Big boat

Hollyweirdos · Sep 7, 2012

Read simply sailing. You will enjoy it, promise. Good luck with your search
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Merlin Clark · Sep 7, 2012

Hi Brina,
For bilge keelers, you might look at Westerlys. 3 friends have/had them (2-26s and 1-28, 2 sailed extensively) and swear by them to go anywhere. And come back.
Not pricey either.

Sumner · Sep 7, 2012

So far we have been very happy with the Endeavour 37 choice. Haven't sailed it much yet, one 70 mile trip mostly on the diesel, but really liked her on anchor or underway. We anchored a couple nights where it would of been rock'n roll on the Mac and she was very comfortable. She handles well and Ruth likes her.

4'6" draft, 20,000 lbs., 8,000 lbs. ballast so a very secure feeling boat. With the long modified keel and the weight she will be no race horse, but we got her with the intent of cruising, anchoring and sailing with a secure feeling. These boats were made with the Florida and Bahama waters in mind and you will find them all over the world.

I have more reasons why we bought this boat here....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/endeavour-main/endeavour-index.html

After spending over 3 months living in her in the boatyard and working on her at the same time we are glad that we didn't buy anything smaller. With that in mind remember that we have stayed on the 26 foot Mac for almost 2 months at a time. That was moving and with an end in sight. We couldn't of lived in her for 3 months in the yard like we did with the Endeavour.

You can find these boats pretty reasonably priced and we felt that we were better off getting a boat that didn't take our last dollar and spend the last dollars on fixing her up for cruising with a lot of solar, the fridge freezer, all new thru-hulls and hoses, almost all new plumbing, new water storage and holding tanks. You can spend much more on a newer boat and still have to spend the money on all of that.

I'd take a look at these boats. Don't know what your budget is but one might work for you. If you don't subscribe now I'd subscribe to GOOD OLD BOAT. I see some nice cruising type boats advertised in there that seem to have good prices on them. Try and look for a boat that someone has actually been cruising with. I have seen some that older couples have that have set them up nice, but their cruising days have finally come to an end. I'm sure when we finally sell either of our boats we won't get back what we have put into them and someone is going to get a deal if they want to cruise.

Good luck,

Sum

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]============================[/FONT]

Our Endeavour 37

Our MacGregor 26-S Pages

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

Bill Roosa · Sep 7, 2012

Your off to a good start. Planing a year to commission and get the boat and crew working is good planing.
I'd recommend you go with pressure water. It does not consume much electric and a hot shower at the end of the day is can really be nice. Refrigeration is nice but as you probably know it takes a lot of juice to keep it running. I would recommend if you go that route get a unit with a holding plate and only run it when the solar panels can power it. let the holding place coast you through the night. If you use electricity as you produce it you get an automatic 20% gain in efficiency as you are not charging (10%) and then discharging (10%) and loosing it in battery inefficiency

watercolors II · Sep 8, 2012

small boat!

Look up Norsea 27 or go to.

http://www.enezacko.com/

Sumner · Sep 8, 2012

Bill Roosa said:
... Refrigeration is nice but as you probably know it takes a lot of juice to keep it running....

Not really that much if you are realistic about how much you want to refrigerate and how you go about it. 180 watts of solar on the Mac took care of almost all of our electrical needs...

...for weeks with the above portable fridge and a lot of computer use also.

Not sure what C_witch's boat budget is, but one nice thing about getting a '70's or 80's boat is that it probably doesn't have a fridge, but a place to put one. If that is the case you can build a really nice unit with lots and lots of insulation that will really conserve the electricity. It might be better than a lot of ones on newer boats as the construction won't be compromised by the 'bean counters'. The one...

....we now have for the Endeavour is over a 1 1/2 cu. ft. larger than the portable above and uses way less electricity even with the small ...

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/endeavour-inside-mods/inside-index.html

...freezer compartment. After using it a couple months I feel that it was on less than 20% of the time. Even if you figure 30% of the time that is about 7 to 8 hours a day at 3 1/2 to 4 amps for a total of about 28 amp/hours. That isn't much.

It should be easy to find space for up to 400 watts or more of Solar on a boat that is big enough to live aboard. An 80 to 100 watt panel would handle the fridge leaving a lot of amp/hours every day for much more. If you were in a sunny climate like where he wants to go there should be no need to run the engine for power unless it was maybe for that hot water shower

,

Sum

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]============================[/FONT]

Our Endeavour 37

Our MacGregor 26-S Pages

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

zeehag · Sep 9, 2012

sumner--i covet your ability to make fridges....and i will spread that coveting, as i am already a sinner, to your portable-ish one also.....

Sumner · Sep 9, 2012

c_witch said:
.... I was out sailing today and had and accidental gybe and when the boom came accross I was not able to sheet it in in time and when the main sheet hit on the opposite side it pulled the swivel apart on the lower block of the main sheet.

Sorry about that. We won't sail without having preventers on the boat now. I'm going to rig them on the Endeavour also.

They aren't hard to rig and will cover up a lot of mistakes in sailing and will also, if you have two, allow you to jibe under control. Here is info on ours for the Mac....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor/rigging-9.html

c_witch said:
....We are really thinking of using a 'freezer' rather then a fridge. And making ice blocks in that to keep an ice box cold for our perishable food stuffs as well as to have a supply of frozen food....c_witch

That sounds like not a bad idea but give it some thought. It is all about using energy (electricity) efficiently unless you have shore power. The greater the difference thermally between two bodies the greater the amount of energy needed to keep that difference in temperature. If you look at the specs on 12 volt compressors/condensers you will see that they will only work with a freezer compartment that is 1/2 or less in size vs. a cooler compartment. I tried to size our compressor/condenser way under its capacity to lower the run time and load on it. If you are going down into the Caribbean you might also consider a water-cooled unit vs. the air cooled we have. I considered that, but we are very happy with the air cooled at this point and it is less complicated without a thru-hull and such.

It is also going to take more energy to turn water into ice than say keep a freezer compartment at 10-20 degrees. So less energy to keep a freezer compartment cold and a cooler compartment cool. Look at the spill over type fridge/freezer if you want a larger freezer or one that can get colder that an evaporator/freezer like what we went with. Again more complicate and we didn't have the space to pull that off.

A cooler where you are going to put the ice if you make it is going to need new ice every 4-6 days, especially if you are adding warm drinks to it. If that is the case you are going to have to make probably 25 lbs. of ice every 4-6 days. That is going to take a lot of electricity and also a lot larger freezer and use up water that is always a precious commodity while cruising.

Let's say you can make 25 lbs, ice every 4-6 days. Now you have ice in a cooler and have to deal with melting ice and possible soggy food and the cooler is not going to be as cold as say a fridge you make that will stay between 35-40 degrees easily. One of the nicest things about even the portable fridge we have is 'not dealing with the ice'.

The freezer section on our fridge is there to keep meat that hopefully we buy frozen, or possible freeze with dry ice if the store has it, frozen for another 2-3 weeks until we get ashore again to re-stock. Our large chest freezer at home is there to buy food on sale and keep for up to a year or more and is set much lower in temperature.

We try and forget how we live at home and adjust ourselves to the boat and its systems. We are seriously thinking about adding a lot of solar to the house and converting how we live at home to more like we live on the boat

. We do heat most of the house and about all of the shop now with solar.

Just some things to think about

.

zeehag said:
sumner--i covet your ability to make fridges....and i will spread that coveting, as i am already a sinner, to your portable-ish one also.....

and I covet your ability to sail to distant lands and live on your boat full-time, as I am a sinner also in wishing to do so.....I just can't figure out how to get my shop on the boat :cry:, and then also Ruth loves our home and where we live

,

Sum

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]============================[/FONT]

Our Endeavour 37

Our MacGregor 26-S Pages

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

zeehag · Sep 9, 2012

sum--ye will do it, and we will meet up in gom somewhere, also....part-time cruising works--we will meet in gulf or caribean....

never, never, never prevent to taff rail---we learned that one in biiig winds...now i use the aftmost hawse.......that breaks, we alll gonna die....

Joe · Sep 9, 2012

c_witch said:
Hiee all,

I'm on the boat right now. I decided to spend the night on her. I was out sailing today and had and accidental gybe and when the boom came accross I was not able to sheet it in in time and when the main sheet hit on the opposite side it pulled the swivel apart on the lower block of the main sheet. The boom swung out till it hit the lower shroud. No other damage then the lower block of the main sheet. I think it had a rivet holding it together. Maybe I can use a s/s #10 screw and a nylock nut to put it back together. If not guess I'll have to spring for a new one. Still watching Leslie up here carefully, although it looks as though we will not take a direct hit here in Nova Scotia.

c_witch

Thought I'd offer you a pointer on gybing if you don't mind. On a boat your size..... when you gybe, just grab the entire mainsheet a foot or so below the boom and pull the whole thing across by hand. I do that on my 27 footer all the time, up to about 15kts.... it's the safest and simplest way of preventing an accident.

Winkfish · Sep 11, 2012

I have a friend with a early to mid 60's built Cal 36'. It is a tank - thick thick fiberglass, tiller steering. Survived years of neglect to be resurrected (which is when I got into sailing, about 30 years ago). It made a couple of voyages from New Orleans to the Bahamas straight across the Gulf of Mexico. Made many trips in the Gulfport to Pensacola race each year. It was definitely a heavy weather boat.