Gemini 105MC Sterndrive

Most commonly yachts feature an inboard engine which exits through a stuffing box to a cutlass bearing and prop. Or they feature an outboard motor attached to the transom. But there are a couple other alternatives including sterndrive (I/O), jet, and pod drives. Let’s survey the type of yacht and qualities of each of these drive types.

Stern Drive
The yacht I am most familiar with that features a sterndrive is the Gemini 105MC catamaran. From the outside, she appears to have an outboard motor, but when you get close, you realize that the engine is inside the centerline lazarrette. The benefits are a small footprint, ability to tilt up the outboard, and lower cost of installation. Disadvantages are higher maintenance costs because of the tight location and vulnerability to water corrosion.

A See-Doo's Jet Drive

Jet Drives
Jets are most famous on Sea-Doos but also common on waterski boats and even some larger vessels. These types of vessels propel themselves via a nozzle that spray high pressure water. They can turn on by redirecting the jet via a deflector and go into “reverse.” Other advantages include the safety of not having a spinning blade, high speed, and minimal draft. The biggest disadvantage is efficiency which has increased but still cannot compete with the energy consumption of a prop drive.

Pod Drives

Pod Drives
Pod drives are in vogue on larger vessels and seem to be future of propulsion. They have all the benefits except that which you would expect with new technology such as cost, consistency, and support. These devices come in two general types: (1) those in which the motor is located inside the vessel such as on a saildrive and (2) those with the motor inside the pod such as a Zeus Pod. Most have a transmission which allows the pod to be rotated 360 degrees (so called Z-drive) and negates the necessity of a rudder of a yacht. Many have the prop fixed to the leading edge of the pod or two counter rotating props.

Conclusion
Besides the outboard on your dinghy and inboards in your yacht, there are at least three more distinct types of propulsion such as stern, jet, and pod. Jets continue to get more efficient and pods more reliable so expect to see more of these types of setups every year.

My Sextant

Getting your latitude by celestial navigation can be actually relatively easy. It also can be totally overwhelming if you read the incredibly obtuse chapter 8 of Bowditch. My advise when learning is to stick to a few basics as outlined below.

Equipment

• Sextant – Any sextant will do including a plastic one from Davis instruments.
• Current Nautical Almanac – Every year a new version is published with the pertinent numbers for making simple and complex corrections to your sights. You can download in PDF form for free online.
• Artificial Horizon – While unnecessary for daylight sighting, an artificial horizon is critical for accurate Polaris or Moon sights.

0. Preparation Calculations
All sights are subject to corrections for index error and height of above water (dip). Make sure to line up and note the index error on your sextent prior to use. Consult online for a table for dip correction values. These numbers are unlikely to change.

1. Noon Sights
Taking a noon sight is the simplest and most rewarding way to get a lock on your position. To complete a noon sight, I start at 11am and sporadically shoot the altitude of the sun with my sextant. I usually get a generally idea of when local noon is on my first day at sea by noting when the altitude starts decreasing. On the second day, I am more methodical. I start a half hour before the expected local noon, take shots every 15 minutes, and jot down the altitude at each reading. Once I have all my data, I look up in the nautical almanac the declination of the sun at noon on the current day. Finally I subtract my reading at noon from 90 degrees, then add or subtract the declination correction to get my latitude. I have not memorized the add / subtract rule, but it is easy to guess using common sense whether, if the altitude = 70 and declination = 10, the latitude should be 90 – 70 – 10 = 10 or 90 – 70 + 10 = 30. Adjust for index and dip corrections.

2. Polaris Sights
Finding Polaris may be the most difficult part of this reading because your altitude measurement of Polaris is your latitude! Look for the big dipper and check a map of the stars. Polaris is nearly exactly above the north pole, so there is no need for correction for our purposes. You will however need your artificial horizon as it is near impossible to gauge the horizon at night offshore even with a full moon to light up the ocean. Adjust for index and dip corrections.

Conclusion
After you get these two methods down for latitude, you can move on to moon sights and figuring your longitude from the noon sight readings. Celestial navigation is pretty pointless with GPS, but if you are mathematically inclined, it is an amazing opportunity to see the practical use of mankind’s genius.

A Bridge Enroute to Lake Okeechobee

It is posible to save 165 NM of navigation by crossing the state of Florida via Lake Okeechobee instead of doubling the Keys. Going counterclockwise, you enter through the Port St. Lucie Inlet, then motor up the river, and finally connect to the Port St Lucie canal. This canal leads under many bridges, past Indiantown, through two locks, and into Lake Okeechobee. There are draft and bridge clearance restrictions. Excellent information is available on the super Blue Seas website.

Starling Burgess' Ranger

Alden, Burgess, Herreshoff, Paine are some of the legends of yacht design. After my recent travels aboard a Lewis Francis Herreshoff schooner, I have been thinking about what exactly went on back then. There is no doubt we have come a long way in terms of performance and durability. Some may say we have lost in the ways of beauty though that always is a function of perspective. What I think we may have traded off is romance; it is impossible to replicate the smell and feel of a wooden classic on a modern yacht.

Then you take a look at the current line of production. In 20 years, these yachts will be vintage German Frers or Dubois designs. How will we look back and feel about them?

Ed Dubois' Tenaz

Route April 2012 from Fort Lauderdale to Saint Maarten

Traveling by sea from Florida to Saint Maarten is a 1,500 nautical mile journey upwind. There are two options: (1) the scenic route down the thorny path (2) the delivery route on route 65. The path to most take advantage of predominant wind conditions is route 65 as detailed in this article. This option is the proven path over decades to most quickly and safely jump from Florida to the Leeward Islands.

The key concept is to avoid the strong southeast trade winds of the Caribbean. No matter your route you will be going upwind, but if you stay further north, then at least the winds and seas will be weaker. Route 65 refers to 65 longitude. The plan is to head east from Florida through the Northwest and Northeast Providence channels, stay around 25 degrees latitude, and then turn right at 65 longitude to power reach south to Saint Maarten.

Landfall

For this journey it is important to carefully choose your weather window. Catching a west wind would be awesome. More important is to avoid a Nor’easter when crossing the Gulfstream and any gnarly weather patterns awaiting in the Atlantic. I motored across Lake Atlantic and never saw any winds greater than 20 knots. I will take motoring into a 10 knot headwind over getting my teeth kicked in with a 40 knot squall any day. Depending on your waterline the trip will take anywhere from a week to two weeks.

Other than picking a safe weather window, the trip has few navigation hazards. Once you pass Hole in the Wall, you will not see land again until Scrub Island off Anguilla. You will not run into much shipping traffic either. Just put on the autopilot, kick back, and enjoy the endless blue.

On landfall in the French side, you can anchor in Margot Bay or Grand Case on the west coast, Oyster Pond on the east. Or find your way down to Simpson Bay on the Southwest Dutch side. If you pass through the Dutch bridge there are moorings in the Simpson Bay Lagoon and excellent service. Anchoring in the lagoon might not be the best option.

It is a wonderful island, rich with culture, and incredible diversity. There is a siren type charm that lures you in and keeps you longer than you might have planned.

Safe Ashore at the Manzanilla Marina

I was offshore in a tropical gale with a dirty fuel tank and an engine with intermittent low oil pressure. Now the autopilot had failed; the backup autopilot could not handle the heavy seas. It was back to hand steering.

The boat was a Catalina 32, and my fellow mercenary sailor and I were enroute to Cartagena, Colombia. The seas seemed taller than the vessel’s length, and, with every surge down a wave face, I thought the rudder was going to snap off.

The most important item had been to resolve the fuel starving. Becalmed off Cuba’s mountainous eastern coast, our engine had gone through two filters, and we figured we only had one left for going into our final port, Cartagena. Whatever debris that had welded itself to the inner tank had finally broken loose. To fix this issue, my friend had a clever idea. We had plenty of jerry cans. We would disconnect the engine from the fuel tank and use one 5 gallon jerry can as a mock fuel tank. We would need to refill it every 10 hours based on our fuel consumption of 1/2 gallon per hour, but at least we would have clean fuel and a working engine.

A half hour after we set this up, the engine shut down again. We looked at each other in shock and ran below. How could it be possible?

We looked befuddled by the empty jerry can we found below. How could we have burned through 5 gallons in half an hour? Then it struck us that we had forgotten to hook up the return line to the jerry can! In a diesel fuel system, the fuel circulates back into the tank. The recirculating fuel had gone into the dirty tank.

We hooked up the return line to the jerry can and resolved that issue. We had power.

So in the middle of the Caribe at least we had engine power. We had water and fuel. We just had to hang through 5 more days of misery as we sunk into subhuman quivering pieces of protoplasm.

What’s your worst experience at sea? Feel free to share your sea story in the comments below.

SV Mistral

Please check back in the next few weeks for stories and technical articles from my delivery adventure to St Maarten.

What is the Future of Sailing Catamarans?

There no doubt to me that catamarans will play a larger part in the future of sailing and especially cruising than they have in the past. Even in racing, the America’s Cup is now catamarans. I see daily once monohull clients switching to catamarans. The numbers back this trend up too. Multihulls have increased from 20% to 30% of sales in Fort Lauderdale. I see this number reaching 50% within 10 years based on what is being manufactured and exhibited at boat shows. The once Beneteau, Bavaria dominated charter fleets are Lagoons and Leopards. Sailors choose catamarans for speed, draft, stability, etcetera characteristics. Which of these characteristics are most important and what will the catamarans of the future look like? In the following post, I outline three key features.

1. Space Focus: The most successful designs will not be geared towards high performance but instead space – both interior and exterior. Space and specifically interior space has always sold yachts. Not only do performance designs include added complexity, but in my experience passagemaking, catamarans for all the hype often do not end up that much faster than monohulls. Performance catamarans have their place within niche markets and could be successes despite their performance orientations, not because of them. Instead I look for designs that make smart tradeoffs between performance and space to succeed – space first, then performance.

2. Galley Up: Catamarans with galleys in the saloon will draw preference. With a galley up layout, the chef can be part of the entertainment and easily access the cockpit. Each hull is solely sleeping related which leads to complete privacy and simplicity. This open arrangement of space will dominate interior design.

3. Size will be 45 to 55: While square footage-wise monohulls compare to 10′ shorter catamarans (a 40′ catamaran is equivalent to a 50′ monohull), clients will be purchasing the same size catamaran. New yacht sales from the last 3 years carry this trend out. Instead of transitioning from 50-foot monohulls to 40-foot catamarans, clients switch to 50-foot cats. When they upgrade, they are increasing width instead of length. The optimal cruising vehicle of the future may well be a 45 – 55 foot catamaran instead of the same length monohull. The goal is a largest yacht that you do not need a professional crew to sail.

Conclusion
As catamarans continue to gain market share in the sailing space, they will exhibit a secondary focus on performance, have galleys located in the bridgedeck area, and be of similar lengths to monohulls. The biggest obstacles to catamaran popularity are marinas and canals with narrow slips and yards with inadequate travel lifts to handle the larger beams of catamarans. In the never ending search for interior accommodations on cruising yachts, width seems to be the new length. For information about current catamaran models, see the curious website Catamaran Reviews

Gozzard 36

The closer you look at the Gozzard 36, the more well thought out features you will find on this classic Canadian cruiser. The Gozzard family has been building sailboats since 1970 when Ted and his brother opened up Bayfield Yachts in Ontario building a wide range of sailboats from 25 to 40-feet. In 1981 Ted split off and opened Gozzard Yachts which currently offers a wide range of power and sail yachts from 24 to 53 feet. They built about 100 hulls of the subject of this review, the Gozzard 36, from 1984 until 1998. She features an unconventional layout, beautiful styling, and robust construction.

First Impressions
The Gozzard 36′s lines and styling take inspiration from the classic long bowsprit, teak combed yachts of yesteryears. She is whole different animal than the fantastic plastic production sailboats that are most common along our shores. Although advertised as a 36-footer, she is 42-feet overall and, as I will describe later, a much roomier yacht than you would suppose. Gozzards and their Bayfield sisters feature a distinctively molded cove stripe with inset name. The 36 has a true cutter rig above, and 5′ draft full keel with prop aperture especially cutaway aft to limit wetted surface area.

Construction and What To Look For
Gozzard is an old school builder with a rock solid reputation for quality construction whose 36-footer weighs in at a stout 18,000 pounds. She is balsa cored throughout the hull and deck except of course where thruhulls and hardware attach. The mast is deck stepped, the ballast external lead. Over the years the Gozzards have tinkered a bit with the design. One cool feature is a on post-1985 models the aft transom door became an option. This cut-out portion of the cockpit folds down to make a swim platform which is a must have feature for many cruisers these days. Another addition is the hard dodger you’ll see on most hulls as far back as 1985 as well.

On Deck and Down Below
The deck has a large anchor locker forward that houses the propane tanks. The foredeck is wide open and so are the sidedecks as you walk aft. The cabin top features butterfly hatches which provide tremendous ventilation below. The cockpit is a marvel of yacht design, long with a beautiful teak table and sole. Here you start to note the little touches that the Gozzards have added. The table folds up from both sides and connects with an insert to create a large, rigid cockpit dining platform. The teak wheel aft is sweet and evokes that romance of being on the high seas that sailboat cruising is all about.

Open Accommodations

Down below the solid mahogany wood is warm albeit a bit dark when all the hatches are battened down. You are immediately struck by how open and large the accommodations are on this 36-footer. Gozzard has eliminated the forward V-berth or pullman arrangement typically seen on such yachts and instead created a remarkable saloon that converts into a private cabin with a double berth. Equally amazing to the openness are the well thought out features which allow you to convert in a few steps the yacht into one with two very private staterooms. In addition to the forward saloon conversion, the quarterberth aft with navigation station closes off for complete privacy. The true saloon is amidships while the galley is opposite and head aft to port.

Engine and Under Sail
Engine access is from the companionway and through the starboardside quarterberth. Although the engine is well set below the cockpit, there is enough access. Fuel tankage of around 45 gallons is aluminium as well as 100 gallons for water and holding. I seatrialed a Gozzard 36 in March of 2012 in stiff breeze in the Cammachee River area. The Gozzard 36 will not win you any races, but her cutaway keel and 51′ stick’s large sail area with get you going especially in a blow. While everyone else stays in port, you will be safely underway or cosily asleep offshore. Her winch arrangement is unique with two centerline winches instead of combing mounted primaries like you see on most yachts. All lines almost invariable come to the cockpit as she is made for shorthanded sailing.

Conclusion
The Gozzard 36 is a stylish, stout Canadian built classic meant for shorthanded sailing and serious offshore adventure. You will be amazed by her ample accommodations. Tradeoffs are performance and extra maintenance for the on deck brightwork. Comparables with similar styling include the Cabo Rico 38, Bayfield 36, and Shannon 38. You will find the Gozzard sell for a wide range from $100,000 to $200,000 and up depending on their vintage.

An Example Wind Generator

Key to keeping your batteries charged in the Bahamas is an alternative energy source. With diesel over $5/gallon who wants to run the engine or a generator to power refrigeration and autopilot. “Is wind or solar a better choice?” I am often asked and see posted in online mailing lists or chatboards where I hang out. While the choice is a matter of opinion, I see and hear a quiet preference for wind. The choice is affected by your cruising ground, space restrictions on your yacht, etcetera. In this article, I will lay out the pluses and minuses for either option.

Wind Generator Pros
People prefer wind because on average it produces more power, more consistantly. You might think in the Caribbean that sun would be the best source. But do not forget the tradewinds blow nearly without fail night and day, sunshine or rain. Wind is consistant. Further north wind makes even more sense as days become short in the winter and the sun fades. The darkness of cruising areas such as the Pacific Northwest precludes the use of solar.

Wind generators, I find, are also easier to find space for on a yacht. It is less obtrusive to find space to mount a pole than surface area for panels.

Solar Panel Pros
Despite the inconsistency, people love solar because it is a perfectly quiet power source. Whirling wind generators grate on your ears after awhile. A big point of alternative energy is to avoid running a noisy motor. Why then install a turbine? Solar advocates also tout the increasing efficiency and low cost of newer model panels. And they argue that wind generators need more than 10 to 15 knots to produce enough power which in light wind areas or secluded harbors can be difficult to get.

The spinning blades of a wind generator is also a dangerous obstacle while aboard. Solar on the other hand has no moving parts.

Conclusion
Costwise both run a couple thousand to install. Depending on your cruising grounds and noise toleration, both wind and solar are viable choices. In the end, many yachts have both as well as even a portable gas generator or inboard diesel to cover all bases. When it is sunny, the solar panels charge the batteries while at night or on rainy days the wind generator catches the breeze. When neither, crank up the generator.

What do you have your yacht? I welcome all comments in regards to the issues covered here as well as new ones not brought up.

Joke of the Week
Last Thursday Night around midnight, a woman from Houston, Texas was arrested, jailed, and charged with manslaughter for shooting a man 6 times in the back as he was running away with her purse. The following Monday morning, the woman was called in front of the arraignment Judge, sworn-in, and asked to explain her actions.

The woman was acquitted of all charges. She was back at work the next day! That’s Gun Control Texas Style. AMEN!