Mike

Hello Proximity (and other smaller Swan owners),

As fellow San Francisco Bay Area Swan 41 owners (Anthea, hull #59), we’ve been following your voyage with interest for a while and are happy to finally communicate directly.  We are a family of four (our boys are now 6 and 12) and we’re looking forward to a South Pacific cruise beginning in 2014.  Meanwhile, we’re enjoying sailing San Francisco Bay, trips up the Delta, and summer trips down California’s coast.  Like you and others, we love our boat, her sea kindliness, ability to point and those thousand other Sparkman and Stephens’ strokes of genius. 

We’ve found this thread interesting as we also will need to augment minimal tankage with a watermaker and supplemental energy sources (solar and wind), and will also need to install a windvane.  What is the capacity of those motor racing jerry cans you mentioned and how many do you carry?  We were also wondering about your approach to heavy weather.  Do you have a separate trysail and track?  We’ve been wondering about the adequacy of a deep third reef on our main instead of having to carry and rig up a separate trysail.  Also, do you carry a storm jib?  There’s a metal hoop on our steel anchor roller base, just aft of the roller furling drum, that we’ve wondered about attaching a stay to for a storm jib.  Lastly, have you been using a cruising spinnaker?  We’re contemplating getting an asymmetrical spinnaker, as our spinnakers and the pole are a bit much for us to handle in all but light airs. 

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

Happy Sailing

Mark (and Kim, Anson, and Devon)

Hi Proximity and others. A crazy question but what sort of 24 hour distances are you achieving? Down wind and upwind.

S&S 38 S&S 40 S&S 411 S&S 48

John

Hi Mike, Anthea, John, and All,

I shared emails with Peter Foerthmann of Windpilot. (and no, that’s not us on his site) He said that there have been some issues on boats using the Pacific Plus 2, which is the bigger unit used by boats between 12 to 18 meters, and that this was due to vibration fatigue, primarily a prop/rudder interaction during motoring that can, and should be eliminated as part of a routine maintenance. It is just a matter of keeping play out of the shaft, so we feel comfortable again. We do love our Windpilot.

Mike, we do have a website. It is www.sailproximity.com and email is svproximity@gmail.com I have to say that we are terrible about keeping it up dated. Our last post was when we were approaching Niue. We have however, been posting photos, so there are a lot of those. (It’s just a link to Picasa) Since it is much more fun to sail and travel than it is to keep up a website, we are thinking seriously about switching to a blog.

Anthea, it is nice to hear from you. Looking at the ages of your boys, I think you will have a good complement of watch standers with you when you go. This is something Elisabeth and I have never had. It has always been only the two of us. As such, we operate like two single handers, and we need only one bunk clear. This had been the aft port quarter berth until the climate made it too hot back there. We then took to the settee in the salon because the air circulation there was much better. Our forward pipe berths are still there, but have been fitted with a triangular wedge creating a really nice v-berth where we sleep while in port. You will need at least two bunks, maybe a third depending on your plans for watches. I only say this because; often we do not have any more than our one bunk clear. Books, musical instruments, cameras, computers (we carry three), printer, sextant, paper charts, etc all take space, and we store them on the pilot berths behind nice techie looking lee cloths that Elisabeth made. Then, the aft quarter berths get the inflatable kayaks, survival suits, spare life jackets, and other big things. This leaves the salon. Just food for thought. If you get creative, you can be elegant in this storage. If not, well, I think we are somewhere in between. We have cataloged, on Excel, all of our storage spaces because if we didn’t, we would never find anything.

The cans we carry are called Scribner 2000 Series Utility Jugs. Because they are not “spillproof” they are no longer legal in California be used as fuel containers, so they are referred to as hazardous material jugs. They carry 20 liters (5 gal.) are approx. 9.5” x 9.5” square in cross-section. They fit the deck board easily, and a filler nozzle with a shut off valve for the filler can be found. Google search and you’ll find them. We carry four on each side with one being reserved for dinghy fuel. If you carry both spinnaker poles, you may have trouble fitting the jugs behind them. They come in various colors, but red, and yellow do not seem to be available anymore. If you carry any jugs on deck, remember that the tropical sun is brutal, so make up a canvas cover for your jugs. Elisabeth designed and made covers for ours out of sunbrella. They have been in use for about 1 ½ years, and are holding up very well. We had one uncovered jug (dinghy gas) that recently just fell apart in Fiji.

About the heavy weather. We do not have a trysail track on the mast, but we think one would be nice to have. When we had our main made, we specified two seriously deep reefs rather than three. The reason for this is for heavy weather, but also we found with our old main, when we reefed, we would be just as fast with the second reef as the first. They are working well, and we are happy with them. For headsail, we have a dedicated storm jib that fits in the furling foil. We have never used it in weather. The thought of getting that genoa down in a blow is not attractive. With mixed feelings, we bought an ATN Gale Sail, and again, we have never used it in weather. The genoa is just so good rolled up that we have been using it all of the time. Remember though, that we have been sailing downwind for most of our cruising. The passage to New Zealand was the only gale force winds we have encountered. They were, however right on the nose. For nine days, we sailed close hauled, always with the main double reefed, and with the genoa reduced to drive us at whatever speed we were comfortable with. On this passage, we could have gone quite fast, but rig fatigue is a real issue, so we would roll up and slow her down just to be easy on her. In the big blow, we reduced down such that we would just fore reach along at about 3 knots or so until things calmed down a bit. It was like being hove to, very comfortable, but still, we were progressing to destination. We have a Jordan drogue for if we ever get really hammered. We also like the idea of an inner stay, and dream of one, but so far, we do not have. For downwind, we have an asymmetrical in an ATN sock. The full symmetrical spinnaker would be a lot for us too. We also left our big aluminium poles at home and got a carbon spinnaker pole. A proper whisker pole would work better poling the genoa (partly rolled up), but again, compromises.

Lastly John, our best day was about 185 miles, but I suspect that we had current helping with that. Since we are going long distance for multiple years, we tend to be pretty conservative and only “open her up” for short periods. We personally know two boats, a Beneteau 50, and a Catalina Morgan 440 that popped a shroud this season, and a third, an older Oyster 40, that lost her mast. These incidents all happened on upwind legs. We could go faster than we do, and it would be great fun, but if it breaks out here, it can be really tough to deal with.

Sorry for being so long winded, but I wanted to address each of your questions. Our website is listed above. If you are curious about something, and would like a close up photo, just ask. I am going to post a close-up photo of our fuel jugs soon.

Fair winds,

Rod and Elisabeth